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.
Pills and Soap
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With a microphone in one hand and a chequebook in the other
And the camera noses in to the tears on her face
The tears on her face
The tears on her face
You can put them back together with your paper and paste
But you can't put them back together, you can't put them back together
Children and animals two-by-two
Give me the needle, give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap
Four and twenty crowbars, jemmy your desire
Out of the frying pan into the fire
The king is in the counting house, some folk have all the luck
And all we get is pictures of Lord and Lady Muck
They come from lovely people with a hardline in hypocrisy
There are ashtrays of emotion for the fag ends of the aristocracy
What would you say, what would you do?
Children and animals two-by-two
Give me the needle, give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap
Give me the needle, give me the rope
The sugar-coated pill is getting bitterer still
You think your country needs you but you know it never will
So pack up your troubles in a stolen handbag
Don't dilly-dally boys, rally round the flag
Give us your daily bread in individual slices
And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis
What would you say, what would you do?
Children and animals two-by-two
Give me the needle, give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap
Give me the needle, give me the rope
We're going to melt them down
For pills and soap
"Pills and Soap" is a social commentary on the media, government, and society's disregard for the individual, treating people as mere objects to be used and discarded. The first verse critiques the media's intrusive and exploitative tactics, as they seek to exploit the grief of a family with a microphone and a chequebook. The repeated line "the tears on her face, you can put them back together with your paper and paste, but you can't put them back together" illustrates the trivialization of human emotions by the media.
The second verse concerns the objectification of people as commodities. Children and innocent animals are reduced to mere raw materials to be melted down for the production of pills and soap, a metaphor for the soulless industrialization of humanity. The line "four and twenty crowbars, jemmy your desire, out of the frying pan into the fire" summarizes the ironic futility of seeking freedom as we are trapped within new systems of oppression.
The final verse critiques the exploitation and manipulation of the working-class. Despite working hard for our country, we never receive deserving recognition or respect, as we are reduced to mere consumers encouraged to pack up our troubles in a stolen handbag, and "rally 'round the flag" to be indoctrinated into the daily grind of life. The song ultimately critiques the dehumanization of society, where humankind has been stripped of their individuality and reduced to mere raw materials and objects to be used for the sake of the economy.
Line by Line Meaning
They talked to the sister, the father and the mother
The media interviewed the family members who were affected by a certain event.
With a microphone in one hand and a chequebook in the other
The media use their resources to get the best story and sometimes bribe people to do so.
And the camera noses in to the tears on her face
The media looks for the most dramatic and emotional moments to capture on television.
The tears on her face
The person being interviewed is clearly upset and in distress.
You can put them back together with your paper and paste
The media often try to fix problems using their resources and influence.
But you can't put them back together, you can't put them back together
Although the media can try to fix problems, they cannot completely fix them.
What would you say, what would you do?
The singer is questioning what people would do in similar situations.
Children and animals two-by-two
The most vulnerable members of society who need protecting.
Give me the needle, give me the rope
A metaphor for how society mistreats vulnerable people and exploits them for personal gain.
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap
The exploitation of vulnerable people is done for profit.
Four and twenty crowbars, jemmy your desire
People will go to great lengths to get what they want.
Out of the frying pan into the fire
People often go from one bad situation to another.
The king is in the counting house, some folk have all the luck
Some people are lucky and have everything while others have nothing.
And all we get is pictures of Lord and Lady Muck
The media often focus on the rich and famous while ignoring the plight of the poor and vulnerable.
They come from lovely people with a hardline in hypocrisy
The people who claim to be the most moral and caring are often the most hypocritical.
There are ashtrays of emotion for the fag ends of the aristocracy
The poor and vulnerable are exploited for personal gain by the most privileged members of society.
The sugar-coated pill is getting bitterer still
The lies and false promises of the powerful are becoming more obvious and harder to swallow.
You think your country needs you but you know it never will
The government does not care about the needs of its citizens.
So pack up your troubles in a stolen handbag
People are forced to take the burden of their problems and carry them around.
Don't dilly-dally boys, rally round the flag
People are encouraged to blindly follow authority and not question anything.
Give us your daily bread in individual slices
People are barely given enough to survive and must take what they can get.
And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis
The media distracts people from real problems by focusing on trivial issues.
Give me the needle, give me the rope
A repetition of the earlier metaphor for the exploitation of vulnerable people.
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap
Another repetition of the idea that vulnerable people are exploited for profit.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind