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.
You Turned To Me
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And all at once
I knew I was betrayed
My eyes met yours just down the darkened path
Where both of us had strayed
Nothing good can come out of this
I know it may not be
But just then you turned to me
And I thought for a moment
Like the fool that I've become
I might be the one
To turn these lights back on
Just as I began to say
It's never worth the price you pay
I was going there anyway
You turned to me
And all at once
I knew that you had seen
How I was lost in something quite like love
When all I did was dream
Now as evening becomes the dawn
I wonder where you'll be
And just why you turned to me
The lyrics to the song You Turned To Me by Elvis Costello tell the sad story of a protagonist who feels betrayed by someone they care about. The singer and the subject of the song walked down a darkened path together, where it is suggested that they might have been up to no good. But right before the singer can admit that it’s not worth the price they might have to pay for their dark activities, the subject of the song turns to them, and the singer, like a fool, thinks that maybe there’s hope yet. As it happens, the subject may have turned to them for a different reason altogether - to indicate that they already knew that the singer was caught up in something that might be dangerous or foolish.
Line by Line Meaning
You turned to me
The subject is addressing someone who turned to them and caught them offguard
And all at once
Suddenly, the subject felt a presence and realized this turn has unexpected weight
I knew I was betrayed
The subject feels personally hurt that their trust has been broken
My eyes met yours just down the darkened path
The subject and the addressed met in a place that had a sense of immoral risk or unworthiness
Where both of us had strayed
The addressed was there by their own volition, and not coerced by the subject
Nothing good can come out of this
The subject understands that this meeting is doomed to cause sorrow and regret
I know it may not be
The subject is aware their apprehension is not certain to transpire, but their senses are keen
But just then you turned to me
The turn that the addressed makes opens a wound that the subject somewhat anticipated, but still felt unprepared for
And I thought for a moment
In response to their predicament, the subject considered an alternative path that may still produce happiness
Like the fool that I've become
The subject admits to making mistakes and not learning from their experiences
I might be the one
The subject momentarily considered that they could be the one to bring some kind of solution to the situation
To turn these lights back on
The 'lights' here represent hope, brightness, a way out of the darkness of the predicament
Just as I began to say
The subject considered stating a platitude that they had heard all too often in similar situations
It's never worth the price you pay
The platitude warns that there is always a cost to pay for putting oneself in these circumstances
I was going there anyway
Despite telling themselves that this was a mistake, the subject had persisted towards the situation
You turned to me
The addressed made the turn again, implying that perhaps there was interest or affection there
And all at once
Again, the feeling was indescribably sudden and powerful
I knew that you had seen
The addressed has realized how the subject feels, and this realization hits the subject like a ton of bricks
How I was lost in something quite like love
The subject lets down their guard and admits the forbidden temptation they had been secretly entertaining
When all I did was dream
The feelings were not based on anything substantial -- just a figment of their imagination
Now as evening becomes the dawn
The song tries to symbolically represent some kind of rebirth, a chance to start anew
I wonder where you'll be
The addressed's intentions and feelings are still somewhat of a mystery to the subject
And just why you turned to me
The subject still hasn't fully grasped the ramifications of the addressed's turn towards them, and thinks back to the moment hoping to find some kind of clarity
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind