Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1977…
#3 – My Aim is True – Elvis Costello
Earlier this week I selected the Talking Heads’ debut album for this list, and today I’m featuring a debut album by an artist I love even more: Elvis Costello. Imagine getting your first taste of both of those acts in the same year!
I wrote about My Aim is True almost 16 years ago as part of my Costello Weekends series, and I think it’s been long enough that I can repurpose a few of those paragraphs here.
“In 1976, a 22-year-old Elvis Costello took a sick day from his job as a computer operator and holed up in a London studio with a band called Clover to record one of the great debut albums in rock history, My Aim is True.
The album wasn’t a huge commercial hit, but it was a critical smash. This weird-looking guy with Buddy Holly glasses and a pigeon-toed punk stance could jump from new wave pop to Bacharach-style ballads in the course of a few songs. Right off the bat he was hard to peg.
But one thing was certain, he was a brilliant songwriter with a talent for mind-bending wordplay. A song such as ‘Watching the Detectives’ just doesn’t sound like something you’d hear on a debut album. It sounds advanced, like a post-grad level song released by somebody who should be in the musical equivalent of high school.”
What wisdom I had as a lad of 37. And why does my blog suddenly have me feeling ancient?
At any rate, all of that remains true, though I’ll add that Clover, the band with which Costello recorded this album, went on to serve as The New for Huey Lewis. A nifty musical footnote I’ve certainly mentioned before but one that bears repeating.
My Aim is True, like every early Costello album, is a gem. It features all-time classics ‘Alison,’ ‘(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,’ and ‘Watching the Detectives’ (on the U.S. release, at least), as well as a laundry list of lesser-known gems. It pulsates with the energy of a young man unleashing his gift upon an unsuspecting world.
He was, and remains, a miracle man.
You never asked me what I wanted
You only asked me why
I never thought that so much trouble
Was resting on my reply
I could say it was the nights when I was lonely
And you were the only one who’d talk
I could tell you that I like your sensitivity
When you know it’s the way that you walk
[Chorus]
Why do you have to say that there’s always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don’t you think that I know that walking on the water
Won’t make me a miracle man?
[Verse 2]
Baby’s got to have the things she wants
You know, she’s got to have the things she loves
She’s got a ten-inch bamboo cigarette holder
And her black patent leather gloves
And I’m doing everything just trying to please her
Even crawling around on all fours
Oh, I thought by now that it was gonna be easy
But she still seems to want for more
[Chorus]
Why do you have to say that there’s always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don’t you think that I know that walking on the water
Won’t make me a miracle man?
[Verse 3]
Never given you a bad reputation
Just because you’ve never been denied
You try to say you’ve done it all before
Baby, you know that you just get tired
Yet everybody loves you so much, girl
I just don’t know how you stand the strain
Oh, I, I’m the one who’s here tonight
And I don’t want to do it all in vain
[Chorus]
Why do you have to say that there’s always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don’t you think that I know that walking on the water
Won’t make me a miracle man?
Meet Me In Montauk 