Elvis Costello – Pump it up, Veronica!

Elvis Costello canceled the six dates of his European tour to recover from surgery due to Cancer. This sentence brought me such turmoil, such anguish. It sounds like, according to the press release on his website, Costello should be ok. I wish the man well, as I really do not want him to fully recover. However, I must say my well wishes for Costello is not just about his own well being – but also for my own. I know this sounds selfish, but I would be heartbroken if Elvis Costello died. Of course this will happen to everyone. Bowie died, Prince died, Micheal Jackson, and countless other musicians have passed away. All these musicians – I knew we would have them with us forever. Sure, I knew they wouldn’t really, but I could not really imagine a world without them. Just as I cannot imagine a world without Elvis Costello.

Again – it sounds like Costello will be just fine – he just needs some time to recover. Still – I feel it is important to share what has made him important to me. Yes – there are the memories. Some of my most fond are of the one time I got to see him live. I remember Costello playing God’s Comic, which has my all time favorite lyric. Later on that night I almost got his autograph. I was the next one in line, but  Costello was too tired to continue, tipped his leopard print hat, and said “Goodnight Everybody.” Oh, I could go on – so many memories of the man and his influence on my life – but what really touches my life; his music of course.

I’ve put together a playlist of Elvis Costello songs that have meant a lot to me. While a lot of his classics are here, you might not see a few songs that have made him famous; Alison for instance. This doesn’t mean that I hate any song I omitted – this just means they didn’t mean that much to me.

I hope everyone enjoys this playlist – and I hope Costello has a good recovery and is with us for a very long time.

Ok, one more amazing thing about Elvis Costello

One of my favorite Elvis Costello moments happened when I was only three years old. Costello was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, and was supposed to play “Less than Zero.” He started out the song, and stopped in the middle. The song pays dishonor to a British Fascist politician, and felt the song had no real context in America. So Costello plays, “Radio, Radio” instead. This actually caused Costello to be banned from SNL. Meh, whatever – I respect the man for this. That, Mr Costello, is Punk Rock.