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While driving down North Avenue on Chicago's west side this summer. I heard an FM jock relate the story of an interesting phone call he had received. A listener called in and, referring to the recent passing of Elvis Presley, asked him, "What's all this talk about The King being dead? The King is not dead!" To this, the DJ replied, "I couldn't agree with you more, The King isn't dead, because now The King is this man..."
The DJ then proceeded to play a tape excerpt from Elvis Costello's debut album, My Aim Is True. The song we heard is called "Miracle Man" and from listening to it, one immediately can see that "this man" is a recording artist to be reckoned with. The song opens with some rough-edged guitar and has a dynamite chorus: "Why do you have to say that there's always someone who can do it better than I can? Don't you think that I know that walking on the water won't make me a miracle man?"
So, here we have a man named Elvis Costello, pictured in yellow and orange, defiantly posing for his debut album cover, looking for all the world like Buddy Holly on angel dust. What is the public to think?
Unfortunately, some music writers already have written him off as another new wave or punk rocker, presumably because of Costello's working-class London background and his rude and raucous musical style.
This categorization is grossly unfair. For starters, Costello's lyrics show a certain sensitivity that lifts his songs well above the "I want my boot in your face" mentality of Johnny Rotten and others like him. Also, his songwriting abilities seem to exceed those of any of the punk rockers we have heard from either side of the Atlantic.
Costello's band is tight and really can rock when they want to. Costello sings with a vengeance, sounding somewhat like a younger, angrier Bruce Springsteen. His songs are short, to the point and his lyrics range from witty to frightening.
Side one of My Aim Is True contains some minor rock masterpieces, one of them being the previously mentioned "Miracle Man." Another highlight of the side is the hard-rocking "Blame It On Cain," which has a searing guitar lead and a powerful chorus.
Costello has an uncanny knack for writing numbers that have eternally hummable melodies and captivating rhythms, exemplified by "No Dancing," "Sneaky Feelings" and "Welcome To The Working Week," which also are on side one. However, the finest moments on the side (and on the album, for that matter) are provided by "Alison," a tune which could revolutionize songs about unrequited love.
Instead of sitting around moping about his bad luck, as most songwriters seem content to do, Costello takes immediate action, warning the girl who is the object of his affection: "sometimes I wish I could stop you from talking / when I hear the silly things that you say / I think somebody better put out the big light / 'cause I can't stand to see you this way / Alison, I know this world is killing you / Oh, Alison, my aim is true!"
Side two doesn't slow down much. It opens with a rather lush number called "The Angels Want To Wear My Red Shoes." It also contains a breakneck rocker entitled "Mystery Dance" and a rather frightening song called "I'm Not Angry," which is reminiscent of some of the sci-fi rock of the mid-Sixties.
The album closes with a social comment piece called "Waiting For The End Of The World" in which Costello lathes out at various segments of Western culture: "The legendary hitchhiker says that he knows where it's at / Now he'd like to go to Spain or somewhere like that."
With this impressive album under his belt, Costello should expect his popularity in the U.S. to increase immensely. The album combined with a performance on Saturday Night Live and a feature story in Time magazine, should guarantee a quick rise to stardom.
Each of the little black squares which checkerboard the album cover contain a letter, and when put together, they spell out "Elvis is King" across the jacket. I'm not going to argue. Long may he reign!
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