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.
Green Shirt
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Who comes into my house every night
And she takes all the red, yellow, orange and green
And she turns them into black and white
But you tease, and you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
Better cut off all identifying labels
Before they put you on the torture table
'Cause somewhere in the "Quisling Clinic"
There's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes
She's listening in to the Venus line
She's picking out names
I hope none of them are mine
But you tease, and you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
Never said I was a stool pigeon
I never said I was a diplomat
Everybody is under suspicion
But you don't want to hear about that
'Cause you tease, and you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
Better send a begging letter to the big investigation
Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?
You tease, and you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
The song Green Shirt by Elvis Costello & The Attractions is a scathing indictment of surveillance and the loss of privacy in the modern world. The opening lines reference a television screen, and the way that it transforms color into black and white. This sets the tone for the rest of the song, which delves into the idea of people being spied on and stripped of their individuality.
The lyrics build on the theme of surveillance with lines like “Better cut off all identifying labels / Before they put you on the torture table,” which suggests that the singer is aware of the risks of being too visible in a world where people are being watched closely. There are also references to specific types of monitoring, such as the “shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes” who is listening in on the “Venus line” and picking out names.
The song’s title is a nod to the green shirts worn by members of Sinn Féin, the political party associated with the Irish Republican Army. This connection adds another layer of meaning to the song’s lyrics, as the experiences of surveillance and loss of privacy are particularly acute in areas where conflict is ongoing.
Overall, Green Shirt is a powerful commentary on how the technological advancements of recent decades have impacted our lives, and the dangers that come with living in a world where we are always being watched and controlled.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a smart young woman on a light blue screen
An intelligent and attractive woman appears on a television in the singer's home.
Who comes into my house every night
The woman appears on the television program that the singer watches every night in his home.
And she takes all the red, yellow, orange and green
The woman on the television removes all the colors except black and white from the singer's vision.
And she turns them into black and white
The woman on the television makes the singer's vision monochromatic.
But you tease, and you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
The singer warns someone that they may be causing trouble and will eventually face the consequences of their actions.
Better cut off all identifying labels
Before they put you on the torture table
The singer advises someone to remove all traces of their identity in case they are subjected to harsh interrogation.
'Cause somewhere in the "Quisling Clinic"
There's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes
She's listening in to the Venus line
She's picking out names
I hope none of them are mine
The singer narrates a scene where a transcriptionist is eavesdropping on conversations for the purpose of gathering information, but the singer hopes that his name is not among the extracted.
Never said I was a stool pigeon
I never said I was a diplomat
Everybody is under suspicion
But you don't want to hear about that
The singer is claiming that he never betrayed anyone, but he also never pretended to be impartial. He adds that everyone is being watched and suspected but the listener seems uninterested in this information.
Better send a begging letter to the big investigation
Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?
The singer suggests that the listener appeals to a higher authority to discover who is responsible for the influencing of his imagination or ideas.
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
The singer reminds the listener that their choices or actions will eventually have consequences that will impact others.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@ThePwebb
Elvis Costello is generally thought of as an 80's artist, and by sheer volume that may be true. For me, however, his three releases in the late 70's are hands down his top 3 albums.
@oldcrowtj4937
I can't thing of any successful artist or group who's first 3 albums were this good.
@rjjcms1
I got to know This Year's Model very well when classmates at school were playing it often back then,and at least one of them had My Aim is True and got Armed Forces as well.
@oldcrowtj4937
@@rjjcms1 Can't think of any band or artist who's first 3 albums are that good.
@mehitabelgill6711
You could expand that to his first five LPs, even if the fourth and fifth were in the 80s. After that he changed directiion
@rjjcms1
Almost Blue?
@jimm9051
My favorite Elvis song ever
@todd9031
From the states I say that Mr. Costello's Alison is an Icon of art that I heard later. The earliest, Green Shirt introduced me to the 'different' tune that so many would be changed. Not 'Alison' or 'Oliver's Army', but in my world 'Green Shirt' was my time of change in music.
@rickcochran2165
Our kid came home with allsorts armed forces then buzzcocks stranglers etc
@rely9
No songwriter that ever lived could manipulate melody the way Elvis does