London Guardian, September 19, 2003: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> The Guardian profile: Elvis Costello</h3></center> | <center><h3> The Guardian profile: Elvis Costello </h3></center> | ||
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<center> Jeevan Vasagar | <center> Jeevan Vasagar </center> | ||
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'''Though fans applaud his musical courage, dedication and aversion to pigeonholes, critics have turned on the self-exiled Briton, savaging his latest album, North. But the artist has scant regard for his detractors | '''Though fans applaud his musical courage, dedication and aversion to pigeonholes, critics have turned on the self-exiled Briton, savaging his latest album, North. But the artist has scant regard for his detractors | ||
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It has not been a good week for Elvis Costello. For a musician who quit Britain 13 years ago, the harsh reviews of his latest album, '' | It has not been a good week for Elvis Costello. For a musician who quit Britain 13 years ago, the harsh reviews of his latest album, ''North'', may have confirmed the decision to leave. | ||
While the Guardian's [[London Guardian, September 12, 2003|reviewer]] believed that "with every play the album becomes, like love itself, impossible to fight off", it was described elsewhere as "total agony". One Sunday paper's critic dripped alliterating bile: "pompous, pretentious ... this soporific pseudo-Sondheim sucks." | While the <i>Guardian</i>'s [[London Guardian, September 12, 2003|reviewer]] believed that "with every play the album becomes, like love itself, impossible to fight off", it was described elsewhere as "total agony". One Sunday paper's critic dripped alliterating bile: "pompous, pretentious ... this soporific pseudo-Sondheim sucks." | ||
Then on Wednesday, on Radio 4's Today programme, a long interview was edited down to a few minutes of airtime asking why musicians like Costello, famous for his attacks on Thatcher and the Falklands war, were now ducking politics. | Then on Wednesday, on Radio 4's ''Today'' programme, a long interview was edited down to a few minutes of airtime asking why musicians like Costello, famous for his attacks on Thatcher and the Falklands war, were now ducking politics. | ||
The British media seemed to be ganging up to savage both his musical worth and relevance of a singer who had outlived punk but now seemed to be flirting with every genre but the one for which he was first adored. | The British media seemed to be ganging up to savage both his musical worth and relevance of a singer who had outlived punk but now seemed to be flirting with every genre but the one for which he was first adored. | ||
By the most commercial reckoning — Amazon's product listing "Customers who bought this title also bought" — Costello is bracketed with a generation of thoughtful, energetic "alternative" music: the Clash, Talking Heads and | By the most commercial reckoning — Amazon's product listing "Customers who bought this title also bought" — Costello is bracketed with a generation of thoughtful, energetic "alternative" music: the Clash, Talking Heads and Squeeze. | ||
But Costello has made a country album ('' | But Costello has made a country album (''Almost Blue'') and collaborated with the Brodsky Quartet to make classical music. Next month he plays in a festival of "sacred music" at the Royal Festival Hall. With ''North'' he has released a set of Tony Bennett-style crooning love songs. | ||
Admirers and those who have fallen out of love with him respect his eagerness to fight his way out of pigeonholes, even if he does not carry all of his fanbase with him. | Admirers and those who have fallen out of love with him respect his eagerness to fight his way out of pigeonholes, even if he does not carry all of his fanbase with him. | ||
Robert Wyatt, who sang his famous anti-war lyric "Shipbuilding," praises "the seriousness with which he applies himself to the cause of being a musician, he never seems to make do. | |||
"He seems to be a David Attenborough of music. He just explores every nook and cranny that intrigues him. | "He seems to be a David Attenborough of music. He just explores every nook and cranny that intrigues him. | ||
"If he wants to try country music, he goes to Nashville. He's really brave. He wants some trumpet playing on his definitive Shipbuilding, he gets | "If he wants to try country music, he goes to Nashville. He's really brave. He wants some trumpet playing on his definitive Shipbuilding, he gets Chet Baker. | ||
"Rock people develop a Little Lord Fauntleroy front with their entourage and all that stuff. He just likes to write, he just loves music." | "Rock people develop a Little Lord Fauntleroy front with their entourage and all that stuff. He just likes to write, he just loves music." | ||
Costello's dedication to the craft is what made him stand out from the punk bands with which he was tagged, agrees Glenn Max, producer of contemporary culture at the | Costello's dedication to the craft is what made him stand out from the punk bands with which he was tagged, agrees Glenn Max, producer of contemporary culture at the Royal Festival Hall and a Costello fan since he was a schoolboy in the 1970s. | ||
"I came from a very backwards place. Not far from New York City, but with a very backwards mentality," he says. | "I came from a very backwards place. Not far from New York City, but with a very backwards mentality," he says. | ||
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The literate lyrics, written by a man who picked up the guitar at 15 and left school a year later, have inevitably spawned book titles; Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is named for a Costello song, as is Brett Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero. But that hip niche was one in which he says he never wanted to be placed, and he has done his best to escape. | The literate lyrics, written by a man who picked up the guitar at 15 and left school a year later, have inevitably spawned book titles; Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is named for a Costello song, as is Brett Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero. But that hip niche was one in which he says he never wanted to be placed, and he has done his best to escape. | ||
Those who have worked with him say he is animated by a spirit of musical adventure. "Ever since I've known Elvis, more so in recent times, he's been one of the few people in the music world, that I've worked for who's able to give you some freedom," says | Those who have worked with him say he is animated by a spirit of musical adventure. "Ever since I've known Elvis, more so in recent times, he's been one of the few people in the music world, that I've worked for who's able to give you some freedom," says Steve Nieve, the pianist on his 1977 hit "Watching the Detectives" as well as a collaborator on his latest album. | ||
"I was some 18-year-old student at the Royal College of Music. All through the time I've known Elvis, he was extremely interested in all kinds of music. | "I was some 18-year-old student at the Royal College of Music. All through the time I've known Elvis, he was extremely interested in all kinds of music. | ||
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Despite saying he still feels love and attachment to such places as London and Liverpool, where he moved with his mother when he was a teenager, Costello has not lived in England for 13 years and says: "I knew from the moment I left that it was better not living in London." | Despite saying he still feels love and attachment to such places as London and Liverpool, where he moved with his mother when he was a teenager, Costello has not lived in England for 13 years and says: "I knew from the moment I left that it was better not living in London." | ||
The new album was written after the break-up of his 16-year marriage to songwriter and former Pogues member | The new album was written after the break-up of his 16-year marriage to songwriter and former Pogues member Cait O'Riordan and the start of a new relationship with the jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall. | ||
He hints that this is behind the critics' displeasure. | He hints that this is behind the critics' displeasure. | ||
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"That other people wanted to dress up like that was a problem for them and their tailor." | "That other people wanted to dress up like that was a problem for them and their tailor." | ||
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'''The Guardian, September 19, 2003 | |||
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[[Jeevan Vasagar]] profiles Elvis Costello following the release of ''[[North]]''. | |||
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<small>Photo by [[Gregory Bull]].</small><br> | |||
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<center><h3> Life is short </h3></center> | |||
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* Born Declan Patrick Aloysius in Paddington, London, August 25 1954 | |||
* Went to school in Hounslow before moving to Liverpool, where his father was a singer and played the trumpet | |||
* Left school at 18 and worked in a bank and then as a computer operator | |||
* Began as a folk singer in Liverpool and then in pubs in a band called Flip, which broke up in 1975. Using his mother's maiden name, became Elvis Costello and signed with Stiff Records in 1977 | |||
* His first hit was "Watching the Detectives," his live debut with the Attractions in July 1977. Their debut album was ''Armed Forces''. Produced "Oliver's Army," No 1 in the US | |||
* During the 80s produced albums for the Specials, Squeeze, Bluebells and the Pogues | |||
* In 1996 he collected ''Q'' magazine's songwriter award, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year | |||
Elvis on his latest album: "It's the only record I've ever made that aspired to beauty as the prime objective." | |||
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Revision as of 17:39, 7 January 2017
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