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.
Poor Napoleon
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You can take the truthful things you`ve said to me
And put them on the head of a pin
Poor Napoleon
You always look so disappointed when I take my stockings off
Don`t you know the facts of life, boy
Don`t you know what these things cost
You put a penny in the slot
She called you her Magic Fingers
Poor Napoleon
I bet she isn't all that`s advertised
I bet that isn't all she fakes
Just like that place where they take your spine
And turn it into soap flakes
So good night little school boy, you`d better learn some self control
Did you mess up your hairstyle, pour scorn in your begging bowl
Bare wires from the socket to the bed where you embraced that girl
Did you ever think there`s far too many people in the world?
One day they`ll probably make a movie out of all of this
There won`t even have to be a murder just a slow dissolving kiss
The song Poor Napoleon by Elvis Costello tells the story of a man who has been deceived by a woman who was only interested in his money. The opening lyrics reveal the man's discomfort with lying on the bed, which implies that he recognizes the discomfort and anxiety that comes with the memory of the encounter with the woman. He then tells the woman that all of the things she said to him were "truthful," but that they could be put on the head of a pin, meaning that they had no real substance.
The woman is described as selling "stolen kisses" to traveling salesmen and minstrel singers, and the man is referred to as "Magic Fingers," which is a reference to a type of massage machine. The man is disappointed when he takes her stockings off and also seems to lack the awareness of the true cost of her affection. The lines "I bet she isn't all that's advertised, I bet that isn't all she fakes" suggests that this woman was not the person she seemed to be.
The song also includes social and political commentary, such as the line "Did you ever think there's far too many people in the world?" and implies the inevitability of a movie being made about this relationship. This latter comment emphasizes the sense that the entire encounter was surreal, fake, and solely for entertainment.
Line by Line Meaning
I can`t lie on this bed anymore it burns my skin
I am not comfortable with lying on this bed anymore; it gets too hot and causes discomfort.
You can take the truthful things you`ve said to me
And put them on the head of a pin
The things you have told me are so few and far between that you can put them on the head of a pin.
Poor Napoleon
You always look so disappointed when I take my stockings off
Don`t you know the facts of life, boy
Don`t you know what these things cost
You get sad when I take my stockings off; do you not realize that being with someone comes with a cost?
She was selling stolen kisses to traveling salesmen and minstrel singers
You put a penny in the slot
She called you her Magic Fingers
She was cheating and selling kisses to others while accepting your small gestures of affection, calling them special.
Poor Napoleon
I bet she isn't all that`s advertised
I bet that isn't all she fakes
Just like that place where they take your spine
And turn it into soap flakes
You are sad because the woman you have been with is not what she seems; she is likely faking and not truthful, just like some places falsely claim to turn spines into soap flakes.
So good night little school boy, you`d better learn some self control
Did you mess up your hairstyle, pour scorn in your begging bowl
I wish you goodnight and hope you learn some self control; have you messed up your hair or thrown away your money recklessly?
Bare wires from the socket to the bed where you embraced that girl
Did you ever think there`s far too many people in the world?
You had an intimate moment with someone, with bare wires from the socket to the bed; did you stop to consider the vastness of people in the world?
One day they`ll probably make a movie out of all of this
There won`t even have to be a murder just a slow dissolving kiss
Perhaps one day there will be a movie about our experiences, and it won't need to involve a murder; a slow, dissolving kiss could be enough.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind