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My dad had a steady job with a really major dance band from '54 till '68, and then quit because he wanted to play different music. He wanted to sing about peace. He believed in these things.

Elvis Costello

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Elvis Costello
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: August 25
Composer
Guitarist
Record Producer
Singer-Songwriter
London
England
Declan Patrick MacManus
Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus
Declan MacManus
Quit
Different
Sing
Steady
Really
Dance
Quitting
Things
Band
Till
Peace
Believed
Jobs
Music
Majors
Wanted
Major
Play
Dad

More quotes by Elvis Costello

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You must hold on to the sort of finger-painting aspect of music. That's something I learned, particularly from listening to Neil Young. Tom Waits is another one, because Tom's music is incredibly sophisticated and beautifully arranged, but he's using a toolbox that's unlike anybody else's.
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You've got a chemistry class I want a piece of your mind You don't know what you started when you mixed it up with mine.
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As I walk through This wicked world Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity, I ask myself Is all hope lost? Is there only pain and hatred, and misery? And each time I feel like this inside, There's one thing I wanna know: What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, & Understanding?
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When you work with new people, I think that it throws all of the matters into relief, because you have to explain yourself every time. It's like crossing a new border. They want to see your documents.
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It's a dangerous game that comedy plays. Sometimes it tells you the truth sometimes it delays it.
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Don't start me talking, I could talk all night. My mind goes sleepwalking while I'm putting the world right.
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No use wishing now for any other sin.
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You're drinking vintage Elvis Presley wine.
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The truth can't hurt you, it's just like the dark. It scares you witless, but in time you see things clear and stark.
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My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence.
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There was not a lot of rock n roll in the house. Our parents didnt think it was very groovy, and I tend to agree with them. If you grew up with Charlie Parker, Bill Haley wasnt very hip.
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Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing. And you start talking yourself out of the bold melody and start wanting to arrange it in another key or something. Maybe I just never learned my harmony part, because what everybody says sounds odd to them sounds perfectly natural to me.
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Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock'n'roll songs. Some of them were melodic pop songs. And I've done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back.
Elvis Costello
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It's what's on the record not what labels on it. You know, that's like getting a box of cornflakes and eating the cardboard.
Elvis Costello
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When they finally put you in the ground, I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down.
Elvis Costello
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Why can't a man stand alone? Must he be burdened by all that he's taught to consider his own? His skin and his station, his kin and his crown, his flag and his nation They just weigh him down
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I'm a man with a mission in two or three editions And I'm giving you a longing look Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book.
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But there are things in Il Sogno that the methods of The Delivery Man could never achieve.
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I'm drawing from two generations back how to think about music, how to think about why you travel to make music, what the possible pitfalls of that are for the way your life is structured. The good and bad of all of it get into the mix of what's created, what you're creating.
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I love you more than anything in this world. I don't expect that will last.
Elvis Costello