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.
Innocent When You Dream
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The dew is on the moor
Where are the arms that held me
And pledged her love before
And pledged her love before
[Chorus:]
It's such a sad old feeling
It's memories that I'm stealing
But you're innocent when you dream
When you dream
You're innocent when you dream
Running through the graveyard
We laughed my friends and I
We swore we'd be together
Until the day we died
Until the day we died
[Chorus]
I made a golden promise
That we would never part
I gave my love a locket
And then I broke her heart
And then I broke her heart
[Chorus]
The song Innocent When You Dream by Elvis Costello is a melancholic and reflective ballad that explores the memories of a past love. The lyrics are vivid with imagery and use of metaphor to create a somber mood. The first verse opens with the singer noticing the dew on the moor and the bats in the belfry. The bats in the belfry are symbolic of a restless mind and the dew is a sign of the passing of time. The next line where the singer questions the whereabouts of the love that once held him/her and pledged her love before emphasizes the vulnerability and longing for that lost love.
The chorus repeats itself twice, and it's a beautifully written one. The singer expresses how he/she feels guilty about taking memories from the past love and amplifies that the only time he/she can be innocent is when dreaming about that past love. The second verse continues the theme of nostalgia and reflects on the good times with friends. Eventually, the friends promised not to be separated, but that promise was broken, and the singer was left alone.
The final verse is breathtaking, and it displays the guilt of breaking someone's heart. The singer gave his love a locket, and then ultimately he broke her heart. The song concludes with the chorus reaffirming the idea that the singer's innocence is found only when dreaming. The lyrics convey an overall melancholic tone and a sense of regret that is typically associated with the idea of lost love.
Line by Line Meaning
The bats are in the belfry
The situation is chaotic and unsettling
The dew is on the moor
It is early morning, and nature is calm and serene
Where are the arms that held me
The singer is longing for the embrace of a lost lover
And pledged her love before
The lover promised to love and support the artist in the past
It's such a sad old feeling
The artist feels sorrowful and stuck in the past
The fields are soft and green
Nature continues to flourish and grow, despite the singer's sadness
It's memories that I'm stealing
The singer is reminiscing about the past and holding onto memories
But you're innocent when you dream
Dreaming allows the artist to escape their troubles and feel free
When you dream
Dreaming is a form of escapism
Running through the graveyard
The artist and their friends are carefree and not afraid of death
We laughed my friends and I
The singer values the camaraderie of their friends
We swore we'd be together
The artist and their friends made a promise to stay close forever
Until the day we died
The singer and their friends planned to stay connected even in death
I made a golden promise
The singer pledged a vow that was once valuable and meaningful
That we would never part
The singer promised to never leave their lover
I gave my love a locket
The artist gave their lover a gift as a symbol of their love
And then I broke her heart
The artist betrayed their lover and hurt them deeply
When you dream
Dreaming allows the singer to forget their past mistakes and feel blameless
You're innocent when you dream
Dreaming is a way to feel absolved of one's sins
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: THOMAS A. WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind