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his first record,
christened by his manager
'Elvis'
which he thought was a joke,
made worse later that year
when Presley died.
He’d never liked
Presley’s music
all that much,
had Buddy Holly’s square
spectacled looks,
and preferred the rockabilly
of Jerry Lee Lewis
and R&B of Little Richard
a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop.
That’s when he grasped
inertia:
once things were rolling
there was no real steering
like the arrow aimed
bow stretched to chin
gut touching lip
held tight with all the muscle
you could muster—
at the instant of release
nature takes over
no telling
where it will strike
how deep
and who gets hurt.
He’d have to learn
to live with it.
[From an interview with Elvis Costello on the 50th anniversary of his debut album My Aim Is True. The title is taken from the song Alison, which describes seeing an old girlfriend and the disappointment he feels about the direction her life has taken. He says that in a larger sense it's about how 'your nature may kill the love you cherish most'.]
2 comments:
I am a big Elvis Costello fan. And "My Aim is True" is a testament to his genius. This is a quirky kind of poem which give some insight into the artist, but it may not have much meaning to people who aren't familiar with Elvis Costello (i.e., anyone under age 50).
Funny, I wouldn't have taken you for an Elvis Costello fan. I think of him as more my generation, new wave. I think he's tremendously underappreciated as a songwriter. The albums Blood and Chocolate and Imperial Bedroom are pop masterpieces in my mind. I was hoping people would get more than just biographical information from the poem. Something about how an artist has to allow natural forces to take them over to accomplish their task which means chance intervening.
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