Elvis Costello

In 1977, at the height of the punk explosion, along came a guy who fitted nobody's aesthetic: skinny, thick-framed glasses, the look of an accountant or a bank clerk, knees together and a guitar. He seemed like anything but a rock star. But Elvis Costello opened his mouth and out came pure venom: sharp, fiercely intelligent songs, full of rage, irony and wordplay. That contrast — the look of a shy nerd and the sharpest tongue in new wave — was only the beginning.

The man of a thousand musical disguises

His real name is Declan Patrick MacManus. He was born in London in 1954, into a family with Irish roots, the son of trumpeter and singer Ross MacManus, who played for thirteen years in Joe Loss's orchestra. He took the name "Elvis" — a half-provocative gesture — and arrived with new wave, the movement that took punk's energy but added melody, wit and ambition.

His first record, My Aim Is True, from 1977, was recorded with an American band called Clover, and already carried "Alison", a beautiful, bitter ballad that showed there was a thoroughbred songwriter behind the fury. The Attractions — Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas — came afterwards, and with them came an unstoppable run: "Pump It Up" and, above all, "Oliver's Army", which in 1979 reached number two in Britain and was his biggest hit at home.

That song is worth pausing on, because it explains the method. "Oliver's Army" is among the catchiest things he wrote, with a skipping piano that sounds almost cheerful, and underneath it talks about war and about sending poor young men off to die; he wrote it after a trip to Belfast where he saw British soldiers who were little more than children. That double layer — sweet on the outside, sharp inside — was always his signature. Around those years he also recorded Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding", which came out as a B-side and was never a hit single, but ended up becoming one of the songs most identified with him.

The one who never stood still

His real signature appears from that point on. While almost all his contemporaries found a formula and repeated it, Costello did the opposite: he set out to explore everything. In 1981 he recorded Almost Blue, an entire album of country covers, with Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and George Jones. In 1993 he moved into chamber music with The Juliet Letters, alongside the Brodsky Quartet. In 1998 he made Painted from Memory with Burt Bacharach, a record of sophisticated ballads. He co-wrote more than a dozen songs with Paul McCartney. He recorded with Allen Toussaint and with The Roots.

And he wrote a ballet. In 2004 he released Il Sogno, commissioned by an Italian company and based on A Midsummer Night's Dream, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra: it spent fourteen weeks at the top of Billboard's contemporary classical chart. He was also commissioned to write an opera, but that one was left unfinished.

That restlessness could have scattered him; in his case the opposite happened. Costello is one of those artists who treat the whole of music as their territory and move through it with the freedom of someone who loves everything that makes a sound.

The crossing: the song that links him to a French master

There is one moment that sums up his most elegant side. In 1999, for the soundtrack of Notting Hill, Costello recorded "She", a monumental ballad that was not his: the music had been written twenty-five years earlier by Charles Aznavour, with an English lyric by Herbert Kretzmer.

That version is often presented as a sweeping hit, and it was not: it reached number nineteen in the United Kingdom and did not enter the American chart. But the fact that does matter is another one, and it is better: it was his first British top twenty in sixteen years, and the last to date. The furious nerd of punk paying tribute to the great French romantic, and introducing the song to a new generation along the way. Two worlds that seemed opposite, joined by the love of a good song.

What to remember

Elvis Costello showed that appearances deceive and that labels imprison. The guy who looked like a shy nerd turned out to have the sharpest pen in new wave, and the raging rocker of the seventies turned out to be an insatiable explorer able to move from punk to the string quartet without breaking a sweat.

He never let himself be shut inside one thing, and that freedom is his greatest legacy. He set intelligent lyrics to perfect melodies, and taught rock that curiosity has no borders. Behind those thick glasses there was, all along, one of the most complete musicians of his era.

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Sources

Elvis Costello (Declan Patrick MacManus) was born on 25 August 1954 in London, of Irish descent, the son of musician Ross MacManus, singer and trumpeter with the Joe Loss Orchestra between 1955 and 1968. He emerged in the punk and new wave era with the album "My Aim Is True" (1977), recorded with the American band Clover and including "Alison"; The Attractions (Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas) came together in mid-1977. "Pump It Up" is from 1978 and "Oliver's Army" (February 1979) reached number two in the United Kingdom, his biggest British hit; its lyric alludes to sending young soldiers into armed conflicts and was written after a trip to Belfast. His version of Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" was released in November 1978 as the B-side of Lowe's single "American Squirm" and was included on the American edition of "Armed Forces" (1979); it was never an A-side and never charted as a single. Among his excursions outside rock: "Almost Blue" (1981), a record of country covers; "The Juliet Letters" (1993) with the Brodsky Quartet; "Painted from Memory" (1998) with Burt Bacharach; "The River in Reverse" (2006) with Allen Toussaint; and "Wise Up Ghost" (2013) with The Roots. He co-wrote more than a dozen songs with Paul McCartney. "Il Sogno" (2004), a ballet commissioned by the Italian company Aterballetto and based on "A Midsummer Night's Dream", was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and spent fourteen weeks at the top of Billboard's contemporary classical chart; a chamber opera commissioned by the Royal Danish Opera was left unfinished. In 1999 he recorded "She" for the soundtrack of "Notting Hill": the music is by Charles Aznavour and the English lyric by Herbert Kretzmer, written in 1974. Costello's version reached number nineteen in the United Kingdom — his first British top twenty in sixteen years — and did not enter the Billboard Hot 100. He has been married to jazz pianist Diana Krall since 2003. Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Playbill, Deutsche Grammophon, Wikipedia and other coverage.