During the late 1970’s, it was fairly common for critics to refer to Elvis Costello as the “Cole Porter of Punk.” That didn’t really mean anything to me at the time, but after I saw the movie “De-lovely,” everything became clear.
The two shared a strong sense of pop craftsmanship and a love of word play. In my opinion, however, their differences are more significant than their similarities. Porter wrote exquisitely polished and urbane songs which became standards, while Costello’s songs have a much rougher edge, both lyrically and musically. There is no Costello song that is as instantly memorable and accessible as, say, “Night and Day,” but there is no Porter song that seethes like “Watching the Detectives” or “Lipstick Vogue.”
I don’t think anyone has put adolescent male sexuality to music as artfully as Costello. Anger, moral and aesthetic disgust, and frustration, mixed with more than a little irony–the entire package can be found in his first three albums. The amazing thing to me is that he was married at the time he wrote those songs. I honestly don’t get that.
I think Woody Allen provides a better analogy than Porter to Costello, for the following reasons:
- Both of them are in love with language;
- Both created geeky, frustrated loser personas in their early days;
- Both presented sexual issues with a mixture of anger and humor, although Costello tended to emphasize the anger, and Allen the humor;
- Both had popular successes early in their career, but subsequently tapered off, and ultimately became elder statesmen; and
- Costello has appeared in movies (“De-lovely”, appropriately enough, being one of them), while Allen is a reasonably accomplished jazz musician.
It is not, therefore, a coincidence that I am a huge fan of both.