Elvis CostelloReviews

One of the few audio books I've listened too recently. Greatly enjoyed hearing it in the artist's voice and accents (including his impression of Johnny Cash). I was very impressed with Costello's depth of music knowledge. The chapters are not always chronological, but are neatly fitted together for the most part. The stretches back to his grandfather's time were less entertaining for me, but not overly indulgent. Every collaboration, album, and mistake can be found here. Highly recommended for music fans.

This is a very interesting book, and particularly in those chapters in which Elvis Costello discusses, at some length, his musical forebears, to wit , his father and grandfather, but also the gloriously catholic assortment of musicians with whom he has collaborated. I was especially interested to hear (which probably says something about the way my hamster wheel of a mind operates) that the reference to the Quisling Clinic in "Green Shirt" does indeed refer to the former medical offices in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, which he saw when he played Bunky's in 1976 and stayed at the Edgewater Hotel. As Mr. Costello points out, the name "Quisling" has a different connotation for a northern European of his age, that of Vikdun Quisling, the Norwegian Nazi collaborator; indeed, the word quisling , according to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition , now means "traitor" or "collaborator." I listened to the audiobook, read by Elvis Costello himself, who does a wonderful job of reciting his own engaging prose.

I would have loved to have more about the early days and a little less about the later days.

People turn their noses up at Romeo and Juliet in that sophisticated world-weary way.

But if you consider the fact that people write to Juliet, how could you go down such a cynical path? I really don't understand. This story is about our hearts, and if you don't have one any more, I don't think you should be proud of the fact. It shouldn't earn you goodreads votes.

4.5 stars!

Unfaithful Music is just short of 700 pages long. Whew! I originally checked out the audio book from my library back in December 2015, but the loan period of only 2 weeks proved insufficient to listen to the entire book. So, I got back in line for it and it finally came back in a couple of weeks ago.

I learned a LOT from this autobiography, which is my main reason for reading or listening to them in the first place. Some, like the Patti Smith one I listened to a few months back, M Train, only allow a small peek into the day to day life of the subject. I don't like that-I want to know more.

With Elvis, I learned about what happened with that racial slur incident that everyone's heard about. I'm not sure I accept his explanation, but I learned about it. I learned that I'm not familiar with even 10% of Elvis' career. I had no idea of the range of the artists with which he's worked, either writing songs for them, collaborating on songs with them, or performing with them. His relationship with artists like Allan Touissaint runs so deep-I had no idea. His love of the Blues, (a personal love of mine), and all types of music, really, was never as evident to me as it is now. I can sum it up this way I guess, I now have a huge list of music that I want to listen to-not only Elvis', but other artists too, like the aforementioned Allan Touissaint. I also need to see his show that was on the Sundance Channel I guess, (where was I when this was on?) called Spectacle.

The one thing I knew for sure about Declan McManus, which this book only confirmed, was that the man can write. Not only songs, but this book too. His narration only served to emphasize the power of his writing. When speaking about the death of his father, I was brought to tears. Maybe it's because my father's death was eerily similar, but I think it's more because of the feeling that comes through in both Elvis' writing and in his voice. Both of which help to explain why the man's career has been so long lasting.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about Elvis' life, career and music. Yes, I do feel that it runs a bit too long, but I enjoyed it just the same. I think you will too, if you're looking to satisfy your curiosity about the man. (If Your Aim is True, so to speak. )

This book is about music. It's not about shenanigans on the road. It isn't a tell-all about band mates. There is virtually not a mention about his wives and divorces. While that sort of thing might be your thing, this book isn't that book. What it is, though, is a thorough telling of EC's development as a musician, beginning with his father, who was also a musician. He recounts getting his first guitar and the songs he liked, and whom he was most influenced by,. He discusses many of his own individual songs, how they originated. Included are many details of his many collaborations with other musicians, the ones he admires. If he had bad experiences, he doesn't mention. Costello is a gentleman in the best sense of the word. If, after being told all this, you still want to read this admittedly lengthy good, then I expect you will enjoy it as much as I did. If you're looking for tabloid reading, then there are other biographies for that.

Desperately in need of an editor, but relentlessly entertaining nevertheless. Full of glorious anecdotes about starting out as a new wave punk and writing songs with McCartney and Bacharach and appearing on stage with Dylan and Aretha and having tea with Johnny Cash and on and on. Any way you sing it, it's a life well lived.

This is quite a memoir. More about the little boy inside this man....the more I read it the more I realized that this book was a look at a person who was and still is, searching for that release of the soil inside. Costello always seemed so dry....so much made of all that was around him, and influenced by others actions. But never really having one of his own. He seems very much
like he is ready to share with the world his experiences and thoughts.

Great book for the EC fan. I've listened to 98% of everything he's done since My Aim Is True and this didn't disappoint.

Elvis Costello and the Imposters

June 16, 2006

Wolf Trap Filene Centre

Vienna, VA

MAD > CD

DISC ONE

1. Interview

2. Intro

3. 45

4. Waiting for the End of the World

5. Clubland

6. Spooky Girlfriend

7. (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea

8. Clown Strike

9. When I Was Cruel No. 2

10. I Hope You're Happy Now

11. Clowntime Is Over

12. Tart

13. All This Useless Beauty

14. Dust 2

DISC TWO (Encores)

1. 15 Petals

2. Lipstick Vogue

3. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding

4. Radio Radio

5. Alibi

6. Band Introductions/You Belong to Me

7. Pump It Up

8. Episode of Blonde

9. Uncomplicated

10. Beyond Belief

11. I Want You

Filler (from Late Show with David Letterman, 04/23/02):

12. Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution)

13. Interview

Notes: A couple of minor level drops at the beginning of

disc one, but only a few. No big deal.

So Elvis Costello finally gets around to writing his autobiography. Was it worth the wait? Well, sort of. Mostly. Don't get me wrong, the man can write and is at times very entertaining. But his approach here can also be very frustrating.
The structure is nominally linear, but Costello does go off on tangents which tend to derail the flow of the story. It's almost stream of consciousness at times, one story bringing to mind another and then another. So for 400 pages, give or take, we get a fairly riveting account of Costello's early years (with diversions), first musical steps and rise to a sort of pop stardom, with all the transgressions and temptations that such a lifestyle brings with it. He also delves deep into family history, especially his relationship with his father, Ross McManus, former singer with the Joe Loss Orchestra. Costello's love and respect for his father is very evident.
But by the time we get to Armed Forces and it's aftermath you realise you're almost two-thirds of the way through the book, with no sign of a "volume two" in the offing.
Consequently, and frustratingly, Costello leaves his story hanging. We get very little on the making of Get Happy!!, Trust, even Imperial Bedroom. The book starts to become more scattergun, dipping into the making of River In Reverse here, meeting his wife Diana Krall there.
The sound of names being dropped is deafening as we speed through the last 30 years of Costello's career.
In fact some of the final chapters descend into a list of "and then I wrote...." with chunks of lyrics reprinted. Costello is never less than honest, I'll give him that, and he owns up to his failings as both a husband and bandmate. But with the album "North" he seems to have shut up shop in terms of confessional songwriting and become a modern day Tin Pan Alley songwriter. This makes for a less interesting final third, apart from a very moving account of the death of his father, Ross McManus.
I don't want to sound too negative about this book, it is a very good read. But as Costello fan I would have liked some of the gaps in his story to be filled in a bit more. So it just about gets 4 stars from me.

I expect musicians would love this, but I'm not really interested in how specific sounds are made or riffs created.

Elvis Costello's memoir has done the unthinkable: It has made me less of a fan. Clearly lyrics are his strength, not a full length book. Rambling passages that jump through various subjects (and, maddeningly, time--it is a challenge situating his musings within his career history) are punctuated by single sentence paragraphs that, I suppose, are meant to be pithy. There are some gems, like the tale of how Imperial Bedroom was recorded or how an early career Geraldo Rivera followed the Attractions on tour for a story, but I wish there had been more of them. His casual womanizing, often of the mock innocent "woe is me" variety, infuriated me. At least no one can claim that the title of "unfaithful music" is unfounded.½

Those of us who grew up with the music of the late 20th century have had a lot of exposure to singer/songwriters, and we’re aware that many of them mine their own lives and emotions for song material. Because we hear their own words in their own voices, we may feel like we know these musicians as people…but we’re wrong. We know the work. We can forget that songwriters are storytellers as much as novelists or screenwriters are, and those stories aren’t necessarily revealing to us who they are as people. There may be truth in them, but it’s usually more likely to be emotional rather than factual truth, and that’s where the sense of intimacy resides. I think one reason I’m intrigued by the memoirs of musicians is that they offer more of the literal truth–that’s where the real stories are.

Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink is Elvis Costello’s autobiography–it’s not a tell-all, but it tells an awful lot. Costello’s place in the third generation of a musical family made his early years pretty interesting, while a desire to distance himself from that heritage was a factor in his choosing to start his own career under an assumed name (Costello was his mother’s maiden name, while Elvis comes from exactly the source you’d expect). He’s candid about the challenges and temptations that can confront successful young musicians, and about the fact that he didn’t always handle them well.

Costello doesn’t get into the gory details of some of the more problematic parts of his past–the breakups of his first marriage and his first band, the Attractions, for example–and that’s certainly his right, but he doesn’t gloss over them, and he owns up to the role his own failings played in them.

Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink is also a memoir of an artist and his work, in which Costello shares the stories behind many of his songs and albums. He talks about inspirations, sources, and what a particular lyric means–or, in some cases, doesn’t–and recounts the creation stories of some of his most significant albums. While he’s still best known as one of the signature artists of the post-punk/New Wave era, Costello’s musical interests are restless and eclectic, and he discusses his explorations of a variety of musical genres–country, jazz, classical, traditional pop and R&B–with some unexpected collaborators; he’s worked with everyone from Johnny Cash to Burt Bacharach to his third wife, jazz musician Diana Krall. If you’re interested in “the process," these portions of the book are particularly fascinating and satisfying.

MORE: https://3rsblog.com/2016/01/audiobook-talk-unfaithful-music-and-disappearing-ink...

This book, well at 670 pgs more of a tome, is not a quick read. Definitely a fan and was eager to learn more about the man, and this certainly covers that. It's a combination of great stories, that seem to be placed in order by the effort to catch an idea before it runs away, and a music history class. Decades of writing/performing/touring/befriending the famous and obscure alike, are well chronicled.

The memoir of Declan MacManus, better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is more of a collection of thematic essays than a birth to present memoir. Like the lyrics of his song, Costello's way with words is evident. His father Ross MacManus, a band leader and musician of some note in his own right, is central to the narrative and an influence on Costello's life and music, if not readily apparent from his punk/new wave days, but more evident in his latter days as pop/jazz/fusion collaborator. Speaking of collaboration, Costello name drops an awful lot of musicians and songwriters, although he comes by it honestly having worked with so many of them. Thankfully his stories tend towards the creative process rather than idle gossip. I can't help but feel that Costello comes of as something of jerk which is an unexpected outcome for a self-penned biography. I don't know if I should admire his self-awareness or just dislike that he's such a jerk. At any rate there are some interesting aspects of this book if you're interested in musicians or a fan of Costello, but it's a bit to long and pompous to recommend to a general audience.

I was quite late to the Elvis Costello party. In my own defense, I was too busy discovering the Beatles, everything McCartney, and the seismic music that influenced and created these highest peaks in modern music. Elvis’ path crossed mine again in the late 1980’s when Elvis and McCartney wrote several songs together that I found on the Flowers In The Dirt album. Although I stuck around Chez Costello after that, I was an indifferent wallflower at best. Soon I noticed that everywhere I found new music to admire, Elvis was already there. But not as a great performer whose stage was a pedestal that kept him out of reach. He always seemed to be next to us on the floor trying to yell over the band, “This is great!”

Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, Costello’s autobiography, defines him and leaves no argument about its accuracy. Encyclopedic, lyrical, humble, egotistical, with an ear that hears more than just music, it hears history, context, pain, and love; Elvis takes his place among the greats of music while remaining an awed fan and listener just like the rest of us. Yes, Elvis, this is great!

Costello is an engaging writer, but the book suffers from too much detail about every encounter he's ever had with other musicians and too little about his romantic relationships, which clearly are just as important to his songs as his musical influences. Still, it's impossible not to be charmed by Costello's self-deprecating humor and the love he expresses towards his father.

In an out of sequence manner, Costello tells the story of his upbringing, his ancestors, his personal demons, and most of all his music. His ability to bring back small details and incidents of his early life makes for a fascinating story of life in those times. His father, a philandering singer and sometime trumpet player, mostly as part of a big band, is clearly the most important influence, and the story keeps circling back to Costello's relationship with his father, which, despite his parents' divorce and his father's remarriage (and parenting of four more boys to add to Elvis, i.e., Declan, his lone child with his first wife) remains close. As for his own three marriages, Costello is remorseful of his infidelities to his first wife, Mary, and clearly would like to have a do-over. He provides fewer details about his second marriage to Cait, the bassist of the Irish band the Pogues, despite their having been together for (I think) 17 years. She comes across as cold and distant when she is spoken of at all--but that may be more the author's fault than he lets on. His third marriage, to jazz pianist Diana Krall, and the birth of his twin sons, is treated with incredible happiness and the feeling that, perhaps, after years of drift, he has found real stability.

The book also name-drops lots of stars, from Joni Mitchell to Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to Johnny Cash to George Jones to Loretta Lynn to Solomon Burke to Paul McCartney to Burt Bacharach to the members of his own bands to just about anybody else who had any influence on popular music in the 20th century. These encounters, some brief, some lasting friendships and collaborations, provide concise, believable portraits of some very talented people.

There is a lot more to this book. It will appeal certainly to anyone who is or has been an Elvis Costello fan, but this is a lot more than just the story of a musical life. Costello writes well, although his penchant for referencing so many semi-obscure people, songs, and places will have you resorting to Wikipedia or Google more than you would like.½

This massive 670 page missal might have been much better stringently edited. However, it's quite an amazing memoir - especially with the inclusion of many song lyrics and short stories and how they came to be. There's also an honor roll of all artists Elvis worked with as he tumbled through his many musical phases. Especially vivid are: Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Allen Touissaint, George Jones, David Bowie, the Bronsky Quartet, Chet Baker, and The Roots. He married two musicians, Cait O'Riordan from the Pogues and Dianna Krall, but doesn't seem too interested in playing music with them.

The most solid parts of the book are his vibrant relationships with his father and grandfather, both musicians. In many of the photos enhancing the story, the reader is hard pressed to know which of the three is shown. He's also the proud father of three sons, one, Matt, from his first marriage to his childhood sweetheart Mary.

The sharpness and humor and overall cynicism and love of humanity any Costello fan knows and loves is all here. "We sought a balance between Allen's (Toussaint) elegance and restraint and my desire to go directly for the throat."

5/5

Think FAST!

What will you do in this situation?

Your boyfriend of less than a year cheats on your with his random teammate and you break up with him. You're angry as hell for what he did and are quits. Then you guys meet again in thirteen years and when you survive a car crash and are able to stand on two feet, you do:

a) Curse his ass out some more because he broke your heart 13 years ago!

b) Make him regret what he passed up all those years ago and make him work his self back in your good graces. Let him redeem himself and you might call him...maybe.

c) Drop to your knees with no explanation and suck him off

Now, if you chose b, you're probably are a reader like me who doesn't mind cheaters in stories if they can redeem themselves and grovel appropriately and the ex's groveling is well written.

If you chose a, you know an ex is always a damn ex! And you don't waste your time on exes. F-ck 'em.

And if you chose c, well then do I have a M/M short story for you. It's called [b:Trust|6333724|Trust|Shawn Lane|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1236959444s/6333724.jpg|6519484]. It features a drop to his knees happy MC and his ex-boyfriend who did nothing to redeem himself or explain why he cheated those thirteen years ago. Oh and he's depressing a bit. This is the second book I've read by this author where one of the H's is a Debbie Downer.

"

Well as much as I hate to see this series come to a close, I am left completely satisfied...this ended absolutely beautifully for me and I eagerly await many rereads in my future.

Try" was my first MM and needless to say I was hooked from the start. I fell in love with these two immediately. Yes, the first book has issues for many readers...whether it be the scenes including female parts (which are few)...


...the large amounts of sex...which honestly in three books, never lets up...oh the stamina...but good gawd...these two are off the charts hot together. Throw in dirty talk, insinuating conversations, dominating behavior from both sides and genuine love and devotion and I am left...

...or better yet, it could be the arrogant controlling behavior of our dear Mr. Mitchell...


Yeah...there is no doubt that at times in "Try" you want to smack this asshole upside the head...but damn this man is awesomely depicted. He knows what he wants and what he wants is Tate. Sure you can hate him for his actions but I was mesmerized by him as much as Tate was. Little did we know the journey we would be taken on and the amazing transformation that Logan would go through at the hands of Tate. Tate is truly the perfect man to control our dear Mr. Mitchell.
Tate Overall, the series is truly Logan's story. His character growth for me was so heartfelt and beautiful. I am left forever in love with this character.
Logan

While there is some angst in the series, it is very mild and typically takes place where others (outside of this couple) are concerned. There was never a doubt of the attraction these two men have for one another.

“I’ve never been more sure of another person in all my life.”

“I love you,” he said, and as Logan looked at him, he reached for his hands. “I had no idea when you first sat down across from me that night— no idea what I’d been missing,” Tate whispered. “It was you.” Logan’s eyes started to fill with tears, and he blinked, trying to get them to stop as Tate continued to look at him as if he were his whole entire world— he hoped that was the case anyway, because it was never more apparent than in that moment that Tate was his.

While the sex is more than plentiful the undying love, emotion and trust that develops is unlike anything I have read. I am completely in love with these two and they easily have become a favorite couple of mine. "