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.
Little Boxes
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, just the same.
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All ran to the university,
And they were put in boxes,
And they came out all the same
There's a doctor and a lawyer
And a business executive,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
Elvis Costello's song Little Boxes can be interpreted as a commentary on suburbia and the conformity that arises from the homogenization of city planning. The song's repetitive, nursery rhyme-like melody and lyrics emphasize the sameness of the little boxes on the hillside, all made of ticky-tacky. The chorus is sung in the same monotone voice, giving the impression that the little boxes, and the people inside them, lack individuality and uniqueness. The distinction between the green, pink, blue and yellow boxes may be seen as the illusion of choice, as ultimately, they all still look the same.
The second verse highlights the idea that the education system (represented by the university) further reinforces conformity by placing people into boxes or categories of career paths. The doctor, lawyer, and business executive are all highly respected professions, but the repetition of "ticky-tacky" suggests that even these seemingly "elite" positions are constructed in a way that fails to recognize individual talents and capabilities, again suggesting a lack of distinctiveness.
Overall, the song can be interpreted as a commentary on the dangers of conformity and the importance of embracing individuality and diversity. In the case of suburbia, this conformity represents a lack of creativity, imagination, and curiosity that can never foster true growth and development.
Line by Line Meaning
Little boxes on the hillside,
The houses that are identical in shape and size are built on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
The houses are made of cheap, low-quality materials
Little boxes, little boxes,
The houses are repeated in a uniform manner
Little boxes, just the same.
The houses have no individuality and are monotonous
There's a green one and a pink one
Although the houses differ in colour, they are still very similar
And a blue one and a yellow one
Even though the houses are of different colours, they are still identical in structure
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
The houses produced are mass-produced with low-grade materials
And they all look just the same.
The lack of distinctiveness of the homes makes them appear the same
And the people in the houses
The occupants inside the houses
All ran to the university,
All the people desired and attained higher education
And they were put in boxes,
They were put into predetermined careers
And they came out all the same
They were all prepared to become professionals with the same skillset
There's a doctor and a lawyer
The people in the houses ended up pursuing professional careers such as being a doctor or lawyer
And a business executive,
Others took up roles in the business world
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
The people are all the same, standardised in their professions
And they all look just the same.
There is no diversity among the people in the houses, who appear the same as each other
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
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