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.
Life Shrinks
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
So you'll recall the promise
That I swore you made to me when we were younger
You look sorry for yourself but what about?
I'm some idea you're not without a doubt
So you can put away that tongue
I don't know who I'm trying to kid
I'll find another name for you
For everything we did
Life shrinks and before you know it
You have forgotten all the cuts and bruises
Just be thankful we were only fighting for buttons
And you know by now who loses
You're only half awake because you never go to bed
And when he hears about it
You know then the both of you's is dead and that's a promise
You'll be sorry because I won't tell you again
You'll stick like that one day
And if you don't believe me go and ask St. Thomas
I don't know where it's going to stop
Spend your whole time trying to stay
From breaking down or running away
Or trying to keep up
The lyrics of Elvis Costello's song "Life Shrinks" address the theme of a deteriorating relationship. The first verse begins with a rhetorical question, with the singer asking whether they should wear a buttonhole to jog their partner's memory about a promise that was made when they were younger. The next line indicates that the partner looks sorry for themselves, and the singer suggests that they have some idea that they're not without a doubt. The singer asks the partner to put away their tongue, and then berates them for not trying harder to make things work.
The second verse continues the theme of the relationship breaking down, with the singer pointing out that the partner is only half awake because they never go to bed. The singer warns the partner that they will be sorry because they won't tell them again. The verse ends with a reference to Saint Thomas, who doubtingly put his finger in the wounds of Jesus. The singer suggests that the wounds left behind by the failing relationship will not heal, and that the partner will be left with the scars.
The chorus of the song takes a more philosophical turn, with the singer reflecting on the fleeting nature of life. The lyrics suggest that life shrinks before you know it, and that the cuts and bruises of life are soon forgotten. The singer seems to be suggesting that the fights that they've had were over something as trivial as buttons, and that in the grand scheme of things, they don't matter. The final line of the chorus is a bit ambiguous, but it could be interpreted to mean that the partner is the one who ultimately loses in the relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
Shall I wear a buttonhole to jog your memory?
Do I need to do something special to make you remember the promise you made to me when we were younger?
So you'll recall the promise
So that you'll remember the promise you made to me
That I swore you made to me when we were younger
The promise I remember you making to me when we were younger
You look sorry for yourself but what about?
You seem to be feeling sorry for yourself, but what about me?
I'm some idea you're not without a doubt
I know you better than you think I do
So you can put away that tongue
You can stop speaking sarcastically now
I don't know who I'm trying to kid
I'm not sure who I'm trying to fool
I'll find another name for you
I will come up with a new name for you
I'll try to put the blame on you
I will attempt to make you take the blame
For everything we did
For all the things that happened between us
Life shrinks and before you know it
Life becomes smaller and more constricted before we even realize it
You have forgotten all the cuts and bruises
You have forgotten all the difficult and painful moments in life
Just be thankful we were only fighting for buttons
We should be glad that our disagreements were minor
And you know by now who loses
You should know by now who always ends up losing in our fights
You're only half awake because you never go to bed
You're not fully awake because you don't sleep enough
And when he hears about it
When he finds out
You know then the both of you's is dead and that's a promise
You both are in trouble and there will be consequences
You'll be sorry because I won't tell you again
You will regret not listening to me when I warned you
You'll stick like that one day
You'll get stuck in this unhealthy rut eventually
And if you don't believe me go and ask St. Thomas
If you don't believe me, go ask someone else - like St. Thomas
I don't know where it's going to stop
I do not know where this madness will end
Spend your whole time trying to stay
We spend all our time trying not to fall apart
From breaking down or running away
From collapsing under the weight of everything or attempting to escape it all
Or trying to keep up
Or struggling to keep pace with it all
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@kf0528
good
@fredfat1606
compare this with the shit hes currently releasing
@borisbadenov8957
Check his latest release, it's awesome.