"While you lie in the dark, afraid to breathe and you beg and you promise And you bargain and you plead Sometimes you confuse me with Santa Claus Its the big white beard I suppose. Im going up to the pole, where you folks die of cold I might be gone for a while if you need me."
Declan Patrick MacManus, known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to Rolling Stone, Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison with the raw energy and sass that were principal ethics of punk", noting the "construction of his songs, which set densely layered wordplay i
"I cant actually play any instrument properly. I cant read music. And heres the New York Times calling me the new George Gershwin. It was so ridiculous, really embarrassing. It was embarrassing to watch these people fall into the trap of their own critical conceits."
Elvis Costello"When the media attention switches away from this story onto the next thing that happens in the world, the circumstances will still be there."
Elvis Costello"Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rocknroll, but it was already a little past rocknroll when I started listening and making my own choices about music. Ive been lucky to listen to lots of different types of music."
Elvis Costello"The people with the most resources are the federal government. If you can invade a country halfway across the world in a matter of days, you can surely come to the aid of your own citizens in a shorter order of time."
Elvis Costello"I had a lot of problems with my name … my first name Declan is really not very well known outside of Ireland, MacManus is a name they could never spell ... if you think about the names of 76, 77 … I got off kind of lightly — with a name you could live with, you know, in time. … I kind of liked the dare of it. Of course we werent to know that within a month of my first album actually being issued Elvis Presley would die, and it would actually be a talking point. … Let me put it this way — people dont forget you with that name. Its sort of receded as — and this may sound terribly disrespectful and heretical — but as Elvis Presley has receded as a musical force, people make much less of a case about it. Elvis is a sort of cultural figure but there is no direct line between the music of Elvis Presley and the music of today. There is none whatsoever, hes no influence whatsoever, that I can detect, on music made today. Other than people who consciously retro in styling themselves after his ideas. There is no direct impact in the way that you can hear the influence of The Beatles or Stevie Wonder or numerous other people."
Elvis Costello"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking theres maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence."
Elvis Costello