Tag Archives: Elvis Costello

#656: C is for Costello, Elvis (20/22)

20: Hello, Clockface Let’s begin with a middle easternsoundscape and a spoken-word thing, “Love is the one thing we can save;” follow that up with a trashy punk number, “I’ve got no religion/ I’vegot no philosophy;” and third, a kindof demented sounding country song. Here’s a jazz ballad, replete with a horn section and trumpetContinue reading “#656: C is for Costello, Elvis (20/22)”

#655: C is for Costello, Elvis (79/98/18)

79: Armed Forces My first Elvis Costelloand the Attractions album, Armed Forces ruled my 16 year-old world, so much so, that I can still sing alongword for word to every songon this album, except for thewords I couldn’t understand, because there were no lyricsin the liner notes, and becausesometimes, Elvis Costello mumbles. I know IContinue reading “#655: C is for Costello, Elvis (79/98/18)”

#653: C is for Costello, Elvis (A Prologue)

I have 25 Elvis Costello albumsin my CD collection. There is onlyone other artist more prominent in the shelves of compact discsthan Elvis, and that would beMr. Frank Zappa, at 36 albums, half of which are double CD’s. On the shelves of vinyl, I have the three Elvis studio recordsreleased since 2018, and threemore specialContinue reading “#653: C is for Costello, Elvis (A Prologue)”

#455: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello . . .

Day Seventeen of Sonnetpalooza finds me writing a poem about music, a thing I do from time to time, as music, it turns out, is one of the central concerns of my life–listening, making, recording, performing. Hardly a day goes by when I am not doing one of those four things at some point orContinue reading “#455: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello . . .”

Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume V, Letter Costello

It happened when I was listening to The Beatles; I couldn’t choose which record to listen to.  It happened again with The Boomtown Rats, again with Cheap Trick, and now, in my mission to listen to one cd from each artist represented in my collection in alphabetical order, I am faced with choosing a singleContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume V, Letter Costello”