Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True

1977 was a pretty wild year for music.  I was 15, and coming into my own as a music snob.  I always thought it was amazing that no one I knew listened to Yes or Manfred Mann's Earth Band, but when Punk came around and I got interested in that, it would soon turn into no one I knew had any idea what the fuck I was talking about half of the time I talked about music.  When Elvis Costello released his first album I only heard it on college radio, and even then not very often.  I do know one thing - I got this album for my birthday in 1978.  Which means maybe Wikipedia is wrong when they say it came out in the US in March of 78, because I got it in January.  Two of my friends (whom I still know and see to this day) gave me My Aim Is True and Never Mind the Bollocks for my 16th birthday.  I actually stayed in school a good part of that day so that I could carry my records around because I actually thought records were cool and that other people would, too.  The older I get the more I've found that some of us think records are really cool, and most of us are busy.  Oh well, I still think records are cool.

Now I know that you're supposed to like Elvis Costello and the Attractions records better than this one, but this is still my favorite.  I don't have any problems with Clover backing Elvis.  I think they handle the duties just fine.  They let Elvis and the songs themselves take center stage.  Since these are songs that were absolute life savers for me back when I couldn't figure out what it was I was going to be (other than high all the time) I think it's good that the band stays out of the way.  Besides, I'm not nearly as cool as I thought I was.  I'm pretty dorky (case in point - who's the dork talking about getting an Elvis Costello record for his birthday twenty-five years ago?), and the drums in Watching the Detectives still do the trick for me to this day.

I still think I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused is possibly the shortest way to sum up how I felt when I was a teenager, back when everything was black and white, hypocrisy was lost on me and I actually felt like I knew what was going on in the world.  Now that I'm far removed from that guy, those lyrics cut in a different place.  I don't think I'm much smarter than that kid, but I actually see my shortcomings and don't think I know everything that's going on and can offer an opinion on it.  Actually, I don't think I need an opinion on half of it.  Syria?  Bad fucking idea.  Why?  Is it because I understand the Middle East?  No.  I'm just sick and tired of my country killing people for peace.

Which leads me to Mystery Dance.  Man, I know what the song is about, but Elvis just sounds fucking unsatisfied and sometimes that's how I feel, and I feel exactly how Elvis sounds on that.  It can be almost anything that I don't wanna do anymore that's not satisfying me.  How many songs can maintain that kind of relevancy to you after twenty-five years?  Not many, I'd say.  This whole album does that for me.  My Aim is True seemed like a more mature type of record to me back then.  It seemed like what a generation earlier probably felt about Bob Dylan and what my generation was making Bruce Springsteen out to be, but Elvis knew that you only needed two minutes to get a feeling across, and with thirteen songs on this record Elvis was bringing a whole lot of feelings into a very short amount of time.

I think this is probably one of my Good Mental Health Records.  I have to play this to keep myself balanced.  Some people need antidepressants and stuff, but a few of the right records and a little time are all it usually takes to get me back on the right path when things feel a little wobbly.  While Elvis went on to make arguably better records than this one, this is the one that's most important to me.

Mine is nice and flat, with a pretty perfect cover.  I'd actually give this a NM/NM grade (I don't need perfect jackets, I listen to my records so I want them nice, but a bump or crease doesn't bother me much).  I think this one is a first pressing as it looks exactly like my old one, but I think I got this about five years ago when I bought my Rega turntable.  My high school copy was gone, but I had it on cd.  So I was shopping with my wife and we were in some store that sold vintage stuff (lunch boxes and Baby Boomer junk) and they had about twenty records.  All beat up, all boring except a perfect copy of My Aim Is True.  It was three dollars.  The guy at the counter said he didn't know it was there or he'd have taken it home himself.