Elvis is King!

Thank you, thank you vury much..........

No not that Elivis.

I speak of one Elvis Costello. Say it with me "Elvis is King" "Elvis is King" "Elvis is King"!

The greatest new wave artist of all time. The man that tamed punk and made it palatable to the masses and of his first and greatest album "My Aim Is True".

I was in London in 1979 hanging around The Picadilly Circus like any cool 18 year old looking to score some weed would be doing. And lo and behold, there is Buddy Holly look-alike playing an electric guitar with a single amp for all it's worth. Singing songs of social revolution and abstract ideals.

And I was hooked. Hard!

I went to the nearest record store and bought this album. I still have it on original Stiff Records Vinyl. I held that thing in my lap all the way back over the ocean which occurred on the same day that Sky Lab fell back to Earth (but that's another story!).

Oh how I still love this album. I listen over and over and over and never tire of it. It's like it is somehow burned into my consciousness where it will reside forever.

Elvis Costello is actually DeClan MacManus but he created this persona in 1976 to get some attention. He submitted demo tapes to Stiff Records in '76 but they just wanted him for his songwriting. So he took to turning up at meetings with his guitar and just blasting away. He would do it on the street and in doorways. He was relentless.

Finally, Stiff put Nick Lowe on to produce the songs with Clover as the band in the studio. Now I know none of us ever heard of Clover but there was one Huey Lewis as the singer of the band. So that's at least a cool footnote, ain't it?

He had to call in sick to his job as a data entry clerk to record the album which happened in just 6 four hour sessions and cost him about 1000 pounds!

Finally he found some success and a following, and the rest is history.

It's just that I feel like I was in on it - and that, for me, is very cool.

VH1 rated this album the 80th best ever in their "countdown" and those numbers are always arbitrary - but I guess it's good to be in the top 100.

So if you haven't heard this one in a while - or if you're retarded and have never heard it, do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

Tracks:

Side One

1. welcome to the working week

2. miracle man

3. no dancing

4. blame it on cain

5. alison

6. sneaky feeling

Side Two

1. (the angels wanna wear my) red shoes

2. less than zero

3. mystery dance

4. pay it back

5. i'm not angry

6. waiting for the end of the world