Tuesday, September 9, 2008

(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes - Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True - 1977

You know it's really easy to think of Elvis Costello as a punk. He certainly had the attitude and came out of the same scene...but with the passing of time, it's easy to see past the attitude and the clever lyrics and see how in line with his contemporaries in the AOR scene. Often I'll listen to My Aim Is True and think "Wow, he sounded so much like Springsteen".

And everytime I hear the intro to this song? I think I'm about to hear a Tom Petty song. I mean sure, they both owe a debt to Roger McGuinn...but it's taken the passing of time to realize that they were cut from the same cloth. Yet try telling that to my fifty year old "rock and roll" uncle who loves Petty and dispises Costello as a wussy british dork in nerd glasses.

Great story about this...my uncle went to go see John Cougar Mellencamp in Indianapolis in the late 70's...he walked out of the concert because he couldn't stand the opening act...who was...Elvis Costello. This of course raises the bigger point, what the fuck was Elvis Costello doing opening up for Mellencamp (Back when he was Johnny Cougar) in Indianapolis?

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