Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink is the long-awaited memoir from Elvis Costello, one of rock and roll's most iconic stars.
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 had taken the popular music world by storm before he was twenty-four.
Costello continues to add to one of the most intriguing and extensive songbooks of the day. His performances have taken him from a cardboard guitar in his front room to fronting a rock and roll band on your television screen and performing in the world's greatest concert halls in a wild variety of company. Unfaithful Music describes how Costello's career has somehow endured for almost four decades through a combination of dumb luck and animal cunning, even managing the occasional absurd episode of pop stardom.
The memoir, written entirely by Costello himself, 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. The book contains many stories and observations about his renowned co-writers and co-conspirators, though Costello also pauses along the way for considerations on the less appealing side of infamy.
Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink is destined to be a classic, idiosyncratic memoir of a singular man.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this massive, circuitous biography, rock music icon Costello attempts to put his life into context, with varying degrees of success. Declan Patrick McManus, aka Elvis Costello, had music in his blood. His grandfather was a trumpet player with the White Star Line, and his father had a long, quirky career as a singer in a dance band and a radio show host, keeping him away from home a great deal. Young Costello was constantly surrounded by music and musicians. Though he spent most of his childhood living with his mother, it was his father who had the greatest influence on him as a performer. He was privy to the latest releases and shared them with his eager son, bonding over a mutual love of music. The narrative rambles, though there are plenty of tales to keep the pages turning. Readers will be fascinated by Costello's stories of witnessing the Clash recording "London Calling," absentmindedly leaving his guitar at the White House, and performing at Live Aid, yet he offers them only as asides. Hits such "Accidents Will Happen" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" are mentioned only in passing. However, many of his albums are covered in greater detail, as are observations on David Bowie's skill at party games and Burt Bacharach's charm. Costello's an endearing, humble narrator, frequently awed by the opportunity to work with legends such as Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, and Chet Baker. For better or worse, his book feels like a discussion between friends over a pint.
