Archive for the ‘Elvis is King: Costello’s My Aim is True’ Category

ECW’s Holiday Gift Guide 2017: ELVIS IS KING: COSTELLO’S MY AIM IS TRUE!

From ECWpress.com: Looking for the perfect bookish gift for everyone on your list this holiday season? Finding it difficult to match a book to the jokester in your life, the person who is mooching your Netflix, or that one friend who’s just plain impossible to buy for? ECW’s got you covered.

Check out these 10 gift guide sheets for 10 of the kinds of people you might have to buy for this season! We’ve paired our books with other gift ideas that you can add to your cart (online or in real life!) when visiting your favourite retailers in the coming weeks. Put them together and bam, you’ve got the perfect gift for that special someone!

CLICK HERE TO BUY RICHARD’S BOOK ELVIS IS KING: COSTELLO’S MY AIM IS TRUE!

Richard speaks at the The “eh” List Author Series November 18!

Screen Shot 2015-11-17 at 10.31.22 AMFrom torontopublliclibrary.com: “Come meet the writers everyone’s reading. Seven branches across the city offer you the chance to meet a great Canadian writer. All events followed by book signings.

Launched in 2009 with funding from Canada Council for the Arts, The eh List is a premiere destination for lovers of Canadian literature, hosting award-winning authors and exciting new voices including Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Will Ferguson, Governor General’s Award Winner Nino Ricci, Trillium Book Award winner Camilla Gibb and RBC Taylor Prize Winner Plum Johnson in 2015.”

Details:

Wed Nov 18, 2015

7:00 p.m.8:30 p.m.

90 mins

North York Central Library Auditorium

The eh List presents author Richard Crouse discussing his new biography, Elvis is King: Costello’s My Aim is True. Crouse delves into the story of the creation of the groundbreaking album, focusing on Costello’s musical upbringing, the recording of the legendary songs, and the marketing behind the music that would redefine youth culture. Book signing to follow.

Call to register; seating is limited: 416-395-5639

REVIEW OF RICHARD’S BOOK: “Elvis is King” at 2paragraphs.com

Screen Shot 2015-05-14 at 12.20.54 PMFrom 2paragraphs.com: “Author Richard Crouse, a Canadian film critic and culture vulture, smartly tells this tale of Costello’s beginnings — indeed he tells the tale of the invention of Elvis Costello the character. Another star of the book is Stiff Records, which was Dr. Frankenstein to Costello’s monster — and to his monster hits.”

“Elvis is King” according to “Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story” author

Screen Shot 2015-04-29 at 9.39.23 AMBy Richard Balls (author of Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story and Ian Dury: Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll)

My Aim Is True has the strongest single identity of any of the albums contained in the pantheon of Elvis Costello’s work. It is also the most iconic. So Richard Crouse’s look at both the record and the inchoate, pre-Attractions Costello is a welcome addition to any fan’s bookshelf.

Crouse followed his hero’s progress from afar – Liverpool, Nova Scotia, in fact – after identifying the bespectacled singer on the other side of the Atlantic as someone who was “making music that spoke to me”. Fortunately, his pocket-sized book (just 118 pages) is no hagiography and far more instructive than a song-by-song dissection of the record he got his older brother to bring home for him.

Costello’s early musical influences were as diverse as the records he would go on to make, from The Siamese Cat Song by Peggy Lee, which as a toddler he demanded that his mum play, through to The Beatles, The Supremes and Gram Parsons. He was only 16 when he got up to play in public for the first time in the crypt of a church in Richmond, and by all accounts it did not go well. However, a move from London to Liverpool saw him develop a taste for American country-flavoured rock and the kind of groups that were inspiring groups to venture out into pub back rooms. He and his friends followed suit.

This scene-setting is vital as it explains why, as punk was frothing at the mouth, an agitating young singer was recording a country-tinged album with a Californian bar band. At this point The Attractions hadn’t been hired, and it was with Clover that he recorded his debut at Pathway Studios.

There is, rightly, much emphasis on Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera’s maverick label Stiff Records, in whose scruffy offices the transformation from computer-operating geek to cool new waver began. It was Stiff’s keen understanding of promotion and marketing stunts that helped launch such a difficult-to-market artist. His arrest for busking outside the Hilton Hotel in London where CBS executives were holding a conference resulted to him being signed and MAIT being released in the US.

Fan or not, he doesn’t shy away from aspects of the Costello’s early career that some found off-putting. The labelling of some of Costello’s anti-romance songs as misogynist is, says Crouse, “a fair charge”, while the abrasiveness he cultivated on-stage and press interviews is chronicled in a chapter headed Prince Charmless. On stage he could be no less prickly. “I see we’ve got some cunts in the audience tonight,” he snarled during the Stiff tour of 1977 on which he deliberately played songs no one knew.

There are no original interviews with Costello or any of the musicians involved in MAIT, Crouse instead getting the thoughts of a host of other writers. Nor are there any images in this latest in the pop classics series. But fans will find plenty to feast on in a book that documents a seminal record and the arrival of one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation.

“Elvis is King” at Small Press Reviews! A new review for Richard’s book!

Screen Shot 2015-04-29 at 9.46.24 AMFrom Small Press Reviews: “Word on the street is that Elvis Costello has a memoir due in October. For those who can’t wait, there’s Richard Crouse’s Elvis Is King: Costello’s My Aim Is True, a meticulously researched account of Costello’s early years and the release of his first LP with independent label Stiff Records…” Read the whole thing HERE!

Five Star Amazon.com review for Richard’s book “Elvis is King”

Screen Shot 2015-05-14 at 12.20.54 PMFive Star Amazon.com review for Richard’s book “Elvis is King.”

Short But Sweet.

By Darrell Bricker

“Short and sweet. But, lots of info on one of the best debut albums of all time. A lively, quick read by gifted writer who appreciates the man, the music and the times.”

 

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“Elvis is KING” at “The Bookend Family’s” Rock of Ages review!

Screen Shot 2015-04-29 at 9.39.23 AMFrom The Bookend Family: “Mr. Crouse makes the details come alive, with stories about the size of the stories and the size of the performer’s egos. All in all it’s an intimate and scrappy love-note about how and when an artist found his voice and started his career. Elvis Is King makes the case that My Aim Is True was a truly rare phenomenon, and an album that was absolutely the right sound at the right time. This book is not that, but it’s pretty darn close…”

Read the whole thing HERE!