Elvis by Elvis -- Best of the Best!

Would you consider the audio edition of Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink to be better than the print version?

Of course I'll own both, but I'm soooooooo enjoying my private audience with the author as he shares the highs, the lows, the excesses and the achievements of an amazing life and career.

I've had the pleasure of listening to Elvis Costello's music (live and recorded) for nearly 40 years, with insights he's shared here and there into some of the inputs and inspirations behind his massive catalog.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Um, let me think...Elvis Costello? ;-)

What about Elvis Costello’s performance did you like?

I can't imagine enjoying anyone ELSE narrating this particular book. This is the tour Elvis has chosen to give us through HIS life, and his narrative style is comfortable and accessible.

This Elvis is so far removed from the Elvis I encountered in late '70s concerts, where the music did the talking and Elvis said little, if anything, to the audience. He's opened up over the ensuing decades, and now we've got over 18 hours (or 688 pages, or both) of this incredible wordsmith generously (and, I'm sure, selectively) using his words to illuminate other words and their origin.

16 people found this helpful

A Masterful Wordsmith

An extraordinary view into the life of an artist consumed by the experience of music & history. Not the standard birth to present day summation but a kaleidoscope of times & places, not unlike his lyrics.

9 people found this helpful

Thank You Uncle Declan For the Engaging Bedtime Tale

Mother, Father, I'm here in the zoo
I can't come home 'cause I've grown up too soon ...

Listening to Mr MacManus recount the winding path through his life, is nothing short of bewitched, bemoaned and bedazzled. The road map may not be linear, but for every detour and track back, the journey is certainly worth the effort an final destination. Not unlike his music, we listen and are challenged, listening intently — willingly.

To hear the storyteller's deep rich voice carry us through a lifetime of shared musical heritage and fatherly love, is oddly disconcerting, but also very endearing. We as listener, not only get to hear the written word, we get to hear it with inflections, warmth, wrath, and beguiling charm of the author himself.

Uncle Declan's bedtime tale shines heart warming light on details about his relationship with his father, his father's, and grandfather's love and commitment to music and performing, and by proxy, how they influenced the narrator himself.

The tale is full of surprises, relationships, both musical and personal, that the listener may not ever dreamed Uncle Declan was capable of — if we all viewed his life by the neurotic "character" portrayed in his first recordings.

It's these surprises, twists, mea culpas and contortions that unveils the more "human" side of the narrator, author, subject.

Having been an Audio Book virgin — up until this point — I'm certainly glad it was Uncle Declan who read me his story. It was so worth the time.

8 people found this helpful

Beyond Belief

What did you love best about Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink?

If you are an Elvis fan, this is your gospel ... an incredible history of music from the days when his dad sang in clubs around Liverpool (about the time my Great Grandfather was working the ships there) to his most recent goings on. The best thing is this: Elvis is an amazing writer, and this book gives you the glimpse into his soul that you've always wanted, and he startles you with his frankness, makes you laugh with his uncontrollable wit, and brings you to tears more than once with his devastating lines. This book brings life to the lyrics he has spent a lifetime carving, telling of his loves and woes, and it lets you get to know him as more than a musician, but as a dutiful son, a crappy husband (ouch) and an amazing father.

What did you like best about this story?

The music. The people. I am walking away with my appreciation for music enhanced by over 1,000%. I listened to the audio book and then went out and bought the accompanying CD and then bought a paper copy of the book too so I could reread it and highlight songs and artists I want to go back and listen to. Elvis is a musical genius, and a bit of that rubs off on you when you read this. It has to, you have no choice, you will succumb, this book is infectious.

What about Elvis Costello’s performance did you like?

Why would you read this book if you can have Elvis Costello read it to you? He's hysterical and forlorn, he's clever and sedate, he's mixed up and clear. He's everything you ever thought he would be and much more, and if you think he writes incredible lyrics, wait until you hear his short fiction and poetry. It took me twice as long to listen to this book because I kept backing up to re-listen to different parts.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My brother bought us tickets to see Elvis at the Mesa Amphitheater in Arizona in 1982, and I was so tired at work the next day I nearly fell asleep in front of the microfiche machine. That concert was both exhaustion and eye-opening bliss. The music! Steve Nieve! OMG! I saw Elvis again a few months ago opening for Steely Dan at the Shoreline -- my reaction to this was: Elvis doesn't OPEN for anyone. WTF?! He was just as amazing. This book seems to bring it all home, as I've seemingly lived my life around a soundtrack of Elvis' songs from the confusion of youth, the heartache of relationships, the joys of being alive. It's like he's got a telescope into my bedroom window and has seen everything for the last 35 years. Everything. I am so ashamed, but at least I have someone to share this with.

Any additional comments?

There should be some secret way of giving a book an extra star to two. I try to be careful about giving 5 stars, but in this case, 5 stars is simply not enough. It's a bloody 10 star book in my opinion, and I am humbled.

7 people found this helpful

I Don't Wanna Go To....

Any additional comments?

Simply put, if one is deeply interested in Costello's upbringing before his artistic breakthrough in the seventies, then this book should satisfy.

Sadly, I found this writing to be in desperate need of an editor as it reminded me of being caught in the corner of a party, having someone that you like hold you captive with a one-sided "conversation" that you just can't break away from.

Luckily Amazon doesn't require me to be polite.

I'm a HUGE Costello fan, but this book was a terrible slog.

Color me disappointed

4 people found this helpful

Amazing, rich, and riveting

EC's way with words is evident in his songs and no less so in this book. He weaves the story of his life, his musical accomplishments, and his personal life in his unique style. The audiobook is much richer than the printed book because he reads it himself, and he conveys meaning beyond words in his speaking voice the way his does in his singing.

Even longtime fans will come away impressed with the breadth and depth of his work, some of it virtually unknown in the mainstream of popular music. He tells with his many collaborations and tremendous respect and affection for artists in every corner of the music business. He writes of his roots, his family, his loves and misadventures.

This is a book that is well worth the time and effort of listening to rather than reading on the printed page. It is truly a spectacular memoir.

4 people found this helpful

Elvis has become unstuck in time

Great music memoir, only Elvis is like that Vonnegut character: unstuck in time. We go from his childhood to Joe Strummer helping fans over a barricade to his childhood to Paul McCartney at a performance to remember Linda to Elvis's childhood.

Yet the disjointed narrative adds a surreal quality that blends with this memory flood of songs, conversations, near misses, obsessions, deaths, meetings.

Some of the most surreal encounters involve Dylan who pops out of a panel van at a Twin Cities race track and tells Elvis to jump in. They ride around, make plans to meet at a warehouse. They do.

They go to a party where partygoers' faces distort trying to put their big eyes on Dylan and insert their big ears into a chat between music men that gets quieter and quieter until it dissolves into silence.

Elvis is a great storyteller because he is equal parts participant and observer. And he has a wonderfully expressive voice. He reads like a dream. Now I have to wake up.

4 people found this helpful

Enjoy the artist's journey

Elvis Costello was one of the first artists that I ever discovered for myself--I bought the eight track (yikes what a horrid format!) of his debut and fell in love with his passion and musicianship. Costello weaves a fascinating tale of the son of a singer who surpassed his father's accomplishments but admired his father enough to repeatedly acknowledge his contribution to his own career.

This is not the easiest book. Although the latter half of the book proceeds in a more or less chronological fashion, the first half is more the in and out weavings through time and childhood, adolescence, and adulthood tumble headlong into the strange reveries of a man looking back on several decades as a professional singer. Don't let this be an obstacle. Costello tells magical tales of being influenced as a performer, of collaborations with other artists (the sheer number of artists who have collaborated with Costello probably outnumbers those that he performed as the sole or leading singer).

This is less though a memoir of the man than a look at the development of an artist. Although there are biographical details (his account of his love for wife Diana Krall is truly sweet), this is more about the music and performers who inspired him and motivated him. I really enjoyed the chapter devoted to his love for the country music of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, George Jones and company. This was revelatory to me and made me appreciate even more the chapters about his collaboration with Paul McCartney (the Beatles autograph story is memorable), Toussaint, and the Brodsky quartet.

All told, this book is a gem. As a final part of what makes this such a good book to have is the inclusion of so many of the lyrics to his songs. The only difficult part is that at times Costello drops his voice to a whisper so you get to at times rewind to capture what made the lines so urgent. Other than that, one of the best books read by the author.

1 person found this helpful

Needs heavy editing, too disjointed, disorganized

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I like Elvis Costello and was interested to hear more about his early life, his music, his rise, etc -- the typical biography flow. It's an 18hr book and I have about 5hrs more to go. While I will finish the book, I have realized it's the only book that has caused me to stop listening for a few days at a time and then try to resume.

As other reviewers have noted, this book is not chronological. While no biography is strictly chronological one usually gets sectionalized chronology -- things told in an orderly fashion that revolve around a particular aspect of the person's life, then move on to another aspect, then another. Unfortunately, much of this book is written in a style that reminds me of "And one time, at band camp ..." There is way too much detail and it often doesn't flow. Elvis tells his story in 2-3 sentence chunks. That's how much time is often dedicated to one aspect of his life. When I first heard him mention "my wife Diana", playing piano at the broadcast concert just when the power went out, they were already married. Did I entirely miss his recounting of them meeting? Maybe I did, but if so I can't remember it because it's all too disjointed. I can't easily connect the dots. Sometimes It's a chore to listen.

Would you ever listen to anything by Elvis Costello again?

Not sure that applies, but not without heavy editing.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I don't think narration was an issue, but rather the underlying writing.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment. I've heard so much detail that I don't feel like I've gotten an organized view of his life.

1 person found this helpful

Random Hard To Follow

in many ways a fascinating book but chronologically confusing and possibly a bit too long to keep interest

1 person found this helpful