10.15.2009
THE ELVIS LETTERS
Aldus Santos tweets Costello!
In early July, I bought myself a ticket to catch Elvis Costello’s Singapore show on October 5 (talk about fanhood: two full months ahead). More than being this generation’s Bob Dylan—or being rock’s hyper-literate Cole Porter—Costello continues to exhibit a musical lexicon that spans genres and trends. A seminal British punk figure, Costello has since gone on to more adventurous terrain (country on Almost Blue, violin music on The Juliet Letters, jazz instrumentation on The Sweetest Punch, and, more recently, bluegrass via Secret, Profane and Sugarcane). It’s a shame he’s sometimes caricaturized as the guy who sang “She” on Notting Hill, or the guy who appeared on Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, crooning “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.” What follows below is my successive two-month-long commentary on the guy’s career, a sort of running journal of me prepping for the big show at the Esplanade. After all, if you’re going to spend your days following only one musician’s career, Declan MacManus (Mr. Costello) is the grandest bet you’ve got.
Listening to Elvis Costello’s album “North.” It’s for his wife, Diana Krall. This is purging me of the agitation brought about by NIN. 12:23 PM Aug 12th from web
This morning it was “The Juliet Letters” by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet. 10:31 AM Aug 13th from web
@armycraeg was finally able to book a flight. Hello, Declan Patrick MacManus! We love you! 2:27 PM Aug 13th from web
armycraeg @Aldusmanok And he loves us back! Glad that we’re on the *same flight*. Ooh, me-ta-phor… Aug 14th from web in reply to Aldusmanok
@armycraeg How are the reviews on Tiger? No complaints?:) 11:18 AM Aug 14th from web in reply to armycraeg
‘Welcome to the Working Week’ should have given Costello the workmanlike stature they gave Springsteen, who is so not “The Boss” in my book. 2:10 PM Aug 18th from web
Debut albums like 1977’s “My Aim is True” make me seriously entertain the idea of extraterrestrials. 2:35 PM Aug 18th from web
discosixsixsix @Aldusmanok I have the same sentiments about “Marque Moon,” actually. Aug 18th from web in reply to Aldusmanok
@discosixsixsix And thank you for turning me into a “Marquee Moon” worshipper! 3:25 PM Aug 18th from web in reply to discosixsixsix
There’s a reason The Clover was an uncredited backing band: they were too soft. The Attractions were too (boisterously) talented to ignore. 3:28 PM Aug 18th from web
Hi all. I’ve just started a running commentary on everything Elvis Costello. It’s for a “concept article,” so do butt in anytime. 3:30 PM Aug 18th from web
discosixsixsix @Aldusmanok Proud to be born in ’77, haha! Aug 18th from web in reply to Aldusmanok
@discosixsixsix Elvis (Presley) died for you, J.:p 3:46 PM Aug 18th from web in reply to discosixsixsix
“Alison, I know this world is killing you.” 5:02 PM Aug 18th from web
1978’s “This Year’s Model” still has strains of RnB, but backed by a superior band: The Attractions. ‘Little Triggers’ an early masterpiece. 11:04 AM Aug 19th from web
Elvis Costello’s “Armed Forces” (1979) was going to be called “Little Hitler,” but it didn’t happen. Trivia bits like this make me smile. 10:58 AM Aug 20th from web
I love Elvis Costello’s *effortful* voice because you know the struggle portrayed in his lyrics is, somehow, real. 11:10 AM Aug 25th from web
“Get Happy!!” (1980) wasn’t disappointing, but it was no “Armed Forces.” It was Elvis trying to be soul, and succeeding only *moderately*. 10:51 AM Aug 26th from web
Who’s the most exciting ‘80s-era lyricist for you? I vote Elvis and Stipe. 10:53 AM Aug 26th from web
E.C. paraphrase: “I’m different from the majority of songwriters bec. I don’t settle for a sloppy phrase when I know it can be improved.” 1:53 PM Aug 26th from web
Just got every single ‘Little Boxes’ rendition I could find. So far, Elvis Costello—on top. Wut. Up. 11:23 AM Aug 27th from web by wearebiology
@wearebiology Send me E.C.’s!:) 11:23 AM Aug 27th from web in reply to wearebiology
wearebiology @Aldusmanok, Yo sure what’s your e-mail? I’ll send this 1-minute masterpiece to you. Aug 27th from web
wearebiology @Aldusmanok Sent mi amigo! Enjoy! Aug 27th from web
@wearebiology DM’d you; thanks!:) 11:35 AM Aug 27th from web in reply to wearebiology
B-side break in between albums: E.C.’s rendition of ‘Little Boxes’ is the shit! He still sounds poignant despite the sunshine. 12:34 PM Aug 27th from web
‘Little Boxes’ is, at its core, a political song coated in honey. I’m sure Pete Seeger messed it up in 1963. Now it’s the theme for “Weeds.” 12:36 PM Aug 27th from web
@sondreofficial may be the closest thing we have to E.C. in this age. 8:54 AM Aug 28th from web
‘New Lace Sleeves’ cleverness: “Good manners and bad breath get you nowhere.” 4:16 PM Aug 28th from web
RIP Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc. Sadness, alarm, sadness. 12:13 PM Sep 2nd from web
“Why don’t you steal what you can keep?” 12:14 PM Sep 2nd from web
“Trust” and “Almost Blue”: *two* Elvis Costello albums in 1981. Who is he, Perry Como? 8:59 AM Sep 3rd from web
“Almost Blue” turned out to be a *country* album. Surprise (2x)! To borrow a @jimgaffigan joke: it’s like finding out she’s really a *dude*. 1:43 PM Sep 3rd from web
Funny: snare sound *always* gives the era away, e.g., “Imperial Bedroom” from 1982. Costello rises above the drum cheese, though. 12:04 PM Sep 11th from web
I guess @sondreofficial’s cover of ‘Human Hands’ is both a tribute and an admission. He’s on the right track. 12:06 PM Sep 11th from web
E.C.’s ‘Human Hands’ (also from “Imperial Bedroom”) has that ska tinge to it, typical of punkish acts from this era, like The Clash.12:07 PM Sep 11th from web
Deep in my heart, I will always be pissed that I *didn’t* write ‘Everyday I Write the Book.’ 1:01 PM Sep 11th from web
“All I ever wanted was to just fall into your human hands.” I will get a mild stroke if E.C. plays this the way @sondreofficial does it.3:42 PM Sep 11th from web
Skipped several years in my chronological E.C. spree, just because I wanna fast-forward to the years he’s married to Diana Krall. Sunshine! 10:04 PM Sep 14th from web
Trying to pull music-critic strings to meet Elvis Costello. Wish luck will rain today. 10:54 AM Sep 16th from web
“Secret, Profane and Sugarcane” (2009) is a bluegrass record using real-deal bluegrass practitioners. In this day and age! Yay, E.C.! 10:57 AM Sep 16th from web
I remember the anti-synth stance of the grunge-infested ‘90s. I feel sorta the same, listening now to E.C.’s “Blood and Chocolate” (1986). 10:19 AM Sep 17th from web
There will always be, however, a big-band classicism in E.C.’s songwriting and his Cole Porter-worthy lyric-writing. 10:21 AM Sep 17th from web
I wish people spent more time *revising* lyrics rather than romanticizing the charm of *spontaneity*. 10:22 AM Sep 17th from web
I take it back. Costello’s “Blood and Chocolate” is masterly, despite the ‘80s reverb. 9:09 AM Sep 18th from web
I imagine old artists treating their ‘80s discography like a checkered patch of history, like how some people see the time they sold AmWay. 9:12 AM Sep 18th from web
It shook for, like, 15 seconds. My desk trembled like Ian Curtis. Scary earthquake-y shit. 2:09 PM Sep 18th from web
I’m sorry if that was insensitive to Mr. Curtis’s fans. Edit: “...like Elvis Costello’s faulty falsetto in ‘God Give Me Strength’.” 2:22 PM Sep 18th from web
“I was a fine idea at the time; now I’m a brilliant mistake.” In some songs in “King of America,” E.C. sounds like a brilliant sore throat. 12:08 AM Sep 23rd from web
“King of America” wasn’t so much a piece of musical Americana as the old reviews claimed. It was more an epistle addressed to America. 12:10 AM Sep 23rd from web
E.C., before he had his own show [“Spectacle”], guest-hosted for Letterman in ‘03. He was fun: http://bit.ly/tcmxr 12:13 AM Sep 23rd from web
What was the last song that actually made you cry? I’m talking *real* tears. 11:40 AM Sep 25th from web
akosiDi @Aldusmanok ‘Wag Ka Nang Umiyak’ by Sugarfree. Sep 25th from TwitterGadget in reply to Aldusmanok
wearebiology @Aldusmanok ‘Your Winter’ by Sister Hazel. Sep 25th from web
chaii @Aldusmanok ‘Flinch’ – Alanis Morrisette. Sep 25th from web in reply to Aldusmanok
bluellite @Aldusmanok Ennio Morricone’s ‘Theme From A Love Affair’ </3 Sep 25th from web in reply to Aldusmanok
tinakuting @Aldusmanok The Cure’s ‘A Letter to Elise’ made me cry recently. Sep 26th from web in reply to Aldusmanok
@chaii @wearebiology @akosiDi It was ‘My Thief’ [Elvis Costello-Burt Bacharach] for me. 4:00 PM Sep 25th from web
Back from Singapore. Elvis Costello’s 2-hour show: life-altering. Donna and @armycraeg wept like babies. Wait, I did, too. 8:41 PM Oct 6th from web
With acknowledgements to my wonderful followers over at Twitter. Also, some of the E.C. tidbits were culled from Tony Clayton-Lea’s Elvis Costello: A Biography [Fromm International, 1999].
TAGS: Elvis Costello
