Year end reviews of costello bio.
Graeme Thomson's biography of Elvis has been getting reviews in the year-end round-up of books in The Independent and The Sunday Times.
The Sunday Times , London , Dec.5 '04
COMPLICATED SHADOWS: The Life and Music of Elvis
Costello
by Graeme Thomson
Canongate £16.99
Costello has said plenty over the years without giving
much away, and Thomson has performed a useful service
here in trying to get at the man beyond the music.
With no direct access to Costello, the author has
chased down school friends and a small army of musical
associates to drive the story along: a picture emerges
of a workaholic muso who may be admirable but is not
quite lovable.
Robert Sandall
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The Independent , London , Dec.4 '04
( extract , after comments on bio. of Malcolm
Arnold )
To straddle the divide between popular and serious
music in the 1950s was to invite critical censure.
These days there's no moral panic when Elvis Costello
succumbs to unbridled eclecticism and releases rock
and "classical" albums back to back. Graeme Thomson's
Complicated Shadows: the life and music of Elvis
Costello (Canongate, £16.99) documents rather than
revivifies the screeching sparkiness of the New Wave
years. Bruce Thomas, former bass player with The
Attractions, makes no bones about his dislike of the
man he calls the "barking cabbage". The book is
thorough in its parade of tour dates and critical
judgements, tactful about personal relationships.
Oddly, Thomson neither quotes from song lyrics nor
provides a discography.
David Gutman