Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink

A supremely rich work, not to be dismissed even if you haven’t enjoyed Costello
I am reading Elvis Costello’s “Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink.”I acquired it a while back and was saving it; holiday on Sanibel, in the peace and quiet of the lanai looking out over the gulf with pelicans and terns hovering then plunging to lunch seems an ideal setting.This book is what I expected but also not that. Its three modes became clear to me only gradually.The first and most obvious is, so to speak, a background narrative — the life story of Declan McManus (or MacManus, depending on where in England Elvis’ father, a band singer, was living at the time). And that is pretty interesting; music and then girls, and all kinds of detail about life in England during the late fifties and early sixties which sounded both deeply familiar and oddly alien (my own experiences were far more rural).But next one finds, and one might have hoped to find, a sort of catalogue raisonnée of all his songs, from the beginning — albeit in allusive, rather poetic terms. But these are the terms in which I became fond of Costello in the first place — his humour with language. And unsurprisingly I find it here in the book as well; he writes“One night in 1985, I was drinking Gibsons with T Bone Burnett in a Sunset Boulevard hotel, which was known locally as “The La Mondrian.” It was obviously the very, very definite article.”That’s the sort of thing that reaches me, directly and with a stab of pleasure.The third phase of the book, which took longer to resolve itself to me, with my rather spotty and shallow musical knowledge, is that it is an education in the musical formation of one of the very best of the rock-punk-wave musicians to come out of Britain. I began to realize that Elvis, in listing the names of songs I’d heard but didn’t know enough about, or songs I had not heard but which were sung early by people I did know about, or songs I’d never heard of sung by people I’d never heard of, was setting a trail of breadcrumbs and inviting me to follow it and to learn by listening, where I can, to the reference.For instance:“All you could do was stand back in wonder, wondering when life would ever start.“This was not true of Peter Green. Though he was a guitar player of soul and nuance far beyond both that of his flashier contemporaries and certainly my novice abilities, the humanity of his singing was modest and intimate in a way that felt like he was among us, not above us. His rendition of “Need Your Love So Bad,” with its superb short opening solo that was the only guitar break I ever aspired to memorize, was my first acquaintance with the orchestrated blues of Little Willie John, an idiom most gloriously explored by Bobby “Blue” Bland.”And thus I found, and listened to, that song; and the text and song became thereby richer and my ignorance infinitesimally less deep.So I’m liking this book.

An erudite trip down a musical memory lane
As a pleasure reader, Elvis’s self -penned memoir is a total blast. Full of funny stories, poignant memories, insightful reflections, tasteful dishes and generally good writing. The man proves himself as a terrific writer as well as one of the great songwriters of our time.As a student of music, the mans knowledge and erudition is amazing! His recall of lyrics, styles, influence, names and dates can’t be faked. Maybe he had researchers help him with some details (Churchill did!) but I learned a lot about the history of pop, country and jazz from this book.As a songwriter, reading this book and its insider details we out how songs were written and what their lyrics signified was deep inspiration. Not to mention the poetry that comes through on every page.I’ve always loved Elvis’s songs and musicianship. His records are great and he’s a brilliant showman. Now I know that he is also a sneaky genius Dylan confidant who the very best (McCartney, Bacharach, Lynn, Toussant) have sought out to play and write with. No one with a passing interest in modern music should miss this brilliant memoir!

I was one of those who only knew of “Oliver’s Army”. This book obviously contains a whole lot more! Very engrossing. Elvis takes no prisoners with his writing – or with his lyrics – but his love of the works of so many others, and their influence upon him, is obvious. I loved the book, which contains many excerpts from his lyrics as they touch upon his life. It jumps about as far as the times are concerned, but this is the style of Elvis Costello. Stream of consciousness stuff. Very entertaining.

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