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.
Where Is The Love
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That I just cannot kill
But the name of this thing is not love
And I can't take a potion
And I won't take a pill
So it tortures me still
But the name of this thing is not love
Such a terrible thought
Life is so very short
And the name of this thing is not love
There's a bruise on her arm
And some blood on the floor
But the name of this thing is not love
And they're taunting some girl
That they claim to adore
She can't take anymore
But the name of this thing is not love
Who in the world do you think you are?
That you pushed me this far
But the name of this thing is not love
He thinks of her still
Although you'd never guess
He's trying so to forget her
The occasional moments that he'll always bless
Watching her dress
For worse of better
He watched her pick over her broken playthings
What played on his mind is not love
The cast aside tokens and discarded rings
Over on of his flings
But the name of this things is not love
Then he threw something down in the wild rushing river
And won't ever recover
But the name of this thing is not love
Then you start out pretending that you're so very tough
Life is not short enough
But the name of this thing is not love
The song begins with the singer acknowledging the presence of an emotion that seems to linger within them, a feeling that they cannot get rid of. This sentiment is a source of torture for them, and although it feels like love, they assert that it is not love. The singer resists the idea of taking a potion or pill to escape the unrequited love, which suggests a more organic kind of love, one not susceptible to artificial inducement. The thought of life being limited and fleeting adds insult to injury emphasizing the futility of pursuing this feeling that's not even love.
The second part of the song introduces us to a scene of violence, possibly domestic abuse, where a girl is being taunted and a bruise on her arm hints at an even more significant injury. Despite all that's happening, the singer insists that the situation is not love. The repeated phrase 'the name of this thing is not love' takes on a cynical tone, suggesting the trivialization of a life-altering feeling. The third part of the song deals with a man in a relationship that has ended but still thinks of his ex-lover. He strains to forget her but cherishes the mundane moments they shared. Finally, he throws an object down the river, attempting to move on, but this act accomplishes nothing as the emotion still lingers.
The song's overall theme is the struggle and futility of chasing after love that one can't have as the results are typically devastating. The concept of love is examined in various instances, and the conclusion is that most of the feelings people label as love fall short of the idealized version of love.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a part of this feeling
There is a component of this emotion
That I just cannot kill
That I cannot eradicate or eliminate
But the name of this thing is not love
However, this is not actually love
And I can't take a potion
And I am unable to consume a magical remedy
And I won't take a pill
And I refuse to ingest medication
So it tortures me still
This continues to torment me
Then you start entertaining
Then you begin to consider
Such a terrible thought
An awful idea
Life is so very short
Life is incredibly brief
And the name of this thing is not love
But this is not love
There's a bruise on her arm
She has a visible injury on her arm
And some blood on the floor
And there is some blood on the ground
But the name of this thing is not love
However, this does not qualify as love
And they're taunting some girl
They are harassing a female person
That they claim to adore
Whom they profess to love
She can't take anymore
She has reached her limit
But the name of this thing is not love
But this is not actually love
Who in the world do you think you are?
What is your identity?
That you pushed me this far
That you have provoked me to this extent
But the name of this thing is not love
However, this is not love
He thinks of her still
He still remembers her
Although you'd never guess
Though you would never surmise
He's trying so to forget her
He is attempting to erase her from his mind
The occasional moments that he'll always bless
The rare instances that he will always cherish
Watching her dress
Observing her getting dressed
For worse of better
For the better or the worse
He watched her pick over her broken playthings
He saw her rummage through her broken toys
What played on his mind is not love
What occupied his thoughts was not love
The cast aside tokens and discarded rings
The abandoned trinkets and thrown-away rings
Over on of his flings
From one of his affairs
But the name of this things is not love
However, this is not actually love
Then he threw something down in the wild rushing river
Then, he threw something into the tumultuous waterway
And won't ever recover
And it will never be retrieved
But the name of this thing is not love
However, this is not love
Then you start out pretending that you're so very tough
Then you begin to feign toughness
Life is not short enough
Life is not brief to a sufficient extent
But the name of this thing is not love
However, this is not love
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind