Musicians on Elvis

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The Name March 86 Musician Magazine

" I don't know why I ever changed it in the first place, maybe it had something to do with actually believing the myth. It had something to do with actually believing I was in the wacky world of pop music." -Elvis Costello

"Receiving the invitation to write with Paul was very exciting, but not without its anxieties. I had always tried to be ingenious when borrowing ideas from Lennon & McCartney, but sometimes it's a thin line between influence and larceny." -Elvis Costello

Sir Paul

The Career April '94 British GQ

"It's very true that if I'd have made Armed Forces II, I probably would have ended up with a Bruce Springsteen-type career. But look at the difficulty he's had backing down with grace fom the massive success that was foisted on him. It is, like it or not, self defeating to just go on and repeat yourself, and that product-identification way of making records holds no interest for me." - Elvis Costello

I got interested in playing music on my own. In the early '80s, my older brothers dragged me along to see Elvis Costello, the Clash and X. That was my first introduction to how powerful music is." (Jakob Dylan, USAToday 2.23.97)

Jakob Dylan still plays his London Calling and his Elvis Costello albums on the tour bus. He says listening to them makes him feel melancholy. It's music from a time he discovered the compromises he'd have to make to become a rock star himself. (Jakob Dylan, Details 7.97)

As for influences, Dylan cites several favorites. "Elvis Costello is amazing. And I've always loved Smokey Robinson's words. `Tears of a Clown' is something I wish I had written.'' (Jakob Dylan, St. Paul Pioneer Press 3.22.97)

"I would listen to Elvis Costello and read his interviews and find out what he was listening to, and I would go out and buy those records." (Jakob Dylan, 11.12.97)

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