Elvis Costello | interview | The Hoover building | What is Punk? | Good Afternoon | 1977

[@dbentleyto95]

A true artist and a fantastic performer. His concerts are epic each in their own way. And he's still kicking it! Fan since 78

[@frodo261]

"Im not Angry...anymore". Excellent interview. Declan McManus is very articulate

[@TJH3113]

That woman was an incredible interviewer.

[@hugh-johnfleming289]

The best of them, and it is a rare commodity, LISTEN. Most simply rattle of their query from notes and then prepare for the next opportunity...

[@musicmakesmysoulfly]

This is priceless. Elvis at 23!

[@beryltheperil2185]

Looks about 18 at the most 🤓

[@wnerko7484]

He went from baby face to old kinda fast.but im exaggerating.hair receding makes anyone look older.im loosing mine fast

[@DouglasRichardson-er4ky]

Elvis Costello is brilliant love his music and world view, he produced The Specials album around this time he was waaaaaay ahead of his time amazing musician happy holidays to all the Elvis Costello fans 🤓🎅🏼⛄🎄

[@vernpascal1531]

Right. I remember when Almost Blue came out I wondered what the hell was he doing. everything at the time through Trust was fantastic. I'd even venture that Taking Liberties is better than London Calling, God Save The Queen etc. To sing Country music I didn't understand it, wasn't much of a Country fan at the time, but he turned me on to Johnny Cash, George Jones, Gram Parsons, and so forth.Very enlightening. Almost Blue is a very good album on it's own. maybe a tad too polished,but it had excellent songs, and he already showed he was a hell of a singer, far beyond say the afforementioned Strummer/Rotten or others at the time if they had tried to do this.

[@DouglasRichardson-er4ky]

@@vernpascal1531 ... his dad was a band leader he had a great role model 🤓

[@hugh-johnfleming289]

A simple observation... Having seen 'Costello' twice, once in the late '70s and again the late '90s, we were given two distinct entity. The former was angry and full of contempt. Now this was the end of a long tour in Los Angeles and it is often the case with so many acts. He played a tight, professional 40 minute set and blazed off the stage. The latter, two decades removed, was the kindest, ine of the most generous, performances I have ever seen. He told stories and jokes and played for hours like an old pro. It was akin to sitting with friends, strumming and singing sround a camp fire, with some amplifiers, etc ...

[@L0REN0R2Z0RR0]

Someone once said "If the young Elvis Costello had a time machine, he'd travel to the future and kill the old Elvis Costello" :D

[@bruceradz]

Awesome analogy

[@garfunkle5447]

What a great musician/artist. Still at my top 10. He so many great song.

[@FrontmanVideo]

I happened across this video and I'm glad I clicked on it. That was really cool! Elvis is a very intelligent, real dude!

[@hankblumenkranz8762]

Astounding first tv interview. Required watching for any performer of any kind

[@johnheath4305]

Genius on so many levels

[@jamesconnolly1201]

HIS FIRST INTERVIEW WITH A SOPHISTICATED WOMAN ASKING SMART PREPARED QUESTIONS. I LOVE THIS LADY AND E.C. IS SO ADORABLE.......

[@4-dman464]

Ah Mavis Nicholson. She was always good was Mavis Nicholson. She died last year age 91.

[@randybackgammon890]

What an attractive woman always loved her🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@slygreen6227]

Yes, I always enjoy her interviews. She did a very nice one with Kenneth Williams in 1980.

[@Rebel1972x]

Apparently she strangled her neighbours cats so not that nice.

[@StevieZero]

Wish Id been that switched on when I was 23

[@samil5601]

I wish I'd ever looked that young.

[@owenwilberforce6138]

Here after almost being done with his autobiography. He has an intelligence about music that is astonishing. His father was a singer for show bands and had a jazz background. He made his way into the world of music as a fan and lover of everything from the Beatles to Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and his understanding of both jazz and classical music is also profound. His lyrics are challenging, his melodies never predictable, and his performances are always full of emotion and energy. While he wasn’t punk per se, he was cut from the ‘77 era and he had the energy in him to withstand the scrutiny of punks and pop music fans. I am utterly impressed with his humility which belies his immense talent. A man out of time and for all seasons, is the prolific songsmith Declan MacManus.

[@irenedavo3768]

Very young here?

[@nongthip]

He's 23 I was 13, and didn't get to appreciate his work until I was late-teens, but as young as he and I were back then, a lot of his songs resonate in a surprisingly similar way now as back then. And without fawning too much, I'm still struck that someone so relatively young could be so articulate and cool calm calculated in the context of songs which carry such understated yet strong emotions and opinions. I can still listen to and sing along with so many of the songs even now that I'm 60, it becomes almost timeless, like I can go back to being 18-20 and still relate to them now like hardly any time has passed. That's a special talent on his part indeed.

[@ROCKINGMAN]

Remember the big hit Oliver's Army back in '77 strangely the year of the passing away of king Elvis Presley whom I'm a fan of. When I saw Elvis Costello sing Alison with Elvis Presley's guitar on the Johnathan Ross show with Priscilla Presley and Danny Dyer I thought it was a great bit of TV and became more of a fan. I saw Elvis Costello yesterday in Berwick Street, with his young son, I presume, said hello to him, a real nice guy.

[@jamesdean1143]

“Oliver’s Army”, which Radar Records released on 5 January 1979, is from his third studio album, “Armed Forces”.

[@pete7164]

Holy SH!T! I had never seen it before, but he DOES look like a young Woody Allen!!!!

[@michaellorenzen8200]

he certainly had British teeth

[@kobusdutoitbosman6240]

Really great TV interviewer and he’s most certainly a very ‘weird & wonderful fella’ ‼️ 👊🔥 🪖

[@SteveM-ly7oy]

Very interesting guy. And cut Mavis some slack, she'd been listening to the album and trying to I guess understand it, if that were possible. She looks at him with a combination of interest, shock and wonderment. What an intelligent young man. It's sad, and shocking, too, to see that this is not even fifty years ago, and we are now in 2024 absolutely light years away in the level of culture. You could not have an interview or interviewer now like this. There would be dumb questions, interruptions, questions asked and then the word " because" inserted to make the question more like a bloody statement from the interview. In Britain today, we have no culture, because most people don't have any concept of patience, intellect or manners. As for being properly educated, forget it. A great watch, but makes me so depressed, too.

[@RogueAkai]

No idea how old you are mate, but I think you're a bit over-pessimistic about modern times - or maybe pessimistic in the wrong way. Things like podcasts and other independent long-form content make thoughtful interviews like this much easier to put out on the internet nowadays than during the corporate stranglehold of the 70s (see: Costello's "Radio, Radio" for more on that one). There are genuinely thoughtful interviews on youtube being produced today that would never have made it on the BBC/Thames for lack of available airtime. Yes, it also makes low-tier schlock much easier to produce as well, but 90% of stuff is bollocks and always has been; there's just less curation nowadays. I get the feeling you might be a bit older than I am from your comments on having "no culture" in the UK today (I was born in the 90s). I do get the feeling of some kind of "death of community" in the UK, but I don't think that's to do with peoples manners, patience, and certainly not intellect (more of us went to university than any generation before). I think it's more to do with chronic underinvestment in communities - especially ones that aren't in London or the South East - and the closure of "third spaces" outside of work and home. The Scotland I grew up in was littered with the remnants of torn-down factories and abandoned buildings, and it would be a lie to say that doesn't have an effect on your pride for your homeland. We have our culture, and we take a lot of it from the internet in the same way as previous generations took it from the cinema, or the radio, or the television. Punk still exists, for instance, but it's more electronic and more dissonant which is a sound that better fits the anger of our times. You can hear it in the more alternative pubs in places like Edinburgh or Manchester. My point is, please don't mistake the algorithm-based nonsense that gets big views on youtube for the entirety of our culture; we are still human.

[@irenedavo3768]

@@RogueAkaivery young here!

[@roboi2241]

He'd be asked about matters other than music or his real self today and in a way to ensure the answer doesn't contradict or deviate from the preconceived expectations of it implicit in the generic question.

[@nandopelusi7699]

The future catalog of such a great musician and singer looks already brewing.

[@tommyhaynes9157]

The best songwriter of our time

[@DavidRobson-ci7rc]

I would say the best male songwriter, with Kate Bush being the best female songwriter for me.

[@aquamarine99911]

@@DavidRobson-ci7rc Eh, Kate wasn't really prolific enough. It's funny, an hour ago my teenage daughter was listening to a version of "The Chain" on her phone and I asked her if she knew who wrote it (she didn't). Ya gotta admit, Stevie Nicks has a pretty strong catalog of big, big songs.

[@martinkristensen8398]

Every time i look at elvis he reminds me of buddy holly

[@williamthelast1]

Buddy holly OK for the look !! But Elvis is so much talented than the very talented Buddy !!!

[@ambulocetusnatans]

Wow, he looks so young. Now I feel really old.

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

He IS so young-and you ARE really old.

[@irenedavo3768]

Just 23

[@brufrog]

He is so young here...hilarious

[@irenedavo3768]

Just 23

[@gary_payton]

What a bright lad at 23. The American school system is utter tripe

[@eldeluxo]

I attended my first Elvis Costello concert in April 1978, I was 16 at the time and his sound was so fresh and new compared to the typical pop and rock I'd been listening to at the time. It's amazing to see this interview now, he was only 23 and already so accomplished! The first two albums were my favourites, and I stopped keeping up with his newer sounds through the years, but that summer of 1978 he was my favourite artist by far and a musical eye opener.

[@irenedavo3768]

I remember him part of Rusty!

[@aquamarine99911]

You missed "Imperial Bedroom"? I likewise started with Elvis from his first album, but IB has to his best.

[@bogocero]

Its not a matter of life or death, what is, what is 👌🏼

[@shpeen8835]

@4:20 Yeah but Elvis you were my patron saint when I was a loser. And you showed me that being a little odd can be really cool.

[@billscheppler9984]

Music labels are a joke, but they will never go away. Elvis is patently anti-establishment, which sometimes could be labeled "Punk," but it can also be labeled "Rock n Roll" or, even, "Blues." But looking back after 50 years of creative output, Elvis was never pigeon-holed into a genre. He stayed on-point with his world view at 23.

[@watarutaya1028]

かっこいい

[@paulmartin3553]

do u have the whole interview including songs?

[@wpollock1]

I thought that he would state why the Hoover Facrory? I thought I would hear that, but no.

[@grahamlarmour8763]

'in the valleys,'...I liked to go down to her valley..haha!!

[@mondoenterprises6710]

EC was here. No not that EC. This EC! Elvis Costello!!

[@simfaithguitar1]

A pop singer?? That was funny! The Dean of New Wave !

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

New wave IS pop.

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

Then again, so is punk. Jazz, classical, and authentic folk (folk without guitars and chords and songwriters) and their ethnic equivalents are not pop. All the rest is pop.

[@josephdykes1820]

New Wave was punkified pop during the death of disco

[@hv1225]

@@josephdykes1820 Disco only died in the US.

[@josephdykes1820]

@hv1225 I stand corrected. I had forgotten about discos longer life elsewhere. Elvis Costello didn't really have much fame here until the early 80's with the aid of MTV

[@Bat_Boy]

We need EC to save todays music.

[@littleripper312]

No we don't. There are tons of great new artists if you stay away from the top100. I love Costello but I'm sick of people claiming old music is the only good art ever made and everything today sucks. I think it's because people can't get past the music they hear when they're in their teens perhaps.

[@Riddle99-v7q]

​@@littleripper312100%. I've been thinking about making a playlist of good new rock songs to post anytime when someone says new music is bad overall lol.

[@michaellorenzen8200]

​@@Riddle99-v7qand who today holds a candle to Elvis Costello circa '77-'82

[@stugg]

@@littleripper312 I'm all ears. Any recommendations?

[@DouglasRichardson-er4ky]

... he is only 1 man, he's great, but all the bad music can't be saved 😏

[@jeffskywalker2495]

Was he named Elvis before or after Elvis Presley Died?

[@macguffinman1]

Very shortly before.

[@plasticweapon]

hoover factory.

[@michaellorenzen8200]

strangest guitar

[@jeffskywalker2495]

Buddy Holly & Elvis Presley all into 1.

[@johnoleary8751]

She was in Faulty Towers as the flirtatious French woman to Basil Faulty

[@AFaceintheCrowd01]

He was so sweet and clever and charming here on his first TV interview - and he quickly turned so nasty and arrogant and sour thanks to the coke, ego and alcohol.

[@vooveks]

Interesting - he’s a funny one. I’ve always really rated him as a musician and songwriter, but don’t know anything about his trajectory other than musically. Like you say, in this he just comes across as intelligent, totally un-egotistical and nice. Guess he went the way of a lot of pop/rock stars that get famous and have too much money. Is there a specific incident/interview or whatever that makes you say that, though?

[@AFaceintheCrowd01]

@@vooveks Yes, every single public pronouncement he made after this brief moment.

[@vooveks]

@@AFaceintheCrowd01 Lol. Ok, fair enough.

[@GaryWhittingham]

@@vooveks IKR, I think it's one of his stalkers or ex-wives ;-)

[@macguffinman1]

@@vooveks There was an infamous incident in 1979 that changed the trajectory of his career. It was a bad, drunken and possibly coked-up moment when he dropped some racial slurs and got punched out by Bonnie Bramlett. The fallout from it may have both kept him from becoming a Springsteen-sized superstar and saved his life. If you see or read an interview from the early 80s on (and listen to the musical and emotional range of his work) , though, it's clear that he is a brilliant, thoughtful and generous person. (Albeit grumpy sometimes.) Wouldn't overstate the "non-egotistical" though; it's clear along with everything else that he knows he's really good.

[@CliffBronson1212]

Everyone wants to take you down, when your on top ...stay on the bottom, with the One on top ✝️😅

[@chelebeaqueen]

at 4:27 "patron saint for losers" - yeah, they don't need a patron saint. for all the help and guidance they would receive from such an entity, they'd turn around and rip him from limb to limb! i'm glad he stated clearly he was not interested in this kind of employment haha. "the pay ain't good enough!" hahaha

[@regplasma7906]

Middle class Mavis has no idea what Declan is really talking about and the little tiny crumbs she does pick up on , she disagrees. p.s Mavis looks a bit like Roisin Murphy in this vid.

[@michaellorenzen8200]

hey at least she gave it a go ! good on her

[@jacobesmith12]

Glad to see that the guardian and new statesmen have changes since his time. Proper down to earth now and no longer into scientific like taxonomies of working class art, whilst drooling for the arts of the more sophisticated classes.

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

Never the New Stesman, but the Guardian has always been enamored of cheap tawdry gossip.

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

That’s “never READ the New Stesman”.

[@DjWellDressedMan]

HOW HOW HOW did Elvis ever marry Diana Krall, like water and oil

[@jdolew]

They get along harmoniously. Very much in love. Read his autobiography.

[@dfangirl72]

He hasn't changed just gotten older .

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

Yes, he has. He’s gotten much more articulate, and his musical interests, knowledge, and sensitivity have broadened considerably. Even his accent has changed.

[@macguffinman1]

@@jeffryphillipsburns You're right but you can see the seeds of that broadening already in his responses in this interview.

[@littleripper312]

How was his teeth so bad at such a young age?

[@duffbaker9554]

Though his two front teeth were gapped, I didn't see any signs of rot, looked pretty white to me..

[@dfangirl72]

I'm not a oh I gotta get his Elvis Costello CDs but I like Costello always have what I like most his teeth .I myself have crooked teeth at 50 yrs so I love when they change because they get money or are told to change .

[@jeffkaufman9875]

@littler …Imperfect as they may be, he’s got NOTHING on Shane McGowan!..

[@MrNewtonian]

​​@@jeffkaufman9875carcass teeth. Like a burnt fence.

[@irish66]

@@jeffkaufman9875 Bowie and Keith Richards also had teeth issues.

[@TT-fq7pl]

People are still wasting so much energy trying to see complexity and profundity in pop music lyrics. They're never complex or profound. Never.

[@nickdean9683]

"I'm not fake and step over the image game other singers play, but I accepted the very first TV interview I was offered and said 'celebridee.'

[@garrigproductions]

I hear a Welsh twang there...

[@carlh429]

He spent quite a few years in Liverpool growing up so you’re hearing a soft Scouse influence which is quite prevalent in parts of North Wales.

[@garrigproductions]

@@carlh429 I was actually referring to the twang of Mavis Nicholson, who was indeed from North Wales just as I am. However, you are correct that the scouse influence is quite prevalent in North Wales...