0:00:02 > 0:00:09This programme contains some strong language
0:00:14 > 0:00:16People have been trying to get me
0:00:16 > 0:00:18to write my biography since I was 24.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20It took me a while to get round to the idea
0:00:20 > 0:00:22there might be some book to write.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27So the only book I can write is the one that nobody else can know
0:00:27 > 0:00:30but me - the things that I was actually feeling,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33the experiences that aren't on any other public record.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35Cos they're things that happened out of the picture.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37I don't mean in my professional life,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40even before it, in the life of my family before I was born,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43or after I was born, when I was a child,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46that had something to do with the way I hear music.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Not that I want to make that sound like some sort of magical story,
0:00:50 > 0:00:52but everyone's way of listening is different,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55and mine's the way it is because of these things,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58and that's all I want to raise a glass to, you know.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04Declan MacManus, better known as Elvis Costello, is widely regarded
0:01:04 > 0:01:08as the most brilliant British songwriter of his generation.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12He came of age at a time when rock music had lost its innocence
0:01:12 > 0:01:14and become aware of its history.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20His sources draw from ragtime to country and '60s soul,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23from Schubert to Abba and the Beatles,
0:01:23 > 0:01:25from eclectic jazz to the Great American Songbook.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30MUSIC: "Pump it Up" by Elvis Costello
0:01:48 > 0:01:51# I've been on tenterhooks Ending in dirty looks
0:01:51 > 0:01:54# Listenin' to the Muzak Thinking 'bout this 'n' that
0:01:54 > 0:01:58# She said that's that I don't wanna chitter-chat
0:01:58 > 0:02:02# Turn it down a little bit Or turn it down flat
0:02:02 > 0:02:05- # Pump it up! - When you don't really need it
0:02:05 > 0:02:07# Pump it up!
0:02:07 > 0:02:10# Until you can feel it... #
0:02:10 > 0:02:14What was thrilling about him at the time was that punk rock had
0:02:14 > 0:02:17a lot of excitement, pace, acceleration,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20and the press were waiting for someone who would come along and add
0:02:20 > 0:02:24a little depth and three-dimensional quality to the words.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28And in came Elvis with his strange kind of geeky, weird look and
0:02:28 > 0:02:31his aggression and pace, a few minor chords
0:02:31 > 0:02:34and a few extraordinary songs that you could relate to.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37And all that was condensed into one great cocktail
0:02:37 > 0:02:39which had enormous impact.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42# Oliver's army is here to stay
0:02:42 > 0:02:46# Oliver's army are on their way
0:02:46 > 0:02:53# And I would rather be anywhere else but here today... #
0:02:56 > 0:02:59The New Wave geek was the first of a series of personae
0:02:59 > 0:03:00that Elvis would explore,
0:03:00 > 0:03:04playfully reinventing his image over the next 30 years in a way
0:03:04 > 0:03:07that parallels his uniquely wide-ranging musical adventures.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11He comes through the Beatles, he comes through the blues,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15soul, he comes through '60s music, '70s music, and beyond.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20# What would you say? What would you do?
0:03:20 > 0:03:24# Children and animals Two by two... #
0:03:25 > 0:03:29He likes people not to get too in a comfort zone.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32He wants to keep things dangerous,
0:03:32 > 0:03:34because that's when the best things happen.
0:03:34 > 0:03:40# Everyone dreams of him just as they can
0:03:40 > 0:03:46# But he's only the humble delivery man... #
0:03:48 > 0:03:51Other musicians hope a little bit of his thing
0:03:51 > 0:03:53will rub off on them as well.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59Because he's got this wild, slightly feral quality that they all like.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01# In a certain light...
0:04:01 > 0:04:04# He looked like Elvis
0:04:04 > 0:04:09# In a certain way He felt like Jesus... #
0:04:11 > 0:04:14He had such an incredibly strong, muscular voice
0:04:14 > 0:04:19and could sing anything, I mean, really, and yet it's always Elvis.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22# Well, I hope you live long now... #
0:04:24 > 0:04:26Elvis is a master of melody,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31but what distinguishes him above all is an almost uncanny way with words,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33from the creative use of the well-worn cliche
0:04:33 > 0:04:35to daring poetic associations,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38whether he is writing about the sorrow of love
0:04:38 > 0:04:39or the burning fire of desire,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42the power play of the bedroom or the world of politics.
0:04:42 > 0:04:48# I never thought for a moment
0:04:48 > 0:04:55# That human life could be so cheap
0:04:55 > 0:05:06# But when they finally put you in the ground... #
0:05:06 > 0:05:12# ..I'll stand there laughing
0:05:12 > 0:05:23# And tramp the dirt down. #
0:05:29 > 0:05:34CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:05:52 > 0:05:54HE SNIFFS
0:05:54 > 0:05:55It's a nice smell.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02# When that I was and a little tiny boy
0:06:02 > 0:06:07# With a hey-ho The wind and the rain
0:06:07 > 0:06:12# A foolish thing was but a toy
0:06:12 > 0:06:17# For the rain It raineth every day... #
0:06:33 > 0:06:35And we lived down here,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39just in the little modern estate that was built in the late '50s.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41We lived in the top flat there.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44There was a back way that we could get down to the river.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47My bedroom was at the back.
0:06:47 > 0:06:48JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:06:50 > 0:06:54What I knew was what I saw through my parents' experience.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58I knew that my parents' friends were mostly jazz musicians, and that
0:06:58 > 0:07:02my dad had played jazz, and most of the music in the house was jazz,
0:07:02 > 0:07:07Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Stan Kenton,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Nat Cole instrumental records,
0:07:09 > 0:07:16or American vocal music, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat Cole, Eckstine.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19Later on, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee...
0:07:19 > 0:07:21That's the records that we had on the shelf.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Elvis' father, Ross MacManus, had been one of Liverpool's
0:07:31 > 0:07:33daring bebop pioneers,
0:07:33 > 0:07:35modelling himself on Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Discovering a talent for singing,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48he started working as a dance-band vocalist.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52He was taken on by the Joe Loss Orchestra - leaders in the field.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55There were all these jazz bands, they were all over the radio,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57and Joe Loss hired my dad.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59I remember him going to work,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01yeah, he would just get in the car and drive to work,
0:08:01 > 0:08:07so his office on the weekday was the Hammersmith Palais.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12BIG BAND MUSIC PLAYS
0:08:12 > 0:08:17They were a 16-piece Glenn Miller-style dance band
0:08:17 > 0:08:19and they could play all the dances of the day,
0:08:19 > 0:08:20they'd have their Latin section,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24they would do quicksteps, foxtrots, waltzes,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27they'd play two sets a night, and they'd play on a Saturday afternoon,
0:08:27 > 0:08:31people would go and practise ballroom dancing there in the afternoon,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34it was a very vivid scene to me.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37When I was only seven or eight,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41I was just put up in the balcony with a bag of crisps and a bottle of pop
0:08:41 > 0:08:44and the lady from the cloakroom was given the charge of looking after me.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49I wasn't going anywhere, there was nobody in the balcony except me. It was just me.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57And then little by little through the '60s, they start to have shows
0:08:57 > 0:09:01that featured beat groups and that's how, you know...
0:09:01 > 0:09:04And Joe Loss was very shrewd, he was a guy who knew a hit
0:09:04 > 0:09:05when he heard it.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08- # If I had a bell - If I had a bell
0:09:08 > 0:09:10- # I'd ring it in the morning - I'd ring it in the morning
0:09:10 > 0:09:12- # I'd ring it in the evening - Ring it in the... #
0:09:12 > 0:09:15And in my dad, he was fortunate that he had somebody who was
0:09:15 > 0:09:17very versatile and a very good mimic.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20# I'd ring out a warning, yeah
0:09:20 > 0:09:24# I'd ring about the love between my brothers and my sisters
0:09:24 > 0:09:26# All over this land
0:09:26 > 0:09:28# Oh-oh-oh-oh... #
0:09:28 > 0:09:32He would be in the front room with a stack of records and sheet music
0:09:32 > 0:09:36and listening to the records over and over again until he had it memorised.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42I think it's early '63 when Please Please Me came out.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44I asked him for Please Please Me, I said,
0:09:44 > 0:09:46"What are you going to do with that record?"
0:09:46 > 0:09:49He didn't keep any of the records, so he must have given them
0:09:49 > 0:09:53to friends' kids or something, and then I started asking for them
0:09:53 > 0:09:55and I got them every week, like, five, six records at a time.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00It was a lot of records for a nine- or ten-year-old to have.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04I had 500% more records than pocket money could have bought me
0:10:04 > 0:10:07if I spent every penny of my pocket money on a record every week.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10Yeah, so that's why I know so many songs!
0:10:11 > 0:10:13BELL RINGS
0:10:13 > 0:10:17MUSIC: "Turpentine"
0:10:20 > 0:10:27# I can't tell if this is real or if I am sleeping... #
0:10:31 > 0:10:35I'm just looking for problematic songs on here for sound.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39You've got a lot of those sort of tom-tommy songs.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42It's the tom-tom... It's the tom-tom ones that are the problem.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44If it's too much, it'll get oppressive,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47so in a way, the placing of the wheel will help with that
0:10:47 > 0:10:51because it's really a symphony hall, that's what I was afraid of.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53Watch Your Step, let's put that up,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56- because we haven't done that transition.- OK, yeah.
0:10:58 > 0:10:59Then what is the transition?
0:10:59 > 0:11:02THEY LAUGH
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Whichever one I start singing first!
0:11:05 > 0:11:08At least we're not freaked out now when I get it wrong.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10HE SINGS
0:11:23 > 0:11:26I knew I was a writer from when I was about eight.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29I knew that, I used to write plays, I don't know why,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32I used to answer essays in play form,
0:11:32 > 0:11:34and I was a sort of argumentative kid,
0:11:34 > 0:11:39I always have been argumentative, and I suppose a bit precocious,
0:11:39 > 0:11:43and I remember doing that and thinking this was funny,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46and I wrote poetry.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49It was all nonsense, you know, just like you have to learn,
0:11:49 > 0:11:53and when I was 13, I started setting things to music.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57I'd had a guitar since I was about ten, but I had never played it,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01it was like a kid's one, and eventually when I was about 13,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05I put steel strings on it, which wrecked it, of course,
0:12:05 > 0:12:10and somebody had the chord changes of Man Of The World by Fleetwood Mac
0:12:10 > 0:12:13written out in chord symbols, which isn't exactly an easy song,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16it's not three chords, it's quite complicated,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19but I was so enamoured of the song, I taught myself how to play it.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21It was the first song I ever learned how to play,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24and then went backwards and learned more simplified chords.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27I just literally learned, memorised all of them and worked and worked
0:12:27 > 0:12:30until I could play that one song, that was the only song I could play.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35MUSIC: "Man Of The World" by Fleetwood Mac
0:12:39 > 0:12:42I also inherited some clothes from my dad, because we were the same size.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48So when I was, like, 13, I had some Nehru jackets, and he would
0:12:48 > 0:12:52also get handmade shoes - by this point, he was earning a bit of money.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55He was getting shoes made, and he was getting Chelsea boots made,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59and they'd get a little worn from being on stage, and he'd get
0:12:59 > 0:13:03some new ones, and they were perfectly serviceable for a teenager.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06And then, of course, my feet grew, and I got a little taller
0:13:06 > 0:13:08and I couldn't do it any more.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10And then you go through that period
0:13:10 > 0:13:14where you don't know what you are, who you are, you're all lumpy
0:13:14 > 0:13:17and spotty and horrible, like most kids go through,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19and I just never felt very good after that.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23So I just found what worked for me, which was a suit jacket,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27and I've worn that ever since, it doesn't matter how hot it is.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33After his parents' separation, Elvis moved to Liverpool
0:13:33 > 0:13:35with his mother, and continued his studies
0:13:35 > 0:13:38at a Catholic secondary school.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41We had this history teacher, he came into class every day,
0:13:41 > 0:13:47opened a book and he dictated his own university notes to us.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50I think we all resented the fact that he wasn't really teaching us,
0:13:50 > 0:13:51so I would argue with him,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55and I knew enough about history that I could argue with him.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58That's how I knew...how I learned how to be provocative,
0:13:58 > 0:14:00because he just pissed me off.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09My friend was killed down there when I was 17.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Came out of an annexe...
0:14:14 > 0:14:17..and then tried to get a lift from one of the teachers,
0:14:17 > 0:14:22the 300 yards back to the school, and didn't see a car coming.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26And to die at 17 like that, right in front of us, was terrible, you know.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30HE WHISTLES
0:14:30 > 0:14:33At 17, you think you're pretty much immortal,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36so when that was brought home that we're not...
0:14:36 > 0:14:39Although intellectually I knew we weren't immortal,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42you still sort of thought, "Well, I've got lots of time,"
0:14:42 > 0:14:44and I thought, "Well, I'd better get on with it, then."
0:14:44 > 0:14:47# Sitting in a park in Paris, France
0:14:47 > 0:14:50# Reading the news and it sure looks bad
0:14:50 > 0:14:52# They won't give peace a chance
0:14:52 > 0:14:55# That was just a dream some of us had... #
0:14:55 > 0:14:57He once told me that he'd gone out
0:14:57 > 0:15:00and bought a copy of Joni Mitchell's Blue when it came out,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03and he would have been, I guess, 17 at the time.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08And he told me he physically wore out the grooves of the record
0:15:08 > 0:15:10listening to Joni Mitchell's Blue.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12Over and over again, in bed at night.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15He had to go out and buy another copy in the end.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17# I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
0:15:17 > 0:15:20# California, I'm coming home... #
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Elvis always had aspirations as a songwriter.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30His earliest performances were in Liverpool's folk and country clubs.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34I mostly played my own songs to begin with.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37I didn't know how that was going to make a living, but...
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Because my dad was a singer professionally,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43I knew I didn't want to do what he did.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48Because at some point, I didn't judge him for it,
0:15:48 > 0:15:52but I knew he'd made a decision to go into entertainment.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Really when I was born, he went from playing the music that he loved
0:15:56 > 0:15:59to playing music he could get paid for playing,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01or singing, in his case.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05By the way, there, just there, pull up, pull up.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09That's called the St George's Project, and it used to be
0:16:09 > 0:16:11called "The Blackie"
0:16:11 > 0:16:14cos like most of the sandstone buildings in Liverpool,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17they used to be black from the soot
0:16:17 > 0:16:22and I was paid 50p, my first ever paying gig, to play there,
0:16:22 > 0:16:24in 1970.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30Nobody saw me and said, "I'm now going to make you a success."
0:16:30 > 0:16:33I think the distance between what we were doing
0:16:33 > 0:16:37and the reality of pop music at that moment was so great.
0:16:37 > 0:16:43You had epic stadium music, or you had Slade and Gary Glitter.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46You couldn't summon up anything that sounded like that
0:16:46 > 0:16:48with two acoustic guitars.
0:16:48 > 0:16:55# Don't lose your grip on love
0:16:56 > 0:17:02# Don't lose your grip on love... #
0:17:04 > 0:17:08He could see that I had been earning my living in a band
0:17:08 > 0:17:12pretty much playing American roots music, which is what...
0:17:12 > 0:17:18That was the key to it for him, the entrance was American roots music.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23# I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial
0:17:23 > 0:17:26# On the front of my radio... #
0:17:28 > 0:17:31I heard demos of Flip City. I didn't really think much of them,
0:17:31 > 0:17:36because none of them were very good players, including Declan.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39But the ambition he had for himself
0:17:39 > 0:17:42was way, way beyond his actual ability.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48# What we need is a little music So here to entertain you... #
0:17:50 > 0:17:53I sent tapes out, all around London to different publishers
0:17:53 > 0:17:56because I believed I was a songwriter, not a performer,
0:17:56 > 0:17:58and just got rejection notices,
0:17:58 > 0:18:00so obviously, the songs I was writing,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03either they didn't see anything in them
0:18:03 > 0:18:05for the other artists they had...
0:18:05 > 0:18:07The sort of artists they had,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11when I think about it now, logically, the songs may have had some merit,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15but it is hard to imagine how anybody who was currently in the pop scene
0:18:15 > 0:18:16could have interpreted them.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Soon after, Elvis signed with a new indie,
0:18:21 > 0:18:24created by mavericks Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28Just after I got my record contract, or around the time I did,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30I lived in a block of flats behind there.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33I used to get the train to Willesden Junction
0:18:33 > 0:18:37and walk from Willesden past the Walls factory to Elizabeth Arden,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40where I was working, I was working as a computer operator
0:18:40 > 0:18:43because I was working an IBM 360 on my own,
0:18:43 > 0:18:47and what I was doing was great because nobody knew what I was doing!
0:18:47 > 0:18:49I was just pushing these buttons
0:18:49 > 0:18:51and acting like it was much more difficult than it was,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55and the machine took as long as it took to do the calculations.
0:18:55 > 0:18:56If things went wrong,
0:18:56 > 0:18:58it was because the printer physically chewed up the cards
0:18:58 > 0:19:00and you'd have to get them retyped.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03They were all things that delayed what you were doing
0:19:03 > 0:19:05and give you lots of time to mess about,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07and that messing about was writing my first record.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10What I didn't write up in the bedroom there, I wrote at work.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13I Cannot Turn It Off, take one.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18# Basement babies strangling saxophones
0:19:18 > 0:19:22# They got twisted motives
0:19:22 > 0:19:24# They got eyes of stone
0:19:24 > 0:19:28# And it's a terminal condition that is tattooed on their shoes
0:19:28 > 0:19:31# It's not that they don't need you
0:19:31 > 0:19:34# They're too mixed up to choose
0:19:34 > 0:19:39# Broken noses hung up high on the wall
0:19:39 > 0:19:44# Back-slapping drinkers cheer the championship brawl
0:19:44 > 0:19:48# But they're so punch-drunk They don't understand the word defeat
0:19:48 > 0:19:51# They can take you out and shoot you
0:19:51 > 0:19:54# They can't confiscate that beat... #
0:19:56 > 0:20:01# ..Cut loose in a nightmare Cast off in my dreams
0:20:01 > 0:20:04# If home is anywhere that I can hang my hat
0:20:04 > 0:20:08# Then it's coming apart at the seams
0:20:08 > 0:20:12# My luck is hanging upside down
0:20:12 > 0:20:14# I try to hold on tight
0:20:14 > 0:20:20# But money's rolling out of town and love slips right out of sight
0:20:20 > 0:20:24# And these bones don't look so good to me
0:20:28 > 0:20:33# Jokers talk and they all disagree
0:20:33 > 0:20:40# One day soon, I will laugh right in the face of the poison moon... #
0:20:41 > 0:20:45You know, I didn't have any audience, I didn't have any knowledge of
0:20:45 > 0:20:47an audience when I was writing the songs on My Aim Was True,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50I just knew I had to write some songs...
0:20:51 > 0:20:54..that would get me out the bedroom.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57I was married to my first wife, and my young son,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00and I didn't really have the money to be going out to join in what
0:21:00 > 0:21:03was going on uptown, there was a new scene happening.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06I'd always felt like I lived slightly off the pace
0:21:06 > 0:21:08of where it was happening.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11When I was a little kid, the Rolling Stones were playing
0:21:11 > 0:21:15the other side of Richmond Bridge, but I was too young to go.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18The Who were down the river, I was too young to go.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21By the time I was out and about, it was all gone!
0:21:21 > 0:21:22They'd left town.
0:21:24 > 0:21:32# One day soon, I will laugh right in the face of the poison moon. #
0:21:34 > 0:21:38And that wouldn't really go anywhere, that song, except now I can sing it.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43And then I heard the first cues of punk, and I thought,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47"Oh, it's a simpler, narrower thing that's getting people's attention."
0:21:47 > 0:21:51# Calling Mister Oswald with the swastika tattoo
0:21:51 > 0:21:56# There is a vacancy waiting in the English voodoo
0:21:56 > 0:21:58# Carving "V" for vandal on the guilty boy's head... #
0:21:58 > 0:22:01Even the very name of the company, it was daring people to say,
0:22:01 > 0:22:03"You're not going to call it Marvellous Records,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05"we'll call it Stiff Records."
0:22:05 > 0:22:09And everything proceeded from that reverse way of looking at everything.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18I think there was a great mythology about Stiff at the time.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22It had a lot of pace and a lot of magic and very hard-hitting slogans.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Elvis had a very charismatic manager, Jake Riviera,
0:22:28 > 0:22:32and that package was something that really helped his arrival, I think.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45I remember being egged on, "Go on, do that, more extreme."
0:22:45 > 0:22:49I got the impression that a lot of that was a very clever contrivance
0:22:49 > 0:22:53between himself and his management and his record label, actually.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56It was a cartoonish character that they had jointly invented,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59beneath which he could operate - it gave him some manoeuvrability.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04They knew that the image was inherently ridiculous
0:23:04 > 0:23:06because I was so the opposite in appearance
0:23:06 > 0:23:09to what a rock and roll star looked like in those days,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12which was a guy with a shirt open to the navel
0:23:12 > 0:23:14and a big mane of hair like Robert Plant or something,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18so it was sort of satirical, in a sense, and it was a thin line,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21even the name, and the adoption of a name
0:23:21 > 0:23:26which was seen almost as a heresy to adopt Elvis,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28Elvis was still alive, obviously.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32It was just a dare that there could be two people with that name,
0:23:32 > 0:23:34as previously there'd only been one.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36APPLAUSE
0:23:36 > 0:23:38You and I share something, in that we both...
0:23:38 > 0:23:41er, adopted a new identity to get started,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45- and I know it helped me sort of start again with songwriting.- Yes.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48I had a group of songs, and then I found the way I was thinking
0:23:48 > 0:23:51and the way I looked and the way I was named all fitted together,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53but it took me a while to work out
0:23:53 > 0:23:58whether this new identity was supposed to be a suit of armour
0:23:58 > 0:24:03or this sort of Superman suit that I got into in a telephone box.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05But you made a wise choice. I mean, Declan McManus,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08- people were thinking... - They were expecting a guy
0:24:08 > 0:24:10in a cable-knit sweater singing whaling songs.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16One gentleman last May was relatively unknown.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20He had hardly even played one proper date, and yet his aim was true.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24# It's so funny to be seeing you after so long, girl
0:24:24 > 0:24:25# And with the way you look
0:24:25 > 0:24:29# I understand that you were not impressed
0:24:29 > 0:24:34# But I heard you let that little friend of mine
0:24:34 > 0:24:37# Take off your party dress
0:24:39 > 0:24:43# I'm not going to get too sentimental
0:24:43 > 0:24:47# Like those other sticky Valentines
0:24:49 > 0:24:52# Cos I don't know if you've been loving somebody... #
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Elvis' breakthrough first album, My Aim Is True,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56was produced by Nick Lowe
0:24:56 > 0:24:59with backing from the laid-back Californian country rockers Clover.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02# Alison... #
0:25:04 > 0:25:06But to match the explosive feel of punk,
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Elvis needed a band with more edge.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14The Attractions had a mixture of high energy and musical talent
0:25:14 > 0:25:16that suited Elvis perfectly.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22# See her picture in a thousand places, she's this year's girl
0:25:24 > 0:25:28# You think you all own little pieces of this year's girl
0:25:30 > 0:25:33# Forget your fancy manners... #
0:25:33 > 0:25:35'It's always curious when it's a group,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39'when it's one man's songs, but it's four men's delivery of it,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41'but I couldn't have done what I did
0:25:41 > 0:25:44'if it hadn't been for those individual players of Steve Nieve
0:25:44 > 0:25:47'and Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas, but in terms of the way
0:25:47 > 0:25:51'the whole ship was being steered, that was largely my idea.'
0:25:51 > 0:25:53# No surprises for this year's girl
0:25:55 > 0:25:59# All this, but no surprises for this year's girl... #
0:26:02 > 0:26:06He always was a pretty benign dictator. He knew the value of,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10you know, what's the point of getting great inventive musicians
0:26:10 > 0:26:13around you and then telling them what to do?
0:26:13 > 0:26:15There's absolutely no point in that.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19When it came down to it, he'd say, "Look, it's my record," you know,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22"I don't like that, that's got to go."
0:26:22 > 0:26:25Then also he wanted to try stuff which I just thought,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28"This will never work, this will never, ever work.
0:26:28 > 0:26:29"Trust me, this will never work."
0:26:29 > 0:26:31But it blooming well did.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34# Some of my friends sit around every evening
0:26:34 > 0:26:37# And they worry about the times ahead
0:26:37 > 0:26:40# But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
0:26:40 > 0:26:43# And the promise of an early bed
0:26:43 > 0:26:47# You either shut up or get cut out They don't wanna hear about it
0:26:47 > 0:26:51# It's only inches on the reel-to-reel
0:26:51 > 0:26:54# And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
0:26:54 > 0:26:57# Trying to anaesthetise the way that you feel
0:26:57 > 0:27:00# Radio is a sound salvation
0:27:00 > 0:27:03# Radio is cleaning up the nation
0:27:05 > 0:27:08# They say you'd better listen to the voice of reason
0:27:10 > 0:27:14# But they don't give you any choice cos they think that it's treason
0:27:15 > 0:27:18# So you had better do as you are told
0:27:18 > 0:27:21# You'd better listen to the radio
0:27:23 > 0:27:25# Wonderful radio
0:27:27 > 0:27:29# Marvellous radio
0:27:30 > 0:27:32# Wonderful radio
0:27:33 > 0:27:35# Radio, radio
0:27:36 > 0:27:38# Radio, radio... #
0:27:40 > 0:27:44Please welcome Elvis Costello and The Attractions!
0:27:44 > 0:27:47CHEERING
0:27:57 > 0:27:59You! Up!
0:27:59 > 0:28:01This song's called Pump It Up!
0:28:01 > 0:28:04I think it's about time you showed some life!
0:28:04 > 0:28:06This is supposed to be a good town!
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Are you going to let us down?
0:28:08 > 0:28:13'I wasn't on the, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, how are you doing?" side of it.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17'I was on the, "Let's make people uncomfortable temporarily
0:28:17 > 0:28:19'"so it takes away the preconceived ideas
0:28:19 > 0:28:22'"or who they think you are and what this is about'
0:28:22 > 0:28:24"and maybe they'll hear it differently."
0:28:24 > 0:28:27That was maybe a little bit of youthful arrogance.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32# Not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue
0:28:33 > 0:28:36# It's you
0:28:38 > 0:28:42# Not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue
0:28:43 > 0:28:45# Oh, yeah... #
0:28:47 > 0:28:50'People thought that the first album that I wrote with The Attractions
0:28:50 > 0:28:53'was somehow a misogynistic record.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55'It actually wasn't. It was the opposite of that.'
0:28:55 > 0:29:01It was like... It was a love letter to the idea of something
0:29:01 > 0:29:06that sustained beyond superficial appearance,
0:29:06 > 0:29:09'that you were better than the lipstick you wore,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11'you know, that you were a better person than that.'
0:29:11 > 0:29:14I just didn't really express it very articulately.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18It came out as being embittered or some sort of male frustration thing.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21I think that was mainly in the eye of the beholder.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26# Not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue
0:29:27 > 0:29:29# It's you
0:29:32 > 0:29:35# Not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue
0:29:37 > 0:29:39# Oh, yeah... #
0:29:42 > 0:29:45'I suppose that goes right back to the beginning of my career -
0:29:45 > 0:29:46'being on Stiff Records,
0:29:46 > 0:29:50'there was always a little bit of that double talk in everything we did
0:29:50 > 0:29:54'and it kind of got me in a lot of trouble in the late '70s
0:29:54 > 0:29:57'when I got in a bar fight with Stephen Stills' band
0:29:57 > 0:30:01'and it started with a sort of one-upmanship thing'
0:30:01 > 0:30:03of, "You guys don't really like music,
0:30:03 > 0:30:05"you don't even know the great music under your nose,"
0:30:05 > 0:30:08and I ended up, because I was so drunk and on drugs,
0:30:08 > 0:30:12saying really the most despicable things and, of course,
0:30:12 > 0:30:15it should have not gone any further than the idiotic bar fight it was,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18but it did, and you lose all of your compass
0:30:18 > 0:30:22in life, as much as in work or anything,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25and you realise the thin line between joking
0:30:25 > 0:30:28and then using words that don't belong to you.
0:30:28 > 0:30:29# Just want to hear you say
0:30:31 > 0:30:33# Just want to hear you tell me... #
0:30:33 > 0:30:34'I stood outside of it a lot.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37'I never really felt like I was the person,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41'you know, there was a character that I was writing a lot of the time.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44'People just made the assumption it had to be true.'
0:30:44 > 0:30:46# I'm not lyrical
0:30:46 > 0:30:47# I'm not
0:30:49 > 0:30:51# I'm not
0:30:52 > 0:30:54# I'm not
0:30:54 > 0:30:55# I'm not... #
0:30:57 > 0:31:00And I suppose the tumultuous nature of it
0:31:00 > 0:31:03and some of the tormenting nature of it
0:31:03 > 0:31:06ended up stimulating or generating songs
0:31:06 > 0:31:09and it became sort of like a catchphrase
0:31:09 > 0:31:11that the songs were about revenge and guilt.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14They were actually much more about guilt than revenge.
0:31:14 > 0:31:15# I'm not
0:31:17 > 0:31:18# I'm not
0:31:20 > 0:31:21# I'm not
0:31:22 > 0:31:24# I'm not... #
0:31:37 > 0:31:40MUSIC OVER SPEECH
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Thank you! And good night!
0:31:49 > 0:31:51FEEDBACK ECHOES
0:31:58 > 0:32:02I think at a certain point he realised that
0:32:02 > 0:32:06our sort of shenanigans had to come to an end
0:32:06 > 0:32:08if he was going to transcend
0:32:08 > 0:32:12and go forward further, which obviously he did.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16# High fidelity
0:32:19 > 0:32:23# Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
0:32:23 > 0:32:26# Can you hear me? #
0:32:27 > 0:32:29We just copied little bits of records,
0:32:29 > 0:32:31kind of the way people do it now with samplers.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35We were just replaying bits of things we had absorbed.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39As a teenager, all you needed to listen to at a party
0:32:39 > 0:32:41was a Motown compilation
0:32:41 > 0:32:45and early reggae records that caught on in the late '60s.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50That's where the sound of my first records, it comes from that,
0:32:50 > 0:32:56it's a mixture of the Small Faces... version of R&B,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59because I couldn't play...I didn't have big guitars like the Stones
0:32:59 > 0:33:01and didn't have any vocal harmony in the band,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04so as much as I love the Beatles, I couldn't imitate them,
0:33:04 > 0:33:06just a few chord changes I could steal from them.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11What I'm saying is, the foundation in listening that began
0:33:11 > 0:33:15with going and seeing my dad have to synthesise all this music,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18it gave me a different way of looking at music
0:33:18 > 0:33:21than somebody who just liked that group.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24I actually saw how that thing was constructed.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26I could actually hear into it.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30# Can you hear me? #
0:33:38 > 0:33:41In 1980, I actually took my band, The Attractions,
0:33:41 > 0:33:44to a choreographer so that we could learn
0:33:44 > 0:33:49what we thought were some Motown-style steps for a music video.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52Now, in my mind, we were going to look exactly like the Temptations...
0:33:52 > 0:33:54LAUGHTER
0:33:54 > 0:33:57..ignoring the fact that we were ill-assorted shapes and sizes,
0:33:57 > 0:34:00and I personally have the dancing skill of a cement mixer, but...
0:34:00 > 0:34:03being too embarrassed to get out of my chair,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06I decided to have a little glass of wine to loosen my inhibitions,
0:34:06 > 0:34:10and after four or five glasses, I arrived at the theory
0:34:10 > 0:34:13that Smokey used to stand pretty still and look cool
0:34:13 > 0:34:17and the Miracles went through their paces,
0:34:17 > 0:34:19and here is the grisly evidence.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25LAUGHTER
0:34:26 > 0:34:29'Have you any... have you any tips for me?'
0:34:29 > 0:34:31# I'm the living result
0:34:32 > 0:34:35# I'm a man
0:34:36 > 0:34:38# Who's been hurt a little too much
0:34:40 > 0:34:45# And I've tasted the bitterness of my own tears
0:34:46 > 0:34:52# Sadness is all my lonely heart can feel... #
0:34:52 > 0:34:56'After the first five years, you know, we'd been pop stars of a kind,
0:34:56 > 0:34:58'we'd had loads of hits in England.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02'We'd had some minor hits in places in Europe and had toured around,
0:35:02 > 0:35:05'but I could see that it was kind of silly,
0:35:05 > 0:35:09'that being in pop music, it was kind of silly.'
0:35:09 > 0:35:12We were actually in pop magazines with colour pictures
0:35:12 > 0:35:16people were supposed to put on their wall. It felt ludicrous.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19I mean, I became disenchanted with the whole idea
0:35:19 > 0:35:22of keeping the songs in the pop mainstream
0:35:22 > 0:35:25and we made records that I immediately disliked.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29I mean, I was sort of on the routine of making records
0:35:29 > 0:35:32because it said that this day we had to make a record.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34I always said I'd never let myself do that
0:35:34 > 0:35:36and suddenly found myself doing exactly that.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39We made a record because it said at this hour we must have a record.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44# What's on his mind now is anyone's guess
0:35:44 > 0:35:47# Losing his touch with each caress
0:35:47 > 0:35:52# Spend every evening looking so appealing
0:35:52 > 0:35:56# Comes without warning Leaves without feeling
0:35:58 > 0:36:00# Shot with his own gun
0:36:02 > 0:36:05# Now dad is keeping mum
0:36:06 > 0:36:09# Shot with his own gun
0:36:11 > 0:36:16# On your marks, ready, set
0:36:16 > 0:36:21# Let's get loaded and forget... #
0:36:22 > 0:36:26Turning his back on the pop mainstream, Elvis concentrated
0:36:26 > 0:36:29on exploring the formative elements of his musical identity.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32It's as if each new experiment or collaboration,
0:36:32 > 0:36:37however surprising to his fans, were part of a journey of self-discovery.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39There are times when you'd realise
0:36:39 > 0:36:42that it didn't matter what you were writing about,
0:36:42 > 0:36:44people weren't really hearing it.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46So I remember I wasn't really feeling...
0:36:46 > 0:36:50I couldn't really get at the feelings I had in the songs I was writing,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53so I decided to do a bunch of songs that I liked by other people.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08# Why don't you love me like used to do?
0:37:08 > 0:37:11# How come you treat me like a worn-out shoe?
0:37:11 > 0:37:13# My hair is still curly and my eyes are still blue
0:37:13 > 0:37:16# Why don't you love me like you used to do?
0:37:16 > 0:37:17# Ain't had no lovin'... #
0:37:17 > 0:37:19Sometimes it meant trying to take people with you
0:37:19 > 0:37:23into your own curiosity or your own particular love of the moment,
0:37:23 > 0:37:28which was what happened, I suppose, when I wanted to sing country songs,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31because there's no logical reason why I should want to do that.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34# I'm the same old trouble that you've always been through
0:37:34 > 0:37:36# Why don't you love me like you used to do? #
0:37:38 > 0:37:42Once we got Billy Sherrill involved, I was most pleased to have him
0:37:42 > 0:37:46because he was Charlie Rich's producer, as much as anything else,
0:37:46 > 0:37:47and George Jones',
0:37:47 > 0:37:50but I knew I couldn't sing half as well as those guys,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53but I imagined there would be this tension
0:37:53 > 0:37:55between my voice being the way it was
0:37:55 > 0:37:58and the more finished way his record sounded.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02We took the band, which immediately threw a spanner in the works,
0:38:02 > 0:38:06because we didn't play like anybody had ever heard, you know,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08so the tension was palpable
0:38:08 > 0:38:11and we were up all night sort of drinking and carousing
0:38:11 > 0:38:15and then dragged to the studio to record this country record.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20- # Sweet - Sweet
0:38:20 > 0:38:22# Dreams
0:38:22 > 0:38:25# Of you
0:38:25 > 0:38:29- # Every night - Every night
0:38:29 > 0:38:33# I go through
0:38:36 > 0:38:41# I should hate you, girl
0:38:41 > 0:38:45# The whole night through
0:38:45 > 0:38:52# Instead of having sweet dreams all about you
0:38:53 > 0:39:01# Instead of having sweet dreams about you. #
0:39:11 > 0:39:16It was brave of them to do it, and a symptom of the time when
0:39:16 > 0:39:18they thought that you could do anything,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21if you wanted to do it enough, you could do anything,
0:39:21 > 0:39:23and that's what he's always thought.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27And weirdly enough, it was a hit.
0:39:27 > 0:39:28At least, in England it was a hit,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31and a bunch of other countries in Europe. We had a huge hit single,
0:39:31 > 0:39:33A Good Year For The Roses,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36which reversed the fortunes of the previous two or three years,
0:39:36 > 0:39:37where things had been tailing off,
0:39:37 > 0:39:41and suddenly we were in the Top 10 again. So it just goes to show.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:39:43 > 0:39:48I wrote a song for a lark once, with just ten minutes to spare,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52and the song sort of went on to be a little bit of a hit.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55I always kind of thought that we made a hash of the recording,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57but people seemed to like it plenty,
0:39:57 > 0:39:59then one night I was on tour with Ron in Japan,
0:39:59 > 0:40:02and you played this version of this song of mine.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05So, you know what? I'm not even going to say what it is.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08It's a song he rescued for me.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23# Don't tell me you don't know
0:40:23 > 0:40:25# What love is
0:40:25 > 0:40:30# When you're old enough to know better
0:40:30 > 0:40:36# When you find strange hands in your sweater
0:40:36 > 0:40:42# When your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote
0:40:42 > 0:40:48# I'm a man with a mission in two or three editions
0:40:48 > 0:40:53# Yeah, I'm giving you a longing look
0:40:53 > 0:40:57# Every day, every day, every day
0:40:57 > 0:41:00# Every day I write the book... #
0:41:00 > 0:41:02APPLAUSE
0:41:04 > 0:41:10# Chapter one We didn't really get along
0:41:10 > 0:41:15# Chapter two I think I fell in love with you
0:41:16 > 0:41:22# You said you'd stand by me in the middle of chapter three
0:41:22 > 0:41:29# But you were up to your old tricks in chapters four, five and six
0:41:29 > 0:41:34# And I'm giving you a longing look
0:41:34 > 0:41:41# Every day, every day, every day Every day I write the book... #
0:41:41 > 0:41:45You come across as actually very serious-minded about your work.
0:41:45 > 0:41:46No, I'm not. I enjoy it
0:41:46 > 0:41:50and I enjoy it a lot more than going to a lot of empty-headed parties
0:41:50 > 0:41:52with a lot of boring people that I don't want to meet.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Are you actually a political artist?
0:41:55 > 0:41:58Do you sit down and try to write political songs that have a message?
0:41:58 > 0:42:00I don't see politics as something that you keep in a box
0:42:00 > 0:42:03and take out once a day and play with like a dog.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05You know, I think it's inside of all your life
0:42:05 > 0:42:09and I write about things that matter to me, that I feel strongly about,
0:42:09 > 0:42:11and if some people... other people call them political
0:42:11 > 0:42:14- then that's fair enough. - Which, indeed, sometimes they are.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18Yeah, I suppose if they deal, rather than affairs of the heart,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20with just affairs of state, if you like,
0:42:20 > 0:42:22then I suppose you can't avoid calling them political.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25I love the way he uses words.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27He can use metaphors
0:42:27 > 0:42:30and poetic images to have enormous soulful impact.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32There's a great song, Shipbuilding,
0:42:32 > 0:42:37which was the song he wrote about the conflict in the Falkland Islands
0:42:37 > 0:42:41in 1982, this war that was so controversial.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44Margaret Thatcher had gone into battle over the ownership
0:42:44 > 0:42:46of this tiny piece of real estate
0:42:46 > 0:42:50that no-one in their right minds really appeared to care about,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52and Elvis' song, which when he wrote it,
0:42:52 > 0:42:55he thought was the greatest lyric he'd written in his life.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57I remember him coming into the office where I work to tell me,
0:42:57 > 0:42:59to give me a copy, to tell me this,
0:42:59 > 0:43:01and I thought he had every right to say so,
0:43:01 > 0:43:03and in that lyric he talks about
0:43:03 > 0:43:07diving for dear life when we should be diving for pearls,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10which is an extraordinary... I can't think of a greater example
0:43:10 > 0:43:14of a kind of velvet glove with an iron fist inside it, lyrically.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24# Is it worth it?
0:43:26 > 0:43:31# A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
0:43:33 > 0:43:38# And a bicycle on the boy's birthday
0:43:38 > 0:43:42# It's just a rumour that was spread around town
0:43:44 > 0:43:46# By the women and children
0:43:46 > 0:43:50# Soon we'll be shipbuilding... #
0:43:54 > 0:43:56I think Elvis actually preferred Robert's version of it.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59It was more passive.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03I mean, Elvis, by his very nature, is a little bit more aggressive
0:44:03 > 0:44:07but Robert's is so mournful and so forlorn
0:44:07 > 0:44:10and so it paints such a pitiful picture.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15# It's just a rumour that was spread around town
0:44:15 > 0:44:21# Somebody said that someone got filled in
0:44:21 > 0:44:26# For saying that people get killed in
0:44:26 > 0:44:32# The result of this shipbuilding
0:44:34 > 0:44:39# With all the will in the world
0:44:39 > 0:44:43# Diving for dear life
0:44:43 > 0:44:49# When we could be diving for pearls. #
0:44:54 > 0:44:58My grandfather Patrick was put in an orphanage in Southall.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01And when he left the orphanage, he went into Kneller Hall,
0:45:01 > 0:45:03military school of music.
0:45:04 > 0:45:05Became a boy soldier.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09His father had come over from Northern Ireland
0:45:09 > 0:45:11sometime in the 19th century.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14He had married an older woman who had died childless
0:45:14 > 0:45:18and then he had married a younger woman, Elizabeth Costello.
0:45:18 > 0:45:25And I think she had seven or eight kids.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28And my grandfather was wounded in the First World War.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31He was a noncombatant anyway, he was an orderly, being a musician,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34he wasn't trained as a fighting soldier.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39He eventually left the Army at 21, I think.
0:45:39 > 0:45:44He joined the White Star Line and he worked for ten years on liners.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48Travelling all over the place, but predominantly to New York.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54They were playing formal music.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56They weren't playing jazz or anything.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59They were playing light classics and sentimental tunes,
0:45:59 > 0:46:01that's mostly what they played.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37The fact I ended up doing the same job as my dad
0:46:37 > 0:46:40disguises the fact that I come from a...
0:46:40 > 0:46:41a...
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Well, we come from here.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50This is where my mother was born.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55So, this one. 36.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59And, um...
0:46:59 > 0:47:04But my memory of it is, coming to this house to see my grandad,
0:47:04 > 0:47:09Jim Ablett. By the time he became a man, the war came, the first war.
0:47:09 > 0:47:15And in '15 he got captured. He spent four years on a farm in Germany.
0:47:15 > 0:47:21But he didn't talk at all about what he had seen. Such traumatic things.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25And he wasn't particularly an easy man, he was quite violent.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29He would stand in the front room, when I was leaving...
0:47:29 > 0:47:33Every time I left, he would do this. That is my main memory of him.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36He had wavy auburn hair, standing there, and he would do this.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38"Punch my hands.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40"Harder. Punch my hands."
0:47:42 > 0:47:45And that's what he thought I should learn how to do.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47And I have never been a fighter.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50Never been into boxing or anything, or hitting people.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52But he was convinced that
0:47:52 > 0:47:55if he didn't do that, it would be the ruin of me.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59There were four members of the family, the Ablett family,
0:47:59 > 0:48:01living in this street at one point,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04this little short street, Holmes Street.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07You know, all of the virtues that people talk about,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11doors being open, all that stuff that people romanticise - actually true.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15You know, this is like half a mile from Penny Lane,
0:48:15 > 0:48:18so when the Beatles were singing about that,
0:48:18 > 0:48:20it's just a neighbourhood place,
0:48:20 > 0:48:24and that was sort of the magic of it, really, that they made
0:48:24 > 0:48:27something really magical about something actually quite mundane.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30If you drive to Penny Lane, it's nothing at all.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32# Here we go!
0:48:32 > 0:48:34# One! Two! One, two, three
0:48:34 > 0:48:36# Twenty-five fingers, baby
0:48:36 > 0:48:39# I love your nails, I love your touch, I love to touch you, baby
0:48:39 > 0:48:40# It never fails to kill me
0:48:40 > 0:48:43# Some say gimme five But I'll give you ten
0:48:43 > 0:48:45# You could make it twenty But you're holding out again
0:48:45 > 0:48:48# Think it over, think it over, baby
0:48:48 > 0:48:51# Well, think it over Think it over, baby
0:48:51 > 0:48:53# I will always love you... #
0:48:53 > 0:48:59So, one day my manager said, "Do you fancy writing with Elvis Costello?"
0:48:59 > 0:49:03"Yeah, that'd be good. I would like to write with him."
0:49:03 > 0:49:06I know that he was into the Beatles
0:49:06 > 0:49:10and he knew a lot of what we did.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15He's from Liverpool, so I thought we'd probably get on well,
0:49:15 > 0:49:17and I admired his songwriting,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20so I thought, yeah, it'd be worth giving it a go.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23So we were set up on a date.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26I was sitting across from him, we were firing lines back and forward
0:49:26 > 0:49:30and I'm singing harmony with him and I can't believe this is happening,
0:49:30 > 0:49:32and we wrote a bunch of songs,
0:49:32 > 0:49:34we wrote about 12 songs over a couple of years.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36And we really, for me,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39we were copying the system that I'd used with John,
0:49:39 > 0:49:44and in fact, the only system I really have ever known,
0:49:44 > 0:49:48face to face, looking each other in the eye,
0:49:48 > 0:49:52pad of paper and pencil,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55two guitars, and you just start strumming.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59And we did virtually what John and I did,
0:49:59 > 0:50:01which was just made up a song a day.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05We wrote a really wonderful song called The Lovers That Never Were,
0:50:05 > 0:50:09that was almost like a big, epic ballad.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12I remember I was playing piano
0:50:12 > 0:50:15and it was unusual because he's a much better pianist than me,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18but for some reason I played the piano on the demo,
0:50:18 > 0:50:20and I was just trying not to mess it up,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22and he starts singing over my shoulder
0:50:22 > 0:50:24this most extraordinary vocal.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27One of the best things I've ever heard in my life was him
0:50:27 > 0:50:31singing flat out, this really raw kind of singing,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34like the singing on I'm Down, only it's a ballad.
0:50:35 > 0:50:43# I have always needed somebody, girl
0:50:44 > 0:50:46# Oh
0:50:46 > 0:50:51# But I close the door to keep out the world
0:50:51 > 0:50:54# But for you
0:50:54 > 0:50:58# I would be here all alone
0:50:58 > 0:51:01# Locked in a photograph
0:51:01 > 0:51:06# All of the clocks have run down
0:51:06 > 0:51:11# Lover beware
0:51:11 > 0:51:18# We'll be the lovers that never were... #
0:51:18 > 0:51:22You know, that was a potential worry,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25that we were just going to sort of write Beatles songs again,
0:51:25 > 0:51:27but time had gone by for both of us,
0:51:27 > 0:51:29so it was always going to be different,
0:51:29 > 0:51:33but I think at the back of our minds, you know,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37we were writing Beatle-esque songs.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41# Here lies the powder and perfume
0:51:43 > 0:51:49# The pretty clothes are scattered round the room
0:51:49 > 0:51:55# And it's so like Candy... #
0:51:55 > 0:51:59He was good on the old lyrics, I must say.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02I think probably in the end,
0:52:02 > 0:52:06we contributed roughly the same to the song,
0:52:06 > 0:52:11but he might have had a little more to do with the lyrics than I did.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16I think he also had a clear idea of what he wanted to do,
0:52:16 > 0:52:20whereas I was kind of all, "Let's see where this leads us."
0:52:20 > 0:52:25# What did I do to make her go?
0:52:25 > 0:52:32# Why must she be the one that I have to love so?
0:52:32 > 0:52:34# So like Candy
0:52:36 > 0:52:40# Here lies a picture of a girl
0:52:42 > 0:52:48# Her arms are tight around that lucky guy
0:52:48 > 0:52:53# And it's so like Candy
0:52:54 > 0:53:00# What did I do to make her go?
0:53:00 > 0:53:07# Why must she be the one that I have to love so?
0:53:07 > 0:53:13# I remember the day that that picture was taken
0:53:13 > 0:53:16# We were so happy then
0:53:16 > 0:53:19# But that's so like Candy
0:53:19 > 0:53:22# She seemed so sweet to me
0:53:22 > 0:53:24# I was mistaken
0:53:24 > 0:53:27# Oh, no, not that again
0:53:27 > 0:53:30# But that's so like Candy
0:53:30 > 0:53:35# She just can't face the day
0:53:35 > 0:53:41# So she turns and melts away... #
0:53:43 > 0:53:48It frightened people because it was such an aggressive record, lyrically.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52And much more aggressive than the first albums. And darker.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55And I looked wild because I grew my hair long, I had a beard.
0:53:55 > 0:54:00I did it deliberately to make a break with the past
0:54:00 > 0:54:03and say I'm not just still the signature guy.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07I want to be somebody different. I changed my name, I changed it back.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10I did a bunch of things which were just done with a...
0:54:10 > 0:54:12just to put a comma in the sentence
0:54:12 > 0:54:15but people wanted to read much more psychological stuff into it.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20It was nonsense. It was nothing to do with that. I always knew who I was.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35# He thought he was the King of America
0:54:35 > 0:54:40# Where they pour Coca-Cola just like vintage wine... #
0:54:40 > 0:54:45When I first went to America, everything that I saw was a song.
0:54:45 > 0:54:50Every road sign, every shop name, every magazine article,
0:54:50 > 0:54:52it was like all the words fell away
0:54:52 > 0:54:56and just the essential lines of songs,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00fragments of things people said, mixed up with some sign
0:55:00 > 0:55:04that seemed to symbolise something that maybe only I saw in it,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07but it was all so strange and discombobulating,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10disorientating, in a good way.
0:55:10 > 0:55:16# It was a fine idea at the time
0:55:16 > 0:55:23# Now it's a brill- Now it's a brilliant mistake... #
0:55:25 > 0:55:28Elvis eventually grew out of his formative relationship with The Attractions.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31There was a painful break, although he's worked regularly
0:55:31 > 0:55:34with Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas ever since.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39He felt a need to reinvent his way of working in a studio.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43King of America was the first of a number of collaborations
0:55:43 > 0:55:46with musician and producer T-Bone Burnett.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49I had the experience of playing with a group of American musicians,
0:55:49 > 0:55:53Jim Keltner, Ron Tutt, totally different feel,
0:55:53 > 0:55:55a lot of acoustic bass,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58the acoustic guitar rather than the electric guitar central,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02and a guitar soloist, rather than somebody playing a lot of noise,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06and not a big, expansive keyboard player like Steve Nieve,
0:56:06 > 0:56:10who could completely dominate a track very easily,
0:56:10 > 0:56:12but people who played more discreetly
0:56:12 > 0:56:14just in service of the movement of the song.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17He wanted to work with some of these other people.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21Ray Brown, you know, that was a great chance
0:56:21 > 0:56:23to meet and work with Ray Brown,
0:56:23 > 0:56:28who is one of the most profound musicians of the last century,
0:56:28 > 0:56:33and certainly the most intense, one of the very most intense musicians
0:56:33 > 0:56:38I've ever had the great privilege to work with, really,
0:56:38 > 0:56:40he was so far out of our league.
0:56:40 > 0:56:46# The poisoned rose
0:56:47 > 0:56:53# That you wear at your best... #
0:56:53 > 0:56:59Ray Brown, just before we did the take of Poisoned Rose,
0:56:59 > 0:57:03said, "OK, just don't anybody play any ideas."
0:57:03 > 0:57:05And there was that...
0:57:06 > 0:57:08There was a dead silence,
0:57:08 > 0:57:10and everybody looked at each other
0:57:10 > 0:57:14and everybody went, "OK, he's exactly right,"
0:57:14 > 0:57:16and that was a great challenge,
0:57:16 > 0:57:19you know, against the idea of playing licks, or playing...
0:57:19 > 0:57:21rather than playing the song,
0:57:21 > 0:57:25he was really just focusing everybody on playing the song
0:57:25 > 0:57:31and I so appreciated that and, you know, that's...you know...
0:57:31 > 0:57:35How about that? Elvis calls up Ray Brown to play, you know.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39That was the quality that I was starting to go after,
0:57:39 > 0:57:41that not everything had to sound like
0:57:41 > 0:57:44it existed within the history of rock and roll.
0:57:44 > 0:57:50# This poisoned
0:57:50 > 0:57:57# Rose. #
0:57:59 > 0:58:02CLASSICAL PIANO MUSIC
0:58:07 > 0:58:11I had a period of time where I left one record label
0:58:11 > 0:58:14and then I didn't really have a band or anything,
0:58:14 > 0:58:17so I wasn't going on the road, just playing shows for the hell of it.
0:58:17 > 0:58:23I started going, sometimes five, even six nights a week, to concerts.
0:58:23 > 0:58:29I suppose I just wanted something fresh to listen to
0:58:29 > 0:58:31and I saw a lot of Alfred Brendel concerts.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34I tried to see as many of his... Whenever he played,
0:58:34 > 0:58:36I tried to get tickets for everything he did.
0:58:46 > 0:58:51I had a very big love of Schubert, late piano sonatas.
0:58:51 > 0:58:54I was just interested in late music, for some reason,
0:58:54 > 0:58:56I really liked the late Beethoven quartets,
0:58:56 > 0:58:58so whenever they were performed, I wanted to hear them.
0:58:58 > 0:59:02And then I was really interested in,
0:59:02 > 0:59:06you know, period instrument groups,
0:59:06 > 0:59:09particularly John Eliot Gardiner and Roger Norrington.
0:59:20 > 0:59:25# Summertime withers as
0:59:25 > 0:59:28# The sun sets
0:59:28 > 0:59:35# He wants to kiss you Will you condescend?
0:59:36 > 0:59:44# Before you wake and find a chill within your bones
0:59:44 > 0:59:48# Under a fine canopy
0:59:48 > 0:59:52# Of lover's dust and humerus bones
0:59:52 > 0:59:56# Banish all dismay
0:59:56 > 1:00:01# Extinguish every sorrow... #
1:00:03 > 1:00:06'It sounds like we're in a very English,'
1:00:06 > 1:00:08folk-songy way, but...
1:00:26 > 1:00:27And then what does he do?
1:00:36 > 1:00:37It's so amazing.
1:00:39 > 1:00:42And even to sing it, it's... It must be amazing for a singer.
1:00:45 > 1:00:48So, you see, it's the same thing as his lyrics.
1:00:48 > 1:00:52You're kind of... You think you're inside something
1:00:52 > 1:00:55and then, all of a sudden, you're surprised,
1:00:55 > 1:00:59'because he loves to stretch his voice.
1:00:59 > 1:01:02'I'm sure that there's something of that.
1:01:02 > 1:01:04'When he writes, he's thinking about that.'
1:01:05 > 1:01:09# Spare me the lily-white lily
1:01:09 > 1:01:13# With the awful perfume of decay
1:01:13 > 1:01:17# Banish all dismay
1:01:17 > 1:01:22# Extinguish every sorrow
1:01:22 > 1:01:26# If I'm lost or I'm forgiven
1:01:26 > 1:01:31# The birds will still be singing... #
1:01:35 > 1:01:37'I became friends with the Brodsky Quartet'
1:01:37 > 1:01:42'in the early '90s and tried to find a way that we could work together
1:01:42 > 1:01:45'that wasn't sort of Eleanor Rigby, cos it had already been done so well.'
1:01:45 > 1:01:49I didn't want to just have a pop song, even one of that complexity
1:01:49 > 1:01:53and beauty. I wanted to try and write something where my voice was
1:01:53 > 1:01:55the fifth part of a quintet.
1:01:57 > 1:02:02'He could have written the album himself, but to be so generous
1:02:02 > 1:02:04'and to welcome us in
1:02:04 > 1:02:07'and for all five of us to play a such a huge part,'
1:02:07 > 1:02:10you know. Now, of course, with the benefit of hindsight,
1:02:10 > 1:02:15that was...that was yet another stroke of genius on his part.
1:02:15 > 1:02:20# Thank you for the flowers
1:02:20 > 1:02:27# I threw them on the fire
1:02:27 > 1:02:30# And I burned the photographs that you had enclosed
1:02:30 > 1:02:33# God, they were ugly children
1:02:33 > 1:02:37# So, you're that little bastard of that brother of mine
1:02:37 > 1:02:40# Trying to trick a poor old woman
1:02:40 > 1:02:41# Till I
1:02:41 > 1:02:48# Almost had a weakness.... #
1:02:50 > 1:02:53'We were able to teach him quite a lot about
1:02:53 > 1:02:58'putting his ideas into that structure and he appreciated that.'
1:02:58 > 1:03:01During the course of us working together, I think he went from
1:03:01 > 1:03:05not being able to notate at all to being able to write in full score -
1:03:05 > 1:03:08not just for quartets, but for symphony orchestras.
1:03:08 > 1:03:10# Said that he looked like the devil
1:03:10 > 1:03:13# Then she said, "Pass the vinegar"
1:03:13 > 1:03:15# I'm beginning to think
1:03:15 > 1:03:18# That I'm the only one who hasn't taken to the drinking of it
1:03:18 > 1:03:20# Though I
1:03:20 > 1:03:25# Almost had a weakness... #
1:03:31 > 1:03:33'Of course, whenever you do anything
1:03:33 > 1:03:37'the slightest bit different, like that, you get people thinking'
1:03:37 > 1:03:41the world is ending, but it isn't, it's just some music and, now,
1:03:41 > 1:03:45there's four or five recordings of The Juliet Letters by other quartets
1:03:45 > 1:03:48and there's somebody did a piano transcription for piano and voice.
1:03:48 > 1:03:52I love the fact that it ended up being repertoire.
1:03:57 > 1:04:00He's done an enormous amount of collaboration.
1:04:00 > 1:04:03McCartney, Lucinda Williams, Roy Orbison, Bacharach -
1:04:03 > 1:04:05countless people.
1:04:05 > 1:04:09And one of the reasons for that, I think, is that he's no threat.
1:04:09 > 1:04:11He looks like the kind of collaborator
1:04:11 > 1:04:13that would bring out the best in you, in the same way as
1:04:13 > 1:04:16a great director would find your internal performance
1:04:16 > 1:04:20that no-one had ever seen. And he doesn't look like he's going to
1:04:20 > 1:04:22overshadow you, in terms of publicity.
1:04:22 > 1:04:25When the project comes out, he's not necessarily going to be
1:04:25 > 1:04:29the one looking for the limelight and milking all the press.
1:04:30 > 1:04:34Burt Bacharach's pretty famous, but his songs are even more famous
1:04:34 > 1:04:38than he is. You can't really get through a day without hearing
1:04:38 > 1:04:39one of his songs somewhere.
1:04:39 > 1:04:42People say, "Burt Bacharach - I'm not sure I know his work."
1:04:42 > 1:04:45"Yes, you do." And then you reel off five songs.
1:04:45 > 1:04:48"He wrote all of those?" "Oh, yeah, and the other 25
1:04:48 > 1:04:49"that you've absorbed along the way."
1:04:52 > 1:04:54MUSIC: "Anyone Who Had A Heart" by Cilla Black
1:04:54 > 1:04:55# Anyone who ever loved
1:04:57 > 1:04:59# Could look at me
1:04:59 > 1:05:03# And know that I love you... #
1:05:03 > 1:05:07'Most people in England heard Burt Bacharach songs interpreted
1:05:07 > 1:05:10'by English pop singers. My dad brought home some of the songs,'
1:05:10 > 1:05:14so I perhaps heard them even a little bit more than other people of my age.
1:05:14 > 1:05:18# Knowing I love you so
1:05:20 > 1:05:21# Anyone who had a heart
1:05:21 > 1:05:25# Would take me in his arms
1:05:25 > 1:05:28# And love me too, too... #
1:05:28 > 1:05:32'Songs like Anyone Who Had A Heart, I can remember that.'
1:05:32 > 1:05:35I think that's 1964, so I was ten.
1:05:36 > 1:05:41I remember that making me feel peculiar, that song.
1:05:41 > 1:05:44# Every time you go away
1:05:44 > 1:05:45# I always say
1:05:46 > 1:05:50# This time it's goodbye, dear... #
1:05:50 > 1:05:52'I mean, it's a really thrilling'
1:05:52 > 1:05:57song. It's sort of erotic. The music itself, I now can sense
1:05:57 > 1:06:00that it's the music that's created that erotic...
1:06:00 > 1:06:01It certainly wasn't Cilla.
1:06:01 > 1:06:05Spin that wheel. Spin that big wheel. Round it goes!
1:06:05 > 1:06:06Round it goes!
1:06:06 > 1:06:09Never one to be shy of collaborating with a great,
1:06:09 > 1:06:12Elvis found an opportunity to work with the great American songwriter.
1:06:12 > 1:06:15CHEERING
1:06:15 > 1:06:18"God, give me strength."
1:06:21 > 1:06:25Burt and I were asked to write the big dramatic bow-out
1:06:25 > 1:06:29for the movie called Grace Of My Heart, by Allison Anders,
1:06:29 > 1:06:31which was God Give Me Strength.
1:06:32 > 1:06:35# Now I have nothing
1:06:35 > 1:06:41# So God give me strength... #
1:06:41 > 1:06:44'I actually sketched out a verse and chorus'
1:06:44 > 1:06:48which, when I think of it now, was crazy.
1:06:48 > 1:06:51I mean, I wrote both the words and music
1:06:51 > 1:06:54'of the song and sent it to him.
1:06:55 > 1:06:56'And instead of saying,'
1:06:56 > 1:07:01"Hold on a second - you're the lyricist, I'm the melodist,"
1:07:01 > 1:07:05he just sent me back a piece of sheet music with all of the suggestions
1:07:05 > 1:07:07that he had. He was just so open.
1:07:09 > 1:07:14'He'd stretched out some phrases and instead of it being over two bars,
1:07:14 > 1:07:15'it was suddenly over four,'
1:07:15 > 1:07:18or three, even, you know. There were just subtle little changes
1:07:18 > 1:07:23in the harmony that made it more memorable and less predictable.
1:07:23 > 1:07:29# She was the light that I'd bless... #
1:07:29 > 1:07:30'I worked on that'
1:07:30 > 1:07:33'and I was then able to write the second verse lyrics
1:07:33 > 1:07:37'and then we realised that the song was going around twice, but needed
1:07:37 > 1:07:40'to release from that shape. It was getting to be this big song.'
1:07:42 > 1:07:46And he wrote this bridge, which was just extraordinary.
1:07:46 > 1:07:47Incredibly difficult to sing.
1:07:47 > 1:07:53# She'd grant me her indulgence and decline
1:07:53 > 1:08:00# I might as well wipe her from my memory
1:08:02 > 1:08:09# Fracture the spell As she becomes my enemy
1:08:11 > 1:08:13# Maybe I was washed out
1:08:13 > 1:08:17# Like a lip-print on his shirt
1:08:17 > 1:08:21# See, I'm only human
1:08:21 > 1:08:27# I want him to hurt
1:08:28 > 1:08:30# I want him
1:08:32 > 1:08:35# I want him to hurt... #
1:08:38 > 1:08:40APPLAUSE
1:08:41 > 1:08:43'You know, I had never paid any attention
1:08:43 > 1:08:46'to these awards-type things. He was of that world.
1:08:46 > 1:08:48'This is a guy who's won an Oscar, you know.
1:08:48 > 1:08:51'It's like, it sort of... I could see it mattered to him,
1:08:51 > 1:08:53'to be in the race, you know.'
1:08:53 > 1:08:55Of course, we didn't win, but we did, you know,
1:08:55 > 1:08:59we were up against Natalie Cole and her father singing together,
1:08:59 > 1:09:01so that was pretty tough to beat.
1:09:01 > 1:09:03But it was great, you know.
1:09:03 > 1:09:05To go to the awards with Burt was something.
1:09:05 > 1:09:09We did eventually win one together a few years later
1:09:09 > 1:09:11after we did the album, you know.
1:09:19 > 1:09:23'You know, the Ryman is considered the mother church of country music.
1:09:23 > 1:09:25'Of course, it has amazing history.
1:09:25 > 1:09:29'And it's very special to do just the regular Opry, you know,
1:09:29 > 1:09:31'the Friday and Saturday nights.'
1:09:31 > 1:09:35But to be able to do a special Opry with Elvis and Dave and Gill,
1:09:35 > 1:09:36that was...
1:09:36 > 1:09:39That's something I am very proud of.
1:09:39 > 1:09:44# I thought I heard a black bell toll
1:09:44 > 1:09:49# A little bird did sing
1:09:49 > 1:09:52# Man has no choice
1:09:52 > 1:09:57# When he wants everything
1:09:59 > 1:10:05# We rise above the scarlet tide
1:10:05 > 1:10:10# That trickles down through the mountain
1:10:10 > 1:10:18# And separates the widow from the bride... #
1:10:20 > 1:10:22'It's one of the best sounding venues around.
1:10:22 > 1:10:25'And just like an old guitar, it just sort of gets mellowed with
1:10:25 > 1:10:29'all the music that it has absorbed over the years.
1:10:29 > 1:10:33'And I think his choice of Dave and Gill was really special,
1:10:33 > 1:10:36'because they kind of embody that too, that sense of,
1:10:36 > 1:10:39"Let's bring a little bit of the history along with us."
1:10:39 > 1:10:45# I thought I heard a black bell toll
1:10:45 > 1:10:50# Up in the highest dome
1:10:50 > 1:10:53# Admit you lied
1:10:53 > 1:10:59# And bring the boys back home
1:11:01 > 1:11:07# We rise above the scarlet tide
1:11:07 > 1:11:13# That trickles down through the mountain
1:11:13 > 1:11:23# And separates the widow from the bride. #
1:11:35 > 1:11:37CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:11:40 > 1:11:42Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much.
1:11:51 > 1:11:56In 2003, Elvis married the jazz pianist and vocalist Diana Krall.
1:11:56 > 1:11:57They now have twin sons.
1:11:59 > 1:12:02# These few lines
1:12:02 > 1:12:04# I'll devote
1:12:04 > 1:12:07# To a marvellous girl
1:12:07 > 1:12:11# Covered up in my coat
1:12:11 > 1:12:14# Pull it
1:12:14 > 1:12:16# Up to your chin... #
1:12:16 > 1:12:17The whole record, North,
1:12:17 > 1:12:21was triggered by a transition in my life and meeting Diana.
1:12:21 > 1:12:25But it wasn't a literal recitation of everything that happened.
1:12:25 > 1:12:28It was trying to capture the confusion of recognising
1:12:28 > 1:12:30that you've come to the end of a way of living,
1:12:30 > 1:12:32to the light coming into the room.
1:12:32 > 1:12:34# Now you speak my name
1:12:34 > 1:12:38# And set my pulse to race
1:12:38 > 1:12:40# Sometimes words may tumble out
1:12:40 > 1:12:44# But can't eclipse
1:12:44 > 1:12:47# The feeling when you press your face
1:12:47 > 1:12:50# To my lips
1:12:50 > 1:12:52# I want to kiss you in a rush
1:12:52 > 1:12:56# And whisper things To make you blush
1:12:56 > 1:12:59# And you say, darling, hush
1:12:59 > 1:13:00# Hush... #
1:13:07 > 1:13:12# Picture a little love-nest
1:13:13 > 1:13:17# Down where the roses cling
1:13:20 > 1:13:24# Picture the same sweet love nest
1:13:26 > 1:13:32# Think what a year can bring
1:13:32 > 1:13:34# He's washing dishes... #
1:13:34 > 1:13:35That's for sure.
1:13:35 > 1:13:37# And baby clothes... #
1:13:37 > 1:13:39That's for damn sure!
1:13:39 > 1:13:42# He's so ambitious
1:13:42 > 1:13:45# He even sews
1:13:45 > 1:13:47# But don't forget, folks
1:13:49 > 1:13:52# That's what you get, folks
1:13:52 > 1:13:54# For makin'
1:13:54 > 1:13:58# Whoopee... #
1:14:33 > 1:14:36Allen Toussaint, one of the giants of New Orleans music,
1:14:36 > 1:14:40lost his house and recording studio to Hurricane Katrina.
1:14:40 > 1:14:42Elvis, a long-time fan,
1:14:42 > 1:14:45enticed him back to the disaster-stricken city
1:14:45 > 1:14:48well before the curfew had been lifted.
1:14:48 > 1:14:50So, prey tell, prey tell.
1:14:50 > 1:14:53# Prey tell What's going to happen to us?
1:14:53 > 1:14:56# It's going to happen further... #
1:14:58 > 1:15:00'Doing a whole album was Elvis' idea
1:15:00 > 1:15:03'and he said he had always considered doing
1:15:03 > 1:15:06'an Allen Toussaint songbook album.
1:15:06 > 1:15:10'And, after Katrina, there we were in the same place at the same time.
1:15:11 > 1:15:13'So, how about it?'
1:15:13 > 1:15:17And I pondered over that for every bit of two seconds and said,
1:15:17 > 1:15:21"That's a great idea and we've got to work on it."
1:15:21 > 1:15:24And he resurrected some songs that I thought
1:15:24 > 1:15:26would be laid to rest for ever.
1:15:26 > 1:15:29But they were so applicable to the times.
1:15:29 > 1:15:31And...
1:15:32 > 1:15:34..it gave them such a new vigour...
1:15:35 > 1:15:39..and it gave me a new sense of respect for some things
1:15:39 > 1:15:42that I had laid to rest, thinking that there was no more life in them.
1:15:43 > 1:15:45# We may seem happy
1:15:47 > 1:15:49# Like everything's all right
1:15:49 > 1:15:52# But from the outside lookin' in
1:15:53 > 1:15:56# Everything's uptight
1:15:57 > 1:15:59# But deep down inside
1:16:00 > 1:16:03# We're covering up the pain
1:16:03 > 1:16:05# It's an old thing
1:16:05 > 1:16:06# It's a soul thing
1:16:06 > 1:16:08# But it's a real thing
1:16:10 > 1:16:13# Prey tell What's gonna happen, brother?
1:16:14 > 1:16:17# Who's gonna help him get further?
1:16:17 > 1:16:18# One another
1:16:20 > 1:16:21# One another
1:16:23 > 1:16:25# There's a old dude... #
1:16:25 > 1:16:29He's not like a guy who just goes, "It's our side or your side."
1:16:29 > 1:16:33He's a human person and I really learnt a lot from working with him
1:16:33 > 1:16:36and the way he tempered his...
1:16:36 > 1:16:38The anger he must have felt.
1:16:38 > 1:16:40'He seemed to rise above his stoicism
1:16:40 > 1:16:43'in the face of losing everything.'
1:16:43 > 1:16:48He really put across, in a good-humoured way, the inequality.
1:16:48 > 1:16:51There was never any pity in the songs.
1:16:51 > 1:16:52# Mama, get up early
1:16:52 > 1:16:54# Early in the morning
1:16:54 > 1:16:56# Papa's already gone
1:16:56 > 1:16:58# Gone and gone and gone
1:16:58 > 1:17:01# Goin' out to work For half of what he's worth now
1:17:01 > 1:17:04# You know that's so wrong
1:17:04 > 1:17:06# What happened to the liberty bell
1:17:08 > 1:17:10# I heard so much about?
1:17:10 > 1:17:12# Did it really ding-dong?
1:17:12 > 1:17:14# Ding-dong
1:17:14 > 1:17:15# It must have dinged wrong
1:17:15 > 1:17:18# It didn't ding long... #
1:17:18 > 1:17:20'I got to know that he cares
1:17:20 > 1:17:25'so dearly about the music beyond the glazed tops.'
1:17:25 > 1:17:27But he cares all the in-betweens...
1:17:29 > 1:17:33I always referred to him that he not only paid attention
1:17:33 > 1:17:35to the A-sides but the B-sides,
1:17:35 > 1:17:36the D-sides,
1:17:36 > 1:17:39the F-sides, the Z-sides.
1:17:39 > 1:17:41He's truly gifted.
1:17:41 > 1:17:43And his gifts were given to the right person
1:17:43 > 1:17:45because he shared them so freely.
1:18:11 > 1:18:14UKULELE CHORDS STRUM
1:18:20 > 1:18:24'I used to hum things to myself until I could memorise them.
1:18:24 > 1:18:27'Then Walkmen, you know, cassette Walkmen
1:18:27 > 1:18:29'with mics in them came in.
1:18:29 > 1:18:31'And they were a boon to songwriters.
1:18:31 > 1:18:35'Anything where you could easily hit two buttons and play the guitar,
1:18:35 > 1:18:39'catch a sketch of a song, meant that it didn't get away.'
1:18:39 > 1:18:42Now we've come to the situation where these devices
1:18:42 > 1:18:44we carry in our pocket, they all have memo functions on them,
1:18:44 > 1:18:46so I don't need a Dictaphone any more.
1:18:46 > 1:18:50This has got at least two or three ways to capture sound.
1:18:50 > 1:18:53It really just mimics what you see here.
1:18:53 > 1:18:56It mimics some of the functions of a recording studio,
1:18:56 > 1:18:59but it is just in your hand-held device or this little tablet device,
1:18:59 > 1:19:02so I locked myself in the bathroom with this,
1:19:02 > 1:19:07this little gadget, which has a version of this programme on it,
1:19:07 > 1:19:10that you wouldn't believe. And I'm singing into it like this.
1:19:10 > 1:19:13It's like I used to do when I got my Dictaphones,
1:19:13 > 1:19:19except now I can actually play on the face of this thing.
1:19:19 > 1:19:20You just press button chords
1:19:20 > 1:19:23and I will show you in a second something really funny.
1:19:23 > 1:19:26And I'm singing and there is this little bit of a song that
1:19:26 > 1:19:29I had just written on the way to the airport.
1:19:29 > 1:19:32# The moon is high
1:19:32 > 1:19:35# And it's not the only one
1:19:35 > 1:19:41# I'm a lone wolf and I'm prowling...#
1:19:42 > 1:19:44These new gadgets,
1:19:44 > 1:19:48I still don't really care for computerised sound or digital sound.
1:19:48 > 1:19:54I'm pretty much an advocate of analogue recording and I prefer
1:19:54 > 1:19:59to listen to music from vinyl or shellac than I do from CD or MP3.
1:19:59 > 1:20:03The flip side of that is you've got the ability to catch things
1:20:03 > 1:20:06in the moment effortlessly.
1:20:06 > 1:20:12# And the moon is high... #
1:20:17 > 1:20:20That's the wolf howling at the moon!
1:20:28 > 1:20:32So, you know, it's an instant Egyptian string section.
1:20:34 > 1:20:37I think there's another one that I did of a Jesse Winchester record.
1:20:41 > 1:20:42GUITAR INTRO
1:20:52 > 1:20:56# Be of good cheer... #
1:20:56 > 1:20:59Jesse was really sick and had oesophageal cancer
1:20:59 > 1:21:03and the record was a sort of "get well card" from a lot of people.
1:21:03 > 1:21:05He has recovered now.
1:21:05 > 1:21:08He has written some of the best songs of the last 40 years.
1:21:08 > 1:21:12A lot of people don't even know his name. It's just crazy.
1:21:13 > 1:21:16It's a song about dread, about mortality,
1:21:16 > 1:21:18and being lonely in the face of that.
1:21:18 > 1:21:22He obviously, in the song, has faith which is sustaining.
1:21:23 > 1:21:26# Call it my fear
1:21:29 > 1:21:33# That I will die alone
1:21:33 > 1:21:37# And even He won't be there... #
1:21:40 > 1:21:44I was in New York, I got the request and my wife had bought me a ukulele
1:21:44 > 1:21:46for my birthday, that's what you hear.
1:21:46 > 1:21:48I just started playing it and I thought,
1:21:48 > 1:21:50"Well, that really is a different way to think of that song."
1:21:50 > 1:21:53Cos I had this gadget, I just had to then go
1:21:53 > 1:21:56and sketch the other parts, and by the time I went back to Vancouver,
1:21:56 > 1:21:57I had the whole arrangement.
1:21:57 > 1:22:00Then I went to the studio and transferred it over...
1:22:00 > 1:22:02into tape.
1:22:04 > 1:22:07The day that I went into... that I was going in to record it,
1:22:07 > 1:22:09I heard that my father was dying.
1:22:09 > 1:22:12And I couldn't think of anything better to do
1:22:12 > 1:22:13than go and finish the record.
1:22:13 > 1:22:16Cos I knew if I stayed home, I would...
1:22:16 > 1:22:18I was thousands of miles away and...
1:22:20 > 1:22:23..I thought this is the best thing to do, this is what I'm built to do.
1:22:23 > 1:22:25I went in and I recorded it.
1:22:26 > 1:22:29So, the fact that I could capture the initial performance...
1:22:31 > 1:22:36So, sort of like, just when I felt the mood of the song...
1:22:36 > 1:22:38And then ended up using the...
1:22:38 > 1:22:41maximum amount of technology to do the simplest of things -
1:22:41 > 1:22:45it was just to play these few decorative parts on the record
1:22:45 > 1:22:47on a day that meant so much
1:22:47 > 1:22:50that opened up a door to another way of living.
1:22:51 > 1:22:54That I would be the senior member of my family
1:22:54 > 1:22:56and I'd have to watch my dad be...
1:22:58 > 1:23:01You know, his humour and...
1:23:01 > 1:23:03dignity be erased by illness.
1:23:04 > 1:23:05Makes... Means...
1:23:08 > 1:23:09Makes it very...
1:23:11 > 1:23:12Makes it worthwhile.
1:23:15 > 1:23:18# When I feel this way
1:23:21 > 1:23:25# I thirst and I want to shout
1:23:28 > 1:23:31# Trust me, Lord
1:23:32 > 1:23:34# To be
1:23:34 > 1:23:37# Quiet about it... #
1:23:58 > 1:24:01# Romeo was restless He was ready to kill
1:24:01 > 1:24:04# He jumped out the window Cos he couldn't sit still
1:24:04 > 1:24:08# Juliet was waiting with a safety net
1:24:08 > 1:24:13# He said don't bury me Cos I'm not dead yet... #
1:24:13 > 1:24:15'The experience of being in pop music for five minutes
1:24:15 > 1:24:18'now seems kind of ludicrous.'
1:24:18 > 1:24:23But some songs really came out of that, that I'm...
1:24:23 > 1:24:26I'm still singing and I'm not singing them for nostalgic reasons.
1:24:26 > 1:24:28I still feel something for them
1:24:28 > 1:24:31and people seem to want to hear them, so that's a great thing.
1:24:31 > 1:24:33'And it carries you through to the next foundation
1:24:33 > 1:24:34'on which you can do other things.
1:24:34 > 1:24:36'It's not like I'll get those out of the way
1:24:36 > 1:24:38'and then I'll play the ones I really care about.'
1:24:38 > 1:24:41I care about all of them, otherwise I wouldn't be singing them.
1:24:41 > 1:24:43# Well, I remember when the lights went out
1:24:43 > 1:24:46# And I was trying to make it look like it was never in doubt
1:24:46 > 1:24:48# She thought that I knew
1:24:48 > 1:24:50# And I thought that she knew
1:24:51 > 1:24:55# So both of us were willing But we didn't know how to do it
1:24:55 > 1:24:59# Why don't you tell me about the mystery dance?
1:24:59 > 1:25:02# I want to know about the mystery dance
1:25:02 > 1:25:05# Why don't you show me Cos I've tried and I've tried
1:25:05 > 1:25:08# And I'm still mystified
1:25:08 > 1:25:09# I can't do it any more
1:25:09 > 1:25:11# And I'm not satisfied
1:25:11 > 1:25:12# I can't do it any more
1:25:12 > 1:25:14# And I'm not satisfied
1:25:14 > 1:25:17# Do it any more And I'm not satisfied. #
1:25:29 > 1:25:30The Sugarcanes!
1:25:43 > 1:25:46TRIP HOP MUSIC
1:26:00 > 1:26:04I'm not about wasting any more time doing anything foolish.
1:26:04 > 1:26:08I'm not going to go and do some press junket because a record comes out.
1:26:08 > 1:26:10Cos I've said everything I'm going to say.
1:26:10 > 1:26:11I've explained the story of my life
1:26:11 > 1:26:14about 800 times to some journalist who read about it on the internet.
1:26:14 > 1:26:17It's just not that interesting to have that conversation.
1:26:17 > 1:26:18It's not that interesting to read.
1:26:18 > 1:26:21People will make up their own version of the truth anyway -
1:26:21 > 1:26:24what does it matter what I say? And they're not going to believe me,
1:26:24 > 1:26:26if I told them the truth they wouldn't believe me.
1:26:26 > 1:26:29It's all really been much more wonderful
1:26:29 > 1:26:32and much more than I ever deserved.
1:26:32 > 1:26:34They don't believe that either.
1:26:34 > 1:26:37They think I'm being grandiose about it or whatever.
1:26:37 > 1:26:39I just can't believe half the stuff that's happened to me
1:26:39 > 1:26:41when I think of it.
1:26:41 > 1:26:43I was on the stage once with Count Basie.
1:26:43 > 1:26:44I didn't sing very well
1:26:44 > 1:26:46but I actually did sing with him on one occasion on a TV show.
1:26:46 > 1:26:50Just the fact that I actually stood next to him is extraordinary to me.
1:26:50 > 1:26:52So, I mean...
1:26:52 > 1:26:55I've been fortunate to have T-Bone as a good friend,
1:26:55 > 1:26:56because in his company I've met
1:26:56 > 1:27:02Jerry Lee Lewis, Willie Dixon, Kris Kristofferson, all these
1:27:02 > 1:27:05terrific people who have given much more to the world than I'll ever do.
1:27:07 > 1:27:11I just want to raise my sons with a bit more presence
1:27:11 > 1:27:14and go and play shows when it's time to make some money
1:27:14 > 1:27:15and have a good time.
1:27:17 > 1:27:19And that's it.
1:27:21 > 1:27:23That's the end of it.
1:27:28 > 1:27:31# I stood at the kerb
1:27:31 > 1:27:33# Trying not to disturb
1:27:33 > 1:27:37# The dark carnival crew
1:27:39 > 1:27:42# And a glittering voice
1:27:42 > 1:27:44# Far off there said, "Rejoice
1:27:44 > 1:27:47# "As the casualties
1:27:47 > 1:27:48# "Are but few"
1:27:50 > 1:27:53# Going to tell you now
1:27:53 > 1:27:56# Before I forget myself
1:27:56 > 1:27:59# I could let you loose
1:27:59 > 1:28:02# But the key won't undo the lock
1:28:02 > 1:28:04# And the face of the clock
1:28:04 > 1:28:06# Seemed to merrily mock
1:28:06 > 1:28:13# These five minutes with you... #
1:28:16 > 1:28:19Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd