Quote

I can write orchestrations, but I can't sight-read music and play at the same time. I don't have enough facility.

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
Play
Enough
Writing
Orchestration
Time
Facility
Sight
Read
Write
Music

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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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I've never felt British. I'm just not interested in national identity. I don't know why.
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It's what I do. I don't deserve any awards for this, it's just music. It's just writing songs. You sit down, you write a song, you record it. You tour and play the songs live, dress them up a bit differently, or dress them down.
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Some people can't physically hear things. A kid that listens to Metallica or something can't hear that, because he's filled himself up with this stuff, he physically can't hear a banjo or a harp or something.
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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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I've had a lot of different experiences in music over the years.And not everything you do can satisfy everybody's idealised version of you.
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Days of Dutch courage, just three French letters, and a German sense of humour.
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My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.
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It's the damage that we do and never know. It's the words that we don't say that scare me so.
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Serious music usually doesn't pay.
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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 find it to be the ultimate backhanded compliment when you are compared against yourself.
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When they finally put you in the ground, I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down.
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I've had an unusual life. A life far removed from most people's experience.
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Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's really a stupid thing to want to do.
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Certain songs have been written years apart, but they have a natural continuity to my mind.
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People tend to repeat the same quotes at me that I said when I was 23. And of course, you say things then, and sometimes they're ill-advised.
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I'm not going to get too sentimental, like those other sticker valentines, 'cause I don't know if you are loving some body. I only know it isn't mine.
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The radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools tryin' to anesthetize the way that you feel.
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When in doubt, play track 4 - it is usually the one you want.
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