I mean, he based his appearance on Buddy Holly. He knew he wasn’t trying to look “cool” so much as look iconic, which I think he achieved. And who the hell else could write such a rollicking upbeat song with a powerful message about the brutality of colonialism?!
This is the weirdest thread ever. I like it.
His band The Attractions are at least as responsible for that as E.C. himself, if not more. He’s a good songwriter, but in terms of musical chops, Pete and Bruce Thomas and Steve Nieve are in another league…they’re all superlative players, they could have sat in with The Who or Led Zeppelin and held their own. They’re one of the all time greatest rhythm sections in rock. Costello was lucky as hell to have them - though it bears mentioning that they’re actually not on My Aim Is True, his first album. The band assembled for that recording is called Clover and they were also extremely good, and deserve much of the credit for his breakout success.
Ya know, if you want to assess coolness, I think you have to consider the INCREDIBLE coolness of any Dopers whose sig s might reflect a certain artist’s lyrics… I’m just saying… 
And yeah, if you read EC’s bio, it is clear SN (not to mention the Thomas boys) played a HUGE part in his music.
Aye: this pretty much nails it.
[My bold]
An band that strangely later evolved partly into Huey Lewis and the News, which still doesn’t compute for me.
I think Patrick Bateman would disagree on that point - he, after all, informs us that Huey Lewis has in fact been compared to Elvis Costello, but that Huey supposedly has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.
Maybe he has, but can you imagine Elvis Costello doing “Hip To Be Square” or “Happy To Be Stuck With You”?
ETA: just googled Patrick Bateman, and I think I’ve been whooshed.
Hey, don’t forget that Sting’s movie debut was in the Who film Quadrophenia. He was the epitome of coolness, until he took on a bellhop job!
Have you ever SEEN an Elvis Costello video? There’s a reason he’s celebrated as a songwriter.
The video for Every Day I Write The Book is one of my favorite music videos ever. Charles and Diana…where the hell did they find those people? The backup singers are also great, and Steve Nieve’s shirt and Bruce Thomas’s Wal bass are a glorious sight to behold.
As a huge fan of all 3 musicians listed, it’s Bryan Ferry by a country mile!
I’ve seen The Attractions 8-10 times, and The Imposters, and The Various Other Costello Bands and briefly met Costello a few times socially; and saw The Police suppporting Alberto y Los Trios Paranoias in 1977/8(?) for 50p and had a drink with Sting and Andy Summers afterwards.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve never had personal exchanges with Ferry… but I don’t think so. He’s awesomely cool. But I would also say he was at his coolest for the first 2/3 Roxy albums and his first couple of solo albums too.
The fact that he can’t dance AT ALL somehow seems to add to his allure!
MiM
I take issue with the idea that Ferry is cool only by association with Eno. Eno is spectacularly uncool! He’s spent significant portions of his life post Here Come The Warm Jets making deliberately uncool music designed to be aural wallpaper, and knocks around with terminally uncool musicians like Bono and Chris Martin. I’ll give him some sort of pass for his work with Bowie and Talking Heads and his commitment to introducing musicians to alternative ideas and rhythms but two albums where he did a bunch of electronic noodling with Roxy and a propensity to dress up in glam gear (but they all did - and honestly the coolest member of Roxy in the glam era was probably Phil Manzanera, bug eye glasses for the win) is doing one hell of a lot of work for his cool quotient I think.
This is not to say Ferry is (or indeed is not) cool. His look is cool - he never looks less than immaculate, at least once he discovered the art of good tailoring around the time of Avalon. But his records vary between superficially cool - in the sort of 80s wine bar vibe - that seem a bit hollow inside and really actually quite cool (The Bride Stripped Bare is fantastic - and I think is a real break point - baring his soul after Jerry Hall left him, he seems to retreat to the hollow inside, super smooth adult pop after this). His Dylan fandom is absolutely not cool and his cover albums also veer wildly from really quite cool to incredibly kitsch. His work is interesting, but I have never read or heard an interesting interview from him. He is at once seemingly very cool and totally not. He’s, in other words, a human being.
I vote for him over the other two though. Sting has, imo, rightly been called out in this thread as being incredibly uncool - blanket statements like this probably need supporting I guess - to which I say tantric sex, lute albums, and the bulk of his post Police recorded output - some of these things are interesting, very rarely are they cool though. Elvis Costello seems like a decent bloke but has made as many anodyne records as the other two have, so his peak has to be doing a lot. Modern aesthetics have improved the opinion of his classic look and his opening 3-5 albums are all also called out as important and cool by the more recent post-punk influenced bands that are knocking about. I guess I can see the argument that he’s cooler than Ferry - I like Ferry’s music more though (even latter day stuff like Bete Noire and Olympia), so he wins for me.
This is a fun thread. More random polls between seemingly unconnected musicians answering wildly subjective questions!
Costello is great, but not really the traditional definition of cool- the nerd with big glasses persona of his early and best days is really the antithesis of Fonz type cool.
Cool as in stylish, sleek, hip, trendy, fashionable, dating models, jetsetting- Ferry all the way.
Tenuously linking coolness to association with Eno, I’ll start the also ran column with David Byrne of Talking Heads
Go ahead and shoot me, I deserve it
David Byrne was certainly cool, but the OP wanted to compare British musicians. Byrne was born in the UK, but moved to North America when he was 2.
I’ll vote for him in the inevitable American musician thread (I echo Cumbrian’s desire for more).
I vote Bryan Ferry also, if only because (all else musical being considered equal) his hair, poise, and style I desperately coveted as an awkward teen and my straight flat hair, weak chin, and frumpy frame couldn’t ever achieve.
I don’t give a shit about whether or not people think I’m cool, but am I cool? I doubt it! You need something about you that actually makes you cool, beyond just not caring whether you are or aren’t.
If I get the chance, I’ll start a nomination thread. If someone beats me to it, just tag me
I voted Sting, btw. For his Police work, Feyd, and first solo album.
Hey, I used to be super cool myself. Not so much anymore. Ch ch ch changes are inevitable