# Deep Tracks - Elvis Costello - "My Aim Is True"



## Guest (Aug 15, 2018)

View attachment 106747


Please *choose up to seven selections *for this particular poll.

On all polls created if you click on the number of votes following the song title the username of all voters and their chosen selections will appear.

The tunes themselves will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - Elvis Costello - "My Aim Is True"

""My Aim Is True" is the RIAA Platinum-certified debut album by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello.

The album was recorded at Pathway Studios in Highbury, London Borough of Islington, over the course of 1976 six four-hour studio sessions, in a total of approximately twenty-four hours. It was the first of five consecutive Costello albums produced by Nick Lowe and cost £2,000 to record.

Costello had been performing in clubs and pubs in Liverpool and London since 1970 and had created some demo tapes, but he had had little success in obtaining a recording contract.

When Stiff Records was founded in 1976, Costello submitted his demos there and found some interest, but initially they wanted him as a songwriter for Dave Edmunds. Edmunds, however, was reluctant, so the company had Costello and Clover re-record some of his songs, with Lowe producing, to try to persuade him. The new recordings were good enough on their own for Stiff Records to abandon that idea.

The label then suggested that he share a début album with Wreckless Eric, but Costello had written enough songs, most of them at home late at night (so as not to wake his wife and young son) or on the London Underground while commuting to work, to have an entire album of his own. Costello called in sick to his day job (as a data entry clerk) to rehearse and record the album with Clover, which was cut in a series of six four-hour sessions for about £1,000.

Costello stayed at his day job as the first two singles, "Less Than Zero" and "Alison", were released without much success. Finally, the label decided to release the album in the summer of 1977, and he was asked to quit his job and become a professional musician. Stiff Records would match his office wages and gave him a record advance of £150, an amp, and a tape recorder. Three weeks after its release, Costello was on the cover of a music paper. He described this situation as being "an overnight success after seven years"

In 1977 Rolling Stone magazine named the album one of the best of the year.

In 2003, the TV network VH1 named My Aim Is True the 80th greatest album of all time.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 168 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2004, it was ranked 37 of the top 100 albums of the 1970s by Pitchfork which reported the album to be "held by many as the most impressive debut in pop music history."

In 2007, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Aim_Is_True

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2018)

"Welcome to the Working Week" -






"Miracle Man" -






"No Dancing" -






"Blame It on Cain" -






"Alison" -






"Sneaky Feelings" -






"(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" -






"Less Than Zero" -






"Mystery Dance" -






"Pay It Back" -






"I'm Not Angry" -






"Waiting for the End of the World" -






"Watching The Detectives" -






"Radio Sweetheart" -






"Stranger in the House" -


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I always liked Elvis Costello. A very unique sound even for his time.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

One week during the summer of 1977......A Level results, 18th birthday and passed driving test-the soundtrack was this album which had just been released......difficult to be objective in anyway about an album that is an integral part of one's life in that way and yet even today two tracks stand out...Angels' and Alison, 'pop perfection' with a punky edge!

one point I would make-the 'bonus tracks' might well disturb the natural balance of what is a complete 'album' (remember that word and what it represented?) in itself!

is it not time for a thread concerning the other defining album of that summer-Television's Marquee Moon?


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Elvis Costello's music - punk with intelligence and highly skilled musicianship.


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2018)

jim prideaux said:


> one point I would make-the 'bonus tracks' might well disturb the natural balance of what is a complete 'album' (remember that word and what it represented?) in itself!


I genuinely understand the concept of "artistic integrity" that you are expressing in relation to the "original release" of an album and while I do agree with you in theory the reality is that marketing decisions were the deciding factor determining the number and titles used in a release with variances between UK and US releases.

Singles were routinely left off the LP releases in the UK yet were added to the US releases.

"Watching the Detectives", released in the UK as a single in October 1977, was not on the original UK release of the album, but was added to the US release as the last track on side one.

"Radio Sweetheart" and "Stranger In The House" have both been added to every subsequent "Bonus Disc" and "Deluxe Edition" CD issue... and I really like both and so I often make completely arbitrary decisions that I would have a rather difficult time justifying other than "I really like both"...

And thank you for taking the time to write and to vote!

Regards

- Syd


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