Happy Anniversay- My Aim Is True

[Jack of All Parades]

Hard to believe 32 years to the date that "My Aim Is True" was introduced in the United States. Still remember purchasing it at Caldors for the grand sum of $4.99 on sale that day-the first of many to come after that. May there be many more such purchases of future EC albums. Happy Anniversary!! Wish I could spell.

[Ypsilanti]

Caldors! Wow. I haven't heard that name in a long time!

[Jack of All Parades]

Yes- a grand old store in which I used to purchase many albums back when they were vinyl-now sadly am left in this area with just Best Buy or Target-and there is no guarantee that you will find what you are looking for either-not even certain that if it was today they would even carry EC-not commercial enough for them and I would probalby be the only person in the record section.

[Ypsilanti]

Since I'm a "day late and a dollar short" for everything (ought to be my motto--probably should even have a tattoo with those words on it) I didn't buy mine until 1982, when I was 18. It was a big day for me--I also bought my first Tom Waits record (Small Change) at the same time. Do I remember correctly...on the sleeve of MAIT there was a note from Nick Lowe that said something about how there were a million songs crammed on the album, but not to worry--he had employed a special recording technique that would ensure good sound fidelity in spite of the number of songs--and it was signed "Your Pal, Nick", or something like that?

I remember playing it for the first time and how those songs just exploded into the air--the energy! The audacity! It was stunning, even a little scary! And it was so amazing and improbable that there could be such a thing as intellectualized Rock & Roll that wasn't a bunch of congested, turgid, Prog Rock bullshit. Elvis got right to the point and really "cut the crap". And I remember the immediate seductiveness of Elvis' voice...it went straight into the deepest part of my brain (or "heart" or "soul" or whatever) and has never left, like it's bonded right on to my DNA.

[migdd]

Do I remember correctly...on the sleeve of MAIT there was a note from Nick Lowe that said something about how there were a million songs crammed on the album, but not to worry--he had employed a special recording technique that would ensure good sound fidelity in spite of the number of songs--and it was signed "Your Pal, Nick", or something like that?

Actually, it was the original release of Get Happy that featured the note from Nick.

[Dr. Luther]

Actually, it was the original release of Get Happy that featured the note from Nick.

Yeah.
And the US pressing of that on Columbia records was one of the worst sounding pieces of vinyl that I have ever encountered.
I immediately forked out for a Japanese pressing of Get Happy.

[Jack of All Parades]

Yes "Get Happy" was the album-"My Aim Is True" had to grow on me- but I remember being impressed by his ability to jump from genre to genre, to rock, and his distaste for English Facisim-I am not so quick to disparage so called "prog rock"-although I remember being musically discouraged at that time by bloated Rod Stewart albums and Fleetwood Mac-in truth at that time I was more interested in Talking Heads, Television's "Marquee Moon", Lou Reed, Neil Young, The Clash and anything by Roxy Music- I came late to Tom Waits only after he made reference to my father-in-law in "Pasties & G Strings" on the album "Small Change"-I remember it was a hot summer- Son of Sam, the Yankees were in turmoil, the blackout- the city was falling apart, I was schleppng beer and soda around the city driving a truck-trying to get ready for my fall semester at Columbia and finding Elvis a balm-I liked the directness of the songs- the simple beauty of "Allison"-the production was unobtrusive not overwhelming the music-I must have driven my brother nuts in our apartment playing the album over and over. It has stayed as one of my favorite albums and still gives me a sence of peace and calm when the world is pressing in on me.

[Ypsilanti]

Actually, it was the original release of Get Happy that featured the note from Nick.

Wow! That's hilarious. I have absolutely no memory of ever owning Get Happy on vinyl, but apparently I did. So that means I have bought that record 4 different times in my life. I guess that's my contribution to the Twin's college fund. I also recently discovered, while cleaning out a spare room, a cassette of Punch the Clock, an album which I thought I had never heard at all. No idea where it came from, but it looked well loved. I played it, but it was so old and screwed up that it was kind of pointless. Most of the songs were unfamiliar-sounding though. Ahh, the middle-aged brain...

I was aware of Elvis in 77 & 78, but I was a kid in suburban Cleveland--and WAY too nerdy for anything as cool as Elvis. And Cleveland was a very serious & rigid place for Rock & Roll--no Disco, no Country and CERTAINLY no skinny guys from the UK with their fancy, modern ideas allowed! Every girl in High School was trying to be Stevie Nicks. We all listened to the standard fare--The Who, J. Geils, Todd Rundgren, Fleetwood Mac, Springsteen, Yes, Lynard Skynard, Joe Walsh, etc. And, above all else, there was the weird phenomenon of The Michael Stanley Band (Google it!).

When TYM came out, the dime store in the local mall had a huge display in their window--with a big life-sized cardboard cut-out of Elvis and a bunch of posters and stuff. I remember staring at that display--Elvis, with those piercing eyes, all contorted behind that Hasselblad--and thinking, I don't know who the fuck this guy is, but he's scaring the shit out of me! The idea that there could be a Rock & Roll guy with short hair and a suit and glasses was subversive beyond belief! He was terrifying! No long hair? No fringed leather vest? It was like looking at the Antichrist! I had such a sense that he was going to kill Rock & Roll as I knew it, and to some extent I guess he did. It seems now like Jake Riviera pulled off an easy trick--put some glasses and a jacket on him, dress him like the opposite of Rock & Roll--well, I guess that was targeted at people just like me, because it made a powerful impression. A side note: That year at the High School Prom, a kid showed up dressed all Elvis style--vintage tux jacket, skinny tie & a date in a vintage dress...they were denied admission to the prom. That skinny tie was way too radical for Mentor High School!

Anyway, that's why it took me a few years to come around to MAIT--I was chicken! I guess I thought my ears were going to fall off or something. LOL!

[Jack of All Parades]

I think his pose reads "Rock & Roll"-the iconic mimicing of Buddy Holly complete with black horn rimed glasses-go one further and you have Holly's progeny in Hamburg complete with rolled jeans-the music even mirrors the simple elegance of Holly's-sadly I was walking around that time with comparable horn rims-not a pretty picture.

[Ypsilanti]

Yes--the cover of MAIT is very Buddy Holly-ish, and who's cooler than that? But it was an ironic version of Buddy Holly--an homage, but with a touch of "fuck-you" thrown in for good measure. I just meant that the way Elvis looked was the polar opposite of the Rock stars of the late '70's--with all the bloated iconography--the hair, the tight pants, the light shows, the 20 minute guitar solos, the bravado--it was really shocking to my Midwestern teenage brain. And the cover of This Year's Model was way beyond anything in my realm of understanding at the time. Elvis looked so shockingly different, he almost seemed evil.