Elvis Costello

I like intelligent song-writers who like to play with words and tease out extra meanings, puns, double entendres and rhyme. I like the skilled use of alliteration. I like clever poetic imagery and acerbic observation. I like my music to have a social observation and political edge. So it’s no wonder that Elvis Costello is one of my favourite song-writers. He is one of the best. Few do it better and nobody does it the way he does.

Every now and then you hear a track on the radio that makes you sit up and take note. It is distinctive. It heralds a new sound. I can clearly remember hearing Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Hey Joe’ for the first time. It sent shivers through me. Elvis’ ‘Watching the Detectives’ was like that. Something different had been born.

Now there’s a whole wealth of Rock Music and everything has passed into common, everyday familiarity. Young people are exposed to the full spectrum. I can’t imagine they experience those moments the same. But to suddenly find yourself in a world where this new thing – Elvis Costello – was unleashed was exciting.

We have Stiff Records to thank for Elvis and a host of others. They specialised in taking people on board that no other company would touch with a robotic arm. Their motto ‘Undertakers for the Business’ and ‘If it ain’t Stiff it ain’t worth a Fuck’ illustrated the point. To think if they had not come up with that great studio sound, blending the Punk and New Wave energy to good crisp production and musical integrity we might not have had Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric, Nick Lowe or Elvis Costello. We have a lot to thank Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera for.

Once Elvis was released there was no stopping him. Those first few albums and singles were full of the high-octane rocket fuel of Elvis’s Punk fury. He was pumped up and there was no way he was going to Chelsea with Alison no matter what lipstick she thought was in vogue. If they tried to put him in the goon squad in Olivers Army there was no telling what accidents might happen. But you could not shackle Elvis to a style or fashion. His tastes were many, his thoughts expansive, and his talent liked digging around all over the place.

Over the years we’ve seen him delve into Soul, R&B, Reggae, acoustic and Country much to the dismay of some of his puritan fans and bemusement of critics. What does not change though is the quality and passion. Elvis always has something to say, a neat way of singing it and a roving eye. On the face of it there’s little in common between the early Punk-fuelled ‘Pump it up’ and the later beautiful paean to the folly of the Falklands war ‘Ship Building’. The common factor is Elvis’s skill as a song-writer and performer.

None of the Punks, with all their fury and bile, managed to write as vitriolic an expose of Margaret Thatcher’s hypocrisy as Elvis did with ‘Tramp the dirt down’ with its bittersweet juxtaposition of lyrics soaked in super-corrosive oleum and the hauntingly beautiful music.

Elvis likes variety. His mind flits. His styles are multitudinous. He loves those delicate songs of Burt Bacharach and Allen Toussaint and does them well yet when he finds a cause that stirs his sensibilities he is capable of the most amazing passion as with ‘Let him dangle’.

He’s a man of many dimensions; complex and enthralling. The albums and years have rolled past, sometimes the albums are a little patchy but there is always something to catch the ear and engage the brain. Elvis remains one of the greats. A song-writer extraordinaire.