Born in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington in London, Costello is the son of trumpeter, vocalist and band-leader Ronald (“Ross”) MacManus and record store manager Lillian Costello. His family had roots in Merseyside and he moved to Birkenhead at age 16, with his mother, when his parents separated. While he is better known as 'Elvis Costello', a stage name referring to the legendary Elvis Presley suggested by Stiff Records manager Jake Riviera, he has used many other aliases, including 'The Imposter' and 'Napoleon Dynamite'.
In the early 1970s Costello was a participant in London's pub rock scene with the group Flip City. Then in 1977 along with fellow Pub-Rockers Nick Lowe and Ian Dury he made his first releases on the independent label Stiff, tailoring his work towards the burgeoning punk, power pop, and new wave scenes. From 1980's Armed Forces onwards, however, other influences including soul, country, 1960s pop, and classical music began to re-emerge, and he soon became established as a unique and original voice. His output has been wildly diverse: one critic has written that "Costello, the pop encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image".
His prolific and varied 30-year career has been marked by two constants: sharp songwriting and musical restlessness. The latter has seen him dabble in almost every musical form, from country to jazz to orchestral. This stems from the fact that, at heart, Costello is a fan. His desire to work with his musical heroes has attracted collaborators as diverse as Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Allen Toussaint, Aimee Mann, Bill Frisell, and Brian Eno.
But his most successful partners were his long-term band The Attractions. They comprised Steve Nieve (keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums) and Bruce Thomas (bass). Between 1978 and 1983, this outfit produced a peerless series of albums: This Year's Model; Armed Forces; Get Happy!!; Almost Blue; Trust; Imperial Bedroom and Punch the Clock.
These recordings drew on styles spanning soul, country and western and commercial pop. It was only with 1984's Goodbye Cruel World that Costello started to stumble. An album he concedes was one of his worst, it ushered in a period which produced interesting music but lacked the consistent quality of his halcyon days. Interestingly, although he enlisted the other Elvis's band for King of America in 1986, it was a reunion with The Attractions and former producer Nick Lowe that produced his best album of the late 1980s in the form of the scabrous Blood and Chocolate.
The following albums, Spike and Mighty Like a Rose were uncompromising and difficult solo works, as was the string quartet collaboration The Juliet Letters in 1993. It was only reconvening the Attractions for Brutal Youth the following year that gave his fans another glimpse of what first attracted them to him: punchy, angry pop songs, tightly played by an impeccably taut ensemble.
Since then, Costello has become a career dilettante, true to his inner musical quest, but never again returning to heights he scaled in the early 1980s. Maybe the best work of this latter period was 1998's Painted from Memory. This joint effort with Burt Bacharach matched restrained writing from Costello with stately Bacharach arrangements.
Subsequent career nadirs such as the tune-free North (2003), and instrumental orchestral works such as Il Sogno (2004) led many long-term admirers to conclude that Costello had retained his integrity at the expense of his real musical strengths. However, he has given occasional evidence of his former fire. The ballsy bar-room atmosphere of the collaborative The Delivery Man (2004), suggests that he is still capable of giving his fans what they want, in between his more esoteric experiments.
Elvis is married to jazz vocalist Diana Krall and they have twin sons.
*Upon the film's release, it was noted that the name "Napoleon Dynamite" had originally been used by musician Elvis Costello, most visibly on his 1986 album Blood and Chocolate, although he had used the pseudonym on a single B-side as early as 1982. Filmmaker Jared Hess claims that he was not aware of Costello's use of the name until two days before the end of shooting, when he was informed by a teenage extra. He later said, "Had I known that name was used by anybody else prior to shooting the whole film, it definitely would have been changed ... I listen to hip-hop, dude. It's a pretty embarrassing coincidence." Hess claims that "Napoleon Dynamite" was the name of a man he met around the year 2000 on the streets of Cicero, Illinois while doing missionary work for the Mormon Church.
Costello believes that Hess stole the name: "The guy just denies completely that I made the name up... but I invented it. Maybe somebody told him the name and he truly feels that he came about it by chance. But it's two words that you're never going to hear together." To date, Costello has taken no legal action against the film.
Elvis Costello and Elton John to Make a Television 'Spectacle'
Two of the most respected musicians in the world will collaborate on an extraordinary new television series.
"Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." is hosted by its namesake and produced in conjunction with Sir Elton John's Rocket Pictures. Elton John will be one of the program's Executive Producers.
The series begain airing in 2008 on CTV in Canada, Channel 4 in the UK and Sundance Channel in the US. FremantleMedia Enterprises, will handle sales of the show to the rest of the world.
Conceived to provide a forum for in-depth discussion and performance with the most interesting and influential artists and personalities of our time, the show fuses the best of talk and music television.
"Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." is an unpredictable and unprecedented television experience. The series of 13 one-hour programs features everything from intimate one-on-ones with legendary performers and notable newcomers to thematic panel discussions, with a variety of performance elements including unique collaborations, acoustic and impromptu "illustrative" demonstrations of the creative process, and some original interpretations of others' songs by Costello.
Satellite
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
She's madly excited now, she throws her hands up like a tulip
She looks like an illustration of a cocktail party
Where cartoon bubbles burst in the air,
Champagne rolls off her tongue like a second language
And it should have been her biggest night
The satellite looks down on her as she begins to cry
[Chorus:]
All over the world at the very same time people sharing the same sorrow
As the satellite looks down her darkest hour is somebody's bright tomorrow
He pulled on a cigarette, in the crook of his first finger
Felt the static electric charge of her perfect hour-glass figure
As he undressed her with his eyes her weakness was his talent
How could she know as she stepped through the lights, that her dress would become
Transparent
And with his face pressed to the screen,
He muttered words he'd never dare to say if she could see him
All over the world at the very same time
People sharing the same cheap sensation the
Thrill of watching somebody watching those
Forbidden things we never mention
[Chorus]
The satellite looks down right now and forever
What it has pulled apart let no man tether his own body to his dream,
His dream to someone else
Oh no, oh no.
She went back to a pitiful compromise, he'd go back to his family
But for the matter of a thousand miles that separated them entirely
In the hot unloving spotlight, with secrets it arouses
Now they both know what it's like inside a pornographer's trousers
And in a funny way it's anonymous, the satellite
It blesses us and makes these dreams come
True...all over the world
[Chorus]
The lyrics of Elvis Costello's Satellite depict two different characters in two different situations, both being observed by a satellite. The first character is a woman who appears to be at a cocktail party or some similar social event. She seems to be happy and excited, but suddenly breaks down and cries. The second character is a man who is watching a woman undress through a screen. He is fascinated by her and indulges in his forbidden fantasies.
The song highlights the fact that no matter how different people's situations may be, they can still share common experiences and emotions. The satellite provides a metaphorical lens through which we can see that people all over the world are connected in ways we might not have imagined. They experience joy, sorrow, and even forbidden pleasures, but all of these emotions are hidden from the world, except for the watchful eye of the satellite.
The chorus of the song is particularly poignant as it states, "All over the world at the very same time, people sharing the same sorrow. As the satellite looks down her darkest hour is somebody's bright tomorrow." It suggests that while we may be separated by vast distances, we are still all the same in the end.
Line by Line Meaning
She looked like she learned to dance from a series of still pictures
Her movements seemed robotic and rehearsed, like she had learned to dance from a set of still photographs rather than experiencing it organically.
She's madly excited now, she throws her hands up like a tulip
Despite her stiff dancing, she is now overly excited and expressive, with a hand gesture evocative of a tulip blossoming.
She looks like an illustration of a cocktail party
Her appearance is that of a stereotypical party-goer, with cartoonish speech bubbles representing her champagne speech and bubbly personality.
Where cartoon bubbles burst in the air,
Champagne rolls off her tongue like a second language
She is depicted as speaking in exaggerated, bubbly speech that matches her party demeanor.
And it should have been her biggest night
The satellite looks down on her as she begins to cry
Despite the grandeur of the evening (arguably the biggest of her life), reality catches up to her and she weeps, highlighted by the satellite that monitors her location from above.
All over the world at the very same time people sharing the same sorrow
As the satellite looks down her darkest hour is somebody's bright tomorrow
Despite the privacy of her tears, there are others around the globe who are experiencing the same pain. Moreover, the satellite that looms above her at her moment of grief might be a beacon of hope and success for someone else elsewhere.
He pulled on a cigarette, in the crook of his first finger
He lights up a cigarette using his first finger and thumb, holding it close to his face.
Felt the static electric charge of her perfect hour-glass figure
As he looks at her, he feels a chill from her ideally proportionate body shape.
As he undressed her with his eyes her weakness was his talent
As he scrutinizes her appearance, he finds flaws he can exploit in his pursuit of power over her.
How could she know as she stepped through the lights, that her dress would become
Transparent
Without her knowing it, her dress has become see-through as she walks past the light, making her more vulnerable to onlookers.
And with his face pressed to the screen,
He muttered words he'd never dare to say if she could see him
He takes advantage of technology to scrutinize her appearance up close, muttering words he would never say to her face.
All over the world at the very same time
People sharing the same cheap sensation the
Thrill of watching somebody watching those
Forbidden things we never mention
There are people around the world sharing this same voyeuristic, secretive pleasure of watching others engage in taboo activity.
The satellite looks down right now and forever
What it has pulled apart let no man tether his own body to his dream,
His dream to someone else
The satellite acts as a monitor above us all, free from the tether of man's dreams and desires. We should not allow our dreams to be defined by someone else.
She went back to a pitiful compromise, he'd go back to his family
But for the matter of a thousand miles that separated them entirely
After their illicit relations, she returns to a sad compromise in her non-romantic life as he goes back to his family. Despite their connection, the physical separation between them is vast.
In the hot unloving spotlight, with secrets it arouses
Now they both know what it's like inside a pornographer's trousers
And in a funny way it's anonymous, the satellite
It blesses us and makes these dreams come
True...all over the world
Their affair was fleeting and unsatisfactory, resembling something that might happen in a porn film. Despite this, their private moment is not truly anonymous due to the ever-presence of the satellite. The satellite inspires and perpetuates these voyeuristic fantasies around the world.
Chorus:
The recurring refrain of the song emphasizes that despite differences in culture and environment, people around the world are united by their similar, often taboo desires and accompanying feelings of loneliness and sorrow.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind