Customer Reviews

Elvis Costello (Kill Your Idols)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While the author's account is factual accurate, I felt I did not learn much new information about EC. The book was very thin and really did not go into much detail. The author only alludes to what Elvis might have been thinking/feeling etc. or quotes what others have stated. The whole book felt like a term-paper I might have written at the end of high school. Being a huge Elvis Costello fan, I really expected more from this book. The book is divided up into three sections. The first section is the bio. The second is a discography (available at almost every EC website) a complete waste of paper (but given that the bio portion is so short the author probably needed to fill the pages with something). I only wish I had read a review of this book prior to pre-ordering it. I've learned my lesson. So basically unless you need to own every piece of Elvis Costello...skip this one!

Witless and dry distillation executed in the style of high school book report. Pass on it.

This is the perfect "beginners" Elvis Costello book. But thats the most it has to offer. Lots of facts and stuff about his early years. It is so interesting to me that he came from a musical family background. I then suggest moving on to the Brian Hinton bio which is the definitive and best book ever written on Costello. The Tony Clayton-Lee book is the weakest of the lot.

Admittedly, it's not the deepest of dissertations. However, it's completely factual and a lot better-written than the Clayton-Lea biography. If I had a friend who was just starting to get into Elvis, I would loan her this book, but tell her that some of the comments on individual songs might not mirror her experience.