I’m not as big an
Elvis Costello fan as I thought I was.
Mind you, I’ve
always had tremendous respect for Elvis Costello as a songwriter. I’ve always
thought of him as the Woody Allen of pop music—only more prolific.
But I’ve just
finished reading Costello’s exhaustive (and poorly named) autobiography, Unfaithful
Music & Disappearing Ink, and the
result is somewhat anticlimactic.
I followed
Costello’s career pretty closely through his Columbia years (and even then it
was hard to keep up with his prodigious output), but then I kind of lost track
of him.
He turned up
again on my cultural radar a few years ago when he did an excellent talk show
on the Sundance Channel called Spectacle.
Even now, I’m
only scratching the surface of his accomplishments, because he also did a
number of collaborative albums with other musicians, some acting work and some
writing (including, obviously, this book).
All of this is
covered in minute detail in Unfaithful Music, but, if you’re not a super-dedicated Costello fan, chances are you’ll
be lost after the first few chapters.
The focus of the
book is clearly Costello’s music rather than his personal life, which is fine
with me. The most significant relationship in the book seems to be the one
between Costello and his father, who was also a musician. The most touching
scenes depict his father’s battle with (and eventual death from) Alzheimer’s.
(By contrast, his 18-year marriage to The Pogues’ Cait O’Riordan is dismissed
in a few short paragraphs.)
Musically, the
biggest revelation in the book is probably how the piano part for “Oliver’s
Army” was influenced by a similar piano part in Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” (Years
later, he runs into Abba’s Benny and Bjorn quietly eating dinner in a Swedish
café, one of many unlikely musical encounters that happen throughout the book.)
Given his
enormous output, what this book really could have used is a discography. (Thank
God for Wikipedia!) It also could have used some editing—or at least focus. It
jumps around a lot. And, as another reviewer pointed out, if you don’t
know the music, the lyrics—which are quoted extensively—tend to lose some of
their power.
Unfaithful
Music may be faithful to Costello’s music,
but it leaves something to be desired as an autobiography.
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