Origins of album titles
My Aim is True
A lyric from 'Alison'. Also the last line of the chorus, repeated several times as the song fades.
This Year's Model
A variation on a lyric from "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea":
capital punishment she's last year's model
Also a variation on the song title "This Year's Girl"
Armed Forces
Relates to the general military themes and symbolism of many of the songs on the album; in particular, "Senior Service", "Olivers Army" and "Goon Squad".
Get Happy!!
The title indicates a change in mood and direction from the previous albums. Ella Fitzgerald also released an album with this title in 1959. There is also a song of the same name composed by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. Costello was no doubt familiar with both the album and the song.
"Get Happy" is also a term used in Gospel Music to describe to an ecstatic moment when one is said to "receive the Holy Spirit" while singing or praying.
Trust
The title relates to the picture on the album cover, in the sense of "Would you trust this man?".
Taking Liberties
A line from "Crawling to the USA".
Ten Bloody Mary's and Ten How's Your Fathers
There were ten songs on each side of the cassette (and later LP) version of this album, which is the UK equivalent to "Taking Liberties", a collection of songs previously unreleased or not included on albums.
'10 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers' is a common form of Penance given to Catholics after Confession - to say 10 of each prayer in atonement for the sins just confessed.
'A bit of how's your father' is an English euphemism for sex. A Bloody Mary is a drink consisting of Vodka and tomato juice. (rdowling@arthouse.ie)
Almost Blue
Possibly a sly reference to Miles Davis' album "Kind Of Blue". Later became a song title on "Imperial Bedroom"
Imperial Bedroom
Costello mentions on the 2LP promo 'A Conversation With Elvis Costello' that the title was meant to convey a kind of 'faded decadence'. EC reused the title for a song composed a few months after the album was completed.
Punch the Clock
A lyric from "The Greatest Thing":
Punch the clock, keep boxing clever You'll be young enough forever
Goodbye Cruel World
Presumably related to Elvis' dissatisfaction with his career, his band and also the fact that he was facing divorce from his first wife. The title might also have a double meaning in the sense that he might be saying goodbye to being "cruel". The title of his 2002 album "When I Was Cruel" is another reference of this sort.
King of America
The first line of the first song "Brilliant Mistake". Elvis is wearing a crown on the album cover.
Blood & Chocolate
The first line of the first song "Uncomplicated", possibly from Herman Hesse's novel 'Steppenwolf' (mills@apic.or.jp)
Out of Our Idiot
Possible word play on the phrase 'Out of Our Idiom' and might also refer to the origins of the songs (i.e. out of EC's (self-deprecating!) head. (rshapella@worldnet.att.net)
Girls+£/Girls=$+Girls
From EC's liner notes: 'I have arranged the songs in four parts so as to try and tell a number of different stories(...) The deciding factor in making these choices is contained in the obscure arithmetic of the title, although I must caution against taking it too seriously, unless you are considering a career in the legal profession.'
Spike
Reference to musician Spike Jones
Mighty Like A Rose
Quote in booklet (from Song 'Mighty Lak' a Rose', lyrics F.L. Stanton; used in Emlyn Williams' play Night Must Fall as the 'theme song' of the murderer (bleatherwood@ibm.net))
Also a line from "The Other Side of Summer":
The mightiest rose / the absence of perfume
The Juliet Letters
Inspired by an article about a Veronese professor who was replying to letters written to Juliet Capulet of Shakespeare's "Romeo And Juliet".
Brutal Youth
Beginning of 2nd verse of "Favourite Hour"
Kojak Variety
"By the way, the title came from the name of a grocery store on the way to the studio" (EC interview- AOL)
"Kojak Variety is the name of a shop in (Parrishtown) Barbados. It's a supermarket. He was so struck by the fact that there was no reason why that shop had to be called that way that he decided that there was no reason why an album should not be called that way, so he did" - Pete Thomas, Beyond Belief, Mar. 1997.
All This Useless Beauty
The title of one of the tracks.
"They ...[songs on ATUB] ... add up to a pretty good representation of my frame of mind at the moment, including the breaking of my nineteen-year tradition of not having a title song (laughs)." Interview with EC - Hot Press July 96. (cratliff@CAFELIV.U-NET.COM)
Extreme Honey
"I was getting told off in a write-up for not playing enough of my ballads--and I think I misread the translation!" Costello says. "This is extreme honey." I thought it was a great phrase, connoting the sweet and the tart which often exist even inside the same song. (Billboard)
Painted From Memory
From the song of the same name.
When I Was Cruel
from the song "When I Was Cruel No. 2". There is also a different song, not included on the album but from the same time, called "When I Was Cruel No. 1".
The Delivery Man
From the song of the same name.
The River In Reverse
From the song of the same name, inspired by the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.
Momofuku
Momofuku means "Lucky Peach" and is the name of a chain of noodle bars in New York City.
Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Refers to the song "Sulphur to Sugarcane" and the musicians who recorded it who were known collectively as "The Sugarcanes". The album also contains tracks which were written for Elvis' unfinished chamber opera "The Secret Songs"
National Ransom
From the song of the same name.
Original working titles of albums
This Year's Model - 'Girls Girls Girls', 'Little Hitler', 'The King of Belgium'.
Armed Forces - 'Emotional Fascism', 'Platinum Project'
Trust - 'More Songs about Fucking and Fighting', 'Cats and Dogs'
Imperial Bedroom - 'PS I Love You, 'A Revolution of the Mind', 'Music To Stop Clocks'
Blood & Chocolate - 'The Christian Ghost of Lenny Bruce'
Spike - 'More Important Work', 'Pantomime Evil'
Brutal Youth - 'Idiophone'
All This Useless Beauty - 'A Case for Song'
Secret, Profane and Sugarcane - 'Henry and Howard's Last Entry Into Brussels'
