Talk:My Aim Is True

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Good articleMy Aim Is True has been listed as one of the Music good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
April 2, 2022Good article nomineeListed
Did You Know
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on April 29, 2022.
The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Elvis Costello's debut album My Aim Is True was recorded over six four-hour sessions, totaling approximately twenty-four hours?

Date of the US release[edit]

I believe the article's current date of the US release (March 1978) is incorrect. There is a full-page ad by Columbia Records for the album and a review of the album by Greil Marcus in the December 1, 1977 issue of Rolling Stone. In the review, Marcus mentions that the album is already getting play on American FM stations. It's not likely that Columbia would buy a full-page ad in Rolling Stone for an album that would be released three months later, or that RS would print a review of an album unavailable in the US. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mhhutchins (talkcontribs) 14:19, 6 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

TOTP versions - could this be from the re-recorded MAIT?[edit]

So there's a version of The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes from Top of the Pops has surfaced on YouTube,[1] although to my eyes they appear to be miming to a backing track (possibly with live vocals?), it's clearly a different version of the song from the album version. There's also a version of Watching the Detectives from the same show[2] where it's the same story - miming to a new backing track.

Considering the claim that Elvis re-recorded the album with the Attractions in July 1977, I'm wondering if it's possible that the Top of the Pops audio comes from these elusive re-recording sessions. ElvisCostello.info[3] places the date of the TOTP taping at August 31, so it's not as if the dates don't line up.

Of course, they may have rerecorded those two songs specifically for the TOTP performance. I understand there were various Musicians' Union regulations on miming on TV shows at the time, and one was that the people seen "playing" the instruments had to be the same people who played them on the audio recording. Since he was appearing with The Attractions (as opposed to Clover), it's possible that he had to prepare new versions of these two songs with the Attractions for this reason.

Elliosenor (talk) 20:43, 7 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

References

Needs clarification[edit]

"The band resided in a country house in Headley Grange during the period". Headley Grange is the name of the house/building, rather than a place/village name. Were they living in the house itself? If so, I'd rephrase to "The band resided at Headley Grange, a country house, during the period". Or were they living in a house/cottage on the Headley Grange estate? 109.152.244.74 (talk) 12:29, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

My apologies that wording was on me. Reworded it to what you said as I checked the source and it matches that. – zmbro (talk) (cont) 12:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wording[edit]

"The studio was compact, with Costello likening it to a telephone booth." Booth is an Americanism and I'd expect Costello to have said 'box' or 'kiosk'. Is he quoted directly, or are these the quoted authors' words, or the paraphrasing of the Wikipedia (American) editors? 109.152.244.74 (talk) 12:31, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Checked the source and it's taken directly from Costello himself. Sidebar, thanks for bringing these issues up here. Really appreciate it :-) – zmbro (talk) (cont) 12:46, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Great article[edit]

Had a bit of a squizz through copy editing for British English etc. This is a great article on one of my favourite albums - remember rushing out to buy it when it was released on Stiff. Thanks to all involved in producing the article. 109.152.244.74 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 12:58, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Also a pedantic note - the use of single vs double inverted commas is not consistent. 109.152.244.74 (talk) 13:03, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! And in what spots? – zmbro (talk) (cont) 13:22, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]