Elvis Costello - Dai Griffiths

Elvis Costello - Dai Griffiths

Notes

Elvis Costello - Dai Griffiths

Dai Griffiths [+-]
Oxford Brookes University
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Dai Griffiths is Senior Lecturer in Music at Oxford Brookes University. He has published papers in popular music including the history of pop music since punk, cover versions, and the role of words in songs. His book Radiohead: OK Computer was described by The Independent on Sunday as ‘clever, honest, and witty’.

Description

It’s likely that, as an icon of pop music, Elvis Costello still looks like the cover of This Year’s Model (1978) and, were he run over by a bus, it’s ‘Oliver’s Army’ (1979) that would be played in surprised and sombre tribute. Here to stay, and recognized by Burt Bacharach as ‘a great survivor’, Costello has produced a large and significant body of work. This is the first book on Costello that sets out to avoid chronological presentation, preferring a thematic approach focused on music and words over the nearly thirty years that separate ‘Radio Sweetheart’ and ‘Country Darkness’. In addition to engaging with the songs Costello has performed as a rock musician, the book will include informed discussion of more recent albums such as Painted from Memory, North, and Il Sogno . There is also discussion of essays Costello has written to support CD reissues of his recordings, a substantial body of writing approaching a critical autobiography. The book may contradict expectation, arguing that on all fronts – music, words, voice, instrumental resource - Costello’s work broadens and deepens, as he sets himself the task of expanding the range of expressive material available.

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Citation

Griffiths, Dai. Notes. Elvis Costello. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 186 - 203 Dec 2007. ISBN 9781845532925. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=21956. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.21956. Dec 2007

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