Born in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington in London, Costello is the son of trumpeter, vocalist and band-leader Ronald (“Ross”) MacManus and record store manager Lillian Costello. His family had roots in Merseyside and he moved to Birkenhead at age 16, with his mother, when his parents separated. While he is better known as 'Elvis Costello', a stage name referring to the legendary Elvis Presley suggested by Stiff Records manager Jake Riviera, he has used many other aliases, including 'The Imposter' and 'Napoleon Dynamite'.
In the early 1970s Costello was a participant in London's pub rock scene with the group Flip City. Then in 1977 along with fellow Pub-Rockers Nick Lowe and Ian Dury he made his first releases on the independent label Stiff, tailoring his work towards the burgeoning punk, power pop, and new wave scenes. From 1980's Armed Forces onwards, however, other influences including soul, country, 1960s pop, and classical music began to re-emerge, and he soon became established as a unique and original voice. His output has been wildly diverse: one critic has written that "Costello, the pop encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image".
His prolific and varied 30-year career has been marked by two constants: sharp songwriting and musical restlessness. The latter has seen him dabble in almost every musical form, from country to jazz to orchestral. This stems from the fact that, at heart, Costello is a fan. His desire to work with his musical heroes has attracted collaborators as diverse as Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Allen Toussaint, Aimee Mann, Bill Frisell, and Brian Eno.
But his most successful partners were his long-term band The Attractions. They comprised Steve Nieve (keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums) and Bruce Thomas (bass). Between 1978 and 1983, this outfit produced a peerless series of albums: This Year's Model; Armed Forces; Get Happy!!; Almost Blue; Trust; Imperial Bedroom and Punch the Clock.
These recordings drew on styles spanning soul, country and western and commercial pop. It was only with 1984's Goodbye Cruel World that Costello started to stumble. An album he concedes was one of his worst, it ushered in a period which produced interesting music but lacked the consistent quality of his halcyon days. Interestingly, although he enlisted the other Elvis's band for King of America in 1986, it was a reunion with The Attractions and former producer Nick Lowe that produced his best album of the late 1980s in the form of the scabrous Blood and Chocolate.
The following albums, Spike and Mighty Like a Rose were uncompromising and difficult solo works, as was the string quartet collaboration The Juliet Letters in 1993. It was only reconvening the Attractions for Brutal Youth the following year that gave his fans another glimpse of what first attracted them to him: punchy, angry pop songs, tightly played by an impeccably taut ensemble.
Since then, Costello has become a career dilettante, true to his inner musical quest, but never again returning to heights he scaled in the early 1980s. Maybe the best work of this latter period was 1998's Painted from Memory. This joint effort with Burt Bacharach matched restrained writing from Costello with stately Bacharach arrangements.
Subsequent career nadirs such as the tune-free North (2003), and instrumental orchestral works such as Il Sogno (2004) led many long-term admirers to conclude that Costello had retained his integrity at the expense of his real musical strengths. However, he has given occasional evidence of his former fire. The ballsy bar-room atmosphere of the collaborative The Delivery Man (2004), suggests that he is still capable of giving his fans what they want, in between his more esoteric experiments.
Elvis is married to jazz vocalist Diana Krall and they have twin sons.
*Upon the film's release, it was noted that the name "Napoleon Dynamite" had originally been used by musician Elvis Costello, most visibly on his 1986 album Blood and Chocolate, although he had used the pseudonym on a single B-side as early as 1982. Filmmaker Jared Hess claims that he was not aware of Costello's use of the name until two days before the end of shooting, when he was informed by a teenage extra. He later said, "Had I known that name was used by anybody else prior to shooting the whole film, it definitely would have been changed ... I listen to hip-hop, dude. It's a pretty embarrassing coincidence." Hess claims that "Napoleon Dynamite" was the name of a man he met around the year 2000 on the streets of Cicero, Illinois while doing missionary work for the Mormon Church.
Costello believes that Hess stole the name: "The guy just denies completely that I made the name up... but I invented it. Maybe somebody told him the name and he truly feels that he came about it by chance. But it's two words that you're never going to hear together." To date, Costello has taken no legal action against the film.
Elvis Costello and Elton John to Make a Television 'Spectacle'
Two of the most respected musicians in the world will collaborate on an extraordinary new television series.
"Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." is hosted by its namesake and produced in conjunction with Sir Elton John's Rocket Pictures. Elton John will be one of the program's Executive Producers.
The series begain airing in 2008 on CTV in Canada, Channel 4 in the UK and Sundance Channel in the US. FremantleMedia Enterprises, will handle sales of the show to the rest of the world.
Conceived to provide a forum for in-depth discussion and performance with the most interesting and influential artists and personalities of our time, the show fuses the best of talk and music television.
"Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." is an unpredictable and unprecedented television experience. The series of 13 one-hour programs features everything from intimate one-on-ones with legendary performers and notable newcomers to thematic panel discussions, with a variety of performance elements including unique collaborations, acoustic and impromptu "illustrative" demonstrations of the creative process, and some original interpretations of others' songs by Costello.
Flutter And Wow
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Full moon begins to rise
Reflected in your eyes
[Chorus]
I can't believe that this is happening
You make the motor in me
Flutter and Wow
The crowd was gathering
The clock struck five, then ten
My happy tears were descending
[Chorus]
Flutter and Wow
Flutter and Wow
You make the motor in me
Flutter and Wow
Flutter and how
The incident tape across the bed
Threading it from the reel to the head
I'm planting this thought in a magnetic field
And pushing the button
And all of a sudden
Erase everything rotten
Fascinated and uptight
Make me shout out loud
Make me cry all day and night
My voice got stuck in my throat...
Pulled my hand up into the sleeve of my coat
So you'd never know how it was shaking
[Chorus]
Flutter and Wow
Flutter and Wow
You make the motor in me
Start up and stop again
When I am spluttering
You make the motor in me
Flutter and wow
Flutter and how
Flutter and wow
Flutter and how
To the bridge
The incident tape across the bed
Threading it from the reel to the head
I'm planting this thought in a magnetic field
And pressing the button
And all of a sudden
Erase everything rotten
Fascinated and uptight
Make me shout out loud
Make me cry all day and night
"Flutter and wow" is a poetic and ambiguous love song by Elvis Costello. The opening lines create a romantic atmosphere, describing the transition from daytime to nighttime and the reflection of the moon in the lover's eyes. The chorus is a succinct confession of desire and excitement, with the metaphor of a motor running wild, producing the titular "flutter and wow". The song is filled with images of technology and artistic expression, such as the recording and erasure of a magnetic tape, the uptight fascination of the singer, and the allusions to crying and shouting.
One possible interpretation of the lyrics is that the singer is describing the overwhelming sensation of falling in love and the effects it has on his creative and emotional life. The "incident tape" and the "magnetic field" suggest that he is a musician or a producer, using technology to capture and transform his feelings. The repeated phrase "Flutter and wow" can be read as a playful onomatopoeia that evokes the sound of a record skipping or a heart beating faster. The final lines of the song, with the singer struggling to control his voice and his body, suggest that he is deeply affected by his lover and unable to hide it.
Line by Line Meaning
Last rays of sunlight die
The day is coming to an end and darkness is setting in
Full moon begins to rise
The night sky is taking over with the appearance of the full moon
Reflected in your eyes
You can see the moon in the reflection of the person's eyes
I can't believe that this is happening
The singer is in disbelief about what is happening in their current situation
You make the motor in me
The person the singer is with excites them, like an engine firing up
Flutter and Wow
The sensation that the singer feels due to their excitement with the other person
The crowd was gathering
People are coming together
The clock struck five, then ten
Time is passing quickly
My happy tears were descending
The singer is crying because they are happy
Flutter and Wow
The sensation the singer feels due to their excitement with the other person
You make the motor in me
The person the singer is with excites them, like an engine firing up
Flutter and how
The sensation the singer feels is extreme
The incident tape across the bed
There is a magnetic tape across the bed, maybe as part of a memory or an event that happened
Threading it from the reel to the head
The magnetic tape is being threaded from the reel to the head to be played
I'm planting this thought in a magnetic field
The singer is putting a thought into the magnetic tape, perhaps to preserve or remember it
And pushing the button
The singer is starting to play the magnetic tape
And all of a sudden
Something unexpected happens
Erase everything rotten
The singer wants to get rid of all negative thoughts or memories
Fascinated and uptight
The singer is intrigued and nervous at the same time
Make me shout out loud
The singer is so excited that they can't control their emotions
Make me cry all day and night
The singer is so happy that they cry all the time
You make the motor in me
The person the singer is with excites them, like an engine firing up
Start up and stop again
The singer's excitement is intermittent
When I am spluttering
When the singer's excitement is not consistent, they are spluttering
Flutter and how
The sensation the singer feels is extreme
Flutter and wow
The sensation the singer feels due to their excitement with the other person
Flutter and how
The sensation the singer feels is extreme
Flutter and wow
The sensation the singer feels due to their excitement with the other person
The incident tape across the bed
There is a magnetic tape across the bed, maybe as part of a memory or an event that happened
Threading it from the reel to the head
The magnetic tape is being threaded from the reel to the head to be played
I'm planting this thought in a magnetic field
The singer is putting a thought into the magnetic tape, perhaps to preserve or remember it
And pressing the button
The singer is starting to play the magnetic tape
And all of a sudden
Something unexpected happens
Erase everything rotten
The singer wants to get rid of all negative thoughts or memories
Fascinated and uptight
The singer is intrigued and nervous at the same time
Make me shout out loud
The singer is so excited that they can't control their emotions
Make me cry all day and night
The singer is so happy that they cry all the time
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind