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.
Secondary Modern
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Second place in the human race
Down in the basement
Now I know what he meant
Secondary modern
But there must be a problem till the girls go home
This is the hand that you never shook
Secondary modern
But there won't be a problem till the girls go home
Is it out of the question
Between you and me
Is it pleasure or business
Or a packet of three?
Nobody makes me sad like you
Now my whole world goes from blue to blue
Secondary modern
But there won't be a problem till the girls go home
"Secondary Modern" by Elvis Costello is a song that talks about the theme of adolescence, insecurity, and social status. The first verse describes the basement as a place where the singer is, and he calls it the secondary modern, a term used to describe a non-selective, non-prestigious school in the UK. He says, "this must be the place/ second place in the human race/down in the basement/ now I know what he meant/ secondary modern." The singer feels left out and neglected, and the basement represents his loneliness and low social status.
The chorus talks about the problems that arise among groups of boys when girls are introduced. "But there must be a problem till the girls go home/ but there won't be a problem till the girls go home." The song's theme is adolescence, and the problems that arise among teenage boys when girls are introduced, competing for their attention and social status.
The second verse reveals the singer's insecurity and lack of confidence as he longs for the attention of someone he admires, "this is the hand that you never shook/ you never gave me the chance that I took/ secondary modern/ but there won't be a problem till the girls go home." The bridge asks a question that is open to interpretation; it could be about a secret affair or a risky business deal between two parties.
Line by Line Meaning
This must be the place
I think I have finally arrived in a location that I might call home.
Second place in the human race
I feel like I am in a place of little significance in comparison to everyone else.
Down in the basement
I am in a place that feels dark and isolated.
Now I know what he meant
I am starting to understand someone else's perspective on this situation.
Secondary modern
I feel like I am in a school or system that is less important than others.
But there must be a problem till the girls go home
I sense a lingering issue, and I believe it will remain until the girls leave.
This is the hand that you never shook
I am the person you have not acknowledged or respected.
You never gave me the chance that I took
I am confident that if you had given me an opportunity, I would have proven myself.
But there won't be a problem till the girls go home
I believe things will run smoothly, except for the issue that will continue until the girls depart.
Is it out of the question
Can we talk about something that I want to ask you?
Between you and me
Let's keep this conversation just between us.
Is it pleasure or business
Is what we are about to discuss personal or professional in nature?
Or a packet of three?
Could it be that it involves intimate acts between two people, with the inclusion of a prophylactic?
Nobody makes me sad like you
There is no one else that has such a significant negative effect on my emotional wellbeing as you do.
Now my whole world goes from blue to blue
Whenever I encounter you, the color of my world changes to a darker shade of blue.
Secondary modern
Once again, I find myself in a setting that feels unimportant.
But there won't be a problem till the girls go home
Assuming the girls leave soon, I predict that everything will be fine.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind