Elvis Costello Quotes

• 

  If you don’t know what is wrong with me, then you don’t know what you’ve missed.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Friendship

  Tags in Miss

• The battle with the bottle is nothing so novel.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music

• The songs weren’t theirs any more. They were everybody’s.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

• Some music that I don’t take to in modern orchestral stuff just seems to be trying to do something with an orchestra that Jimi Hendrix could do so much better with an electric guitar and a fuzzbox. Why create a hideous sound with violas when they were made to sound melodious and agreeable?

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

• There is something kind of absurd about people who live in such a comfortable, cushioned, spoiled society tattooing themselves and piercing themselves to make them appear tribal.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

• It would be like comparing blancmange and mustard gas.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Opportunity

  Tags in Composer, Reputation

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People, Sensitive, Person, Memphis

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Self, Strong

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Songs, Different, Type

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Country

  Tags in Music

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Opportunity

  Tags in Group, Performance, Arrangement

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Feeling

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Experience

  Tags in Honest

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People, Listening, Music

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Person, Great, Guitarist

• My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Ultimate, Vocation

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

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Self, Harmony, Everybody

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

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Human, Passions, Curiosity

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

  Elvis Costello

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Delivery, Man

Elvis Costello (33)

Birth:	25th August, 1954
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Lyricist, Musician, Record Producer, Singer

About

Elvis Costello was born in Paddington, London, UK. Declan Patrick MacManus, better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He began his career as part of London's pub rock scene in the early 1970s. His critically acclaimed debut album, My Aim Is True, was recorded in 1977. His second album, This Year's Model, was released in 1978. His third album, Armed Forces, was released in 1979, and features his most successful single "Oliver's Army". He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award.

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Today's Anniversary - 23rd November

Births

• 1887 - William Henry Pratt
• 1896 - Klement Gottwald
• 1909 - Nigel Tranter
• 1945 - Dennis Nilsen
• 1974 - Saku Koivu

Deaths

• 1973 - Sessue Hayakawa
• 1821 - Sir James Mansfield
• 1995 - Louis Malle
• 1991 - Klaus Kinski
• 2001 - Mary Whitehouse