When I first heard “My Aim Is True” it spoke to me, and now I speak to “Dangerous Amusements” podcast host Stu Arrowsmith about my decades long love affair with that record.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
By Richard Balls (author of Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story and Ian Dury: Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll)
My Aim Is True has the strongest single identity of any of the albums contained in the pantheon of Elvis Costello’s work. It is also the most iconic. So Richard Crouse’s look at both the record and the inchoate, pre-Attractions Costello is a welcome addition to any fan’s bookshelf.
Crouse followed his hero’s progress from afar – Liverpool, Nova Scotia, in fact – after identifying the bespectacled singer on the other side of the Atlantic as someone who was “making music that spoke to me”. Fortunately, his pocket-sized book (just 118 pages) is no hagiography and far more instructive than a song-by-song dissection of the record he got his older brother to bring home for him.
Costello’s early musical influences were as diverse as the records he would go on to make, from The Siamese Cat Song by Peggy Lee, which as a toddler he demanded that his mum play, through to The Beatles, The Supremes and Gram Parsons. He was only 16 when he got up to play in public for the first time in the crypt of a church in Richmond, and by all accounts it did not go well. However, a move from London to Liverpool saw him develop a taste for American country-flavoured rock and the kind of groups that were inspiring groups to venture out into pub back rooms. He and his friends followed suit.
This scene-setting is vital as it explains why, as punk was frothing at the mouth, an agitating young singer was recording a country-tinged album with a Californian bar band. At this point The Attractions hadn’t been hired, and it was with Clover that he recorded his debut at Pathway Studios.
There is, rightly, much emphasis on Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera’s maverick label Stiff Records, in whose scruffy offices the transformation from computer-operating geek to cool new waver began. It was Stiff’s keen understanding of promotion and marketing stunts that helped launch such a difficult-to-market artist. His arrest for busking outside the Hilton Hotel in London where CBS executives were holding a conference resulted to him being signed and MAIT being released in the US.
Fan or not, he doesn’t shy away from aspects of the Costello’s early career that some found off-putting. The labelling of some of Costello’s anti-romance songs as misogynist is, says Crouse, “a fair charge”, while the abrasiveness he cultivated on-stage and press interviews is chronicled in a chapter headed Prince Charmless. On stage he could be no less prickly. “I see we’ve got some cunts in the audience tonight,” he snarled during the Stiff tour of 1977 on which he deliberately played songs no one knew.
There are no original interviews with Costello or any of the musicians involved in MAIT, Crouse instead getting the thoughts of a host of other writers. Nor are there any images in this latest in the pop classics series. But fans will find plenty to feast on in a book that documents a seminal record and the arrival of one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation.
The 1970s in Britain was a decade of unemployment, labour unrest and massive inflation. In short, a breeding ground for pissed off youth with no money, no hope and a hell of a lot of time on their hands.
The decade of discontent spilled into the music world as big, bombastic rock bands grew physically distant from their fans as they played larger and larger arena shows. People began for searching something that spoke to their anger and frustration.
Enter snarly, stripped down sounds played by guys named Rat Scabies and Johnny Rotten and women like Poly Styrene… READ THE WHOLE THING HERE!
Richard’s new book, Elvis is King: Costello’s My Aim is True, has a four out of five star rating on Goodreads!
“Richard Crouse analyzes and explains the meaning of the songs on the album, as well as detailing the events leading up to the release of the album. The highlight of the book is the description of the songs’ meaning within the context of the time they were written. Some 40 decades later, I finally understand a lyric I have listened to hundreds of times – “Now that your picture’s in the paper being rhythmically admired…” Think about it!”
“Richard Crouse’s book is an easy-to-read and well-written and researched story of how My Aim is True came to be. It is very easy to tell that he loves the album as much as I do, and I learned quite a bit about one of my favorite musicians. My Aim is True is probably still one of my favorite albums, and I never get tired of listening to these songs. If you have not heard this album, download and listen as soon as you can, then go and read this book because you will want to know more.”
Find out more HERE!
Intrigued? Buy it HERE!
What was it like the first time you heard My Aim Is True?
Hearing My Aim Is True for the first time was one of those aha moments for me that changed everything. From the opening chord of “Welcome to the Working Week,” I knew this record was something special. By the time I got to track four, “Blame It on Cain,” I knew I never had to listen to Pablo Cruise or REO Speedwagon ever again. Someone out there was making music that spoke to me and it hit me like a punch in the gut. I heard the snarl in Elvis’s voice, the cynicism dripping off every line and for me that was the noise that art made. It was liberation from my small town.
When was the last time you listened to My Aim Is True?
While I was writing the book it was on constant replay but it would not be a stretch to say that barely a week has gone by since I first heard the record that I have not listened to at least part of it. “Welcome to the Working Week” is my unofficial anthem and is in heavy rotation around the House of Crouse… Read the whole thing HERE! Buy the book HERE!
Elvis is King: Costello’s My Aim Is True
By Richard Crouse
Before Elvis Costello was one of Rolling Stone’s greatest artists of all time, before he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was Declan P. McManus, an office drone with a dull suburban life and a side gig in a pub rock band. In 1976, under the guidance of legendary label Stiff Records, he transformed himself into the snarling, spectacled artist who defied the musical status quo to blaze the trail for a new kind of rock star with his debut album, My Aim Is True. In Elvis Is King, Richard Crouse examines how the man, the myth, and the music of this arrestingly original album smashed the trends of the era to bridge the gap between punk and rock ’n’ roll.
Pre-order one from ECW Press HERE!
Before Elvis Costello was one of Rolling Stone’s greatest artists of all time, before he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was Declan P. McManus, an office drone with a dull suburban life and a side gig in a pub rock band. In 1976, under the guidance of legendary label Stiff Records, he transformed himself into the snarling, spectacled artist who defied the musical status quo to blaze the trail for a new kind of rock star with his debut album, My Aim Is True. In Elvis is King: Costello’s My Aim Is True, Richard Crouse examines how the man, the myth, and the music of this arrestingly original album smashed the trends of the era to bridge the gap between punk and rock ’n’ roll.
The book will be hot off the press in April 2015. Find out more HERE!
ECW Testing Short Form Nonfiction Series!
Editor Jennifer Knoch told Publisher’s Weekly: “We’re a really passion driven publisher, and so we’re trying to encourage the same thing in our authors.” The short format may be liberating for some authors, she said. “A lot of times, we have authors who might not want to write 80,000 words on a particular topic, but could they write 20,000 to 40,000 words? Absolutely….It gave them a vehicle to really make a passionate plea for a certain film or series or artist or anything of that nature,” she said.
Read the whole thing HERE!
Here’s some info on Richard’s new book!
Elvis Is King
Costello’s My Aim Is True
Richard Crouse
An explosive, groundbreaking album that crowned a new king of rock in just 33 minutes
Before Elvis Costello was one of Rolling Stone’s greatest artists of all time, before he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was Declan P. McManus, an office drone with a dull suburban life and a side gig in a pub rock band. In 1976, under the guidance of legendary label Stiff Records, he transformed himself into the snarling, spectacled artist who defied the musical status quo to blaze the trail for a new kind of rock star with his debut album, My Aim Is True. In Elvis Is King, Richard Crouse examines how the man, the myth, and the music of this arrestingly original album smashed the trends of the era to bridge the gap between punk and rock ’n’ roll.
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From today’s issue: The Songs of Life! “We all have a few of those songs. You know, when you hear those first few notes and you’re instantly transported back to time when you probably still felt comfortable in a bathing suit or had lots more hair? Today on Canada AM, we talked about those defining songs – songs that served as a backdrop to your meaningful moments, or songs that changed the way you thought about yourself. For Bev it was Paradise by the Dashboard Light. For Marci, Janet Jackson’s Control. For Richard, it was any track off My Aim is True by Elvis Costello. For Denise, I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston Lots of you shared your songs with us on Twitter and Facebook, and it was so fun to walk down all of our memory lanes. Appropriately, the first song I ever remember taking into my heart… In My LIfe by the Beatles. Have a great weekend everyone!” – @amproducerjen
See the whole thing HERE!
