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.
Letter Home
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
This fifth day of July, in the year of Our Lord nineteen
Hundred and thirty five
Why must I apologize every time that I sit down to write
Through my own fault I may find
You`re no longer living at this address
Please excuse the lack of news
For the hour of trial, in these times of distress
Mean more than years imprisoned by etiquette.
I can remember when we were children
Though I could never imagine this day
Your brother told me we`d live forever
"I`ll go one better," I heard myself say
And it seems so strange, now that he`s gone to recall all these
Games
While the years have divided us
Friendships have strained and broken
Oh, by the way, how`s that girl that you wed
I hated you then, but I`m over the worst of it
I can`t come home, I might as well say, life is short
I shall not write again
The song "Letter Home" by Elvis Costello is essentially a letter from a man who is sending a letter to a friend who has moved away and is no longer living at the address where he used to. He feels like he must apologize for not writing more often and for losing touch with his friend over the years. He acknowledges the feelings of strange privilege that come with being able to reconnect with a friend during times of distress and trial, comparing it to being freed from years of etiquette-imposed silence. The man reflects on childhood memories and how things have changed since then. He mentions how his friend's brother once told him they would live forever, to which he replied that they would go one better. The realization of how much time has passed and how much has been lost hits him hard. He asks after his friend's wife, whom he once hated but now feels indifferent towards. Finally, the man reveals that he cannot go home and that he will not be writing again, indicating that their friendship is over.
The song's emotion-laden lyrics are relatable to anyone who has lost touch with a childhood friend over the years or has gone through trials and tribulations that have made a reconnection with a friend all the more poignant. The emphasis on the fleeting nature of life and how little time we have to rekindle relationships is a sobering reminder that we should cherish our friends and loved ones while we still have them in our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
New South Wales
The letter is addressed from New South Wales.
This fifth day of July, in the year of Our Lord nineteen
Hundred and thirty five
The letter was written and dated on July 5th, 1935.
Why must I apologize every time that I sit down to write
Through my own fault I may find
You`re no longer living at this address
The writer apologizes for not writing sooner and worries that the recipient may no longer live at the addressed location due to the writer's negligence.
Please excuse the lack of news
The feeling of strange privilege
For the hour of trial, in these times of distress
Mean more than years imprisoned by etiquette.
The writer apologizes for the lack of updates but expresses how important it is to communicate during difficult times, even if it breaks societal norms.
I can remember when we were children
Though I could never imagine this day
Your brother told me we`d live forever
"I`ll go one better," I heard myself say
And it seems so strange, now that he`s gone to recall all these
Games
While the years have divided us
Friendships have strained and broken
The writer fondly remembers the past when they were all young and naive, dreaming of immortality. It is bittersweet to recall these times now that so much has changed and relationships have been strained or broken by the passage of time.
Oh, by the way, how`s that girl that you wed
I hated you then, but I`m over the worst of it
I can`t come home, I might as well say, life is short
I shall not write again
The writer inquires about the recipient's spouse and confesses to once harboring negative feelings towards the recipient, but now they have moved on. The writer unfortunately cannot visit and implies this may be the last letter exchanged.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO, IAN DEREK BELTON, PAUL MARTIN CASSIDY, JACQUELINE LUCY KATHERINE THOMAS, MICHAEL HENRY THOMAS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind