Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink

652 Pages·2015·27.57 MB·English

by  Elvis Costello

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Costello, Elvis.
Unfaithful music & disappearing ink / Elvis Costello.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-69814065-3
1. Costello, Elvis. 2. Rock musicians—Biography. I. Title.
ML420.C685A3 2015 2015032865
782.42166092—dc23
[B]
Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this
book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.
Version_1
For those who came before
and those who are still to come
Alone with your tweezers and your handkerchief
You murder time and truth, love, laughter and belief
So don’t try to touch my heart
It’s darker than you think
And don’t try to read my mind
Because it’s full of disappearing ink
—“ALL THE RAGE”
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
1. A White Boy in the Hammersmith Palais
2. Then They Expect You to Pick a Career
3. Don’t Start Me Talking
4. Ask Me Why
5. Beyond Belief
6. London’s Brilliant Parade
7. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
8. Roll Up for the Ghost Train
9. Almost Liverpool 8
10. Welcome to the Working Week
11. No Trams to Lime Street
12. I Hear the Train a-Comin’
13. Unfaithful Music
14. Scene at 6.30
15. Unfaithful Servant
16. There’s a Girl in a Window
17. It Mek
18. America Without Tears
19. Accidents May Happen
20. I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass
21. What Do I Have to Do to Make You Love Me?
22. Talking in the Dark
23. Is He Really Going Out with Her?
24. Diving for Dear Life
25. It’s a Wonderful Life
26. The Color of the Blues
27. The Identity Parade
28. The River in Reverse
29. That’s When a Thrill Becomes a Hurt
30. I Want to Vanish
31. Put Away Forbidden Playthings
32. They Never Got Me for the Thing I Really Did
33. A Voice in the Dark
34. Country Darkness / Narrow Daylight
35. I’m in the Mood Again
36. Down Among the Wines and Spirits
Postscript: The Black Tongue of the North End
Acknowledgments
Photography Credits

ONE
A White Boy in the Hammersmith Palais
I
think it was my love of wrestling that first took me to the dance hall.
There was barely a week of my childhood in which I did not have the
following dialogue with a stranger:
“Any relation?”
“Beg your pardon?”
“You know? Any relation to the wrestler?”
My mother might wearily manage an indulgent laugh, as if to say, You know,
I’ve never heard that before in my life.
I just felt awkward.
Though, I suspected that I might indeed be a distant relation of Mick
McManus, a professional wrestler who was a fixture on the Saturday-afternoon
televised bouts. The contests in the early 1960s had none of the pyrotechnics of
the modern spectacle, just well-oiled showmen like Jackie Pallo or Johnny
Kwango grappling and hurling sweaty lunks around, and sometimes out of, a
small roped ring.
Mick McManus spelled his name like my Papa had, before my Dad added an
a to make it “MacManus,” because it looked posher and better in print.
Anyone could see that I shared the same stocky physique with “The Man You
Love to Hate” and had similar plastered-down, black hair.
Later, it was revealed that, like me, Mick could only be forced into
submission by tickling. Late in his career, Mick suffered a rare defeat when his
opponent used this dastardly tactic, and the champ renounced the match in
disgust.
Back around 1961, I would practice my flying scissors kick in front of the
television and then crumple as if felled by a forearm smash. Eventually all my
jumping off the furniture became too much for the neighbors and my mother
wanted to tidy the house, so she persuaded my Dad to take me with him to work
on Saturday afternoons at the Hammersmith Palais.