“When I was 24, I was asked to write an autobiography,” says Elvis Costello. He says it on the day when he was his first bound specimen of his informative, impressive and highly entertaining new memoirs,, Unfaithful music & disappearing inkreceived. “I said, ‘Couldn’t I just live my life?'”
At that time, Elvis Costello (born as Declan MacManus), the son of a big band singer, swept through the rock ‘n’ roll like a busy tornado. He merged punk, American root music and cutting, literary openness My Aim is True from 1977 and This year’s model from 1978. The latter with his wild combo the attractions.
He said early on that his entire songwriting was driven by revenge and feelings of guilt. An image-made quote that he laughs about today. “It was never possible only“, He says.” It just became a nice slogan. Which you could set next to my name. Even when I said it, I asked the people to say: ‘Of course that’s not true.’ Unfortunately, some people are faithfully. “
“This is not someone who gets slower”
Since then, Costello has written a flood of songs for more than two dozen albums. And he wondered with artists like Paul McCartney (“Since his last jointly written hit with Michael Jackson was created, I wondered if I shouldn’t take a few dance hours,” writes Costello in one of the best chapters of the book), Burt Bacharach, worked together.
He also dealt with a number of styles. From country to classic, which reflect its ever broader taste. “If you hear something and let you go cold, then it goes past you. And that’s not the music,” says Costello. “You were not ready yet.” He claims that he is not as productive as it seems. That his “big curse is inertia”. But he also admits that when he finished his book, he was already working on 40 new songs. “This is not someone who becomes slower,” he says.
“Radio Soul” (1975)
[Frühe Version von „Radio Radio“]
That was long before My Aim is True. I recorded it with my Semipro band Flip City when we did all of these things that were clearly thanks to Bruce Springsteen. Obviously this song turned into [die 1978er Single] “Radio Radio”.
I took the pop hooks from this song. And turned its meaning to adapt it to the angry mentality of 1977. But it’s a strange thing. “Radio Radio” no longer appeals to me today as this song. I am now singing this version live. And let the audience know that it is what I wanted to say. The idea is closer [Van Morrisons] “Caravan”. That you are prepared for this mythical thing, the radio, which is celebrated in Bruce ‘songs.
“Poison Moon” (1976)
It was the last song of a series of songs that I sang very quietly in my room. Before I accepted the musical language My Aim is True. I played these quiet songs in clubs and wondered why people didn’t hung on my lips!
What I hadn’t understood was that the people I admired, like John Prine and Randy Newman, had an audience she knew. And that became quiet to listen. But it is amusing to hear which musical jump I made from this style the first album. And now I often play this song. Because people come to listen to me.
“(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” (1977)
It was more like an appearance. I wrote it out in a train from Liverpool in 10 minutes. The whole song in one train. I had the essential picture, then I worked backwards. A dancehall scene with the derogatory sayings. This framed this other stranger idea of ”I don’t get older”.
I thought, “Why am I saying that when I’m 22?” And then there was the whole comedic thing to get to the point. Nowadays you can pick up demos on the cell phone. I had to hide it in my head. Then I had to get out of the train. Go to my mother’s house. Take an old guitar that I had there. And play the song until I had memorized it. I didn’t have a tape device. I had no other option than repetition to memorize it. So that I didn’t forget it.
“High Fidelity” (1980)
This is a fairly exciting plate. The vocals are very rough and the rhythm is great. We recorded them in Holland. Where we had nothing else to do than go crazy in the studio. But as I wrote in the book, it is “an incredibly sad delusion of a song in which a couple can be found in different rooms with different lovers, one of whom is still irrational believes that their promise will survive the infidelity”.
Sometimes the wildness in music was real. But songs like “Lip Service” [auf This Year’s Model] and “Mystery Dance” [auf My Aim Is True] were more of a joke. A few ideas that were thrown together with a hanger. I made fun of writing simple pop songs about the ability. The strange thing was that people liked it. And I had to find a way to like it myself. Because people wanted to hear it.
“New Lace Sleeves” (1981)
Some of the best things that the attractions did, like this song, were more slower. It is a myth that is only about speed and strength. “New Lace Sleeves” is almost like Dub-Reggae. I wrote the first lines about 1974. I wrote a great, great song about life in the post -war period. It was called “From Kansas to Berlin”.
But the meat comedy in it, all the embarrassment the morning after. I didn’t know that so well at the time. At the time of this song I knew pretty well. It was also about great and control. People always said that Margaret Thatcher had conducted her cabinet with a kind of sexual attraction. Power is seductive. The fact that the music was seductive fit. We had to be exhausted in order to be able to play. We had to train the impulse to play quickly.
“Beyond Lie” (1982)
The big change Imperial consisted of giving yourself more space to try things out. We had never been to the studio for 12 weeks. We also started with the large open space music during this time. U2, Echo and the Bunnymen. Suddenly our small, compact songs were no longer up to date.
This is an angry song. I consciously wrote words that made no sense. To create a blurred picture. Because I led a blurry life. But Pete Thomas’ drum game is so crazy. I thought when I let his energy, the rest of us play more orchestrum and I sing quietly, it would be much more convincing. That came closest to this great music. And we never did that again. I didn’t want it to sound like we are trying to keep up with the young people.
“Indoor Fireworks” (1986)
Imperial Bedroom, Punch the Clock [1983] and Goodbye Cruel World [1984] Were the most of the plates that we have ever done after eightyer. We had some hits. We had some people who came to the party. But then we didn’t like the party more than people came to the door. I started playing entire sets of songs that nobody – not even the attractions – wanted to hear.
I just wanted to get out and I did. So I became King of America. The songs are emotionally rougher. And this rougher sound lets you get through. These were painful sessions with the attractions when we separated. Also with Blood and Chocolate. It was an ugly time in which we made some great records. They arise from the tension.
“London’s Brilliant Parade” (1994)
Before The Juliet Letters [einer Zusammenarbeit mit dem Brodsky Quartet aus dem Jahr 1993, bei der Streicher und Gesang im Mittelpunkt standen] If I hadn’t known how to write these harmonies. That opened my eyes. I can insert these other bizarre chords. And it can still be a pop song.
It is also the only thing I’ve ever tried to write about celebrating a place. And to point out things that are not so nice. This was also one of the few songs that made sense to bring the attractions together again. We could not have included it in the over -the -top kind of how we were before.
“When I was cruel No. 2” (2002)
The song is about accepting that there is a perception of you. And the music is at the same time backwards and forward. I started with all these angry ideas. People somehow feel it as a betrayal if you don’t constantly represent it.
But life is more complicated. There are goals in the song, and the narrator says: “I could have murdered these people. But it is no longer worth it” [lacht]. It is not worth what it tears out of your soul when you take this path again.
“The puppet has cut his strings” (2013)
It was at the end of the very long process of the development of Wise Up Ghost. It was these strange chords. Most of the songs on this album are bulletins straightened out. I don’t know why the music brought me to it. But that night I wrote a report on the last few days and hours of my father.
I wrote the text in a design and sang it in a take in my computer on the kitchen counter. I describe it as clearly as possible. Just as the music of my father’s companion was up to his last breath. It is a dark conclusion. But why should you be afraid of it?