Author: Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello is an English songwriter, singer, producer, and memoirist whose career has crossed rock, pop, country, jazz, and orchestral music. Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink, published by Blue Rider Press in 2015, tells that story through family memory, performances, recordings, and collaborations rather than a strictly chronological account. Born Declan Patrick MacManus, Costello grew up around music through his father, singer Ross MacManus, before emerging from the British new-wave period with the Attractions. The memoir discusses encounters and work with figures including Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach, Chet Baker, and Allen Toussaint, placing well-known songs beside less public moments from touring and studio life. Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink also examines names, stage persona, and the unreliability of recollection. Its conversational structure suits a musician whose catalogue repeatedly changes style while retaining a precise interest in language, arrangement, and collaboration.