The musician Bret Easton Ellis was obsessed with: “The man for me for very many years”
Music has always played an important part in the novels of Bret Easton Ellis. Whether it be American Psycho’s Patrick Batman issuing his detailed reviews of the likes of Genesis and Whitney Houston or his characters from Less than Zero and The Rules of Attraction enjoying the sounds of Talking Heads and X, music has helped to set the scene of many of the American author’s most notable works.
After all, there’s a deep love in Ellis for the musical medium itself and the acclaimed yet controversial writer has frequently stated his admiration for some of his favourite musicians and bands, including The Eagles, Oasis, Bruce Springsteen, The National and Coldplay, giving clues as to his personal taste.
However, there is one musician who seems to have had the biggest impression on Ellis, particularly when it comes to naming some of his books. During an interview with NME, Ellis once spoke of his early love for Elvis Costello, from whom he took the title for his novels Less than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms.
“Why did I name my first book after an Elvis Costello song? Who knows?” Ellis noted. “I was working on this project starting when I was 16 and it was the Less Than Zero project.” Ellis’ debut arrived in 1985, and it tells of a disaffected young man called Clay who returns to his native Los Angeles from his New Hampshire college for the Christmas holidays.
The title is taken from Costello’s debut single, released in 1977 from the album My Aim is True. Discussing his early love for Costello, Ellis noted, “I was like most white, upper-class, educated boys: I was obsessed with Elvis Costello. That was his main audience in the US. That title seemed very evocative to me.”
Less than Zero had a number of titles before Ellis eventually settled on what “ultimately seemed like the best title for the book.” The author had a professor who found much great work in Ellis’ first drafts for the novels but who tried to “dissuade me from using that title because he thought it was lame.”
According to Ellis, “Elvis Costello became the man for me for very many years.” However, Ellis’ interest in the musician suddenly dropped, and he moved on to different kinds of music. “Which happens, it happens to a lot of people; it’s just the nature of things,” he admitted. “Very few people sustain massive careers for a long time.”
In 2010, Ellis released the sequel to Less than Zero and used another title from Costello. Imperial Bedrooms picks up on Clay, now a New York screenwriter who returns to Los Angeles to cast his new movie, and Ellis took the title from Costello’s 1982 album Imperial Bedroom, again proving his love for the English singer-songwriter.
Once I’d figured what Clay would be doing and realised it was a Hollywood novel, the main myth of Hollywood and how it runs on exploitation and that then I was going to delve into sexual exploitation, it was a no-brainer,” Ellis said. It was the perfect title.” An early love for Costello showed Ellis the brilliance of music, but his work played a far more important role in shaping the titles of some of his most acclaimed works, most notably his debut, which showed to the world his minimalist, affectless prose for the first time.
