About the Album
“For the first time since Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello proved that skinny, pale guys with glasses could rock just as hard as any leather-clad macho man.” RV The “geeky, awkward 22-year-old” BL from Liverpool worked as a computer operator for Elizabeth Arden, a cosmetics firm, MM supporting his wife (he married in 1974) and child (also born in 1974).
The album cover, designed by Barney Bubbles, featured “a photograph of a pigeon-toed, bespectacled Costello, looking more like the computer programmer…than the rock star Costello was to become.” TB Regardless of how he looked, My Aim Is True “established Costello as one of the enduring talents of the era.” TB
Pub Rock
He had “stored up a century’s worth of resentment.” BL He “wrote songs in a small notebook and performed them in the mid-1970s at pub-rock venues at night.” MM “Tearing a page from Britain’s skiffle movement of the 1950s, which embraced traditional jazz and folk and the acoustic guitar, pub rockers tended to dress down, eschewing flash or gimmickry. Instead, their music was inspired by the high-strung rockabilly energy of Jerry Lee Lewis and geek-country innocence of Buddy Holly.” MM These acts “typically performed in pubs and clubs, developing a loyal and enthusiastic following. While the U.K.’s pub rockers retained punk’s driving attack, their songs tended to be more poetic and romantic, with a retro feel.” MM
Nick Lowe, Clover, and the Recording of the Album
In 1977, Costello signed to Stiff Records, a British independent label. He was paired with producer Nick Lowe, whom Costello had followed round the country when Lowe was frontman with Brinsley Schwarz.” RD Lowe “added just enough studio fairy dust to make this a ‘proper’ record rather than another set of demos.” RD
Costello jettisoned his country-rock backing group TB in favor of “Clover, a bland American band.” BL The San Francisco-based rock quintet – known here as Shamrock TB – would become better known as the backing band for Huey Lewis.
Costello said, we went to “Headley Grange, about an hour and a half southwest of London, to rehearse…Headley Grange was a former poorhouse that became a rock ‘n’ roll safe house where record companies lodged their bands and had them work on material before recording. It was cost-effective for them.” MM
The album was recorded on sick days Costello took off from work TC “in six four-hour sessions in an eight-track demo studio in North London Costello now likens to a telephone booth.” RD
Crossing Genre Barriers
“But the amazing material cuts through the dim performances: bitter country songs hopped up on bitter coffee and arranged as sneering rock.” BL “My Aim Is True could function as a Cliff's Notes of rock history. Mystery Dance sounds like a song from Elvis Presley’s golden age; I’m Not Angry channels David Bowie’s distinct ethereal quality; and Bob Dylan’s method of free association abounds in Waiting for the End of the World.” RV
Costello “sounds as comfortable with a ‘50s knockoff like No Dancing as he does on the reggae-inflected Less Than Zero. Costello went on to more ambitious territory fairly quickly, but My Aim Is True is a phenomenal debut, capturing a songwriter and musician whose words were as rich and clever as his music.” AM
Is It Punk or Something Else?
Costello burst on the scene “as a punk-compatible ‘extraordinarily bitter person’ – but way too sophisticated for safety pins.” MJ My Aim Is True is “a heady combination of punk and quality songcraft.” RD “Costello’s lyric gift and his sound, which was both angry and melodic, gave a weight to what would otherwise have been not much more than a fashion statement.” TC
Ultimately “My Aim Is True is not a punk album. While Costello’s vitriolic lyrics and sneering vocal drew comparisons with punk acts, his music demonstrate an awareness and acceptance of rock history.” TB The music is “steeped in soul, R&B and beat groups” MJ but Costello’s “sensibility is borrowed from the pile-driving rock & roll and folksy introspection of pub-rockers like Brinsley Schwarz, adding touches of cult singer/songwriters like Randy Newman and David Ackles.” AM
“That blend of classicist sensibilities and cleverness make this collection of shiny roots rock a punk record – it informs his nervy performances and his prickly songs. Of all classic punk debuts, this remains perhaps the most idiosyncratic because it’s not cathartic in sound, only in spirit.” AM He was “the quintessential new-wave misfit.” EW’12 “Still, there’s no mistaking this for anything other than a punk record, and it’s a terrific one at that, since even if he buries his singer/songwriter inclinations, they shine through as brightly as his cheerfully mean humor and immense musical skill.” AM
Costello’s Bitterness and Cynicism
The album’s “almost unprofessional production values merely add to the raw intensity of his tales of heartache.” RV “Few wore their bitterness like a badge” EW’12 the way Costello did. There’s an “infusion of pure nastiness and cynical humor, which is pure Costello.” AM “This debut is rich in sour, sullied treasures, including Miracle Man, Sneaky Feelings, I’m Not Angry and The Angels Wanna Wear My Read Shoes (‘Oh I said, I’m so happy, I could die/ She said, ‘Drop dead’).” MJ
BP Fallon, who was in the office at Stiff Records when Costello approached them with his songs, wrote, “I came to know him as brittle, tense, nervous, agitated. Paranoid would not have been too strong a word.” TC
Costello said, “I’m an extraordinarily bitter person. I don’t like to sound as if I’m too obsessed and can’t feel any other way, but it just happens that those songs evince that kind of feeling and, therefore, the album is like that…Just like everyone else I have good days and bad days. The things that mean the most to you or affect you most, you write songs about.” TC
Notes
Rykodisc/Demon’s 1993 reissue added nine bonus tracks, some of which were demos of Costello’s first group, Flip City. Additional songs: “Radio Sweetheart,” “Stranger in the House,” Imagination Is a Powerful Deceiver,” “Cheap Reward,” “Jump Up,” “Wave a White Flag,” “Poison Moon,” and demo versions of “Mystery Dance” and “Blame It on Cain.” These cuts were also part of Rhino’s 2001 2-CD reissue, alongside four other songs – live versions of “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” and “Less Than Zero” along with early versions of “Living in Paradise,” and “No Action” (both songs from 1978’s This Year’s Model).
The Songs
Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.
|
