RAM, February 24, 1978

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RAM Magazine

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Elvis Costello

It's your turn to be the future of Rock & Roll!

Nick Kent

So take off those silly glasses and start acting like A Star

Like even I'm in an Elvis Costello song. El reckons he saw me one night on a tube bound for Osterley and.... "you were obviously pretty 'out of it' 'cos you didn't even notice all the other people in the compartment staring at you. I was just amazed that one person could draw that much reaction from others. After I saw you there, I came up with 'Waiting For The End Of The World.' You're the guy in the opening verse."

I touch my forelock at the imparting of this factoid. After all, being in a Costello song is a deal more prestigious than being a name in this little black book he carries around, and which possibly might soon be making quite a name for itself.

Elvis's black book? Oh, it's just full of these names of folk who have crossed our El, who have hindered the unravelling of his true destiny these past years. Maybe they were responsible for not signing him to their label (prior to the Stiff inking this is) or maybe they referred to him as another Van Morrison sound-alike just like all those other squat, nervy types with short hair and glasses with whom such parallels appear obligatory in today's music press.

Whatever the cause, they're all marked men, cows before the slaughter, names and livelihoods about to come under the thunder of Costello.

Elvis is very into revenge, see. "The only two things that matter to me, the only motivation points for me writing all these songs," opines Costello with a perverse leer, "are revenge and guilt. Those are the only emotions I know about, that I know I can feel. Love? I dunno what it means, really, and it doesn't exist in my songs.

"Like" — he's into this discourse now — "when I played earlier in front of all those reps or whatever they're called — all those guys working for Island (Stiff's UK distributor – ed) — did you hear me introducing 'Lip Service'?

"'This song is called 'Lip Service' and that's all you're gonna get from me'. That was straight from the heart, that, 'cos last year I actually went to Island with my demo tape and none of them wanted to know. Back then they wouldn't give me the time of day. But now..."


Now, Elvis is gloating because suddenly he's one of the new breed golden boys, already a name to be bandied about, with two excellent singles under his belt and a much-raved-over album finally in the shops.

And of course, all the pop pen-pushers are latching on fast, getting nosey about the past and generally pushing for an intimate gander at the man behind the horn-rims and insect ungainliness.

Results thus far have been pretty uneventful, however, what with the press boys generally getting scattergunned by Elvis' tight-lipped "Fuck-you" fiestiness and backing off under the deluge to pen pieces loaded with said one-dimensional verbal acidity.

My single encounter with Costello, however, was a good deal more revelatory, basically because we both ended up drunk and talked for some four hours. Still he refused to discuss his past musical endeavours in any detail and it was only afterwards, by chance, that I learnt about his former identity as one D.P. Costello, lead singer of a bluegrass group called Flip City whose collective high-point was the totally unexciting fact of them having a residency as house support-band at the Marquee maybe two years back.



Remaining text and scanner-error corrections to come...




But exactly who is this geezer who
calls himself Elvis Costello?


Nick Kent

1978-02-24 RAM page 23 clipping 01.jpg

Ever wondered what Elvis Costello might have looked like when he was 15 years old? Here's a photo of someone called Day Costello, dating from 1970, the curious similarity in name and visage to Stiff's wonderboy Declan — er, sorry — Elvis was as striking to him as it was to us.

Of course, it's nothing more than an extraordinary coincidence, since Stiff's Paul Conroy — after speaking to his Costello — categorically denied that Day was Dec, if you follow. Like us, he'd never heard of Day Costello and neither had Spark Records, who released his version of "The Long And Winding Road" seven years ago (when Elvis would have been 15).


At last! The truth behind Elvis' secret identity


Phil McNeill

But he can still be the future of Rock & Roll it he wants. He doesn't even have to take off those silly glasses.

"Excuse me a moment — I've got a baby in my arms."

Elvis Costello's father interrupts our Sunday morning telephone conversation to put the baby down. "There. We've just come back from church. What can I do for you?"

Elvis's dad is actually Ross MacManus — who was a singer with the Joe Loss Orchestra throughout the late '50s and the '60s.

So, Elvis's real name is Declan Patrick MacManus — though Costello, Ross tells us, is "a family name."

Indeed, he himself used the Costello monicker on more than one occasion — not least when he called himself Day Costello to cut "The Long And Winding Road" for Spark in 1970.

"That wasn't Elvis aged 16," Ross laughs. "That was me aged 42! I often used the name Day Costello for writing."

Ross MacManus joined the Joe Loss band in 1955, and enjoyed a fair amount of success.

Back in the '50s, of course, big bands were real hip, and the paper was full of them until rock 'n' roll came along. Thus Elvis — or rather, Declan — was brought up in a house full of jazz records, with a father who knew and worked with British jazz stars like Ronnie Scott, Phil Seamen, Joe Timperley, Tubby Hayes and Bill McGuffie.

On top of that, Ross used to take Elvis along to the studios in the early '60s, and there he met the likes of the Stones, Hollies, Mojos, Merseybeats, Beatles and so on when they recorded their spot for the Joe Loss Show.

In the late '60s Ross had a German hit with a song called "Patsy Girl," and in '69 he and Loss parted company. Nowadays he works the northern cabaret circuit, singing and playing trumpet and piano, and is apparently a big name still.

"The only time I see Elvis now is when we meet at Watford Gap service at six o'clock in the morning, on the way home from our gigs."

"It's a difficult position," Ross muses. "Elvis wanted to keep his image to himself — not because there was any rift between us, but just because it was a slightly mysterious image. It went well."

He asserts repeatedly how proud he is of Elvis.

Furthermore, he insists that Elvis's image as the guy who gets sand kicked in his face is quite misleading. Elvis is tough, he tells us — and in this aspect he takes after his grandfather.

Patrick MacManus was a jazz player who left Ireland after the 1916 Rebellion and went to New York. There he became caught up on the fringe of the Prohibition era gang world. "It was all boxers, musicians and bootleggers," Ross says.

At one time, apparently, he went to stay with a boxer friend on the west side — and found himself sharing a house with Legs Diamond, the notorious gangster.

Ross's father is also credited with helping to bring the blues to Britain. Ross makes a lot of the fact that both Elvis and his grandfather were born on the Leo/Virgo cusp, seven days apart, and that they look alike (as if he and Elvis don't!)

He also tells us Elvis has some great songs about his grandfather which have yet to be unveiled in public — especially one called "My Friend," about his grandad's New York experiences.

"I think Elvis has got a touch of the old 'Legs Diamond'," he chuckles.

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RAM, No. 78, February 24, 1978


Nick Kent profiles Elvis Costello (from NME, Aug. 27, 1977).


Annie Burton reviews My Aim Is True.


Phil McNeill talks to Ross MacManus. (from NME interview Oct. 29, 1977).


Also includes excerpts from NME's Blackmail Corner (Sep. 17, 1977).


Includes the Stiff Fourplay flexi-disc.

Images

1978-02-24 RAM cover.jpg 1978-02-24 RAM page 22.jpg
Cover and page scan.


My Aim Is True

Elvis Costello

Annie Burton

1978-02-24 RAM page 30.jpg

There's nothing average about Elvis Costello. The more you listen to My Aim Is True, the more Costello's nonconformity strikes you between the ears.

Like all singer/songwriters, he's necessarily an egotist. (Obviously you have to be, to consider your opinions, your perceptions and so on worthy of public performance). But he's not your average deliverer of personalized love songs; no baby I lerv you why don't you lerv me slushy whines here. The album's only track possibly definable as a love song is the tender, rueful "Alison" (its chorus provides the My Aim Is True title line); that track, like the rest of Costello's songs, is still hard-edged, pointed, and in no way mushy. That point is clearly spelt out in "Alison"'s first verse: "I'm not gonna get too sentimental / like those other sticky valentines." He goes on, neatly illustrating both his nifty, neat expression of emotion and his control of wordplay: "Cause I don't know if you are loving some body / I only know it isn't mine."

Neat, huh? He does the same thing time and again throughout the songs on this album, deftly turning cliches inside out, building up a chorus for an unexpected punchline, taking the sympathetic emphasis from some observed third person onto himself ("No Dancing"), always maintaining a strong sense of realism by piling up true life detail, keeping imagery skillfully scaled down to life size. He's what you might call a slow dazzler; at first it's the music that grabs you, the simple four or five piece basic R&B band dominated by drums and workmanlike guitar. The band's mixed well back so the Costello tonsils dominate; only after close listening can you hear just what those uncredited musicians are up to, particularly the guitarist; when he's given a short space for himself (or themselves — Elvis plays rhythm guitar, but lead is played by someone within the Stiff family, maybe even Dave Edmunds) he fills it with economical tight licks. But it's the lyrics that dominate, even though their full impact takes time to absorb.

The musical mood changes from track to track — fast rock 'n' roll on "Mystery Dance," a riff reminiscent of "Heartbreak Hotel" and, incidentally, the closest Elvis Costello comes to his namesake; "I'm Not Angry" has a wild guitar, clashing cymbals pattern that makes you know he's not angry, he's furious.

Costello stands outside the established patterns, but unlike the punks' deliberate childish defiance which recognizes authority, and is therefore ultimately part of it, Costello is using the established conventions against themselves. His voice sounds instantly familiar, but there's no one person you can pin him to as an imitator; instead his voice is an amalgam of rock singing styles, forged into a style of his own. On My Aim Is True the only recognisable style that isn't original is the Spectorism of "No Dancing"; the fact that it's been achieved without Spector's wall of sound machinery and dozens of overdubs is remarkable in itself. Costello, strange and vengeful little person that he is, has emerged as the most original and straight out musically addictive character for quite some time. Sharp, witty, (take the "legendary hitchhiker" lines of "Waiting For The End Of The World," for instance) perceptive, original and a remarkable singer as well....

There's no stopping him now.




1978-02-24 RAM page 23.jpg
Page scan.


1978-02-24 RAM page 48.jpg


Stiff Fourplay flexidisc.jpg
Stiff Fourplay flexi-disc.

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