| Product: |
Elvis Costello: A Biography - Tony Clayton-Lea |
| Date: |
20/02/01 (40 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Trite, badly written, lacking in detail and extremely boring
I've said it before - and I'll probably say it again - I'm nosy! I'm a confirmed people watcher and like to know what makes them tick. Maybe this is why I enjoy reading biographies and autobiographies, and I especially enjoy them if I have something in common with the subject. Perhaps he or she grew up in the same area as I did, which helps me to put their experiences of life in context. Maybe we're of similar ages, so I can relate to their personal experiences of being a child of the sixties or a teenager in the seventies. Anyway, I was overjoyed to come across "Elvis Costello - A Biography" since, for me, it was almost guaranteed to be an enjoyable read. It's a biography of a man I admire who is only three years older than me. Who knows - maybe we built sandcastles on the same beach at some time, bought the same '45' as our first record...
Well, I still don't know. Because having read this laughably titled 'Biography', I know little more about the man than I did before I spent £12.99 trying to find out.
The author - Tony Clayton-Lea - is an "award winning music writer" and herein lies the problem. The book includes numerous exerpts from NME (New Musical Express) and, in all honesty, the entire book reads like a string of dreadful 70's gig reports. Clayton-Lea seems incapable of calling a spade a spade, preferring 'long handled implement for the purposes of excavation'. His language throughout is irritating in the extreme - on page 2, for example he tells us that "The London based cognoscenti, the self-appointed arbitors of taste had new fish to fry and new ways in which to dish up the lip-smacking morsels". (If anyone would like to hazard a guess as to what he is talking about, feel free - I haven't a clue!)And it's all very well to use big words and flowery language to try to impress people, provided, that is, you can actually spell them correctly. The
re are numerous 'typos' throughout the book which grate further.
Language aside, the content of the book is poor. Costello's entire childhood has been dealt with by page 11, and by page 13 he is working, married and has a young son - hardly the type of detail one expects from a biography. Relationships, family and friends, personal experiences are ignored,leaving the majority of the book describing the reactions of the critics to each new album or single produced by Costello. There is nothing which tells the reader what inspired him to write his poetic and moving lyrics - or indeed, gives any detail at all about his life.
In his acknowledgements at the front of the book, Clayton-Lea explains that Costello was approached through his agents to contribute to the book, but refused. He also explains that he was denied permission to quote from any of Costello's songs. Thus, the book consists of nothing more than a collection of quotes from interviews that the singer has granted, strung together with somewhat overblown prose. Even the photographs included could be described as standard artist P.R. shots, the only exception being one poor quality picture of Elvis with his second wife, obviously snatched by paparazzi to the chagrin of the subject.
The book ends with a U.K. discography, a bibliography and a list of sources in which - surprise, surprise - NME features heavily.
Do go and seek out this book in your local bookshop. Read the notes on the dust jacket - inside and out - and congratulate yourself on having both read the entire content of the book, (without the author's irritating waffle) and having saved yourself enough money to buy something more readable. This book is one to be avoided - even by die-hard Costello fans.
"Elvis Costello - A Biography" Tony Clayton- Lea - Andre Deutsch ISBN 0 233 99295 2
Summary:
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