WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.839 Imagine, if you will, a man living two completely 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:08.900 distinct lives. In one life, he is a quiet, bespectacled 00:00:08.900 --> 00:00:12.419 computer operator in 1970s London. Right. He 00:00:12.419 --> 00:00:15.199 spends his days in this deafeningly loud air 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:18.679 -conditioned room, logging data for a bank, you 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:20.980 know, worrying about making rent, going home 00:00:20.980 --> 00:00:23.620 to his wife and young child. And this man is 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:26.660 Declan Patrick McManus. Exactly. But then there's 00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:28.859 this other life. And in the other life, he is 00:00:28.859 --> 00:00:31.160 a figure who seems to have been engineered in 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:33.640 a laboratory specifically to start fights. Yeah. 00:00:33.740 --> 00:00:36.299 He operates under a name that feels like a deliberate 00:00:36.299 --> 00:00:38.960 provocation, a name that hijacked the king of 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:41.000 rock and roll and paired it with a vibe that 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:43.820 was, I don't know, equal parts gangster and stand 00:00:43.820 --> 00:00:46.399 -up comic. And that man is Elvis Costello. That's 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:48.799 him. It is a massive dichotomy. Usually when 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:51.000 we talk about rock stars on this show, we focus 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.939 on the star part. Sure, the excess, the stadiums. 00:00:53.939 --> 00:00:55.579 We talk about the private jets, the sold out 00:00:55.579 --> 00:00:58.679 stadiums, the excess. But today, we aren't just 00:00:58.679 --> 00:01:00.420 doing a greatest hits run through. We have a 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:04.120 very specific mission. We do. Our goal for this 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.459 deep dive is to deconstruct the architecture 00:01:06.459 --> 00:01:09.739 of a career that, by all conventional logic, 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:12.840 really shouldn't have worked. How so? Well. We're 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.180 looking at how a guy who looked more like a confused 00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:17.700 librarian or, I don't know, a disgruntled accountant 00:01:17.700 --> 00:01:20.760 managed to bridge the gap between the raw, spit 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:24.420 -flying energy of 1977 punk rock and the sophisticated, 00:01:24.659 --> 00:01:27.239 complex songwriting of Tin Pan Alley. And just 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:29.379 to pause there for a second, Tin Pan Alley, that's 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:31.159 a term we hear a lot, but let's just ground it 00:01:31.159 --> 00:01:32.980 for a second. Yeah. We're talking about that 00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:36.060 golden era of American songwriting, early 20th 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:38.280 century, right? Exactly. It refers to the collection 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:40.840 of music publishers and songwriters in New York 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:43.269 City who just dominated. pop music before rock 00:01:43.269 --> 00:01:45.129 and roll came along. So people like Gershwin. 00:01:45.250 --> 00:01:47.670 We're talking about George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, 00:01:48.010 --> 00:01:50.709 Cole Porter. The music was structured, it was 00:01:50.709 --> 00:01:53.629 melodic, and lyrically it was incredibly witty. 00:01:53.750 --> 00:01:56.109 Which is a far cry from the three -chord thrash 00:01:56.109 --> 00:01:58.689 of the Sex Pistols. A million miles away, and 00:01:58.689 --> 00:02:02.230 yet our subject today, Elvis Costello, somehow 00:02:02.230 --> 00:02:04.370 embodies both of those worlds simultaneously. 00:02:05.049 --> 00:02:07.189 That is the central tension we're exploring. 00:02:07.739 --> 00:02:09.840 How does one man go from sharing a stage with 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:13.020 The Clash to writing a ballet score? Or how do 00:02:13.020 --> 00:02:16.539 you pivot from being the angry young man to collaborating 00:02:16.539 --> 00:02:19.639 with Burt Bacharach? It's wild. To get to the 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:22.319 bottom of this, we are pulling from a massive 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.659 stack of sources today. We have definitive biographies, 00:02:25.819 --> 00:02:28.840 session notes from the recording studios, decades 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:32.159 of interviews, and crucially, his own incredibly 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:35.240 dense and fascinating memoir, Unfaithful Music 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:38.669 and Disappearing Ink. That memoir is a goldmine. 00:02:38.750 --> 00:02:41.289 It's not your typical sex, drugs, and rock and 00:02:41.289 --> 00:02:43.689 roll tell -all. No, not at all. It's more like 00:02:43.689 --> 00:02:46.389 a treatise on musicology written by someone who 00:02:46.389 --> 00:02:48.330 just happened to be famous. And I have to say, 00:02:48.389 --> 00:02:50.969 the sheer volume of material here is staggering. 00:02:51.310 --> 00:02:53.430 We're talking about a guy who claimed to have 00:02:53.430 --> 00:02:56.530 written hundreds of songs before his first album 00:02:56.530 --> 00:02:59.330 even dropped. Not dozens, hundreds. Hundreds. 00:02:59.409 --> 00:03:01.889 And that volume is your first clue to understanding 00:03:01.889 --> 00:03:04.229 him. As we work through this, I want you to keep 00:03:04.229 --> 00:03:06.169 an eye out for the why. The motivation behind 00:03:06.169 --> 00:03:08.830 it all. Yeah. Why the constant name changes? 00:03:08.909 --> 00:03:12.449 Why the obsession with wordplay? And why the 00:03:12.449 --> 00:03:15.530 refusal to stay in one musical lane? It's not 00:03:15.530 --> 00:03:18.229 just restlessness. It's a fundamental philosophy 00:03:18.229 --> 00:03:22.110 about what music is. So let's start at the source. 00:03:22.189 --> 00:03:24.830 To understand the why, we have to go back to 00:03:24.830 --> 00:03:27.590 the who. Back to Declan McManus. Declan McManus. 00:03:27.669 --> 00:03:31.969 And specifically, the house he grew up in. Because 00:03:31.969 --> 00:03:35.090 in the McManus household, music wasn't a hobby, 00:03:35.189 --> 00:03:37.870 was it? Far from it. In the McManus house, music 00:03:37.870 --> 00:03:40.550 was a trade. It was a job. It was blue -collar 00:03:40.550 --> 00:03:42.969 work. Exactly, just like plumbing or carpentry. 00:03:43.169 --> 00:03:45.590 His father, Ross McManus, was a professional 00:03:45.590 --> 00:03:48.270 musician. He was a trumpet player and a vocalist 00:03:48.270 --> 00:03:50.740 with the Joe Loss Orchestra. Now, for those who 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:52.680 might not be up on their mid -century British 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:54.860 band leaders, the Jolas Orchestra wasn't just 00:03:54.860 --> 00:03:57.659 some local garage band. Oh, no. This was a massive 00:03:57.659 --> 00:03:59.680 institution. Huge. They were one of the most 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.379 popular big bands of the era in Britain. But 00:04:02.379 --> 00:04:04.740 more importantly for our story, they had a residency 00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:07.099 on the radio. They had a weekly show where they 00:04:07.099 --> 00:04:09.300 had to play the hits of the day. So they were 00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:11.719 essentially a human jukebox. Right. A live Spotify 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:14.919 playlist. Precisely. They were the Spotify of 00:04:14.919 --> 00:04:17.699 their time. If the Beatles had a new hit on Monday, 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:20.649 Ross McManus had to learn it by Wednesday to 00:04:20.649 --> 00:04:22.850 sing it on the air by Friday. Which meant he 00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:25.089 was bringing home the source material. So Ross 00:04:25.089 --> 00:04:27.389 would come home on a Tuesday with a stack of 00:04:27.389 --> 00:04:29.889 demo records, acetate discs of the current top 00:04:29.889 --> 00:04:33.589 40. Motown tracks, Merseybeat, whatever was charting. 00:04:33.829 --> 00:04:36.370 Which means young Declan is sitting there getting 00:04:36.370 --> 00:04:39.470 early exclusive access to the best pop music 00:04:39.470 --> 00:04:42.069 in the world. But he's not just listening to 00:04:42.069 --> 00:04:44.689 it like a fan, is he? No, and this is the crucial 00:04:44.689 --> 00:04:47.470 distinction. He's not sitting there mesmerized 00:04:47.470 --> 00:04:50.449 by the magic of the Beatles. He is watching his 00:04:50.449 --> 00:04:53.550 father dissect these songs for work. He's watching 00:04:53.550 --> 00:04:56.610 him figure out the chord changes, the vocal phrasing, 00:04:56.610 --> 00:04:59.209 the structure. He's seeing the mechanics of how 00:04:59.209 --> 00:05:01.990 a hit song is built. It completely changes your 00:05:01.990 --> 00:05:04.949 relationship with art. It demystifies it. It 00:05:04.949 --> 00:05:07.709 turns it from magic into engineering. It creates 00:05:07.709 --> 00:05:09.750 a sense of detachment that served him so well. 00:05:09.850 --> 00:05:12.269 He said later, That's why I know so many songs. 00:05:12.470 --> 00:05:14.490 He learned that a song is something you construct, 00:05:14.689 --> 00:05:16.290 not just something that falls out of the sky. 00:05:16.550 --> 00:05:19.410 It's a craft. It's a craft. And there's a delightful, 00:05:19.629 --> 00:05:22.670 almost bizarre detail in the notes that perfectly 00:05:22.670 --> 00:05:26.029 illustrates this working musician mentality. 00:05:26.629 --> 00:05:29.709 The secret lemonade drinker. I was hoping we'd 00:05:29.709 --> 00:05:31.730 get to this. This is a legendary piece of trivia 00:05:31.730 --> 00:05:34.610 that I feel like every Costello fan knows, but 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:37.199 the casual listener will be shocked by. It really 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:41.439 is a gem. So in 1973, Ross McManus got a gig 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:44.660 to sing a jingle for R. White's Lemonade. A huge 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:47.720 ad in the UK at the time. It became a cult classic 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:51.160 ad, a guy in pajamas sneaking downstairs in the 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:52.980 middle of the night to drink lemonade. Ron is 00:05:52.980 --> 00:05:55.779 singing the lead vocal, but if you listen very 00:05:55.779 --> 00:05:58.060 closely to the backing vocals. That high -pitched, 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:00.759 I'm a secret lemonade drinker. That backing voice 00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:03.620 is a young Elvis Costello, or rather, Declan 00:06:03.620 --> 00:06:06.019 McManus. No way. He was dragged along to the 00:06:06.089 --> 00:06:08.569 studio by his dad to do the gig it wasn't art 00:06:08.569 --> 00:06:10.850 it wasn't about expressing his soul it was a 00:06:10.850 --> 00:06:13.009 paycheck it was a paycheck it's a perfect example 00:06:13.009 --> 00:06:15.470 of that trade mentality you show up you sing 00:06:15.470 --> 00:06:17.970 the jingle you get paid and it wasn't just his 00:06:17.970 --> 00:06:21.300 dad his mom lillian was also in the business, 00:06:21.459 --> 00:06:24.339 but from the retail side. Yes. Lillian managed 00:06:24.339 --> 00:06:27.160 the record department at Selfridges, a big department 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:30.300 store. She had what they call an insider's ear. 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:32.980 So she knew it was good. She was the one curating 00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:35.399 the sounds in the house, bringing home jazz records, 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:38.439 encouraging his curiosity. There's a story that 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:40.839 she actually predicted his career before he was 00:06:40.839 --> 00:06:44.079 born simply because the environment was so saturated 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:47.199 with music. So you have the father. providing 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:49.879 the technical discipline, the how -to, and the 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:53.269 mother. providing the access and the encouragement. 00:06:53.470 --> 00:06:55.430 And going back even further, his grandfather, 00:06:55.810 --> 00:06:58.910 Pat McManus, was an orphan who learned trumpet 00:06:58.910 --> 00:07:01.149 in the army and played on the White Star Line 00:07:01.149 --> 00:07:03.589 cruise ships. The Titanic's cruise line. The 00:07:03.589 --> 00:07:06.069 very same. So for Declan, picking up a guitar 00:07:06.069 --> 00:07:08.230 wasn't an act of rebellion against his parents, 00:07:08.389 --> 00:07:11.110 which is the standard rock star trope. Right, 00:07:11.170 --> 00:07:13.529 the I'm going to show them narrative. For him, 00:07:13.529 --> 00:07:15.689 it was joining the family business. Which brings 00:07:15.689 --> 00:07:18.579 us to the computer operator legend. This is one 00:07:18.579 --> 00:07:21.120 of those rock myths that needs a bit of busting 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:23.540 or at least some context. You always hear the 00:07:23.540 --> 00:07:26.620 story. Elvis Costello was just a boring office 00:07:26.620 --> 00:07:29.959 drone, a computer operator, and then poof, he's 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:32.500 a rock star. But the reality is a little more 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:34.980 nuanced, right? It is. He absolutely worked as 00:07:34.980 --> 00:07:37.100 a computer operator. He worked at Midland Bank 00:07:37.100 --> 00:07:40.259 in Boodle and later at the Elizabeth Arden Cosmetics 00:07:40.259 --> 00:07:43.519 Factory. Cosmetics Factory. Seriously. Seriously. 00:07:43.579 --> 00:07:46.220 But we have to contextualize what computer operator 00:07:46.220 --> 00:07:49.589 meant in the earth. We're not talking about a 00:07:49.589 --> 00:07:52.410 guy sitting at a sweet desk with a MacBook sipping 00:07:52.410 --> 00:07:54.810 a latte at a WeWork. Not at all. We are talking 00:07:54.810 --> 00:07:57.910 about noisy. air -conditioned rooms, housing 00:07:57.910 --> 00:08:02.449 massive mainframe computers. Okay. The IBM 360s. 00:08:02.470 --> 00:08:04.930 These were room -sized machines that used giant 00:08:04.930 --> 00:08:07.649 reels of magnetic tape and punch cards. Oh, wow. 00:08:07.769 --> 00:08:09.629 Punch cards. These machines were deafeningly 00:08:09.629 --> 00:08:12.230 loud. The hum of the cooling fans, the clatter 00:08:12.230 --> 00:08:14.329 of the card readers, the spinning of the tape 00:08:14.329 --> 00:08:16.290 drive. It's an industrial environment. It's closer 00:08:16.290 --> 00:08:18.529 to working in a factory than an office. Completely 00:08:18.529 --> 00:08:21.110 industrial. And here's the key insight that connects 00:08:21.110 --> 00:08:24.240 his job to his music. These computers were slow. 00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:26.540 Right. You would load a deck of lunch cards, 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:29.600 hit run, and then you had to wait. There was 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:32.360 significant lag time while the machine processed 00:08:32.360 --> 00:08:34.659 the data. You can't really chat with your coworkers 00:08:34.659 --> 00:08:37.600 because of all that noise. Exactly. So you have 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:40.820 a young man full of creative energy standing 00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:44.240 in a loud, rhythmic environment with 10 or 15 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:46.440 minute bursts of free time where he has to look 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:48.679 busy that has nothing to do. So what did he do? 00:08:48.820 --> 00:08:51.080 He wrote songs in his head. He's getting paid 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:53.889 by the bank to write. watching the detectives 00:08:53.889 --> 00:08:57.490 inside his own brain. Essentially, yes. And if 00:08:57.490 --> 00:09:00.070 you look at his early lyrical style, it's very 00:09:00.070 --> 00:09:03.470 staccato. Lots of wordplay, rapid -fire images. 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:05.950 Yeah, you can hear that. Some musicologists argue 00:09:05.950 --> 00:09:08.269 that the rhythm of those noisy printers and the 00:09:08.269 --> 00:09:10.730 isolation of that computer room actually influenced 00:09:10.730 --> 00:09:13.629 the cadence of his writing. He wasn't noodling 00:09:13.629 --> 00:09:15.970 on a guitar in a bedroom. He was constructing 00:09:15.970 --> 00:09:18.809 verses to the rhythm of a machine. That is fascinating. 00:09:18.950 --> 00:09:21.409 It's industrial music before industrial was a 00:09:21.409 --> 00:09:24.629 genre. And he kept these jobs for a long time, 00:09:24.669 --> 00:09:26.509 right? He didn't quit the moment he wrote a good 00:09:26.509 --> 00:09:29.669 song. No, he was risk -verse. He had a wife and 00:09:29.669 --> 00:09:32.850 a child. He kept his job at the Elizabeth Arden 00:09:32.850 --> 00:09:36.529 factory until just weeks before his first album, 00:09:36.730 --> 00:09:39.629 My Aim Is True, was released. That's incredible. 00:09:39.889 --> 00:09:42.269 He wasn't an amateur dabbling. He was a prolific 00:09:42.269 --> 00:09:45.299 writer masquerading as a bank clerk. But he was 00:09:45.299 --> 00:09:47.799 trying to get bands going during this time. He 00:09:47.799 --> 00:09:50.759 had a folk duo called Rusty. With Alan Mays, 00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:53.740 they played schools, folk clubs, very much in 00:09:53.740 --> 00:09:56.679 that kind of singer -songwriter mold. And later 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:59.460 he formed Flip City, which was a pub rock band. 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:01.539 Pub rock is a term we should probably define 00:10:01.539 --> 00:10:04.240 for the listener. It's very specific to the UK 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:06.679 in the mid -70s, isn't it? It is, and it's important. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:10.740 Pub rock was a reaction against the bloated prog 00:10:10.740 --> 00:10:13.080 rock of the era. You know, the 20 -minute drum 00:10:13.080 --> 00:10:15.529 solos, the capes. the fantasy lyric about wizards. 00:10:15.570 --> 00:10:18.049 Right, all the excess. Pub rock was back to basics. 00:10:18.389 --> 00:10:20.950 R &B, rock and roll played in small bars. It 00:10:20.950 --> 00:10:24.049 was sweaty, simple, and fun. Bands like Dr. Feelgood. 00:10:24.210 --> 00:10:26.629 So Flip City is playing these pubs, trying to 00:10:26.629 --> 00:10:28.309 get people to dance while they drink their pints. 00:10:28.490 --> 00:10:30.690 They were. And they were actually playing early 00:10:30.690 --> 00:10:32.789 versions of songs that would become Costello 00:10:32.789 --> 00:10:36.269 hits, like Miracle Man and Radio Radio. Oh, really? 00:10:36.409 --> 00:10:38.409 That early? Yeah, but they were playing them 00:10:38.409 --> 00:10:41.730 loosely. They weren't going anywhere fast. Declan 00:10:41.730 --> 00:10:44.610 realized that to break out, he needed a change. 00:10:44.889 --> 00:10:48.350 He needed a vehicle. Enter Stiff Records. Jake 00:10:48.350 --> 00:10:52.049 Riviera and Dave Robinson. These guys were the 00:10:52.049 --> 00:10:54.590 ultimate disruptors of the London music scene. 00:10:54.710 --> 00:10:56.850 Absolutely. They weren't just record executives. 00:10:57.149 --> 00:10:59.470 They were provocateurs. You were chaos agents. 00:10:59.769 --> 00:11:02.129 They looked at Declan McManus, this slightly 00:11:02.129 --> 00:11:04.730 chubby guy with glasses on a desperate intensity, 00:11:04.909 --> 00:11:08.440 and they saw something. But not the name. No, 00:11:08.500 --> 00:11:10.659 they knew Declan McManus wasn't a name that was 00:11:10.659 --> 00:11:12.960 going to sell records to teenagers. So they give 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:16.620 him the name, Elvis. It was audacious. In 1977, 00:11:17.179 --> 00:11:19.500 Elvis Presley was still alive, though he was 00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:21.740 in decline. He was the king. You don't just take 00:11:21.740 --> 00:11:24.620 that name. Taking that name was considered sacrilege 00:11:24.620 --> 00:11:26.320 to some people. It was like calling yourself 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:29.360 Jesus Jones. But to stiff records, it was just 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:31.399 a shock tactic. It was a way to make people look 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:34.669 twice at a poster. And... Costello didn't care 00:11:34.669 --> 00:11:37.090 about the comparison. He didn't feel weird about 00:11:37.090 --> 00:11:39.549 stepping on the king's toes. He really didn't. 00:11:39.549 --> 00:11:43.090 To him, names were just costumes. His dad used 00:11:43.090 --> 00:11:45.730 a stage name day Costello for some of his work, 00:11:45.830 --> 00:11:48.549 so he took the Elvis from Presley to shock people 00:11:48.549 --> 00:11:51.990 and the Costello from his dad to ground it. A 00:11:51.990 --> 00:11:53.889 perfect combination of blasphemy and tradition. 00:11:54.190 --> 00:11:56.590 You could say that, but then Stiff did something 00:11:56.590 --> 00:11:59.610 else. They crafted the look. The glasses. The 00:11:59.610 --> 00:12:02.309 iconic black framed spectacles. He actually needed 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:04.769 glasses to see. He wore rimless ones usually. 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:07.710 But Jake Riviera took him out and bought him 00:12:07.710 --> 00:12:10.149 those heavy black framed Buddy Holly glasses. 00:12:10.730 --> 00:12:13.509 Ah, so that was a deliberate choice. Oh, completely. 00:12:13.690 --> 00:12:15.549 They cut his hair short. They put him in ill 00:12:15.549 --> 00:12:18.009 -fitting suits, emphasizing a sort of knock -kneed 00:12:18.009 --> 00:12:20.389 awkwardness. It was a very specific aesthetic. 00:12:20.590 --> 00:12:23.370 Buddy Holly on acid. It was nerdy, but it was 00:12:23.370 --> 00:12:25.750 aggressive. It was weaponized nerdiness. It said, 00:12:25.909 --> 00:12:28.309 I might look like a computer operator, but I 00:12:28.309 --> 00:12:33.149 am smart. It was the perfect counter -programming 00:12:33.149 --> 00:12:36.129 to the sex symbols of the 70s like Robert Plant 00:12:36.129 --> 00:12:38.690 or Peter Frampton. So now we have the name, we 00:12:38.690 --> 00:12:40.669 have the look, and we have the songs written 00:12:40.669 --> 00:12:44.669 on the bank's dime. It's 1977. We get the debut 00:12:44.669 --> 00:12:48.409 album, My Aim Is True. A landmark record. And 00:12:48.409 --> 00:12:50.669 the recording process is a marvel of efficiency. 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:54.419 It was recorded in six four -hour sessions. Six 00:12:54.419 --> 00:12:57.919 four -hour sessions. That's 24 hours total studio 00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:00.799 time. For the whole album. That is absurdly fast. 00:13:01.059 --> 00:13:03.639 Most bands spend 24 hours just getting the drum 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:05.519 sound right. It cost about a thousand pounds 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:07.679 to make. And remember, he's calling in sick to 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:10.120 the factory to do this. Incredible. But here 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:12.740 is a detail that often trips people up. The backing 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:15.559 band on My Aim Is True is not the attractions. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:18.440 Right. The famous backing band comes later. So 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:20.580 who were these guys playing on the debut? It 00:13:20.580 --> 00:13:23.059 was a band called Clover. And get this, they 00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:25.220 were an American country rock band from California. 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:27.740 Wait, what? California country rockers playing 00:13:27.740 --> 00:13:29.840 on a British new wave punk album? That makes 00:13:29.840 --> 00:13:32.519 no sense. It was an accident of history. They 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:35.620 were in London, stiff records had access to them, 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.679 and they needed a band. This is why, if you listen 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:41.179 to My Aim Is True carefully, it has a slightly 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:43.460 different feel than his later stuff. How so? 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:47.159 Listen to the guitar on Allison. It's jangly, 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:50.990 it's soulful, it's not punk. It has that West 00:13:50.990 --> 00:13:53.370 Coast laid back proficiency. But there is one 00:13:53.370 --> 00:13:56.210 track on the album where the sound shifts. Yeah. 00:13:56.549 --> 00:13:59.070 Watching the detectives. That is the pivot point. 00:13:59.210 --> 00:14:01.210 He recorded that separately. He said that was 00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:03.909 the first time he felt he was making a record 00:14:03.909 --> 00:14:06.389 rather than just capturing a song. And what was 00:14:06.389 --> 00:14:08.570 different about it? It was heavily influenced 00:14:08.570 --> 00:14:11.169 by The Clash's debut album, which he had just 00:14:11.169 --> 00:14:13.970 heard, and fascinatingly by Bernard Herrmann's 00:14:13.970 --> 00:14:16.309 film scores. Bernard Herrmann, the guy who did 00:14:16.309 --> 00:14:18.710 the music for Psycho and Vertigo. The master 00:14:18.710 --> 00:14:22.269 of tension. Costello wanted that cinematic creepiness. 00:14:22.549 --> 00:14:24.870 You can hear it in the reggae -influenced bassline 00:14:24.870 --> 00:14:27.629 and that jarring staccato organ. And the lyrics 00:14:27.629 --> 00:14:30.230 are so dark. It's a song about watching someone 00:14:30.230 --> 00:14:33.350 watch violence on TV. It's meta, it's dark, and 00:14:33.350 --> 00:14:35.269 it was the sign of things to come. So the album 00:14:35.269 --> 00:14:37.970 comes out, the critics love it, but now he has 00:14:37.970 --> 00:14:40.789 to tour. And Clover, the California Country Boys, 00:14:40.990 --> 00:14:43.830 go home. Right. He needs a band that can match 00:14:43.830 --> 00:14:46.730 his intensity. He needs the attractions. And 00:14:46.730 --> 00:14:48.590 he didn't just want a backing band. He wanted 00:14:48.590 --> 00:14:52.110 a weapon. He held auditions and found three musicians 00:14:52.110 --> 00:14:54.970 who would define his sound for the next decade. 00:14:55.169 --> 00:14:57.289 Let's break down this lineup because their chemistry 00:14:57.289 --> 00:14:59.750 is essential to understanding why Costello worked. 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:03.250 First, you have Steve Neve on keyboards. He was 00:15:03.250 --> 00:15:05.429 a 19 -year -old student at the Royal College 00:15:05.429 --> 00:15:08.350 of Music. Classically trained. Yeah, and he hadn't 00:15:08.350 --> 00:15:10.870 really played in a rock band. He brought this 00:15:10.870 --> 00:15:14.059 incredibly ornate... almost carnival -esque organ 00:15:14.059 --> 00:15:16.860 sound. He could go from playing a fairground 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:21.159 waltz to a piercing new wave riff in seconds. 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:24.220 Then Bruce Thomas on bass. The experienced pro. 00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:26.580 He had played with bands like Sutherland Brothers 00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:29.500 and Quiver. He played melodic bass lines. He 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:31.519 wasn't just thumping the root note. He was playing 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:33.379 counter melodies. That danced around the vocals. 00:15:33.539 --> 00:15:36.340 It was brilliant. And Pete Thomas on drums. Who 00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:39.100 Elvis and many critics have called the best rock 00:15:39.100 --> 00:15:41.990 drummer in the world. Pete Thomas played with 00:15:41.990 --> 00:15:44.110 a ferocity that was frightening. He could play 00:15:44.110 --> 00:15:46.350 fast, but he could swing. Oh, you put those three 00:15:46.350 --> 00:15:48.330 together with Costello's rhythm guitar? And you 00:15:48.330 --> 00:15:51.330 got a chemical reaction. A controlled explosion. 00:15:51.769 --> 00:15:55.049 This leads us into the golden run. 1978's This 00:15:55.049 --> 00:15:59.149 Year's Model and 1979's Armed Forces. This Year's 00:15:59.149 --> 00:16:02.590 Model is just relentless energy. It's sonic assault. 00:16:03.179 --> 00:16:05.639 Costello described it as a ghost version of the 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:07.360 Rolling Stones' aftermath. What does that mean, 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:09.399 a ghost version? He wanted it stripped down, 00:16:09.539 --> 00:16:12.820 no reverb, no production tricks, just the band 00:16:12.820 --> 00:16:16.009 in a room playing hard. Raw and direct. This 00:16:16.009 --> 00:16:18.169 is where we get pump it up. An absolute anthem. 00:16:18.269 --> 00:16:21.629 And the story behind it is so perfectly Elvis. 00:16:21.730 --> 00:16:24.090 He wrote it on a fire escape step in Newcastle. 00:16:24.309 --> 00:16:26.950 He was on the Stiff Life Stiffs Tour, which was 00:16:26.950 --> 00:16:30.470 this debauched, alcohol -fueled traveling circus. 00:16:30.730 --> 00:16:33.049 So he's seeing all this bad behavior, rock and 00:16:33.049 --> 00:16:35.350 roll excess. He's watching everyone indulge in 00:16:35.350 --> 00:16:37.950 what he called idiotic rock and roll decadence. 00:16:37.950 --> 00:16:40.370 And he writes this thumping, sarcastic song about 00:16:40.370 --> 00:16:42.370 it. Pump it up until you can feel it. It sounds 00:16:42.370 --> 00:16:44.029 like a party song. But it's actually a critique. 00:16:45.179 --> 00:16:49.559 And then Armed Forces in 1979, the sound changes 00:16:49.559 --> 00:16:55.700 again. It gets shinier, more polished. Emotional 00:16:55.700 --> 00:17:09.940 fascism. Wow. ABA. The Swedish pop superstars. 00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:12.019 I would not have guessed that. Absolutely. And 00:17:12.019 --> 00:17:15.039 Kraftwerk, the German electronic pioneers. Also 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:18.500 David Bowie's Berlin albums. Costello was obsessed 00:17:18.500 --> 00:17:21.299 with the production value of ABBA. You can hear 00:17:21.299 --> 00:17:23.660 it now that you say it. Listen to the piano lines 00:17:23.660 --> 00:17:27.359 in Oliver's Army. It's pure glittering pop. It 00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:29.680 bounces. And ironically, Oliver's Army became 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:32.880 his biggest selling UK single. It sold over half 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:35.519 a million copies. Which is wild because the lyrics 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:38.039 are about the troubles in Northern Ireland and 00:17:38.039 --> 00:17:40.680 the exploitation of working class soldiers. He 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:43.779 was inspired by seeing British soldiers in Belfast. 00:17:43.900 --> 00:17:46.559 So you have this incredibly catchy ABBA -esque 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:49.980 melody masking a song about geopolitical conflict 00:17:49.980 --> 00:17:52.380 and imperialism. That is the Costello trademark. 00:17:52.740 --> 00:17:55.079 Sugar -coated poison pills. You're humming along 00:17:55.079 --> 00:17:57.119 and then you realize you're singing about mercenaries. 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:59.119 He tricks you into listening to the message. 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:02.420 Now, we can't talk about this era without talking 00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:04.960 about the moment America met Elvis Costello, 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:09.559 Saturday Night Live, December 1977. Legendary. 00:18:09.579 --> 00:18:12.259 So, the Sex Pistols were supposed to perform, 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:14.420 but they couldn't get visas in time. Right, they 00:18:14.420 --> 00:18:16.700 were too controversial. SNL needs a replacement. 00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:19.180 They call Columbia Records, and they get Elvis 00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:21.819 Costello. He's the backup punk. Right. And the 00:18:21.819 --> 00:18:25.299 label explicitly tells him. Play Less Than Zero. 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:27.779 It was a song from his first album. But there 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:29.599 was a problem with Less Than Zero for an American 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:32.019 audience, wasn't there? Huge problem. The song 00:18:32.019 --> 00:18:35.000 is about Oswald Mosley. a British fascist leader 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:38.079 from the 1930s. Americans had no idea who that 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:39.839 was. It would have just gone over everyone's 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:42.480 heads. Costello knew it would land flat. He wanted 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:45.200 to play Radio Radio, a new song that was a biting 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:47.660 attack on corporate media control and censorship. 00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:50.440 A song that bites the hand that feeds it, essentially. 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:52.960 But the SNL producers, including Lorne Michaels, 00:18:53.259 --> 00:18:56.240 said absolutely not. They forbade it. So showtime 00:18:56.240 --> 00:18:58.599 comes. The band starts playing Less Than Zero. 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:01.000 They get a few bars in. And then he does the 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:04.049 thing. He turns to the band, slashes his hand 00:19:04.049 --> 00:19:07.109 across his throat, and stops them. The studio 00:19:07.109 --> 00:19:09.569 goes silent. I can't imagine the panic in the 00:19:09.569 --> 00:19:11.450 control room. He walks up to the mic and says, 00:19:11.569 --> 00:19:13.470 I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason 00:19:13.470 --> 00:19:15.589 to do this song here. And he screams, radio, 00:19:15.769 --> 00:19:19.329 radio. And the band launches into it. Live on 00:19:19.329 --> 00:19:21.250 national television. You have to understand the 00:19:21.250 --> 00:19:24.569 pressure of live TV. The control room must have 00:19:24.569 --> 00:19:27.970 been in absolute chaos. Lorne Michaels was furious. 00:19:28.329 --> 00:19:30.589 Costello was flipping the bird to the entire 00:19:30.589 --> 00:19:32.910 network infrastructure. In the fallout. He was 00:19:32.910 --> 00:19:35.609 banned from SNL for over a decade. He didn't 00:19:35.609 --> 00:19:38.839 come back. until 1989. Wow. It killed his relationship 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:42.380 with the show, but it made his career. It cemented 00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:44.480 his image as the guy who couldn't be controlled, 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:47.400 the punk who wouldn't listen to the suits. It's 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:50.680 such a heroic moment in rock history. But as 00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:53.660 we move into 1979, that rebellious energy takes 00:19:53.660 --> 00:19:56.799 a very dark, very ugly turn. We have to talk 00:19:56.799 --> 00:19:59.200 about the crash. We do. This is the turning point 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.680 of the deep dive. The Columbus incident. This 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:04.960 was in Ohio, March 1979. Right. He's on a high 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:07.279 -stress U .S. tour. He's drinking heavily. He's 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:10.359 exhausted. And he ends up in a Holiday Inn bar 00:20:10.359 --> 00:20:13.140 in Columbus. Okay. Also in the bar are members 00:20:13.140 --> 00:20:15.759 of Stephen Stills' band, Stephen Stills from 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:18.079 Crosby, Stills & Nash. So you have the old guard, 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:21.359 American rockers, and the new ways, British punk. 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:24.400 Oil and water. And it turns into an argument. 00:20:25.109 --> 00:20:27.170 Bonnie Bramlett, a backing singer, is there. 00:20:27.410 --> 00:20:29.970 They are arguing about music, about America versus 00:20:29.970 --> 00:20:33.289 England. And Costello, in an attempt to be, as 00:20:33.289 --> 00:20:35.289 he put it, outrageous and to end the argument 00:20:35.289 --> 00:20:37.809 by making them hate him. He goes too far. He 00:20:37.809 --> 00:20:40.490 uses racial slurs to describe James Brown and 00:20:40.490 --> 00:20:43.170 Ray Charles. We need to be very clear here. The 00:20:43.170 --> 00:20:45.849 words he used were horrific. But we also need 00:20:45.849 --> 00:20:48.009 to report what the sources say about his intent. 00:20:48.250 --> 00:20:50.599 Right. Costello has always maintained that those 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:53.140 words were the exact opposite of what he actually 00:20:53.140 --> 00:20:55.319 felt. He claimed he was just saying the most 00:20:55.319 --> 00:20:57.000 offensive thing he could think of to trigger 00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:59.380 a reaction. That is his account, and it's supported 00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:02.380 by his history of working with Rock Against Racism 00:21:02.380 --> 00:21:05.480 before the incident. But words have power, regardless 00:21:05.480 --> 00:21:08.099 of intent. The press picked up the story weeks 00:21:08.099 --> 00:21:11.170 later. And the fallout was catastrophic. It was 00:21:11.170 --> 00:21:14.089 a nuclear bomb for his career in America. He 00:21:14.089 --> 00:21:16.809 went from being the cool righteous rebel to a 00:21:16.809 --> 00:21:19.869 pariah. His records were pulled from radio playlists. 00:21:19.990 --> 00:21:22.529 He received death threats. He had to do a press 00:21:22.529 --> 00:21:24.109 conference. He had to hold a press conference 00:21:24.109 --> 00:21:27.009 where he apologized, calling the remarks obnoxious 00:21:27.009 --> 00:21:30.049 and offensive. But the stain remained for a long 00:21:30.049 --> 00:21:32.869 time. And this brings us back to the why we talked 00:21:32.869 --> 00:21:35.829 about earlier. Why did he change his sound so 00:21:35.829 --> 00:21:38.519 drastically in 1980? You can draw a straight 00:21:38.519 --> 00:21:40.960 line from that Holiday Inn bar to his next album. 00:21:41.099 --> 00:21:43.779 You absolutely can. The angry young man persona 00:21:43.779 --> 00:21:46.500 was dead. It had eaten itself. He couldn't play 00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:48.940 that character anymore. So he pivots. He pivots 00:21:48.940 --> 00:21:52.119 hard. He releases Get Happy in 1980. Which is 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:54.619 a soul and R &B record. A complete left turn. 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:58.119 It's 20 tracks of Stax -influenced, Motown -influenced 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:00.819 music. It was a complete departure. It was almost 00:22:00.819 --> 00:22:02.920 an act of musical penance. An apology through 00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:05.000 music. You could see it that way. He was engaging 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:07.480 deeply and respectfully with the very music, 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:09.920 Black American music, that he had insulted in 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:13.359 that drunken stupor. And the sheer density of 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:18.640 that album. 20 songs on a single vinyl LP. How 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:21.259 did that even work? It was crammed. The grooves 00:22:21.259 --> 00:22:23.140 on the vinyl were so close together you had to 00:22:23.140 --> 00:22:25.119 turn the volume up on your stereo to hear it 00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:28.700 properly. It was frantic, soulful, and brilliant. 00:22:28.900 --> 00:22:31.920 And he doesn't stop shifting. Trust in 1981 and 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:35.500 then Imperial Bedroom in 1982. Imperial Bedroom 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:38.400 is often called his masterpiece. It's the moment 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:40.440 he stops being a punk and become the composer. 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:43.359 It was produced by Jeff Emmerich. The Beatles 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:46.059 engineer. The guy who did Straight Pepper. That's 00:22:46.059 --> 00:22:48.759 the one. Costello wanted to use the studio as 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:51.220 an instrument. The production is complex, layered. 00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:53.380 What kind of things was he doing? Accordions, 00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:56.099 harpsichords, intricate vocal harmonies. They 00:22:56.099 --> 00:22:58.640 call it Baroque pop. It's miles away from the 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:01.259 three -chord aggression of My Aim is True. He 00:23:01.259 --> 00:23:04.119 was proving he had the vocabulary of a classical 00:23:04.119 --> 00:23:06.559 composer, not just a pub rocker. This brings 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:08.839 us to the segment of his career where he becomes 00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:11.559 the chameleon. I feel like in the 80s and 90s, 00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:13.539 if you bought an Elvis Costello album, You were 00:23:13.539 --> 00:23:15.619 playing a game of roulette. You had no idea what 00:23:15.619 --> 00:23:18.099 genre you were going to get. Yeah. And nothing 00:23:18.099 --> 00:23:21.359 illustrates that better than Almost Blue in 1981. 00:23:21.799 --> 00:23:24.519 The country album. The country album. Recorded 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:27.779 in Nashville. An album of covers. George Jones. 00:23:28.059 --> 00:23:31.319 Merle Haggard. And remember, this is a UK new 00:23:31.319 --> 00:23:34.660 wave guy. The reception was expected to be so 00:23:34.660 --> 00:23:37.559 hostile that the UK pressing actually had a warning 00:23:37.559 --> 00:23:39.779 label on the cover. I love this detail. What 00:23:39.779 --> 00:23:43.059 did the label say? It read, warning. This album 00:23:43.059 --> 00:23:46.059 contains country and western music and may cause 00:23:46.059 --> 00:23:48.619 a reaction in narrow -minded listeners. That 00:23:48.619 --> 00:23:50.440 is brilliant marketing. It's a challenge to the 00:23:50.440 --> 00:23:52.380 fan. If you don't like this, you're the problem. 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:55.079 And it produced a genuine hit. Goodyear for the 00:23:55.079 --> 00:23:57.720 roses. It showed he had the voice for it. He 00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:00.019 wasn't mocking the genre. He revered it. He treated 00:24:00.019 --> 00:24:02.740 it with total seriousness. He did. And then swinging 00:24:02.740 --> 00:24:05.019 wildly to the other side of the spectrum, he 00:24:05.019 --> 00:24:06.980 starts working with Paul McCartney in the late 00:24:06.980 --> 00:24:09.740 80s. This was a massive partnership. Two of the 00:24:09.740 --> 00:24:11.900 greatest pop songwriters of their generations. 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:14.000 They wrote songs together knee to knee, just 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:17.099 like Lennon and McCartney used to do. This resulted 00:24:17.099 --> 00:24:19.460 in Veronica, which became Costello's biggest 00:24:19.460 --> 00:24:23.059 U .S. hit, reaching number 19 on Billboard. Veronica 00:24:23.059 --> 00:24:27.269 is such a catchy song. Incredibly poppy, but 00:24:27.269 --> 00:24:30.650 again, the subject matter. It's devastating. 00:24:30.930 --> 00:24:32.829 It's about his grandmother suffering from dementia. 00:24:33.210 --> 00:24:35.289 Oh, I didn't know that. She's sitting in a chair, 00:24:35.390 --> 00:24:38.089 flickering in and out of reality. Is it all in 00:24:38.089 --> 00:24:40.410 that pretty little head of yours? Classic Costello. 00:24:40.509 --> 00:24:43.910 A buoyant, McCartney -esque melody with lyrics 00:24:43.910 --> 00:24:46.470 about the disintegration of memory. And McCartney 00:24:46.470 --> 00:24:48.630 brought the melodic brightness that Costello 00:24:48.630 --> 00:24:50.869 sometimes resisted. It was a perfect balance. 00:24:51.250 --> 00:24:53.869 But he didn't stop at pop or country. In the 00:24:53.869 --> 00:24:56.450 90s, he takes a hard left turn into a world that 00:24:56.450 --> 00:25:00.289 most rock stars fail miserably at. Classical. 00:25:00.430 --> 00:25:03.779 The Juliet Letters in 1993. He teamed up with 00:25:03.779 --> 00:25:06.380 the Brodsky Quartet. So no rock band at all? 00:25:06.460 --> 00:25:09.819 No guitars, no drums, just Costello's voice and 00:25:09.819 --> 00:25:11.720 a string quartet. I remember when this came out, 00:25:11.740 --> 00:25:13.380 people were confused. They thought it was pretentious. 00:25:13.539 --> 00:25:15.599 Some did. But if you listen to it, it's not a 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:17.720 rock star trying to write Mozart. It's a collection 00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:20.799 of songs written as imaginary letters. It's theatrical. 00:25:21.059 --> 00:25:23.460 It's more like a song cycle. Exactly. It showed 00:25:23.460 --> 00:25:25.279 that he could write for instruments other than 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:27.539 a rock band. It was about textures. And that 00:25:27.539 --> 00:25:29.640 paved the way for perhaps his most surprising 00:25:29.640 --> 00:25:32.849 collaboration. painted from memory with Burt 00:25:32.849 --> 00:25:36.170 Bacharach in 1998. Now, on paper, this shouldn't 00:25:36.170 --> 00:25:38.890 work. Elvis Costello, the revenge and guilt guy, 00:25:39.029 --> 00:25:41.250 and Burt Bacharach, the king of easy listening, 00:25:41.390 --> 00:25:44.250 the guy who wrote What's New Pussycat. And raindrops 00:25:44.250 --> 00:25:46.849 keep falling on my head. It sounds like oil and 00:25:46.849 --> 00:25:49.230 water. But if you look deeper, it makes perfect 00:25:49.230 --> 00:25:52.430 sense. Costello always loved complex melodies. 00:25:52.869 --> 00:25:55.470 Bacharach is the master of complex melodies and 00:25:55.470 --> 00:25:58.269 tricky time signatures. His songs are incredibly 00:25:58.269 --> 00:26:00.890 hard to sing. Notoriously difficult because the 00:26:00.890 --> 00:26:04.190 rhythms shift constantly. It wasn't irony. Costello 00:26:04.190 --> 00:26:06.730 genuinely loved Bacharach's craft. And that album 00:26:06.730 --> 00:26:09.569 is heartbreakingly beautiful. It is. Listen to 00:26:09.569 --> 00:26:12.109 God Give Me Strength. It starts with this slow, 00:26:12.369 --> 00:26:15.349 mournful horn line. Costello's voice is fragile, 00:26:15.509 --> 00:26:17.430 almost cracking. He's not shouting anymore. He's 00:26:17.430 --> 00:26:19.589 pleading. It's a performance that the angry young 00:26:19.589 --> 00:26:22.990 man of 1977 couldn't have given. No way. It is 00:26:22.990 --> 00:26:25.589 a vocal performance that Declan McManus, the 00:26:25.589 --> 00:26:27.849 bank clerk, probably couldn't have imagined he'd 00:26:27.849 --> 00:26:29.950 ever deliver. It really highlights the range 00:26:29.950 --> 00:26:33.210 from radio, radio to God give me strength. It's 00:26:33.210 --> 00:26:36.470 the same guy, but a different lifetime. And while 00:26:36.470 --> 00:26:38.549 he's doing all this music, he's also writing. 00:26:38.769 --> 00:26:41.670 And I don't mean lyrics, I mean prose. The liner 00:26:41.670 --> 00:26:44.950 notes. For the reissues. Oh, yes. When Rikadisk 00:26:44.950 --> 00:26:48.069 and later Rhino reissued his albums, Costello 00:26:48.069 --> 00:26:50.990 wrote extensive essays for each one. We're talking 00:26:50.990 --> 00:26:54.609 over 60 ,000 words total. That's a whole book. 00:26:54.730 --> 00:26:56.970 Basically a memoir in installments. And they 00:26:56.970 --> 00:26:58.589 aren't just, we recorded this in London. They're 00:26:58.589 --> 00:27:01.890 critical essays. They're brutally honest. He 00:27:01.890 --> 00:27:04.190 critiques his own singing. He critiques the production. 00:27:04.509 --> 00:27:07.190 He famously wrote about the reissue of Goodbye 00:27:07.190 --> 00:27:10.089 Cruel World. Congratulations, you've just purchased 00:27:10.089 --> 00:27:12.779 our worst album. That is a level of self -awareness 00:27:12.779 --> 00:27:15.599 you rarely see in a narcissist heavy industry. 00:27:15.819 --> 00:27:18.180 It showed that he engaged with his own work not 00:27:18.180 --> 00:27:20.920 as a star but as a critic. He could step outside 00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:23.220 himself and say that didn't work. Moving into 00:27:23.220 --> 00:27:26.460 the 2000s he settles into this role of the elder 00:27:26.460 --> 00:27:29.720 statesman but he doesn't slow down and his personal 00:27:29.720 --> 00:27:32.099 life takes a very public very romantic turn. 00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:35.559 He met Diana Krall the jazz pianist and singer 00:27:35.559 --> 00:27:39.140 at the Grammys in 2002. They married in 2003 00:27:39.140 --> 00:27:42.349 at Elton John's estate. Which is a flex. A significant 00:27:42.349 --> 00:27:44.910 flex. But it also sparked a creative period. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.079 He released North in 2003, which is an album 00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:50.099 of piano ballads. And about their relationship. 00:27:50.460 --> 00:27:52.539 It's incredibly intimate music about falling 00:27:52.539 --> 00:27:54.480 in love with her and the end of his previous 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:57.660 marriage. Very raw. And he also took that musicologist 00:27:57.660 --> 00:28:00.779 brain of his to television with the show Spectacle. 00:28:00.980 --> 00:28:04.039 Spectacle. Elvis Costello. This ran from 2008 00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:06.420 to 2010. It was a talk show, but it was unique. 00:28:06.700 --> 00:28:08.700 It wasn't a typical talk show at all. He would 00:28:08.700 --> 00:28:10.900 sit down with Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett, 00:28:11.180 --> 00:28:14.000 Lou Reed, Smokey Robinson, and they wouldn't 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:15.440 talk about their new music. movie or gossip, 00:28:15.619 --> 00:28:17.859 they would pick up guitars and talk about songwriting. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:20.079 It was like a master class, the best music class 00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:22.059 you could ever take. It showcased just how deep 00:28:22.059 --> 00:28:24.099 his knowledge went. He could analyze a chord 00:28:24.099 --> 00:28:26.299 progression with Paul Simon or discuss vocal 00:28:26.299 --> 00:28:28.660 phrasing with Tony Bennett. It proved he was 00:28:28.660 --> 00:28:31.039 a student of the game first and foremost. But 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:33.440 just when you think he's settling into the tuxedo 00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:36.579 -wearing host role, he pivots again. He teams 00:28:36.579 --> 00:28:40.839 up with The Roots. Wise Up Ghost in 2013, a funk 00:28:40.839 --> 00:28:43.200 and hip -hop collaboration. This one really surprised 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:46.200 me. The Roots are the best band in late -night 00:28:46.200 --> 00:28:49.109 TV, Hip -hop legends. How did that even come 00:28:49.109 --> 00:28:51.130 about? They connected through Jimmy Fallon's 00:28:51.130 --> 00:28:53.789 show and Costello fit right in. The textures 00:28:53.789 --> 00:28:56.269 were gritty. The grooves were deep. And his lyrics 00:28:56.269 --> 00:28:58.869 worked over those beats. His lyrical density, 00:28:59.089 --> 00:29:00.809 that staccato style we talked about from his 00:29:00.809 --> 00:29:03.490 computer operator days, fit perfectly over that 00:29:03.490 --> 00:29:05.829 tight, snapping hip -hop production. We have 00:29:05.829 --> 00:29:07.490 to touch on the recent years because he had a 00:29:07.490 --> 00:29:10.450 bit of a scare in 2018. He did. He had to cancel 00:29:10.450 --> 00:29:12.809 tour dates due to surgery for cancerous growth. 00:29:13.029 --> 00:29:15.910 It was a reminder of mortality. But he recovered. 00:29:16.460 --> 00:29:17.960 And typically he went right back to work. And 00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:19.960 the work has been interesting. Spanish model 00:29:19.960 --> 00:29:23.859 in 2021. What was that project? This is a fascinating 00:29:23.859 --> 00:29:26.740 concept. He took the original instrumental master 00:29:26.740 --> 00:29:30.500 tapes from 1978's This Year's model. So the attractions 00:29:30.500 --> 00:29:32.900 playing at their absolute peak. The raw tapes. 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:35.960 The raw tapes. And he stripped his own vocals 00:29:35.960 --> 00:29:39.599 off. Then he had Spanish -speaking artists like 00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:42.460 Juanes and Luis Fonsi record the lyrics translated 00:29:42.460 --> 00:29:45.220 into Spanish. That is such a cool idea. It's 00:29:45.220 --> 00:29:48.400 like remixing history. It recontextualizes the 00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:51.819 songs completely. It proves that the melody and 00:29:51.819 --> 00:29:54.059 the energy transcends the language. It's the 00:29:54.059 --> 00:29:56.259 same rage, just in a different tone. Exactly. 00:29:56.910 --> 00:30:01.430 And then in 2022, he releases The Boy Named If, 00:30:01.630 --> 00:30:04.710 which is just a raucous rock album, and reunites 00:30:04.710 --> 00:30:06.970 with Alan Mays, his partner from his first band. 00:30:07.630 --> 00:30:10.210 Rusty for the resurrection of rust. Full circle. 00:30:10.390 --> 00:30:12.509 Completely full circle. So let's bring this all 00:30:12.509 --> 00:30:14.329 together. We've gone from the mainframe computer 00:30:14.329 --> 00:30:16.910 room to the order of the British Empire. We've 00:30:16.910 --> 00:30:19.289 gone from punk to country to classical to hip 00:30:19.289 --> 00:30:21.849 hop. What does this all mean? I think the key 00:30:21.849 --> 00:30:24.950 lies in that origin story we discussed. The Costello 00:30:24.950 --> 00:30:27.329 identity started as a mask. It was a marketing 00:30:27.329 --> 00:30:29.549 tool, a shock tactic. It was a character. It 00:30:29.549 --> 00:30:32.170 was a character. But because Declan McManus viewed 00:30:32.170 --> 00:30:35.269 music as a job, a discipline, thanks to his father, 00:30:35.349 --> 00:30:38.650 that mask became a A vessel that could hold anything. 00:30:38.950 --> 00:30:42.329 Exactly. He wasn't precious about the brand of 00:30:42.329 --> 00:30:44.809 Elvis Costello. If the brand was supposed to 00:30:44.809 --> 00:30:47.170 be angry punk, he didn't care. If he wanted to 00:30:47.170 --> 00:30:49.509 do a jazz record, he did it. Because to him... 00:30:49.869 --> 00:30:51.890 The work is the point. It comes back to the work 00:30:51.890 --> 00:30:55.690 ethic. Writing hundreds of songs. Writing journalism. 00:30:56.170 --> 00:30:58.470 Touring constantly. He treats it like a trade. 00:30:58.549 --> 00:31:01.150 You show up. You do the work. You learn the song. 00:31:01.349 --> 00:31:03.670 Just like his dad learned the Beatles hits for 00:31:03.670 --> 00:31:05.990 the radio. There's a provocative thought in the 00:31:05.990 --> 00:31:08.990 title of his memoir, Unfaithful Music. Yes. He 00:31:08.990 --> 00:31:12.210 has been unfaithful to genres. He abandons them 00:31:12.210 --> 00:31:14.910 constantly. He cheats on New Wave with country. 00:31:15.230 --> 00:31:19.019 He cheats on rock with classical. But that lack 00:31:19.019 --> 00:31:21.940 of loyalty to a single sound, that is the very 00:31:21.940 --> 00:31:24.119 thing that has allowed him to survive for five 00:31:24.119 --> 00:31:27.119 decades. If he had stayed the angry young man 00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:29.880 in the skinny tie. He would have become a nostalgia 00:31:29.880 --> 00:31:32.880 act by 1985. He would be playing the state fair 00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:35.000 circuit, playing Allison over and over again. 00:31:35.259 --> 00:31:37.700 By being unfaithful to the genre, he remained 00:31:37.700 --> 00:31:39.880 faithful to his own creativity. Instead of a 00:31:39.880 --> 00:31:42.539 nostalgia act, he became a legend. So here is 00:31:42.539 --> 00:31:45.150 our challenge to you. The listener, if you want 00:31:45.150 --> 00:31:47.349 to hear the impossible range of the man born 00:31:47.349 --> 00:31:52.049 Declan McManus, do this. Go listen to God Give 00:31:52.049 --> 00:31:54.829 Me Strength, his collaboration with Burt Bacharach. 00:31:55.369 --> 00:31:58.049 Listen to the fragility and the control in that 00:31:58.049 --> 00:32:01.289 voice and then immediately play Radio Radio. 00:32:01.529 --> 00:32:03.009 The whiplash will tell you everything you need 00:32:03.009 --> 00:32:05.349 to know. That's it for this deep dive. Thanks 00:32:05.349 --> 00:32:07.750 for listening and keep unpacking the music. Until 00:32:07.750 --> 00:32:08.289 next time.