HOW WAS YOUR FIRST TIME?

King_of_Spain · Post by **King_of_Spain** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 5:50 am

With Costello, of course.

I mean: When or how was the first time you paid attention to this short man with glasses and a big nose and thought: "I think this mate deserves to be heard...".

Mine: I was 12 (1982) and some picture from the cover of Ten Bloody Mary´s -Elvis with the double bass-, which was actually a poster of some european tour, suddenly appeared among the boring pages of my school book of English. I was attracted to the man in the photograph because he was not -definitely- the typical rock star. He seemed something absolutely different.

I went running to the shop and bought what I found: an old copy of My aim is true (the photographs from this album, the twisted feet and the jacket with the jeans and Elvis´nerd face were even more impressive). When the record played Angels wanna wear my red shoes I knew I loved this guy and his music.

And I was lucky, too: the next album I bought was KOA. If It had been Punch the clock (I didn´t even noticed it had been released) maybe I had changed my mind: not because PTC is bad -it isn´t at all-, but it was 1983 and I wasn´t ready still to enjoy the powerful sound of TKO or the surrounding melodies of Everyday I write the book or the subtleness of Shipbuilding. I think I preferred The Clash, by that time. That´s why KOA is "the album of my life" (it is, I´m sure): it opened my mind to a whole world of styles and I discovered a completely different way to make music. I still listen to it very regullarly.

Post by **BlueChair** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 6:24 am

My first time was quick and I was drunk. But I knew the morning after that I was now a man.

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 6:42 am

It was 1977, and 'Watching the Detectives' sounded so good on the radio ('The Big Sleep' has always been a favourite book/film) that I bought 'My Aim is True'.

However, I was disappointed because the LP didn't include that track, and I wasn't impressed with what else I heard (having been brought up on 'Whole Lotta Love' and 'Woman From Tokyo' I was convinced that music could only be macho) - 'What a wimp!' I thought.

However, I saw the light when I realised that 'Mystery Dance' was about me! (can you imagine Robert Plant singing 'I can't do it anymore and I'm not satisfied' ? ). So, I replayed the LP until I realised that here was a talent, a singer with something to say!

I've never doubted it since.

Post by **BlueChair** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 6:51 am

Okay, okay, I'll bite:

I guess I would have been in Grade 12, which really was only 1999 and would have meant I was 18. I remember 1999 cause Elvis & Steve did a show here, but I didn't go, cause I was only just getting into Elvis. D'oh.

Anyway, by this time I was a huge Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Who, Hendrix, etc. fan, and an all-around collector of music. However, the post-1977 era had been widely unexplored. I think I had just been through Springsteen and Petty phases. Anyway, I picked up My Aim Is True (sometimes I like to go with the debut albums as a starting point) and was so completely floored. I proceeded to buy This Year's Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!!, Trust, and Imperial Bedroom at a pretty rapid speed, and went on from there.

It's a real testament to Elvis and his music that I was initially floored by an album I no longer even consider one of my favourites. He's also responsible for a lot of the other albums in my collection that aren't even Elvis Costello albums (i.e. albums I've heard him mention, etc.)

Gilbert · Post by **Gilbert** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 7:47 am

I was intrigued by the appearance of this new singer in the late summer of 1977, despite my then deep affection for The Stranglers. Despite liking the singles, I was put off by a letter in the New Musical Express where someone complained that My Aim Is True was only 27 minutes long.

I eventually picked up Red Shoes and Less Than Zero and was hooked. My first show was a deafening night at Satellite City (a small club in the roof of the now demolished Apollo in Glasgow) in March 1978. I had to leave after 40 minutes to get the last train home and it must have taken three days for my ears to stop ringing, but I've been back for many more shows since then.

I grabbed This year's Model on day of release and then went back for My Aim Is True. But I never did phone Moira for my prize...

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 7:56 am

King_of_Spain wrote:I mean: When or how was the first time you paid attention to this short man with glasses and a big nose and thought: "I think this mate deserves to be heard..."..

Has someone outed me?

Oh right, the first time you *paid attention*. Sorry. That is all.

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:13 am

Gilbert wrote:But I never did phone Moira for my prize...

I did - spoke to a chap who sounded well fed up, and received a signed photo and badge shortly after.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 1:49 pm

I'd been aware of WTD on Top of the Pops, and was keen to like everything my brother hated, which was everything new wave or punky. I fell in love with Ever Fallen by the Buzzcocks (who I saw at Barajas airport the other week, King of Spain, arriving for their Spanish tour), and Tube Station by the Jam, and Oliver's Army was next up. And then I heard Dave Edmunds do Girls Talk and thought 'wow, this guy can write good songs!' So I got Armed Forces and TYM and never looked back. I had a mate who was also a big fan, so that spurred us on, and we got to see Costello in 1980 (at the Guernsey gig mentioned in the Trust reissue notes - won't bore you all again with the details, but I was so excited to see him refer to that very gig and its scarred survivors!).

One other thing about my early love: I wrote a song for Elvis. Well, I didn't know chords, so I wrote the melody line on the piano, and words and all. It was a complete rip-off of Oliver's Army, and the chorus was heavily influenced by Bowie (who else?) c. Man Who Sold The World cos it went 'Oh I wish I could be the superman'. I was going to record it and send it to Elvis, but even though I was only 14, I realised this perhaps wasn't the most likely path to fame and glory.

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 1:53 pm

First record of EC's: Brutal Youth, 1994, aged 15. Loved it then hated it. I was much busier listening to His N Hers by Pulp.

"I know you're gonna let him bore your pants off again"

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 1:58 pm

I'm 13 or 14. I'm falling asleep in front of my little black and white TV. I'm especially curious tonight because a. The little old lady who won the "anyone can host Saturday Night Live" contest is hosting and b. The Sex Pistols are supposed to be the musical guest.

You couldn't hear ANY punk on the radio these days and I was curious just what was kicking up such a ruckus.

I fell asleep. I woke up just as the little old lady said "Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis Costello?" Since reggae was pretty new to me, "Watching the Detectives" sounded very strange. I also kept expecting him to rhyme it with "defectives" near the end of the song. He never did and I thought he showed some admirable restraint for a "punk." I fell back asleep -- I'm not sure if I even saw the fabled song-switch that first time around.

The next day, I'm at my regular Dungeons and Dragons-cum-Poker game. The other guys were issuing blanket comdemnations of punk (don't know if they'd actually heard any of it).

I said, "I don't know, this Elvis Costello guy last night seemed kind of interesting." They smirked.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 2:08 pm

Well, he was a complete asshole, and read at a fourth-grade level, but he had a car, and he didn't give me any diseases...sorry, like BlueChair, I just couldn't resist.

Battered dub tape of Blood & Chocolate passed down through both my sisters, B&C on side one (with Flanko Uno and Flanko Duo reversed, which is still the way I think it ought to be), Sign o' the Times on side two. I really pity anyone who doesn't have older sisters. It was not an epiphany. Mini-epiphany with Brutal Youth, yet another with Trust...many minis (tons of EC vinyl clogging local yard sales helped) that just sort of culminated.

bobster wrote:The next day, I'm at my regular Dungeons and Dragons-cum-Poker game.

I don't even know what to say about this. Bobster, why?

SoLikeCandy · Post by **SoLikeCandy** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 2:49 pm

During high school, I worked at the main library in my hometown, which has an amazing music collection. In addition to discovering The The, Madness and Robyn Hitchcock, I also found all the albums by Elvis Costello. Started out with "Mighty Like a Rose", and--which may surprise a few of you--fell in love and borrowed every CD and recorded it to tape. I still have the tapes...

Poppet · Post by **Poppet** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 2:51 pm

i swear bobster, are you sure you aren't me? except, we didn't play poker. we just played D&D. yes, i was the only girl at the table.

i'm a recent convert to the church of EC. R&RHoF appearance started me off - not that i'd never heard of him before, i just hadn't put together all the pieces that i liked. i too had a dub tape of Blood & Chocolate, made by a college dj buddy. i asked him to make me dubs of all my favs of his collection, and B&C was one of them. so was Peter Gabriel's So, and Graceland by Paul Simon. some things have aged better than others.

so, R&RHoF, then Letterman, finally it dawned on me, EC was worth listening to. and, here i am.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 3:11 pm

My dad used to have the Spike LP at the front of his record cabinet, that was when I was about err...6ish I guess. I first started listening when I woz 17, heard the best of albumThe Man playing in the car. First Ec album..Spike.

Cyclical eh?

John · Post by **John** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 5:08 pm

Was a 15 year old with a £5 record voucher from Christmas 1979 burning a whole in my pocket.
Knew Oliver's Army and catchy new single out (I Can't Stand Up). Took a chance and invested in Get Happy. I didn't think that 23 years later I would still be buying his records.
ps Get Happy will always start for me with I Can't Stand Up and finish with High Fidelity as per the album cover and not the labels.

pip_52 · Post by **pip_52** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 5:54 pm

Someone I didnt really know sent me an email for a reason I cant remember and their signature was

there are ashtrays of emotion for the fag ends of the aristocracy

I was intrigued. I went out and bought the only EC album that was readily available . . . Spike. Before the end of the first song I was completely in love.

Several months and several albums later I finally got Punch the Clock and found out where that line came from. I remember wondering how I had managed to live for 19 years without ever hearing him. God bless that mystery person and whatever the hell they emailed me for.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 7:38 pm

John wrote:ps Get Happy will always start for me with I Can't Stand Up and finish with High Fidelity as per the album cover and not the labels.

Yeah, me too, let's start a 'Correct Sides of Get Happy!!' movement.

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 10:57 pm

It was in a small bedroom where I had just removed my Shaun Cassidy poster from the back of my door, realizing that I had moved on to men instead.....I heard him on the radio, loved him, but somehow managed to keep him at bay.....high school, I'm watching Saturday Night Live and he stopped and broke into Radio Radio....I thought, oh, how dreamy, what a rebel, I had never seen anyone just stop a song and then do another they wanted to do.

Had always managed to stay relatively sane in the purchasing department until I saw him in April this year......the plastic is melting....

Brains always do it for me, and the more I listen the more I'm hooked....

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:11 am

It was in 1993. I didn't know much about him at the time but would frequently see his albums on my usual used record shop haunts. I had the indelible image of the gangly legged EC circa TYM thanks to a couple of music videos but not much more. One day i chanced upon "The Man - the best of EC", and took it home in anticipation. Halfway through about the second or third listen I realized I had to get everything by him that I could get my hands on, a pattern I had followed fruitfully with previous singer/songwriter phases (Dylan, Springsteen, Waits) -- it was time for a new fix. The next day I trawled through the same shop for more and walked out with 6 EC LPs for about $20.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:34 am

I remember EC from college (Everyday & Veronica years) and while my then boyfriend (after a few stray years one bad marriage he is now my husband) loved his music, I did not so much. My husband used to have those big thick glasses until he got LASIK a few years ago, so I guess I always liked the glasses.

After years of my hubby pleading for EC music to have it's turn in the cd player, my musical epiphany came just this past March while in Home Depot (a home improvement type warehouse for those in Europe who might not know). It was about 7:30 am, Alison was playing over the loudspeaker, and I think I was the only customer in the store. I just started singing it out loud, right there in the middle of the aisle. I even called my husband and held up the cell phone and said, "Do you hear this? I just had to call and tell you that they're playing Elvis in Home Depot!"

Later when I returned home, I dragged out every EC cd I could get my hands on. Years of my husband's faithful album purchases were just waiting for me right there by the stereo. Hubby didn't know what hit me, but after years of wanting me to love the music as much as he did, he didn't really care.

I haven't been the same since.

girl out of time · Post by **girl out of time** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 2:42 pm

it was back in 1992......i was aware of his existence and have listened to a couple of his classics but the first time i really payed attention to his voice (and got hooked) was when i first listened to deep dark truthful mirror on the radio...while i was making dinner......

Gillibeanz · Post by **Gillibeanz** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 3:44 pm

Well this story has been told a couple of times on boards in a previous life but.....

I was a newly wed aged 20. We had a basement flat in London in an old victorian house divided into 3 flats. The couple that lived above us had a long haired hippy type guy by the name of Cass who liked to play his music (the passion of his life) very loudly. One day strains of 'Red Shoes' came wafting down the stairs. Both my husband and I thought it sounded so good we went upstairs to enquire who and what it was. He gave us the album to play and the next day we went straight out and bought a copy. So began a passionate 26 year love affair with Elvis's sheer genius!

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 3:58 pm

Bobster wrote:The next day, I'm at my regular Dungeons and Dragons-cum-Poker game.

Miss Buenos Aires wrote:I don't even know what to say about this. Bobster, why?

Well, why does a geek climb a mountain? Obviously because he's being chased by an angry gelatinous cube and he's almost out of hit points!

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 4:08 pm

[quote="Poppet"]i swear bobster, are you sure you aren't me? except, we didn't play poker. we just played D&D. yes, i was the only girl at the table. [quote]

<Sigh> Ah, the elusive geek girl...just not enough (any?) of them at Webster Junior High, I suppose. (Actually there was at least one, but she had this irrational hatred of me that, persisted as late as college for no apparent reason other than that she willed it. Poppet, think of her as Willow and Cordelia personality-wise, only without the nice.)

sulkygirl · Post by **sulkygirl** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 5:05 pm

Ah, the wonder years.

Actually heard "Allison" on the radio, became intrigued, went in search of album (age 18/1980), feel in love, and the rest is history!!

Of course, I was an avid reader of CREEM magazine at the time, and they oft-mentioned the wee-speccy bloke, so I had some previous insight into his musical genius...

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