Have you read this book?
Elvis is King. That’s the message he inserted oh-so-cleverly over and over on the cover of his first album. Of course, there was that other Elvis too, but Costello burst on the music scene full of himself and full of potential. His uber-catchy songs and stunning way with lyrics made him famous and infamous overnight and his fame took off despite his occasional efforts to derail that train. This book details his early years and rise to fame as well as many of the things that he did to mystify and sometimes alienate his listeners from then on, as well as his loves and likes along the way.
He is one of the most talented singer-songwriters ever. There, I said it. He’s made a few mistakes in his life and in his music choices, but overall the depth and breadth of his amazing career is matched by very few. This book tackles both the life and the music chronologically, and unfortunately ends too soon in the early 00’s with the somewhat forgetable North album. But each album from My Aim Is True up through North is discussed and matched with the corresponding events in his personal life (along with his bands and backup musicians). Sometimes the life part goes a little light but there is still insight into the personality and into the music.
In short, not a perfect book for EC fanatics but still a very good one and well worth reading.
From the amazon.com review:
Elvis Costello is undoubtedly one of the most important and challenging musicians of the last thirty years. Complicated Shadows paints a detailed portrait of an intensely private, complex, and creatively restless individual. It draws on a wealth of new research, including exclusive interviews with people from all stages of Costello’s life and career: classmates, friends, members of his early bands, former lovers, members of the Attractions, producers, and various collaborators. Complicated Shadows unearths many previously unknown details about Costello’s childhood in London and Liverpool and his early years as a struggling musician, as well as his turbulent personal life. It also reveals the circumstances surrounding his marriages to ex-Pogues bassist Cait O’Riordan and jazz singer Diana Krall, and the bitter breakup of his longtime backing band, the Attractions. Complicated Shadows contains a full examination and analysis of the entirety of Costello’s vast and varied musical output, both in the studio and on the stage.
And from Publisher’s Weekly:
The progeny of a trumpet player grandfather and a big band vocalist father, Costello was destined to be a star musician by osmosis, if not genetics. Born Declan Patrick MacManus in 1954, the future Buddy Holly clone was raised by a West London family understandably supportive of his early rock leanings. Though “gawky and comically knock-kneed,” the young Brit was performing in Liverpool clubs by 18, honing his anti-establishment persona by 22 and on the verge of conquering America by 25-a lightning fast rise deftly recorded by freelance journalist Thomson. A knowledgeable critic, Thomson skillfully interweaves articulate criticism of Costello’s musical evolution into his biographical narrative, and unsentimentally details the thrice-married lyricist’s dips into infidelity, drug use and egomania (including the artist’s infamous song switcheroo on Saturday Night Live in 1977 and his unceremonious firing of his back-up band, the Attractions, in 1987). And while Thomson assumes that readers will have a certain familiarity with the composer’s oeuvre and influences, he also writes clearly enough for Costello novices. And he’s not without a sense of humor; while discussing the heyday of glam rock, he explains that Elvis wasn’t a believer because he had “neither the physique nor the eyelashes for that.” In all, this is an engrossing and lively account of an equally animated personality.
Have you read it? Do you have an opinion? Are you Elvis’ gardener? Leave a comment below.
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