Some extracts from an interview between 'Good Afternoon' presenter Mavis Nicholson and singer Elvis Costello First shown: 27/09/1977 To license a clip please e mail: archive@fremantle.com Quote: VT17903
A simple observation... Having seen 'Costello' twice, once in the late '70s and again the late '90s, we were given two distinct entity. The former was angry and full of contempt. Now this was the end of a long tour in Los Angeles and it is often the case with so many acts. He played a tight, professional 40 minute set and blazed off the stage. The latter, two decades removed, was the kindest, ine of the most generous, performances I have ever seen. He told stories and jokes and played for hours like an old pro. It was akin to sitting with friends, strumming and singing sround a camp fire, with some amplifiers, etc ...
Elvis Costello is brilliant love his music and world view, he produced The Specials album around this time he was waaaaaay ahead of his time amazing musician happy holidays to all the Elvis Costello fans 🤓🎅🏼⛄🎄
Very interesting guy. And cut Mavis some slack, she'd been listening to the album and trying to I guess understand it, if that were possible. She looks at him with a combination of interest, shock and wonderment. What an intelligent young man. It's sad, and shocking, too, to see that this is not even fifty years ago, and we are now in 2024 absolutely light years away in the level of culture. You could not have an interview or interviewer now like this. There would be dumb questions, interruptions, questions asked and then the word " because" inserted to make the question more like a bloody statement from the interview. In Britain today, we have no culture, because most people don't have any concept of patience, intellect or manners. As for being properly educated, forget it. A great watch, but makes me so depressed, too.
Remember the big hit Oliver's Army back in '77 strangely the year of the passing away of king Elvis Presley whom I'm a fan of. When I saw Elvis Costello sing Alison with Elvis Presley's guitar on the Johnathan Ross show with Priscilla Presley and Danny Dyer I thought it was a great bit of TV and became more of a fan. I saw Elvis Costello yesterday in Berwick Street, with his young son, I presume, said hello to him, a real nice guy.
He's 23 I was 13, and didn't get to appreciate his work until I was late-teens, but as young as he and I were back then, a lot of his songs resonate in a surprisingly similar way now as back then. And without fawning too much, I'm still struck that someone so relatively young could be so articulate and cool calm calculated in the context of songs which carry such understated yet strong emotions and opinions. I can still listen to and sing along with so many of the songs even now that I'm 60, it becomes almost timeless, like I can go back to being 18-20 and still relate to them now like hardly any time has passed. That's a special talent on his part indeed.
Here after almost being done with his autobiography. He has an intelligence about music that is astonishing. His father was a singer for show bands and had a jazz background. He made his way into the world of music as a fan and lover of everything from the Beatles to Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and his understanding of both jazz and classical music is also profound. His lyrics are challenging, his melodies never predictable, and his performances are always full of emotion and energy. While he wasn’t punk per se, he was cut from the ‘77 era and he had the energy in him to withstand the scrutiny of punks and pop music fans. I am utterly impressed with his humility which belies his immense talent. A man out of time and for all seasons, is the prolific songsmith Declan MacManus.
I was really into EC up to and including Blood And Chocolate then never went further, besides the Burt Bacharach album. What ones after B&C are worth checking out ? My favourites are This Years Model and Imperial Bedroom.
If those are your favorites, you might like 2 of his most recent 3: Look Now from like 2018 and The Boy Named If from about 2 years ago. Extraordinary stuff.
Then again, so is punk. Jazz, classical, and authentic folk (folk without guitars and chords and songwriters) and their ethnic equivalents are not pop. All the rest is pop.
@hv1225 I stand corrected. I had forgotten about discos longer life elsewhere. Elvis Costello didn't really have much fame here until the early 80's with the aid of MTV
No we don't. There are tons of great new artists if you stay away from the top100. I love Costello but I'm sick of people claiming old music is the only good art ever made and everything today sucks. I think it's because people can't get past the music they hear when they're in their teens perhaps.
@@littleripper312100%. I've been thinking about making a playlist of good new rock songs to post anytime when someone says new music is bad overall lol.
Glad to see that the guardian and new statesmen have changes since his time. Proper down to earth now and no longer into scientific like taxonomies of working class art, whilst drooling for the arts of the more sophisticated classes.
at 4:27 "patron saint for losers" - yeah, they don't need a patron saint. for all the help and guidance they would receive from such an entity, they'd turn around and rip him from limb to limb! i'm glad he stated clearly he was not interested in this kind of employment haha. "the pay ain't good enough!" hahaha
Yes, he has. He’s gotten much more articulate, and his musical interests, knowledge, and sensitivity have broadened considerably. Even his accent has changed.
He was so sweet and clever and charming here on his first TV interview - and he quickly turned so nasty and arrogant and sour thanks to the coke, ego and alcohol.
Interesting - he’s a funny one. I’ve always really rated him as a musician and songwriter, but don’t know anything about his trajectory other than musically. Like you say, in this he just comes across as intelligent, totally un-egotistical and nice. Guess he went the way of a lot of pop/rock stars that get famous and have too much money. Is there a specific incident/interview or whatever that makes you say that, though?
@@vooveks There was an infamous incident in 1979 that changed the trajectory of his career. It was a bad, drunken and possibly coked-up moment when he dropped some racial slurs and got punched out by Bonnie Bramlett. The fallout from it may have both kept him from becoming a Springsteen-sized superstar and saved his life. If you see or read an interview from the early 80s on (and listen to the musical and emotional range of his work) , though, it's clear that he is a brilliant, thoughtful and generous person. (Albeit grumpy sometimes.) Wouldn't overstate the "non-egotistical" though; it's clear along with everything else that he knows he's really good.
Middle class Mavis has no idea what Declan is really talking about and the little tiny crumbs she does pick up on , she disagrees. p.s Mavis looks a bit like Roisin Murphy in this vid.
I'm not a oh I gotta get his Elvis Costello CDs but I like Costello always have what I like most his teeth .I myself have crooked teeth at 50 yrs so I love when they change because they get money or are told to change .
