Unfaithful music & disappearing ink /

*Starred 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. Born Declan Patrick MacManus, he fondly recalls his father's show-business career in England, the first time he heard the Beatles' Please Please Me (thrilling and confusing), his early gigs, his wide-eyed first time in America, his controversial debut on Saturday Night Live, his collaboration with Paul McCartney, and his marriage to jazz singer-pianist Diana Krall. Costello offers many small delights and revelations. For example, we learn that Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops is one of his heroes and that the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville is his favorite stage in the world. We learn, too, about the inspiration for many of his songs, from Alison to Pump It Up to Watching the Detectives. Despite the name-dropping (Dylan, Springsteen, Bowie, Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis), Costello comes across as the perennial outsider, as someone who is surprised that he has been invited to the party. A must for Costello fans everywhere.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2015 Booklist

Costello's memoir is a nonlinear exploration of his life and career, weaving stories of his childhood and family history in with tales of rock fame. The author includes the requisite stories of the famous recording artists he's met and worked with but also analyzes his own lyrics, meditates on the absurdities of American and English cultures, and doesn't shy away from his own failings and missteps. Costello's father, a second-generation working musician himself, is at the heart of the book, and the author continually draws connections from his own love of music back to his father's influence. Costello's reading is as expressive, heartfelt and articulate as the text itself, funny, sincere and sad by turns. VERDICT For fans of the author and of thoughtful musical biographies. ["A fascinating, rich, and evocative memoir told with warmth, intelligence, and wit and filled with memorable descriptions and observations": LJ 11/1/15 starred review of the Blue Rider hc.]-Jason Puckett, -Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Everything you ever wanted to knowand moreabout hyperliterate songwriter and performer Costello. It becomes immediately clear in this voluminous debut memoir that Costello's prose cuts with the same spiky wit and observational power as his well-known lyricse.g., upon meeting Bruce Springsteen: "he laughed like steam escaping from a radiator." What this memoir could've used was a more proactive editor to rein in its disjointed structure and rambling eccentricities. In one chapter, we learn about Costello's 20-something rise to stardom in 1977; the next chapter covers his birth. Readers will need to forget trying to follow this memoir in a chronological way, which may be appropriate when considering his unconventional songwriting. Whatever the Byzantine structure, certainly there's no part of his life left untouchedfrom his childhood growing up in Liverpool and London watching his father perform as a singer with the Joe Loss Orchestra to getting his first band together and on to becoming the jittery 1970s New Wave answer to Bob Dylan. Although Costello (born Declan MacManus) led a routine, working-class existence in his teens and early 20s, not surprisingly, the most scintillating time in his life to read about is his unlikely rise to fame in the '70s with his band the Attractions and Stiff Records. Costello isn't coy when discussing the origins of his songs and detailing the often surprising musical influences behind them. His writing on his later elder statesman yearsincluding his marriage to Diana Krall and his dabbling with string quartets and orchestrasis pleasantly informative, but his discussions of his middle ages are mostly akin to reading someone's CV. They lack the same thrill of youth that drives the recollection of his hand-to-mouth days as a struggling punk. Overlong but still packed with great lines, vivid anecdotes, and plenty of photos. Certainly a treat for his many fans. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.