Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True - 1977

"I was an overnight success after seven years" - Elvis Costello

 

In the summer of 1977, I was doing some student work in a bakery in Aylesbury, Bucks, when a colleague came running up, excitedly telling me that "Elvis Costello's coming to Friars!" (the local rock club). I had never heard of Elvis Costello. His enthusiasm intrigued me so I went to the gig, despite not having heard any of his music. It was the "Stiffs" tour featuring Ian Dury and Wreckless Eric. Costello headlined and played an impressive set. 

After that, I bought the My Aim Is True album and then, the following year brought This Years Girl. Many more live experiences of Costello and his excellent band The Attractions would be forthcoming over subsequent years as this quirky, bespectacled and passionate artist became one of my favourites. 

He was an ideal new wave anti-hero - odd-looking yet possessed of a superb instinct for a piece of wordplay in his lyrics. He also knew his music and was influenced by country music, Stax soul, Motown, early rock 'n' roll, jazz and easy listening crooning. His output over the years has covered many different styles and although something of an acquired taste, particularly vocally, his material is invariably thought-provoking and challenging. He never makes an ordinary record.

 

Released in 1977, My Aim Is True has, for me, always been something of a strange album. 

Fresh from the cleansing experience of Never Mind The Bollocks, The Clash and The Ramones along came Elvis Costello, looking like an even geekier Buddy Holly and backed some (comparatively) old, musically experienced veterans playing a sort of jangly amalgam of "pub rock" and "country rock". Was this what the great punk revolution was all about? Surely not? It seemed that no sooner than it had started, the "New Wave" was upon us. Despite Costello's acerbic lyrics - (by the way, Elvis Costello's lyrics are always described as "acerbic" - just as any Van Morrison review will contain the word "curmudgeonly") - there was precious little protest in the air on this rather (in places) tuneful and somewhat homely workout. 

Incidentally, the backing musicians were a US country rock band called Clover, whose members later went on to become Huey Lewis's 'News'. Regarding the album's creation, Costello was working as a data input clerk and called in sick to record this album, cut, amazingly, in six four-hour sessions at a cost of £1000. Granted £1000 went a lot further back then, but in record-cutting terms, the whole thing was truly remarkable. Because of that its sound has always been a bit "lo-fi", but it certainly isn't that bad and it sort of went with the home-produced punk ethic anyway. Why, even the cover had a sort of amateur punk look about it. The one I bought was the green photo inset one shown above (there were several different colours released). Anyway, back to the story, Stiff Records then matched his wages and gave him a contract. Costello was duly hyped to the nth degree by Stiff Records' (comparatively) amateur but ubiquitous hype-ists. He was one of those artists that almost became famous before he was famous. Amateur or home-produced or not, the hype worked and Costello's appearance on the "Stiffs tour" with Ian Dury, Nick Lowe and Wreckless Eric became the hottest ticket in town. 

Everyone wanted to see this (apparently) knock-kneed, bespectacled oddball.

On to the songs, then, and their comparative lack of punkiness  - yes, Less Than Zero seemed a bit of an angry song, about fascism, apparently, although to be honest what he was going on about was often not clear. It had a great hook and a stand-out punky attitude (if not sound) that meant that it would always be a favourite from the album for many. 

Waiting For The End Of The World had a touch of down home nihilism about it, I guess and I suppose I could punch the air to the jaunty but rousing Blame It On Cain, just about. Now, don't get me wrong, I like all of these songs, especially the short, bassy punch of Welcome To The Working Week and the wonderful, proto-new wave catchiness of (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes. 

Miracle Man had another huge rumbling bass line with a dense drum backing and Costello's voice is sneeringly brilliant on this one too, so there is some good stuff on here, it was just quite difficult to pin down at the time. I liked it, but I was not quite sure why. It certainly didn't fit the punk blueprint at all yet Costello found himself strongly linked to the punk movement, for better or worse. Probably for the better as it made his name. 

At the risk of tediously repeating myself, I will labour the point once more - My Aim Is True has always sat outside from the other punk-new wave albums from the period. Maybe it was just me, but at the time I found its music somewhat out of touch with the zeitgeist - too jangly, too old school, at times too country. Much of its critical kudos has been retrospective. Back in 1977 I just had a problem with the cultural identity of this particular album when it came out. However, give it a few more months and I didn't have any such problems once The Attractions had been formed, new wave was in town and the excellent This Year's Model heralded a run of truly wonderful albums. 

Costello's material from This Year's Model onwards featured that trademark organ and bass dominated Attractions sound, which is just not present on this album -  the country-ish jangle of both Sneaky Feelings and Pay It Back is just nowhere near being anything remotely punky. It was remarkable, really, that stuff like this went down well at the time. 

While I'm Not Angry is in the same style, its innate punky cynicism redresses the balance somewhat, while the vaguely slow rock'n'roll influence of No Dancing remains as a rather unique creation although the short, frantic Mystery Dance has some of the same qualities as well. The overall impression, though, is that apart from a bit of attitude, punk is in short supply. 

An interesting thing to do is listen to the live versions of some of these songs played by The Attractions in 1977 and 1978 which are included on the "deluxe edition" of this album and also on the Live At El Mocambo CD. The difference in intensity and overall sound between them the backing supplied by Clover is seismic. Steve Nieve's organ sound, Pete Thomas's drums and Bruce Thomas's bass drive the whole thing along with so much more attack, verve and ingenuity. The sound quality is excellent too. 

Oh, my goodness - I am forgetting the gorgeous ballad, Alison, which remains as the album's stand out number - look, I'll say it again, there is plenty of material on here with real potential, but it was a potential that would take until the next album to fully realise. 

What we had here was an oddity of a supposedly 'punk' record that was deemed to be so largely due to its stripped-down sound, punk-style artwork on the cover, afore-mentioned acerbic lyrics and Costello's geeky, anti-hero look. Once I had accepted that it was not punk, musically, but just had something similar in much of its imagery and attitude, I was sold on the distinctly unique, idiosyncratic Costello and would remain so for many more decades. 

I still enjoy the occasional listen to the album though and in no way do I dismiss it completely. As debut albums go it is absolutely more than acceptable and it brings back so many great memories. Actually, listening to it now, through a good sound system, it sounds blooming great - full, bassy and thumping. Clover - all is forgiven guys! I have to say that I have assessed it from the point of view that there are debut albums and there are Elvis Costello debut albums. His standards are/were that high.