Costello Honored by Composers

Tweet

Elvis Costello will receive the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Founders Award at the organization's annual Pop Music Awards on May 20th in Beverly Hills, California. Costello joins fellow recipients including Quincy Jones, Tom Waits, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Stephen Sondheim, and duos Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

The ASCAP award is Costello's second big industry recognition of 2003. Last month he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Though he cut his teeth as one of rock's angry young men, the forty-seven-year-old Costello has tempered that fire somewhat in light of recent honors. "Friends have been absolutely so thrilled for me," he told Rolling Stone. "And that has changed my mind from my natural disposition of the Groucho Marx view of clubs towards one where I think if people are good enough to invite us to a party it would be churlish and rude of us to decline. The other side of it is it's just some people saying so -- it doesn't make you better than everybody else."

In other Costello news, the singer-songwriter will hit the road with his backing band, the Imposters, in July. Six dates have been lined up so far starting with a July 2nd stop in Toronto.

Elvis Costello tour dates:

7/2: Toronto, Hummingbird Center
7/11: New York, Central Park SummerStage
7/12: Boston, FleetBoston Pavilion
7/13: Gilford, NH, Meadowbrook Farm Musical Arts Center
7/15: Sterling Heights, MI, Freedom Hill Amphitheater
7/23: Edmonton, ALB, Jubilee Auditorium

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'This Is the End' Brings the Goods
• 
  TV The Women of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter