It helped me learn to play guitar. Elvis Costello's early compositions are all here. The songs are reasonably simple to learn and sing along to. The melodies are fantastic because it's Elvis Costello, and if you haven't listened to the songs that closely, you will be amazed at how clever his wordplay is.

I have used this songbook so much it's falling apart. All the early songs that E.C. wrote are included. (not the covers like My Funny Valentine) Songs are from the albums My Aim is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!! and the Taking Liberties collection of b-sides and imports. A few lyrics may be a little off. There were never lyric sheets with those albums, so I may just have put in my own intrepretations. These early songs are great for budding guitarists and song writers. They are easily played on solo acoustic and you can learn about what makes a great song. Of course, you must first own the recordings!

For rock music fans this is a piece of history. The words and music to Elvis Costello's early canon of work, and as a contribution to the genre it doesn't get much better. Call yourself a music aficionado? Not until you've got this in your collection!

This was the first of Reese's biographies of musicians, and was produced despite total non-cooperation from the subject. Her image-laden, insightful style gives a broad understanding of Costello as a person and an artist. Though not a fan, I still found the book quite interesting.

A bibliography lists books and magazine articles about its subject. Mr. Perone described the articles so well that I'm going to get some rolls of dimes for the copiers, go to my library, and get some of these articles.

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.

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.

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 found the book interesting, mostly because it's only book I could find analyzing his music. The author is way off on some of his "interpretations", and delves into fiction sometimes with his own theories about what songs or phrases in songs mean. This is why artists like Costello HATE having their songs dissected. they usually get it wrong.

If you plan to get some sort of deep insight into Costello's lyrics with this book, give up now. However, if you can stomach all 200 pages of this book, you will atleast walk away with a few good laughs. Gouldstone completely misunderstands practically each and every Costello song. Not to mention he insults some of his best albums. I got a kick out of this book because it made me realize that there are some people out there who are so arrogant as to think they know everything when they actually know nothing.

Seeing as music appreciation is a personal endeavor, writing about a songwriter and performer such as Elvis Costello can be dangerous, since his fans are fairly particular about what they like and what they don't. Mr. Gouldstone goes through Costello's catalog chronologically by album, with important odd tracks added when applicable, but because he is the first to publicly tackle such an oeuvre, his opinions stand out prominently. The reader occasionally is inclined to say out loud, "Is he kidding?", as the interpretations are somewhat personal. Which only illustrates the breadth of Costello's talent. After all, my Elvis is not your Elvis. One also wishes a revised edition was available, seeing as Costello has released much music since the publication of this book. Still, being the only of its kind available about the author, it is essential reading for any diehard fan, and states the case for Costello's own self-penned literary companion or anthology, should he ever be inclined to write one.

What a let down! I can't think of anyone more deserving of a good biography than Elvis Costello. The greatest 20th Century songwriter -- and I include Dylan, Gershwin, Porter, et al., in that comparison. Well, this isn't what we've been waiting for, by a country mile. A thrown-together collection of press clips, apocrypha and tired gossip, with absolutely no analysis of his lyrics and songwriting in general. If you're going to read a bio, try "God's Comic" instead. It's no great shakes either, but this is the pits. Why the publisher didn't just sling the MS in the trashcan, I don't know. Obviously done with no cooperation from the subject or anyone who knows the first thing about his music. Save your money.

There are three types of unauthorized biographies, well-researched, pure speculation, and cut and paste. This is an example of the latter. The author gives us the Elvis Costello to be found in magazine interviews, and creates a whole book by taking information from a variety of sources and putting it all together into this quickie bio. Some decent insights into his recording career are to be found throughout, but this is really not well-done. You can put your time to better use by listening to a few Costello CD's and wonder about the workings of the man who created all this challenging music. That will bring you closer to understanding Elvis Costello than this book will.

One thing that you have to give credit to Tony Clayton-Lea for is that he right up front advises the reader that Elvis Costello had nothing and wanted nothing to do with this biography. Cooperation from the subject of a biography is, of course, immensely helpful in writing of the book, but by no means a necessity. Mr. Clayton-Lea offers an extremely pedestrian account of the life and times of Elvis Costello. The book reads like press clippings in many spots and offers no insight into the man's career. Being that there are barely any books on Mr. Costello, this book has a minimum of value for that reason, but not much else. if you are an avid fan of Mr. Costello, then this book doesn't offer much, but if you are not that familiar with his career, then this book is a decent primer.

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

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!

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.