Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus, better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as part of London's pub rock scene in the early 1970s and later became associated with the first wave of the British punk and new wave movement of the mid-to-late 1970s. His critically acclaimed debut album, My Aim Is True, was recorded in 1977. Shortly after recording it he formed the Attractions as his backing band. His...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth25 August 1954
CityLondon, England
There are many critics who have an idealised version of where my strengths lie.
No use wishing now for any other sin.
You think you're alone until you realize you're in it. Now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit.
It's a dangerous game that comedy plays. Sometimes it tells you the truth; sometimes it delays it.
Even in a perfect world, where everyone was equal I'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequal
Serious music usually doesn't pay.
You'll never be alone in the bone orchard.
I just got into it like a lot of people through the rock 'n' roll bands in the late '60s that turned to country music, like The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, but particularly through The Byrds because of Gram Parsons, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman (with their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo). They kind of introduced English kids to Merle Haggard and George Jones and the Louvins (brothers Charlie and Ira).
I've always felt writing a song was a bit like going on location. That's true in an almost literal sense. Where you are seeps in somehow.
I'm a working travelling musician, but just on a bigger scale.
I think when I was younger I was not very good at writing love songs that didn't have a twist.
I find humming is very useful.
Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting than that.
But there are things in Il Sogno that the methods of The Delivery Man could never achieve.