Customer Reviews

Let Them All Talk: The Music of Elvis Costello (Sanctuary Music Library)

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

 

 

I just finished this book today. I am not that versed in Mr. Costello but I got curious when I finished the autobiography of Bebe Buell, "Rebel Heart", with Victor Bockris. I am now curious to explore his music mentioned in both books. I love a good love story!! This one sort of reminds me of the movie "Immortal Beloved" with Gary Oldman. After finishing this bio by Hinton, I was left wondering how one man could have so much talent and so many songs inside of him. It is rare to say the least. The only music I have by Mr. Costello is the "Painted From Memory" effort, which I really enjoy. I guess I will have to go and purchase the entire lot at this point!
As for this book, I found it interesting and complete. Many times I found it hard to put down. When you read this book back to back with Ms. Buell's bio, it is even more entertaining. My final word, is that Mr. Costello is a genius and a master of mind games. Wordplay is also a specialty of his and I think he will be around as an artist for a very long time. An enormous talent for sure!

I think some of the reviews about this book are a tad harsh and unfounded. I really enjoyed the thing and all the fun theories on the topics of his songs and such. I feel that Hinton did a very complete job of exploring all the possibilities. I think that even if Costello himself were to write his own book, it would be veiled in mystery. Most writers of his talent love to confuse and excite the listener. I feel this book answered alot of questions and confirmed alot of MAYBE's... I think that this is the best of the Costello tomes and I can't wait to hear the new record, "When I Was Cruel". Sounds like he is trying to say sorry to someone. And whats up with the two big bumble "Bees" on the cover?? I can hardly wait!!

They say anybody can write a book and Let Them All Talk is proof positive of that addage. This autobiography is a pastiche of interviews, press clippings and personal accounts. In short, it is painstaking reading.

If you can say anything good about this book, at the least, it is a fairly comprehensive account of Costello's career. The only problem is that it is so loosely strung together it is like reading an unassembled jigsaw puzzle. Almost every single paragraph seems to switch gears midway through, leaving me wondering if parts of a second book been inserted piecemeal into the one I was reading.

As a final note, Hinton shows extremely bad taste in criticizing the work of Tony Clayton-Lea, Krista Reese and David Gouldstone. I mean hey, let's leave that stuff on the playground.

Only a Costello fan would buy this book and unfortunately, only a Costello fan COULD read this book.

Brain Hinton writes like the annoying guy you wish would quit whatever club you both belong to.

Having said that, this is the first book I have ever read to have completely slipped past any and all editors at a publishing house. I'm tempted to get a red pen and do it myself, but I don't have the time..

On the flip (city) side, I learned tons of things I never knew about EC. I have been completely oblivious to the nuts and bolts of his beginnings, or his family life, although I've listened with intense interest since "Punch the Clock"in '83. I can forget what he used to mean to the rock scene, as opposed to now, where he basically enjoys shooting arrows in all musical directions, and following them to their targets.

I must say I enjoyed the moments where I could take Hinton to task in my head whenever he got something wrong, which was all too often. But his factual sins were mostly slight, like misquoting a word in a lyric or song title, or attributing a lyric line to the wrong song of the right album, or compressing time for peripheral events like EC's Larry Sanders appearances.

Do others feel that Unwanted Number is really about incest? Hinton casually declares this when wrting about its live premiere at the Chicago C&S show. I can see where one could decide to hear this in the lyrics, but maybe I'm being too opaque. For the purposes of the movie ("Grace of My Heart," for which it was written), it was discussed as a song about teenage pregnancy. It's within EC's character to throw that extra element in it, but I wouldn't have been so matter-of-fact about labeling the song as Hinton did.

But that's Hinton in a nutshell. He's all over the place while he's trying to put his thoughts together. He's either overwrought, winking, or sharing opinions where none are needed nor wanted. I screamed at him (to myself) many times to just shut up and get to the point.

And while he's right about the Clayton-Lea book being almost worthless, it's particularly bad form for him to come out and say so in his own book. Just what is his self-esteem problem that he needs to include passages in the book reassuring his own place in the EC biographical pantheon? This was downright nerdy of him. I'd have forgiven him for it if he were more of an EC fan, but he isn't, and plainly says so. This ticked me off. Go piss on someone ELSE's fans!

I would have appreciated fewer obscure analogous European pop-culture references, and more detail about his latter day life. From PTC on, Hinton becomes pretty formulaic, leaning heavily on press clippings and second- and third-hand accounts. The way he makes such a fuss in the Epilogue over the fact that Bebe Buell called him to talk while he was "finishing" the book, you realize how light the book has been on hard interviews. This may not be entirely his fault considering the people involved, but it makes his dig at Clayton-Lea all the more ironic.

Also, he could have connected a few simple dots to dig into the mutual admiration society EC has going with David Letterman, whose personality is frighteningly similar to his.

Still, he did make insights into the lyrics of some somgs that made me listen to them in a new way. And sometimes his enthusiasm for certain events that would have been merely reported by others was heartening.

Overall, the canon of EC biographies is thin. I'm sure EC himself prefers it this way. So, any sincere attempt at an in-depth account is to be applauded. However........

This book will give you very interesting information regarding Elvis Costello and his musical career but it is dry and very English. The biggest downfall was each chapter follows the same format: history of the CD that year, stories of the songs on the CD and then reviews by pop and music magazines. Then on to the next CD, alas it leaves something to be desired. And the author's obsession with Bebe Buell begins to bore the reader as well.

This is a very good reference for Costello admirers. I like the odd speculation about his song content and the possible intentions to his message. Costello is a master songwriter and this book gives a few different perspectives to his work. I don't think Hinton is far off with some of his theories. What I have found with the lyrics in question is that they have many possible meanings. The music might suggest love but the lyrics will point to politics, just to give one example. All in all, this was an entertaining observation into the life of a mysterious man. A very under-rated book to boot. I really think it is worth the purchase and the read.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It took alot of effort to do so much research on such a private man. His music is fantastic and his personal life is just like you and me. Ups and downs and very normal. At the time of this book Mr. Costello was happily married to his wife Cait. Now that marriage is over and he is to marry again, this time to a jazz singer. I think he should just be single for awhile. The book also explores the meanings of the songs. I liked that the best.

Although I am a latecomer to Elvis fanship (I started with THE JULIET LETTERS), I have been a diehard fan ever since. I have played all his albums countless times and have tried valiantly to foist his music on everyone who has crossed my path (I'm sure, like most EC fans, sometimes with great success and sometimes with great failure). But for all I have loved his music, I have never known much about the guy...not any more than what I learned from the Elvis Costello entry in Billboard's Rock Movers & Shakers encyclopedia.

Like many EC fans, I eagerly awaited the publication of this book...even throughout the many months that its publication was delayed. When it finally came out in Summer 1999, I rushed out and bought it. I started reading it but then put it down after about 50 pages when my life became very complicated. Just recently I picked it up again where I left off and finished it today.

While LET THEM ALL TALK was an easy read -- the pages flowing quickly from one to the next -- the book did not tell me what I wanted to know.

I'll tell you what this book IS: it is about the music, not the musician. Hinton anaylzes almost every (not every) recorded song by Elvis. He gives about a paragraph to each song. And his analyses are not even based on first-hand input from Elvis himself. They are just Hinton's ideas on what the songs are about. He also prefaces each album by telling a little about the making of the album and reprinting tons of critics' quotes about all the albums. Then he concludes each album's review by mentioning some highlights from that album's tour. Finally, here and there, he briefly mentions a snippet or two about Elvis' personal life.

That's where I was upset. I bought this book hoping it would be a BIOGRAPHY. To date, there still has not been a good, thorough BIOGRAPHY of Elvis Costello. By BIOGRAPHY, I mean the story of Elvis' personal life. I want to know all about his relationships with Bruce Thomas, Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve, and how they progressed over the years. I want to know about his wife Cait and his ex-wife Mary and his son Matthew. I want to know about his personal demons. I want to know about his LIFE and how his LIFE has affected his writing (as a poet myself, I think that the most interesting thing about an artist is how events in his life have affected his writing). I don't care to know about how his songs were inspired by this song from the 1950s or that song from the 1960s. I could care less. But that's all Hinton talked about. Hell, from this book, I learned more about famous rock critics than I did about Elvis' family life.

In a nutshell, I learned nothing new about Elvis from this book. Maybe a newbie would learn a lot more. Hinton is known for this. Both his biographies about Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell (two of my other favorite musicians, coincidentally) are written in the same scant way.

I guess the only way I am ever going to get the book I want to read about Elvis is if it is written by Elvis himself.

P.S. I agree with one of the previous reviewers of this book: Hinton does seem to think every other song from THIS YEAR'S MODEL to PAINTED FROM MEMORY is about Bebe Buell. Please!

A missed opportunity - a lot of information, a lot of poor writing. Holds the interest due to the weight of collected research, but reads as unedited scrawl from an enthusiastic hobbyist. Strange that the brilliant songwriter should be treated with lumpish prose. Costello admirers are among the more literate consumers of popular culture. They will find the book both desirable for its information, and repellent for its style. Hinton's gifts seem to be in research rather than clear communication. He could learn a literary trick or three from his subject.

I've never been so aware of an author before. Usually, even in a biography, you can kind of lose yourself in the story. Not here. Apparently the writer is getting paid by the word, and the longer the better. Turn to any page and there are examples like: "Sniffing glue and being sick had replaced rural weekends, tower blocks were suddenly more romantic than a bluebell wood, and anger and amphetamine seemed infinitely preferable to drifting away on a dope-fuelled reverie" (Honestly, I didn't even look for this. I opened the book for an example and it is the first thing I saw!) It is a very annoying read that also concentrates too much on live performances and interviews in the press. I guess I'm still looking for a book about Elvis that concentrates on the SONGS - a book that is much more browsable than this one. Some decent anecdotal song information is here, but you have to suffer through so much garbage to get it that you should save the money and form your own opinions.