Elvis Costello: Let Them All Talk

Rating:
Summary: Turns gold into base metal
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite what I expected
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Bad writing and even worse analysis
Review: I can't say that I read the entire book though the same can probably be said of it's editor. While the book is not very well written, what's worse is that Hinton's analysis is often plainly wrong. Besides believing that every other song is written about or for Bebe Buell, he often misses the mark on deciphering the simplest of passages.

One example that had me shaking my head is his contention that Sleep Of The Just (from King of America) has something to do with... Apparently Hinton believes that the line "Now she's pinned up upon the barracks wall in her hometown/ all the soldiers taking turns with their attentions" proves this. Actually the line refers to the woman being turned into a pin-up girl (note: there is a considerable difference between being "pinned up UPON" and being "pinned up AGAINST") and this is just the kind of sloppiness that Costello has railed against for two decades.

Moreover, his error isn't defensible as a simple case of misreading a line, because to understand the song at all requires one to recognize that it is about hipocrisy (not violence). The theme is layed out in the title for crissake! Anyway, it's moments like these that make the reader question how much of a hold Hinton has on his subject.

Rating:
Summary: What A Great Talent
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: What A Great Talent
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: This book tells it like it is
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Costello Fan To The MAX!!
Review: 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!!

Rating:
Summary: LET THE AUTHOR TALK...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and Unorganized
Review: This book is nice if you don't mind skimming four hundred pages in search of the interesting stuff. What a great book this could have been if it were not so hard to follow. It gave quite a bit of miscellaneous information about people and events that aren't very relevant to Elvis's life. I also found some of Hinton's takes on a few of E.C.'s songs to be a bit over-analyzing. But this book really does have a lot of information that would be hard to find anywhere else.

Rating:
Summary: Very Under-rated
Review: 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.