"There you go, I've softened 'em up for you"

“I was standing side-stage with Pete Thomas. Around the time that the band [Bob Dylan and co.] went from 'The Levee’s Gonna Break' into 'Tangled Up in Blue,' I leaned into Pete and said, “We’re in trouble here. We’ve got to follow this. We’d better open with something they recognize or we’ll be playing to an empty tent.”

The great Dylan songs rolled out one after another: 'High Water (For Charley Patton),' 'A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,' 'Simple Twist of Fate,' 'Highway 61 Revisited,' 'Ballad of a Thin Man' . . .

The tent was stifling in the late antipodean summer, and I stepped out onto the loading ramp as Bob and his band hit the encore of 'L'ke a Rolling Stone' followed by 'Forever Young.”

I could hear just fine from there and a faint breeze was welcome.

I was still sitting on a flight case listening to the baying of the Byron Bay crowd as the DJ put on some music to signal the changeover.

The silhouette of a gunslinger was heading in my direction with a skip and a shuffle under his big, wide-brimmed hat.

'There you go, I’ve softened ’em up for you,' he said, as he passed on.”

-- Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink

I'd say music biographies / autobiographies are my second favorite literary genre after straight-up novels these days.  Unfortunately, E.C.'s memoir really didn't do it for me.  It's long -- good god, it's long -- and flies through the eras (late 70s, 90s revival) that I really wanted to know more about.  Then again, maybe I'm just way too into his Attractions stuff, and haven't ever given the solo and solo-er stuff more attention.

I mean, keeping up the lyrical genius of "you make him sound like frozen food, his love will last forever" over 600 pages is asking too much even of Dylan.  (Speaking of music bios I have yet to read....)