My love for music extends to the written word. I haven’t counted them up but I do have a substantial number of biographies about musicians and bands….its certainly into the many hundreds and it grows by the year as I have a rule of thumb never to toss away any book, even if I don’t like it.
I got a pleasant surprise from Santa this year, courtesy of Cullen Skink, a friend who was an occasional contributor to the old blog. He gave me a copy of Complicated Shadows : The Life and Times of Elvis Costello, originally published in 2004. The book is the work of Graeme Thomson, one of the most prolific contributors about music and culture to newspapers and magazines here in the UK as well as the author of a number of bios with Johnny Cash, Kate Bush and George Harrison among those he has covered in addition to the man originally named Declan McManus.
It is a cracking read – for once the promo blurb on the cover got it spot on with its description being ‘meticulously researched and fluently told’. It is the work of someone who clearly very much admires and respects the singer but at the same time who pulls no punches in terms of offering a critique of some of the music that EC has released, nor does it shy away from behaviours or incidents showing the singer in a less than flattering light. One review at the time of its issues said “As believable and fair a picture of the man himself as I suspect is actually possible. He’ll not like it though.”
It again brought home just how diverse a career Elvis Costello has enjoyed over such an extended period of time. The reader is left with a clear impression of a man who is determined not to be pigeon-holed in any shape or form and who has such incredible self-confidence that he feels no form of music is beyond him. And for the most part, he’s been proven to be right and time and time again he’s defied those who have written him off with some sort of masterpiece coming on the back of some lesser well-received recordings.
If you’re a fan of Elvis Costello but haven’t got round to reading it then I recommend it highly. Equally, if you’re someone who likes biographies of famous folk, musicians or otherwise, then I can also recommend this as an entertaining and enlightening read.
Four songs today, lifted from a 1989 EP centred around a song lifted from his then new LP Spike and co-written with his then partner Cait O’Riordan, former bassist with The Pogues, but containing three other ballads from various points in his back catalogue:
mp3 : Elvis Costello – Baby Plays Around
mp3 : Elvis Costello – Poisoned Rose
mp3 : Elvis Costello – Almost Blue
mp3 : Elvis Costello – My Funny Valentine
Enjoy
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
You’ve probably read it already, but if you like music biogs I can highly recommend Still Suitable For Miners, Andrew Collins’ excellent biog of Billy Bragg.
Martin…..I fully agree….one of the very best.
As is Bill Drummond’s ’45’ and David Nolan’s ‘You’re Entitled To An Opinion’ on the life and times of the late Tony Wilson. Not forgetting ‘Falling and Laughing’ in which Grace Maxwell tells the harrowing but ultimately happy story of how her husband, Edwyn Collins, fought back from death’s door on more than one occasion.
I did some reviews over on the old blog and I’m going to dig them out, if I can, in the coming weeks and months as well as add a few others.
What a great EP – four top tracks
On everyone’s recommendation I just checked ‘Complicated Shadows’ out of the library. Must say I am a bit apprehensive, though, because I suspect that I also might not like the “believable picture of the man” it contains. I really enjoyed the musical performance on EC’s ‘Spectacle’ tv show, but was surprised at how useless he was as an interviewer — he couldn’t sustain a conversation even aided by cue cards. Never meet your idols, they say. Oh well, only one way to find out…