Elvis Costello Quotes (37 Quotes)


    I followed The Byrds a lot, and then when they did a country styled record it made me curious to know who these people were that they liked.

    These are the sort of things that push you on in music - the curiosity, a passion for new ideas.

    Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock'n'roll songs. Some of them were melodic pop songs. And I've done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back.


    I've always thought of myself as a ballad singer who could sing rock 'n' roll, not the other way around,


    I've been lucky to listen to lots of different types of music.


    And I don't feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don't understand it or I don't have some love for some part of it.

    Maybe I just never learned my harmony part, because what everybody says sounds odd to them sounds perfectly natural to me.

    Really the only thing holding a lot of records together is the personality of the singer, and the will to write all of these different things.

    You have to face the fact that I have no reputation as a composer; I have my reputation as a songwriter and a performer-and that opportunity came this summer, when I was invited to perform at the Lincoln Centre festival in New York... three nights.

    Very similar experience happened last year when we released this album, North. It was on Deutsche Grammophon, it was very, very honest. It was the most honest record I've ever written.



    There are many critics who have an idealised version of where my strengths lie.

    When the media attention switches away from this story onto the next thing that happens in the world, the circumstances will still be there.

    This record may explain what I've been doing during the last 12 years when I haven't had an electric guitar in my hands.


    I know that when I make a record like The Delivery Man as a contrast to even Il Sogno, this is going to reach a wider audience, because it communicates in that very direct way.

    And over the last ten years, after my work with the Brodsky Quartet, I had the opportunity to write arrangements for chamber group, chamber orchestra, jazz orchestra, symphony orchestra even.

    I found with this record I had to really be strong-willed, because in the past I've tended to tinker and add a thing or take a thing away, and nearly always been wrong.

    It would be a surprise if people thought I would be playing a lot of rock 'n' roll.

    I believe that music is connected by human passions and curiosities rather than by marketing strategies.

    The songs will tell a story that I have imagined existing between the lines of Andersen's biography and some of his most famous tales, ... They speak of a misfit's love for an unattainable woman and a struggle between a huckster and someone who composes music in secret.

    And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music.

    I'd been to Memphis before, but we stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time.

    Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock'n'roll, but it was already a little past rock'n'roll when I started listening and making my own choices about music.

    Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing.


    You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity.

    Well, I've had a lot of different experiences in music over the years. And not everything you do can satisfy everybody's idealised version of you.

    Well, T Bone's had a remarkable career as a producer since the time that we first worked together. He was dividing his time between recording and producing when we first met, and touring. We toured together and we were great friends.

    But there are things in Il Sogno that the methods of The Delivery Man could never achieve.

    The words that are being spoken are serious, whether you take them at face value or listen to them at all, ... I'm not a preacher, I'm a singer. I can sing about serious things, but I don't think I have to put on a pious face to do it.

    We were really looking for a fresh sound, and I think you can hear that with the use of electronics on the record, ... It makes it fun to play loud music without it being a retro thing at all.

    Mention Hubert Sumlin, as well, because Hubert's a great man, and again, you know, I don't play the guitar very good, but when I'm playing this kind of music, I always have him in my mind. I wish I could play like Hubert.

    Commercial radio is owned by one or two corporations now, and they're not in the music business. They're in the advertising business, ... So let's not kid ourselves. If you want to hear music, go buy a guitar.


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