Elvis Costello memoir due in October from Penguin

Penguin has revealed that, on 13 October, it will publish a memoir by Elvis Costello (through its Blue Rider Press imprint) with the very Costellonian title of Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. So far those details are only up on the publisher’s American site, meaning there is still time to shift it to Penguin Classics for its UK release.

Per Penguin’s blurb:

The long-awaited, unconventional but indelible memoir by one of the music world’s greatest and most influential songwriters and performers, Elvis Costello.

From his release, with The Attractions, of My Aim is True in 1976, Elvis Costello has been one of the most popular and genre-bending entertainers of our era. Born to a musical family outside of London and relocated to Liverpool, Costello created his own form of punk, became one of the first artists to exploit the newly-burgeoning MTV-Video world and managed to make himself a huge reputation in the UK and the U.S. through both his catchy tunes, provocative, poetic lyrics and more than a few instances of bad behavior. Now, having just turned sixty, Elvis is in the pantheon of elder statesmen musician/rockers, collaborating often with the likes of Paul McCartney, great ballet and opera companies, hip-hop groups, jazz ensembles while appearing frequently in venues like Carnegie Hall and on shows like David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon.

This is his story, written himself, rich with anecdotes about family and fellow musicians, introspective about the creation of his famous songs.

(Ahem, actually Penguin, the Attractions don’t appear on record until Costello’s second album, 1978’s This Year’s Model, with only keyboard player and subsequent Costello right hand man Steve Nieve also playing on that first LP (and even then only on re-releases featuring “Watching the Detectives”) [pushes thick black-rimmed glasses so far up bridge of nose])

As anyone who’s seen Costello perform live (or read an interview with him, or seen him interview other iconic performers on his TV chat show Spectacle) will know, the man has amazing stories to spare; and as anyone who’s ever listened to any of his first, say, twelve albums will know, he has a way with words more or less unparalleled by any other British pop musician of the 20th century. In other words, the only immediate concern about whether or not this book will be good is that it only runs 352 pages, which doesn’t seem to be nearly long enough.

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