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.
Miss Macbeth
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Wore a fishbone slide in her cobweb tresses
Her eyes were black like first foot coal, clutched as white as chalk-dust
Her fingers sweated India-ink and poison-pen letters
There is a hungry hanging tree, just below your bedroom window
You can hear her take a broom to beat out a tattoo on the ceiling
Her bloodless face ran red inside but was she
Really evil, was she only pantomime
Now the chalk on the wall says that somebody
Saves, that somebody`s face has just been washed off the pavement
Into a puzzle where petrol will be poisoned by rain
Miss Macbeth saw her reflection
As confetti bled it`s colors down the drain
[Chorus:]
And everyday she lives out another love song
It`s a tearful lament of somebody done wrong
Well how can you miss what you`ve never possessed?
Miss Macbeth
Well we all should have known when the children paraded
They portrayed her in their fairy tales, sprinkling deadly Nightshade
And as they tormented her she rose to the bait
Even a scapegoat must have someone to hate
And everyday she lives out another love song
"You`re up there enjoying yourself, and I know it`s wrong"
Well how can you miss what you've never possessed
Miss Macbeth
Sometimes people are just what they appear to be
With no redemption at all
We try to walk upright when we can`t even crawl
Miss Macbeth has a gollywog she chucks under
The chin and she whispers to it tenderly Then sticks it on a pin
And it might be coincidence, but a boy down
The lane, that she said "went white as he could do," then doubled over in pain
[Chorus]
The song "Miss Macbeth" by Elvis Costello tells the story of a misunderstood and demonized woman named Miss Macbeth. The lyrics describe her physical appearance and suggest that she is a villainous character. The children in the town tell stories about her and portray her as a witch or fairy tale villain. They torment her, and she rises to the bait, even though she is just a scapegoat.
The central theme of the song is the danger of judging people based on their appearances or societal labels. Miss Macbeth is not necessarily evil, but the townspeople have labeled her as such due to her appearance and behavior, and they treat her accordingly. The chorus of the song talks about how she lives out another love song every day, a tearful lament about somebody done wrong. The song suggests that Miss Macbeth is primarily a victim of circumstance and the cruelty of the people around her.
Overall, the song is an insightful commentary on societal norms and the dangers of judging people based on their appearances, behaviors or beliefs.
Line by Line Meaning
All the children testified that Miss Macbeth
The children bore witness that Miss Macbeth
Wore a fishbone slide in her cobweb tresses
She had a hair accessory made of fishbone in her tangled hair
Her eyes were black like first foot coal, clutched as white as chalk-dust
Her eyes were pitch black, surrounded by pale, white skin
Her fingers sweated India-ink and poison-pen letters
Her hands produced ink and poisonous letter-writing
There is a hungry hanging tree, just below your bedroom window
There's a tree with a noose nearby, right below your window
You can hear her take a broom to beat out a tattoo on the ceiling
She beats the ceiling with a broom, creating a rhythmic pounding sound
Her bloodless face ran red inside but was she
Despite her pale exterior, she may have been internally boiling
Really evil, was she only pantomime
Perhaps she was not truly malicious, but rather pretending
Now the chalk on the wall says that somebody
The wall's graffiti indicates that someone
Saves, that somebody`s face has just been washed off the pavement
Someone was saved but at the cost of their face being removed from the ground
Into a puzzle where petrol will be poisoned by rain
The face removal has created a problem where rain will mix with petrol to create poison
Miss Macbeth saw her reflection
Miss Macbeth caught sight of her own reflection
As confetti bled it`s colors down the drain
The colors bled from confetti into a drain
[Chorus:]
The chorus
And everyday she lives out another love song
Each day, she brings to life another song about love
It`s a tearful lament of somebody done wrong
The song is a sad complaint about someone being mistreated
Well how can you miss what you`ve never possessed?
How can you long for something you've never had?
Miss Macbeth
Miss Macbeth
Well we all should have known when the children paraded
We ought to have guessed when the children marched in procession
They portrayed her in their fairy tales, sprinkling deadly Nightshade
The children depicted her in their stories by adding Deadly Nightshade
And as they tormented her she rose to the bait
They provoked her with their taunts and she took the bait
Even a scapegoat must have someone to hate
Even someone blamed unfairly needs someone to direct their hate towards
And everyday she lives out another love song
Each day, she creates another song about love
"You`re up there enjoying yourself, and I know it`s wrong"
"You're with someone else and I know it's immoral"
Well how can you miss what you've never possessed
How can you long for something you've never had?
Miss Macbeth
Miss Macbeth
Sometimes people are just what they appear to be
Occasionally people are exactly as they seem
With no redemption at all
With no chance for salvation
We try to walk upright when we can`t even crawl
We attempt to move forward when we can't even get up
Miss Macbeth has a gollywog she chucks under
Miss Macbeth has a toy that she tosses beneath
The chin and she whispers to it tenderly
Miss Macbeth whispers affectionately to it
Then sticks it on a pin
Then pins the toy to a surface
And it might be coincidence, but a boy down
It's possible that it's just a coincidence, but a boy in the vicinity
The lane, that she said "went white as he could do," then doubled over in pain
Whom Miss Macbeth claimed turned pale and then collapsed in agony
[Chorus]
The chorus
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind