Biography of Elvis Costello

The great impostor

August 25, 1954
Declan Patrick MacManus is the real name of Elvis Costello, born on 25 August 1954 in London, at a hospital in Paddington. Great British songwriter, composer and guitarist, began his career under the punk, towards the end of the ' 70, and then develop a musical style very special, very unique and difficult to imitate. It moves and it is always moved between rock, folk, country and pop, with slight forays into jazz sound, especially in terms of vocal. Calling themselves "Imposter" he always escaped the cataloguing of genre, which benefited his career and its numerous changes of style. It owes its nickname to Elvis Presley, of course, and her grandmother, of Italian descent.
Since 2003 he is married to jazz singer Diana Krall, with whom he had twin sons. It grows in the wake of the music, the little Declan. Her father is Ronald "Ross" MacManus, trumpeter in turn, with a background in "Joe Loss Band". Also, as a solo artist, under the name Day Costello, also has a version of the Beatles ' song "The Long and Winding Road", dated 1970, completely in Italian, entitled "the long road". His wife, the mother of little Declan, Lillian MacManus, owner of a record store. After moving in, the couple decides to separate, exactly when the future Elvis attends the Hounslow High School. The boy follows his mother and at the age of sixteen, she moved to Liverpool, where he graduated. By parents, Declan learned the love of pop and music in General. Listen to everything, including classical music and jazz record shop supplies, strong mother. A passion in the voice of Frank Sinatra, but his first real album is "Please, Please Me" by the Beatles. It is dated 1970 his first release as a duo, with Allan Mayes, appearing on stage in front of an audience under the name "Rusty".
Does not last long though, the experience as a duo and, in 1974, the future Costello moves to Stag Lane, Roehampton, with Mick Kent and Malcolm Dennis, with whom he shares a strong passion for artists like Bob Dylan and bands like the Beach Boys. With his chums, Declan brings to life the band of Flip City, which gets a good response in urban areas but not last up to a year. Declan becomes a solo artist, under the name DP Costello, in honour of the paternal grandmother, as said. The music is also associated with a more lucrative job, having to take care of a wife and a son, already paying business as clerk for Elizabeth Arden. At the end of 1976, Declan reads an ad from the independent label Stiff Records, which require unreleased demo.
Jack Riveria, label, sniffs the worshipper's talent, by agreeing to act as managers, and urges him to find a whole new name: Elvis Costello. For him, the Stiff studio provides a band of session men Americans, the Clovers. There is a gap between him and the band, but the melodic talent of Costello and his sharp tongue already are revealed in songs like "Less than zero", "Red shoes" and "Alison," remains one of his most beloved ballads. On 27 May 1977, at London's Nashville, Elvis Costello holds its first concert, which is enjoyed by the public, come there mainly to see the Rumour, open, just, from future rocker. The Stiff Records just this unique feedback: just missing a band suited to support the London-based singer-songwriter.
In July 1977 debut the Attractions of Elvis Costello. And in the same year, comes the debut album, "My aim is true", well guided by veteran musician Nick Lowe and the enlistment of a band "made to measure", composed by Steve Nieve on piano, Bruce Thomas on bass and Pete Thomas on drums. Costello turns out-and confirms, for those few that have enjoyed above-one of the most interesting discoveries of the season despite a musical genre that has much in common with the newest currents of British punk in 1977 genre almost on the crest of a wave. "My Aim Is True" gets good reviews, climbing the uk charts with "Watching The Detectives". Costello, however, does not stop, she wants to go to the u.s. to promote his music and engaging from some managers of Cbs, to London to look for new talent. In 1978 released "This Year's Model", another very interesting, which confirms the evolution of London artist, engaged in greening the Repertoire beat years ' 60, in the wake of the Stones and the Kinks. The publication is the Radar, the new label founded by the same musician.
In the same year, after a u.s. tour, at the end of a concert in Los Angeles, Costello falls in love with the model Bebe Buell and leaves his wife, Mary. The report, however, such scandals and paparazzi miscellaneous, doesn't last very long. The mix of kinds of "Armed Forces", published in 1979, it should be even more to Costello, that with this new album expands their own sound and enters the top 10. In the meantime, the single "Radio Radio", banned in the United States, depopulated in England. In the course of 1979, Costello and the Attractions are on tour, between Europe and the USA. Elvis, prey to emotional problems with Buell and more drunk than usual, after a gig at the Holiday Inn, in Ohio, lashes out in a furious brawl with the entourage of Stephen Stills. It is, perhaps unfairly, accused of racism by the newspapers, especially for his reaction against American black artists and is forced to a public apology.
With the record of 1980, "Gappy" addresses issues less angry and dispenses his arrangements. However, in the us following the fight with Stills, continues the ostracism against him, and the disc, unlike the England (where it enters the top 10), nothing is pretty much considered. "Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers" was released in 1980 and is the first intelligent anthology to Costello, containing unreleased bootleg as well as interesting rewrites of old hits. The following year released "In Trust", which brings together two different sound, half soul Bo Diddley and half rock and roll, with echoes of punk button. Enter of England, however no wow fans. In the same year, 1981, Costello part with his band for "English Mud Tour", but it's just an "excuse" to stop in the United States, to Nashville, to record some cover country with producer Billy Sherrill. Is the processing of "Almost Blue," real thunderclap, Tennessee style.
A country lament that, even after decades, still divides listeners and fans, still undecided whether to fail him permanently or raise it for artwork. With "Imperial Bedroom" then, he started his ride towards the big hits and the success that is consecrated in this decade. The disc was released in 1982 and is considered his "Sgt Pepper". They used names like the Beatles and Cole Porter, but the album sold poorly. However, the singer-songwriter is sure of the new road taken. "Punch The Clock", the year after, is strictly pop and there are, for the first time, of horns that are not just the backdrop for his music. Among them is a certain Chet Baker that gives a memorable trumpet solo in one of his most memorable pieces, "Shipbuilding". It is the beginning of a series of prestigious and important collaborations Costello hosted, as evidenced by the record of 1989, "Spike", in which there is none other than Paul McCartney, who with four hands later, he writes another successful song "Veronica".
This leads to "The Juliet letters", 1993, made with strings of the Brodsky Quartet. It's "Chamber pop", as will say the same, another London-based musician's artistic tipping Costello. Come out however, even new vintage discs, so to speak, with a real return to rock and roll, as "Blood and chocolate", 1986, 1994, and "Brutal youht" "When I was cruel", dated 2002. Meanwhile he also wrote songs for artists such as Roger McGuinn, Johnny Cash and, after a few years, Solomon Burke, collaborating with artists as diverse as the jazz musician Bill Frisell and the mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, until the orchestra of Charles Mingus and the legendary Burt Bacharach. With the latter, in 1998, Costello recorded disc "Painted from memory", great album. "She", a song by Charles Aznavour revived his way, becomes the soundtrack of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts in comedy "Notting Hill", contributing greatly to the popularity of the British artist. Having fished Italian repertoire also tracks including the singer Mina, accounts for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon album of ballads, entitled "North", which confirms its overwhelming diversity: this happens exactly in 2003.
During this year, especially important for him, Diana Krall, Canadian jazz singer bride. Three years later, he released the live double album entitled "My flame burns blue", recorded with a Dutch ensemble, which follows a project together with the American composer Allen Toussaint, entitled "The river in reverse". In 2008 back to rock and roll, with "Momofuku", together with his new band, "The imposters". But it's only a brief foray, as confirmed by the subsequent "Secret, profane & sugarcane", another tribute to American folk and country music. Increasingly eclectic, the former bad boy English given to Tv and America leads a television talk show entitled "Spectacle: Elvis Costello with ...," highly praised by the critics. In this album, following "National ransom" of 2010, sequel to the previous one and always recorded in the now "his" Nashville.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.