09.17.2019
T-BONE BURNETT’S DEDICATION SPEECH TO ELVIS COSTELLO AT THE 2019 AMERICANA HONORS & AWARDS CEREMONY.
I would like to start by saying I have never had a better or truer
friend than Declan Patrick MacManus, also known as Declan Patrick
Aloysius MacManus, also known as The Imposter, Napoleon Dynamite, The
Beloved Entertainer, better known as Elvis Costello, and known to
millions, and me, as my brother, Howard Coward.
Howard is the kindest of men, and the most generous and ferocious of
artists.
I first saw Elvis Costello and the Attractions at the Paradise Theater
in Boston in 1977. He was lit from the floor by a frightening green
light, and he sang with mirth and venom. The band was raging. The songs
were smart and innovative. His voice was clear. His lyrics were
dangerous. His aim was… pandemonium.
We first met on stage at a sound check for an acoustic tour we took
around the world for a couple of years in the good old days of the
1980’s, though we might not remember them exactly that way.
In the many conversations that we had over the long hours and miles of
roads we traveled in those years, I learned that he is a historian,
archivist, player, singer, and composer of American music of the highest
order.
On a train outside of Chicago, he would refer to the B side of Uh Oh,
Part One by Dyke and the Blazers, as if anyone else in the world had
ever heard it, much less reveled in or referred to it.
In a hotel on Sunset Boulevard, he would pull out an obscure Webb Pierce
song. Or, he would write an obscure Webb Pierce song that never existed.
He was always at maximum intensity.
During that tour, he wrote an extraordinary group of songs that became
an album that could be called an early Americana album, though if we are
going to name early Americana albums, we should start with Blind Willie
Johnson, or the Mississippi Sheiks, or Jimmie Rodgers, or Bessie Smith,
or the Carter Family.
At any rate, that prophetic album was called King of America.
It started this way:
He thought he was the king of America
Where they pour Coca Cola just like vintage wine
Now I try hard not to become hysterical
But I’m not sure if I am laughing or crying
I wish that I could push a button
And talk in the past and not the present tense
And watch this hurting feeling disappear
Like it was common sense
It was a fine idea at the time
Now it’s a brilliant mistake
We went on to make several records together ranging from his eccentric
version of loud psychedelic music to his deft version of classic country
blues.
He, of course, has roamed freely around our culture for forty years,
writing and recording classical music with the Brodsky Quartet,
Louisiana Rhythm and Blues with Allen Toussaint, sophisticated popular
songs with Burt Bacharach, Hip Hop with The Roots, Rock and Roll with
Roy Orbison, and Country Music with George Jones. We have to remember
that he had Billy Sherrill produce his beautiful 1981 album, Almost
Blue. At that time he had been recording for three years and had already
put out five classic albums.
Elvis Costello contains an invaluable cultural memory.
I remember Keith Richards saying that every night, a different band was
the best rock and roll band in the world.
That was a generous remark and a sharp observation.
So tonight, in keeping with Mr Richards’ clear view, I would like to
nominate Declan Patrick MacManus, The Beloved Entertainer, Howard Coward
and Elvis Costello- all of them in one- as the true King of America.
I am deeply grateful to him personally as I have learned more about
music and about freedom and about autonomy from my brother Howard than I
have learned from any other source.
And we are all grateful to you, Sahib, for an extraordinary lifetime of
blues and rhythm, and melody and rhyme, and vulnerability and courage,
and hard truth and deep love.
Please welcome, recipient of the two thousand-nineteen Americana Music
Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting, our brother, Elvis Costello.