Just how great is Elvis Costello

He's real good, but not in my great category.  Dug his first few LPs, lost interest.  Re D. Krall, so what?  Great to me (in singer/songwriter land) = Dylan, Otis Rush, Muddy, Brother Ray, Neil Young, Joni, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, John Cale, Lou Reed, Van Morrison, Bowie . . . and quite a few more.  Elvis C. works hard, is sincere and has a whole lotta talent and I have a lot of respect for him.  That said, he just doesn't have quite the magical factor that puts him in the top rank.

After rejecting EC when I first heard his debut LP in 1977, I grew to be a huge fan of all of his work by 1979.  I saw him twice in concert (a great live performer), once in Jersey and once on the pier in NYC, in the early 1980s.  I do own, but rarely play, his sugary-pop LPs (Punch the Clock, Goodbye Cruel World), as well as most of his newer works.  He is a unique talent.  Thankfully, I am able to separate the artist (and his politics) from the art in EC's case.  Heck, my college year book quote was "Clown time is over".

Nice sentiment- bondmanp-

With me, I've had several, no, quite a lot of artists that I've either had a passing interest in or always loved but never purchased many of their lps. EC happens to be one of them. So I just began the journey with MFSL "My Aim Is True". A line in the song "Sneaky Feelings" kind of sums this up, "I still got a long way to go"........

bondmanp, with all due respect, not sure how to separate your musical affections from your politics? If I might, what could you mean by "separating the artist from his politics"? As there has always been more politics in art than in our governing chambers. And I have never found EC to be incredibly outspoken about any particular political issue in the grand scheme of things. Although his storylines are particularly varied and generally more interpersonal than political in focus, I may recall, him having made some comment on governance in rare occasions. Is that where your contention lies? Or perhaps regardless of topic, it’s his demeanor, biting in clarity and somewhat less subdued in candor, especially when imposed upon, but I would expect and respect nothing less from someone so brilliant and lyrical. Just asking.