We're back to Any Old Day Emaycee Feels Like Jukebox....
This week's featured tune is the one that made me an Elvis Costello fan--the first song to stand out for me on his heralded and incredible debut album. How the song never became a massive chart hit will always be one of music's great mysteries...well, at least to me....
I wrote about Elvis Costello in Jukebox, Vol. CXXXIV, and as it was a quite nice write up (if I do say so myself) of a very successful, sweeping, and varied musical career, I'll just leave it there and move on to the next paragraph....
[Say...how many paragraphs can we end with an ellipsis?]
"Alison" was the first single from Costello's seminal debut album, the rather honestly named My Aim Is
True. While the single did not chart in the U.S, the U.K., or Canada upon its release, from the Better Late Than Never Files it was ranked #318 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The album would fare much better, reaching #14 in the U.K., #24 in Canada, and #32 in America.
True. While the single did not chart in the U.S, the U.K., or Canada upon its release, from the Better Late Than Never Files it was ranked #318 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The album would fare much better, reaching #14 in the U.K., #24 in Canada, and #32 in America.
Fun Fact: Linda Ronstadt did a cover version of "Alison" (big fan of Ms. Ronstadt but not her rendition of it) that Costello openly derided. He did admit in later years, though, that he certainly didn't mind spending the royalty checks her version brought him.
Through the course of our lives, there are many of us who, at one time or another, were enamored of someone with a significant other who was less than the perfect mate and thought to ourselves "I'd be better for so-and-so than that loser." Well, Elvis Costello put that thought into song with "Alison." A beautiful ballad, with heartfelt vocals from Costello (especially love the way he uses cadence--staccato-- to make the song even more powerful), a sweet guitar that echoes his plaintive wail, and some cryptic lyrics from Costello, the song ranks with Pearl Jam's "Black," Linda Ronstadt's "Long, Long Time," the Carpenter's "Superstar," and I'm sure one or two more that don't come quickly to mind as one of the all-time great paeans to unrequited love. Does it say something about me that I've written a Jukebox post on each of them? Probably, but we'll save that for my (who the hell would ever care) biography. A wonderful song that I never, ever get tired of--a dream ballad.
Lyric Sheet: "I'm not going to get too sentimental/Like those other sticky valentines/'Cause I don't know if you were loving somebody/I only know it isn't mine..."
Enjoy:
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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