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This is where you can
read how the fans initially became fans of Elvis Costello
My parents have listened to EC
forever. And I literally mean forever, since he was just starting
out. On the last count my Father had seen him in concert nearly
twenty times. He is the epitome of EC fan base, the typical English
middle-aged, middleclass listener. All of their friends listen
to him and have done ever since they were at university, twenty
odd years ago. On the other hand I am not the average fan. I’m
a sixteen year old girl, and am what I like to call a “second
generation” EC fan. Ever since I was little I have listened
to EC, and one of my Father’s favourite memories of me was
a holiday we had away, when I wondered down the stairs age six
singing the lyrics to Lipstick Vogue. I have grown up and been
nurtured on EC, and he is perhaps the reason I have such high
standards on my music, and refuse to listen to any old crap. I began listening to Elvis Costello
about 5 years ago. I just heard pieces like " veronica"(killer
song), " red shoes" (also good), and other of his popular
songs. But I really aquired a taste for him with his latest album,
" When I was cruel". Costello truly is an innovative
artist, and I don't write this lightly. His style is different
from any artist. When I listened to his lyrics and melodies on
songs like " radio silence", " little blue window",
" alibi", and " tart", I knew he had not deliberated
on moving foward and continuing his evolution as an orginal musician.
I sincerely hope he continues to be so uninhibited. Although my story is recently lived, I consider it extremely heart-filled and I hope it's impression on readers lasts much longer than its short tenure in my heart. My story is a bit more dramatic than some of the others I have read on the website, as I could easily see my experiences being put to words written by Elvis himself in one of his gloomy, spitefull-type songs. My story begins as follows. The very first EC song that I have ever noticeably listened to was "Alison". I received a copy of the song from my girlfriend, Allison, in a "mix" CD entitled "Dan and Allison's Love Song Mix". The CD is comprised of a number of Allison's favorite love-songs, including "We Belong" by Pat Benatar, "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, "Secret Garden" by Bruce Springsteen and, of course, "Alison" by EC. The CD was given to me for my birthday this past June, at the height of our relationship. It was a very special gift, and "Alison" soon became on of my favorite songs on the 16-track mix. It even held special significance for Allison, as she claimed that her parents named her after the song. Because my spirits were so high, I failed to really understand the meaning of the lyrics, as I viewed the song to be a simple love song, rather than a ballad of heartbreak and spite. I thought Allison was the love of my life. I truly felt (and still do feel, of course) that she was my soulmate and the woman I was destined to spend eternity with. The rest of the summer continued with the love and beauty of the previous months, as my love for Allison grew even stronger still. Regrettably, she and I went on a three week tour this past August of the British Isles and France with a 26-member tour group. I had been looking forward to the trip even before Allison and I started dating, as she and I had been close friends before we fell in love. In Europe, small disagreements grew into arguments, which developed into a temporary annoyance with each other. She obviously felt that she had had enough, so with roughly a week left in the trip she broke up with me, and left my heart utterly crushed. The breakup took my complete suprise, as I had naively imagined us being together forever, not even considering any other alternatives to that destiny. Once back in the states, I was in utter depression for the three or four months immediately following my return home. Allison was my life, and once she left, I felt as if my desire to live had gone with her. In desperate attempts to find any sort of happiness somewhere, I popped "Dan and Allison's Love Song Mix" into my CD player and listened to it over and over again. It was then that I truly began to appreciate the meaning behind "Alison". So much so that I was brought to tears everytime I heard the song, it was just that powerful to my beaten emotions. I became curious about Elvis' history and what experiences compelled him write such a song which I could relate to so incredibly well. Before long I had purchased My Aim is True, as well as his 42-track greatest hits album. The songs, especially the ones dealing with ruined relationships (especially "Good Year for the Roses", "I Want You", and "Indoor Fireworks"), truly put things into perspective for me and gave me some much-needed hope for the future of my love-life. With the help of EC's brilliant
lyrics, as well as his compassionate voice and creative blend
of many musical genres, I'm pleased to say that I'm well on my
way to fully getting over the heartbreak caused by Allison. I've
been given new hope and I now know, thanks to Elvis, that losing
love is a wound that will scar, but it will eventually be healed.
It was sometime around 1984...
MTV was a new thing. And back then they played music... strange
and exciting music, the likes my sheltered midwestern ears had
never heard accompanied by strange and exciting images I'd never
seen. It was the beginning of an obsession with music for me and
I began avidly seeking out new artists - or at least artists that
were new to me... I remember seeing a video for "Every Day
I Write The Book". The song instantly appealed to me, and
the name Elvis Costello got scratched in my mental notebook of
all the artists and musicians I wanted to hear more of. At the
local library I borrowed a couple of lps, "Trust" and
a Greatest Hits compilation of his early stuff... I remember listening
through them, liking some songs, confused by others. I made a
tape of some of my favorites, returned the records and plunged
further into other artists that spoke more to my youthful tastes. By Joe Burns I have been a fan of King Costello
for about 10-11 years. One day I was in the car with my dad
on the way to school(I was 4) and I heard a song on the radio-So
I asked my dad 'who was it'? He told me it was a band called
Steely Dan and asked 'did I like it'? I replied 'yes,Daddy it's
a lot better than the other music'! I was referring to Banananrama
and suchlike. But the one that was and still is my favourite is Elvis Costello, I can't say it was immediate attraction but as I got older and understood the lyrics more I realised I had found a (hopefully) never ending fountain of brilliant and beautiful music. I remember after listening to his albums for over 4 years my dad gave me the news that I would get to see the man in person with the attractions,(It was about time too). I remember getting all dressed up and the feeling of excitement in my chest as we walked into the venue- I also remember the disappointment of our seats. So my dad told one of the security guards it was my birthday and we were ushered into the best seats in the house. That night on the balcony regardless of sex, age or your football preference(Germany won the semi-final European Cup) we all sang and danced like there was no tomorrow-it would be the last time the Attractions would play together in Ireland. I remember when he came out on stage(after a long delay-he claimed his innocence-but we knew he had been watching the match) and began Oliver's Army(half the song was played with just a guitar and then the others ran on stage) I felt shivers run up and down my spine and before the song was over I knew I would remember that night forever. I have seen him three more times since then and I hope to always get the chance whenever he drops by Ireland. These day's I spend all my money
and Saturday's looking for and buying all his work on vinyl. Niamh (beaverbuttercup)
He didn't even want to be paid, that is how up he was and
he owned a record store no less. I am sure I about wore
out the tape and many others, the original I still have
hidden away. Anyway, this friend said in December of 77 watch
SNL to see EC. I had rarely seen it, as I wasn't really supposed
to, I was only 13. His performance was amazing of course
with Radio Radio still blaring in my head. In months TYM was
out and the rest is history. The music was and is to this day the best singing and songwriting
I have ever heard. My tastes run very deep and his words and
style always bring me back to all the high points of my life
growing up. There is really nothing of his work I don't
love and anything he touched almost had the same affect with
folks like Squeeze and The Specials etc. Costello is the best
PERIOD Take No Action looking elsewhere. Damon, I'm happy to tell you how I became an EC fan. The next album was titled This Years Model. I played that album
too, and what did I discover but my desparately searched for
song which of course was titled "I don't want to go to Chelsea"
not "I don't want to go to jail sir". So amazingly enough and
in a roundabout way I got back to Elvis anyway. Perhaps it was
fate all along. My family cannot believe I ever heard " jail
sir" instead of "Chelsea" but it was brand new to me, on the
radio and I was probably trying too hard to listen. About 1986, a friend of mine told
me about Elvis Costello and recorded for me a tape with PUNCH
THE CLOCK and some songs from GET HAPPY! I told him that I knew
just a little about Elvis and at that time I thought that he was
some kind of clown singer, like weird al yankowicz (sorry, I cant
speel correctly the name of that singer that sings versions of
madonna, michael jackson and nirvana). He gave me this wrong impression
after I saw EVERYDAY I WRITE THE BOOK videoclip. I am really into what i call the avant garde pop song. The first Elvis song that really caught my attention was pills and soap. Spike is a masterpiece, especially gods comic. When mighty like a rose came out I listened to it a million times, especially couldn't call it unexpected 4. I had been interested in baroque pop and songs with strings and art songs and then I heard about the juliet letters which became my favorite album of all time. After that somehow Elvis became
my favorite artist. Which is strange because I hear so many people
going on about the early stuff but I think he just keeps getting
better. I still love the early stuff, imperial bedroom in particular.
but his work keepes getting more intriguing all the time. I had
a chance to see steve in NY with a trio, fantastic avant chamber
jazz and the opera was great Elvis singing was fantastic and so
was Ron Sexsmith's. I hope 'the midsummers' music gets released
and I hope he gets on better with the label I hate waiting for
new stuff. But the Ute Lemper and Harle and Jazz Passengers stuff
is good to have in the meantime. and I am so anxious to hear the
Anne Sophie thing. Thomas How I became an EXTREME Elvis Costello fan!!! It first occured to me in the year 1398 that great music came in the form of men with the name Elvis. Take for example, Elvis Presley, Elvis Costello, etc. It was in this same year that I became great friends with a prophet named Stavetato. Stavetato told me of a time when a man by the name, Elvis Costello, would surely conquer the future country of America, and soon thereafter take the world by storm. I then moved to purchasing pre-made copies of the future known artist, Elvis C. These copies of his future albums were carved in stone, and the musical reverberations contained within that stone with a wire brush. I soon realized the perpensity of Elvis' songs resided mostly in his amazing guitar virtuosity. You would not believe the reactions of the many sufferers of the black plague that were exposed to Elvis' future music. Some were miraculously healed. Others were consumed in a mindless trance induced by Elvis' songs. I became one of the latter. You may have already noticed that I am timeless. I have been around through the ages. My band, which originated in the meideval times, wished to reincarnate elvis' music. To cut this history of me and my friends' timeless lives, let me tell you this. Our story begins with the bite of a magical spider. This spider gave us endless life. This of course was hundreds of years ago now. Our music, we believe can change the world as we know it. Meideval music can do this. Meideval rock music is what it is all about. It contains love. We will show you this, else you get the guillotine. Croatian Puppet I became a fan of Elvis Costello in a very strage way. While in high school, I was a very big fan of They Might Be Giants, and friends of mine would tease me calling them, "They Might Be Elvis Costello" based on John Flansburgh's resembelence to Elvis Costello. Though I knew "Radio, Radio", I didn't know anything else by EC. My friends teasing convinced me
to look into EC. I bought the green rykodisk best of album, and
I was blown away. It was so incredible. After that, I bought album
after album, accumulating all of his major releases after 6 months
and then working on the rarities. I am so happy that my friends
teased me!!! it's no huge thing- i read "less than zero" some years ago and have subsequently been selectively picking through ec's catalogue. my big story about ec is horribly academic, which is why it will never happen: if i were a pretentious grad student, my thesis would be about representations of the stereotypical "angry young man" in literature, film, pop music, blah blah, with some pretty standard stuff like catcher in the rye and some brett easton ellis and gatsby and maybe even nick hornby. ec relates to this cause of the stifling caricature of his psycho-nerd on MAIT, TYM, and AF, and the old geezer version on BAC, which is still his most known persona. that's about as far as i've got, mostly because i don't want to be unfairly judgemental to any of these works for the sake of contributing to the rising tide of academia-induced crap... but then again i'm not a grad student- i'm just a songwriting bass player with an english b.a. (a dangerously pretentious thing in itself). respond to music with music, i say. i learned that from a cartoon psycho-nerd. hope that helps, Keir My stepfather, who is a recovering alcoholic, used to listen to MAIT, all the time when I was trying to sleep at night. The songs got buried in my head. (Pretty good story so far, eh?). Anyhow, when I was in college, I rediscovered Elvis Costello and bought the re-released version of MAIT on CD. I remembered all the songs by heart and soon was buying Elvis Costello albums all the time. In addition to owning nearly every one of his albums on CD, I collect Elvis Costello vinyl, particularly colored vinyl and picture discs. His music has truly touched my life, and I find myself quoting his lyrics nearly every day. He is a gifted musician and composer. Most people my age, 26, have no idea who he is. As the quality of music available
today continues to degrade--the only constant in the universe
is Elvis Costello. I would like to meet him some day, just to
shake his hand and thank him for making such wonderful music.
He has opened my eyes to what great music should be, and I thank
him for it. That's about it. Thanks for giving me the opportunity
to respond. Pete In 1989 towards the ending of my military service, I received a disk of the famous group, Modern Talking, as a farewell present from my friends. This of course was done in some sort of a twisted humor since I really hated that band and my musical flavor was completly different (the Smiths). The idea of that practical joke was of my best friend Amir Yampel. I went to replace the "gift" with
a more bearable option and, for some reason, I laid my hands on
Veronica (I don't remember if that's the name of the disk but
you'll catch my drift). This was the beginning of a beautiful
friendship and because of that incident, not only me but also
Amir, become very big fans of LHC. Rami
Little did I know then that this man would forever dominate my musical life. I then recalled that I had earlier spotted a single prominently displayed at Bleeker Bob's in the Village bearing that strange moniker "Elvis Costello". In the past, I had learned to stay clear of some strange new disks that passed through Bob's and simply had let it past by. In the coming weeks the station played more of Elvis and the import LP set some kind of sales record at the time in the U.S. I soon had fallen in love with the record and anxiously awaited the live dates that I hoped would follow. (I also would later pay $30 for a copy of that Less Than Zero picture sleeve single I let slip by!) I saw my first performance by Elvis Costello & the Attractions at their NYC debut at The Bottom Line. After standing in the cold outside on the standing room line on Mercer Street, I was led inside to a spot standing up against the wall behind the side of the stage. I soon learned why the shows were sold out as I saw the seated audience was full of industry types. Elvis was to notice this as well as he sang "watching the defectives" and pointed at them. It was a powerful show to say the least and I needed more. I followed it up two nights later with a Friday night "road trip" to The Stone Pony in Asbury Park , New Jersey for the final show of that first U.S. tour. Two great sets filled with a whole bunch of new songs and a couple of covers! EC caught some flack in the land of Springsteen (my hero at the time) when he introduced his Bruce (Mr. Thomas on bass) as "the future of rock & roll". His play on Jon Landau's legendary remark was not overlooked by some fans of the "other Bruce" in the crowd. I was witness to one drunken bloke pounding on the backstage door between sets saying that EC's music was nothing more than "96 Tears". (A reference to the prominence of Mr. Nieve's Farfisa organ and the old hit by ? Mark & The Mysterians which featured same.) I was really impressed that this newest of the wave from the U.K.. wasn't as crude as was in fashion at the time as he started the second set with a sincere apology that he meant no offense with his remarks! Speaking of crude, I am forever grateful to Messrs. Rotten and Vicious since The Sex Pistols cancellation on Saturday Night Live the next night made way for one of U.S. television's most historic rock & roll performances. "Stop, there's no reason for doing this song" he said as an aborted Less Than Zero turned into Radio Radio driving the censors mad. Producer Lorne Michaels told him he would never be invited back on NBC and as we all know EC has done both SNL and the Tonight Show twice since. That night was also to start my career as a Costello collector as I taped the SNL broadcast on some large video tape format that doesn't even exist anymore! A fitting end to my first week as a Costello-follower. It has been a real pleasure being a Costello
fan and follower although in the recent years frequent flyer
miles certainly were a help in getting to see live shows. Until
the May 1994 Austin show with the Attractions, it had been almost
seven years since EC played Texas, my home since 1980. I consider
it a miracle that I have been able to balance my career and
family and have somehow managed to not miss a tour. Outside
of the tours, the best part about being a Costello fan/collector
is the never-ending wealth of material. It seems that there
is always some EC-related release on the horizon; a reissue,
compilation, soundtrack, song written for someone else, etc.
The man certainly keeps us on our toes and the results are always
satisfying. It is with great joy that we kick off this newsletter.
My thanks go out to our predecessors in the past and we certainly
compliment everything that they have done. A big thanks also
goes out to all those who helped contribute to the first issue.
Thanks Mark, Alfonso, Mark, Dave, Byron and Janet - I couldn't
have done it without your help.
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