Elvis Costello: Every Day A Different Book

THE SCENE: Austin, Texas. The overbearing Texan had buttonholed Elvis Costello's flamboyant manager, Jake Riviera, at a party in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and attempted to explain exactly what he thought was wrong with English music. "What it is," he said, logic taking a suicide dive out the second-story window, "is that all your daddies got killed in the war, so everybody got brought up by the mamas and they all turned into a bunch of pussies." Riviera didn't bother with a rebuttal; he was out the door before you could say "Paul McCartney."