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Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink

by Elvis Costello
Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780399167256
ISBN10: 0399167250
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Staff Pick

Clocking in at a whopping 688 pages and covering his entire life and career, Elvis Costello's memoir is not light on detail. Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink is the funny, moving, unique story of one of the best pop musicians working today (and, somewhat unfairly, he can tell stories and craft prose almost as well as he can write music). Recommended By Jill O., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Born Declan Patrick MacManus, Elvis Costello was raised in London and Liverpool, grandson of a trumpet player on the White Star Line and son of a jazz musician who became a successful radio dance-band vocalist. Costello went into the family business and before he was twenty-four took the popular music world by storm.

Costello continues to add to one of the most intriguing and extensive songbooks of our day. His performances have taken him from strumming a cardboard guitar in his parents’ front room to fronting a rock and roll band on our television screens and performing in the world’s greatest concert halls in a wild variety of company. Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink describes how Costello’s career has endured for almost four decades through a combination of dumb luck and animal cunning, even managing the occasional absurd episode of pop stardom.

This memoir, written entirely by Costello, offers his unique view of his unlikely and sometimes comical rise to international success, with diversions through the previously undocumented emotional foundations of some of his best-known songs and the hits of tomorrow. It features many stories and observations about his renowned cowriters and co-conspirators, though Costello also pauses along the way for considerations of the less appealing side of fame.

Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink
provides readers with a master’s catalogue of a lifetime of great music. Costello reveals the process behind writing and recording legendary albums like My Aim Is True, This Year’s Model, Armed Forces, Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom, and King of America. He tells the detailed stories, experiences, and emotions behind such beloved songs as “Alison,” “Accidents Will Happen,” “Watching the Detectives,” “Oliver’s Army,” “Welcome to the Working Week,” “Radio Radio,” “Shipbuilding,” and “Veronica,” the last of which is one of a number of songs revealed to connect to the lives of the previous generations of his family.

Costello recounts his collaborations with George Jones, Chet Baker, and T Bone Burnett, and writes about Allen Toussaint’s inspiring return to work after the disasters following Hurricane Katrina. He describes writing songs with Paul McCartney, the Brodsky Quartet, Burt Bacharach, and The Roots during moments of intense personal crisis and profound sorrow. He shares curious experiences in the company of The Clash, Tony Bennett, The Specials, Van Morrison, and Aretha Franklin; writing songs for Solomon Burke and Johnny Cash; and touring with Bob Dylan; along with his appreciation of the records of Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, David Ackles, and almost everything on the Tamla Motown label.

Costello chronicles his musical apprenticeship, a child’s view of his father Ross MacManus’ career on radio and in the dancehall; his own initial almost comical steps in folk clubs and cellar dive before his first sessions for Stiff Record, the formation of the Attractions, and his frenetic and ultimately notorious third U.S. tour. He takes readers behind the scenes of Top of the Pops and Saturday Night Live, and his own show, Spectacle, on which he hosted artists such as Lou Reed, Elton John, Levon Helm, Jesse Winchester, Bruce Springsteen, and President Bill Clinton.

The idiosyncratic memoir of a singular man, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink is destined to be a classic.

 

Review

“Plenty of tales to keep the pages turning. Readers will be fascinated by Costello’s stories…his book feels like a discussion between friends over a pint.” Publishers Weekly

Review

“Costello’s prose cuts with the same spiky wit and observational power as his well-known lyrics…packed with great lines, vivid anecdotes…a treat for his many fans.” Kirkus Reviews

Review

“This is a big book, literally, by one of the best rockers in the business. Given the singular, and eclectic, nature of his career, it is no surprise that Elvis Costello’s anecdotal autobiography is an idiosyncratic journey through his music and the people and places that have inspired him…A must for Costello fans everywhere.” Booklist (starred review)

Review

“With an encyclopedic knowledge and appreciation for, and deep love of, music, and with an expressive power and heart, Costello’s memoir will take its place in the highest echelons of the genre.” Library Journal (starred review)

Review

“Long one of music’s wittiest, smartest, and most perceptive lyricists, Costello has done his legacy proud with his new book, which, thankfully, goes far beyond his angry-young-man days, most movingly in its frequent reminiscences about the relationship between the singer and his musician father.” New York Magazine

Review

“Often brilliant and wholly idiosyncratic.” David Ulin, Los Angeles Times

Review

“In a world littered with uneven (and largely ghosted) celebrity memoirs, “Disappearing Ink” is a beautifully written revelation. Dare I blaspheme by declaring I liked it even more than the excellent memoirs produced by Bob Dylan and Keith Richards? Costello embraces the basic qualities of good storytelling: the use of detail, tension and humor....The book is also a gold mine for Costello obsessives who have spent decades dissecting and analyzing his every lyrical zinger. But it’s not just for fans, more “Angela’s Ashes” than Motley Crue’s “The Dirt.” “Unfaithful Music” is a lyrical tale that stretches across generations, geography and a century of popular song. The book serves as both a musical and personal anthropology.“ Geoff Edgers, The Washington Post

Review

“….Some of the best writing — funny, strange, spiteful, anguished — we’ve ever had from an important musician.” Dwight Garner, New York Times

About the Author

Elvis Costello is a Grammy award-winning musician whose career spans almost four decades. A prolific singer-songwriter, Costello has released several critically-acclaimed albums, and in 2003 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 3 (1 comments)

`
Lukas , February 15, 2016 (view all comments by Lukas)
In recent years, every musician from Carrie Brownstein to Richard Hell has dropped a memoir. Given that Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus) has long been one of the most literate, witty, and verbose songwriters, it's a little surprising he's waited this long to write his autobiography. But here it is, weighing in at a whopping 670 pages. I agree with the other comment: it could've used some judicious editing. That's not to say that Costello isn't an engaging and insightful storyteller, it's just that he tends to ramble, especially towards the end of the book when the quality of his music tappers off. A rabid music fan whose catholic taste embraces everything from jazz to punk, Costello talks about family, other musicians (he's met just about everyone), and, especially, the furious early years of his career, where he recorded and toured with the mighty Attractions. These sections will probably be of most interest to longtime fans. So kick back, put a few records on, and enjoy, but be prepared to skim the last 100 pages. "Well I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused."

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780399167256
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
10/13/2015
Publisher:
Blue Rider Press
Pages:
674
Height:
9.25
Width:
9.25
Thickness:
1.25
Age Range:
from 18 and up
Grade Range:
from 12
Number of Units:
11
Author:
Elvis Costello
Author:
Elvis Costello
Subject:
Biography-Composers and Musicians

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