{"id":791570,"date":"2026-10-04T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T10:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791570\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T10:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T10:00:11","slug":"i-cant-listen-to-pink-floyd-i-find-their-music-dreary-elvis-costellos-honest-playlist-elvis-costello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791570\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I can\u2019t listen to Pink Floyd – I find their music dreary\u2019: Elvis Costello\u2019s honest playlist | Elvis Costello"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first song I fell in love with
The Wind Cries Mary by\u00a0Jimi Hendrix, which came out in 1967 when I\u00a0was 12. Hendrix was known for outgoing music, but I\u00a0was a romantic soul, so the emotional side of his music led to that strain in my own writing.<\/p>\n

The song I do at karaoke
Karaoke? Certainly not. I\u00a0do this for a living. Would you\u00a0have made my great-grandfather dig ditches for fun? I prefer to live vicariously through Bill Murray singing (What\u2019s So Funny \u2019Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding in Lost in Translation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
\u2019Cross the Green Mountain by Bob Dylan is a bit hidden away, but in the very top tier of his songwriting. It\u2019s full of\u00a0images from the American civil war: conflict, overwhelming love, officers being shot, mothers receiving terrible news. It\u2019s poignant and involving.<\/p>\n

The first single I bought
I saved my pocket money to buy the Fame at Last EP by Georgie Fame from Potter\u2019s Music Shop in Richmond. He introduced me to Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, Mose Allison, Willie Dixon and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross \u2013 which was a lot of education for an 11-year-old who didn\u2019t play an instrument.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The song I can no longer listen to
Anything by Pink Floyd. Never could, never will. I find their music dreary. I love the imagination and playfulness of\u00a0See Emily Play, but after Syd Barrett left they just never appealed\u00a0to me.<\/p>\n

The best song to have sex to
How impertinent.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The song I secretly like, but tell everyone I hate
I\u2019ve written a few songs that I secretly hate, but I\u00a0can\u2019t think of anything I secretly like apart from\u00a0Milkshake by Kelis \u2013 and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s\u00a0a secret.<\/p>\n

The best song to play at\u00a0a party
I haven\u2019t been to a party since I was 15. Then it\u00a0would have been Double Barrel by Dave &\u00a0Ansel Collins.<\/p>\n

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The song that changed my life
My mother claimed I\u2019d\u00a0request I\u2019ve Got You Under My Skin by Frank Sinatra before I could form sentences. I\u00a0can still visualise the record player we had in our basement flat near Olympia, which had a red eye on the front and looked a bit like a robot.<\/p>\n

The song that gets me up in the morning
Armagideon Time by the\u00a0Clash. I found having Good Morning from Singin\u2019 in the Rain as my\u00a0ringtone put me in a\u00a0bad mood.<\/p>\n

The song I want played at my funeral
Keepin\u2019 Out of Mischief Now by Louis Armstrong.<\/p>\n

My Aim Is True (49th Anniversary Edition) is\u00a0out now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first song I fell in love withThe Wind Cries Mary by\u00a0Jimi Hendrix, which came out in 1967…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-791570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}