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Few writers wield wit as lethally as Elvis Costello. The man who sneered "Did he leave your pretty fingers lying in the wedding cake?" on a famous early ballad, "Alison," is not what one would call merciful when it comes to the (many) things he disdains. His poison pen, balanced by his immense passion for beauty, even when it's "useless," is a large part of what makes Costello great.
So when he takes on the endlessly merging music industry during a 45-minute phone interview-cum-odyssey, ragging on the inequity of the deals between artists and record companies, heads up moguls.
"We've all agreed for the last 50 years this completely corrupt relationship has existed," Costello says. "Now it's finally being challenged by new technology, originally by pirates and now by legitimate business people, and [labels are] coming unglued. ... They're gathering together in larger and larger groups — the way dinosaurs do just before they die."
Elvis Costello is a survivor, and often, survival is the best revenge. When the singer, songwriter and guitarist takes the stage at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach tonight, it might feel like an old-school punk-rock reunion to those who have followed the artist born Declan MacManus since he was a quintessential Angry Young Man. Keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas have played with Costello since his first tour. Costello and the Imposters (as the band that includes bassist Davey Faragher is called) are likely to dig into his catalog as far back as the late '70s.
But stasis is anathema to the man who simultaneously released two divergent albums last fall: the Americana-ish The Delivery Man and the classical Il Sogno. During a conversation that transpires while he journeys from a dentist's office to "bouncing around in the back of a taxi in London" to an elevator then finally home, Costello returns often to the theme of personal transformation.
"What's really important to remember is we're not the same people as we were when we started out, because we've had lots of other experiences, good musical experiepces, that we've had together and independently," Costello says. "That doesn't mean you can't find the fire when you need it. But it would be absurd if you hadn't ever learned anything along the way."
The 50-year-old Buddy Holly look-alike began his musical lessons early: His father was a big-band singer and trumpet player. Costello came to fame amid the creative cauldron of
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