When we first heard Elvis Costello it was 1977 and the radio station was WBCN in Boston.
With the crazy name and Buddy Holly retro look, Costello was an outlier. His debut album, “MY Aim is True,” had provocative lyrics, abrupt new wave music, and right away he made a name for himself with songs like “Blame it on Cain” and “Watching the Detectives.”
Of course, there was disconcerting hit ballad, “Alison,” that sounded threatening — a total change for FM Radio especially after the era of James Taylor and Jackson Browne. What was this guy implying in these songs? WTF was going on? It was so cool, you just wanted more.
That album, and the many singles and albums that followed over the first five years of Costello’s now 49 year career, meant so much to me, as they did to others. I used to hang around at Bleecker Bob’s waiting for the next single, or outtake, or demo, or live single. It was a dizzying time because he just got better and better.
So now comes a box set for the album’s 49th anniversary — you knew Elvis wouldn’t succumb to “50th anniversary” syndrome. The 5 CD set features 52 unreleased tracks including a whole disc of gems from Costello’s recordings at Pathway Studios. These songs wouldn’t have fit into the very curated “My Aim is True,” that became famous. But now they are gifts to loyal fans.
I already wrote about a song called “I Turn Around.” But now there’s “I Hear a Melody,” which would never have mixed in with “Sneaky People” and “The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes.” But we didn’t know in 1977 that Costello’s dad was a jazz musician, that Elvis (real name Declan McManus) loved R&B, country, and jazz or that he could write or cover anything.
“I Hear a Melody” is no surprise given what we know now, but back in ’77 we might have been shocked by the gorgeous Burt Bacharach type melody juxtaposed with the singer’s biting lyrics. Some of the other songs on the box set we got to know eventually — like my favorite, “Radio Sweetheart,” and the country song “Stranger in the House,” which his 16 year old Stiff Records labelmate Rachel Sweet turned into a hit.
Some box sets of expanded albums are not that interesting, or useful. But “My Aim is True” turns out to be of canonical importance. It’s not just those 52 songs, or the demos, remixes, remasters, etc. There’s also an abundance of paperwork — lyrics, notes, essays by people like Elvis’s longtime collaborator, Nick Lowe. I will be awash in this stuff for months to come. So nice that my investment with an artist from age 20 has turned out to be a goldmine.
PS Nice to see included “Crawling to the USA,” from a movie no one ever saw, which I’ve been humming for 49 years. And the original speeded up “Losing You,” which no less than Dusty Springfield covered later. Also, the unexpected and delightful cover of Bacharach and David’s Dionne Warwick hit “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself.” The latter came on a live Stiff Records album, and was like a lightning strike at the time because who knew Elvis’s career would head in this direction.
Here’s the whole dang thing, after “I Hear a Memory”:
