[troutman]

With my 3rd pick in the draft, troutman's K-Tel Sound Explosion, selects in the Songwriter Category, from Liverpool, England, ELVIS COSTELLO (Declan McManus):

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:aifyxqw5ldte~T1

When Elvis Costello's first record was released in 1977, his bristling cynicism and anger linked him with the punk and new wave explosion. A cursory listen to My Aim Is True proves that the main connection that Costello had with the punks was his unbridled passion. He tore through rock's back pages taking whatever he wanted, as well as borrowing from country, Tin Pan Alley pop, reggae, and many other musical genres. Over his career, that musical eclecticism has distinguished Costello's records as much as his fiercely literate lyrics. Because he supports his lyrics with his richly diverse music, Costello is one of the most innovative, influential, and best songwriters since Bob Dylan.

http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/elv...he-attractions

Elvis Costello’s remarkable career spontaneously kicked into gear in 1976. According to a record-company bio, “An unknown and unannounced Elvis Costello walks into the offices of Stiff Records, strikes up an instant rapport with Stiff’s then-supremo Jake Riviera, and is signed immediately.” Thus began a career in song that has been almost unmatched in its reach - from furious, biting punk-era nuggets to art-minded collaborations with an opera singer and string quartet - and consistency. Costello has been called “the finest songwriter of his generation,” and he ranks among the most prolific, too.

Favorite line: She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake



It seemed that every punk and new wave act who came out of England in the late '70s was in love with reggae, and nearly all of them had at least one token bit of bad-boy skanking in their repertoire. Elvis Costello dipped his toes into Jamaican rhythms very rarely, but he certainly knocked the ball out of the park in his first time at bat. A venomous film noir tale of infidelity, betrayal, and murder, the lyrics for "Watching the Detectives" would have sounded menacing sung to the tune of &"Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot ikini." But Costello paired it with a skeletal minor-key melody that slowly but effectively wound itself into a solid knot of fierce emotional tension, pushing the bitter lyrical atmosphere further into the darkness. And on Costello's original recording, the song's power is augmented by a brilliantly spare arrangement; the dynamic space that surrounds Andrew Bodnar's melodic bass line, Costello's slashing bursts of guitar, Steve Gulding's trash-can drums, and Steve Nieve's keyboard punctuations make it clear that less really is more in this context. Costello wouldn't cut another reggae tune for quite some time, but then again, who could blame him for not wanting the pressure of trying to top this?


With his third album, 1979's Armed Forces, Elvis Costello offered his most pungently political set of songs up to that time, but wrapped them in catchy melodies and pop-friendly production that gave Elvis the Menace a real chance at cracking the singles charts in America, something that had eluded nearly all of the would-be conquering heroes of the British new wave. In particular, "Oliver's Army" sounded like a hit waiting to happen; it had hooks Abba would envy carried by a buoyant piano line from Steve Nieve, and it boasted an almost jubilant-sounding vocal from the traditionally dour (or threatening) Costello, who even embellished himself with some tight vocal harmony overdubs. "Oliver's Army" was a 45 that radio could hardly refuse -- that is, until programmers listened closely to the words and discovered it was a bitter screed about how impressionable youth were being used as cannon fodder by Tory leaders whose political agendas had little to do with the concerns of the man on the street. That it didn't quite click in the States is not difficult to understand, though the fact that it was a hit in the U.K. is rather astonishing, given that the song's politics were far harder to ignore there than in the U.S. To promote Armed Forces in England, Costello distributed a poster with a photo of him holding a military rifle to his mouth, with the headline "Don't Go." "Oliver's Army" sounds like the sort of recruitment song Costello could have been warning youth about, with the truth of its message hidden in plain sight.