How did you discover Elvis?

[TX_Fan]

This may have been done before, but "what the hell?"

For me, the year was 2002 and I was living in Nashville, Tennessee. My wife bought EC concert tickets for my birthday. I didn't know much above Elvis's music. I'd heard "Watching the Detectives", "Alison"...and not much else. The concert was at the old Ryman auditorium. It's an excellent venue..seats around 4000. I've seen quite a few shows, but this was easily the best performance I'd ever seen by anyone. He came through with the Brodsky Quartet a year or 2 later...Of course I went. It was wonderful. I proceeded to start buying the Rhino re-releases. I still go through each CD and enjoy them all. This was the set list to that first Nashville concert for me: (oh man..I wish I could go back & see it again)

2002-10-30: Nashville, TN, Ryman Auditorium
Elvis Costello with the Imposters


I Hope You're Happy Now
Tear Off Your Own Head (It's A Doll Revolution)
Party Girl
(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
45
Brilliant Mistake - with Tangled Up In Blue
Good Year For The Roses
I Wanna Be Loved
Spooky Girlfriend
I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
Man Out Of Time
Indoor Fireworks
Still Too Soon To Know - unplugged
Stranger In The House
Girls Talk
Wondering Wondering
Sweet Dreams
Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror/You Really Got A Hold On Me
Encore 1
Uncomplicated
The Judgement
My Mood Swings
Leave My Kitten Alone
Alison/He'll Have To Go/Suspicious Minds
Encore 2
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?
Radio Radio
Pump It Up
I Want You/Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Almost Blue

[Mr. Average]

When I was an undergraduate I applied to work at a local "indie" record store (vinyl and 8-track tapes, some cassettes) in Dayton, OH. The entire retail space was the size of most large living rooms in an upper middle class house in the midwest. Just off the University of Dayton campus. I was 19 or 20, and it allowed me to go to class each day and work evenings from 6PM until 1 in the morning. We were open 365 days a year. I secured the job by listing my three favorite records at that time:
Steely Dan - Katy Lied
Little Feat - Feat's Don't Fail Me Now
Weather Report - Black Market

Elvis released "My AIm is True" and I inventoried it and put it on a rack under "Never Mind the Bullocks" by the Sex Pistols. Never listened, and when people asked I told them it was a likely novelty (based on the cover and the audacious notes surrounding the record label "Elvis is King"), and probably not worth the effort. Then one night after about a week or two Roger Hawkins, a co-worker (hell there were only 7 of us that worked the store) opened one and slapped it on the turnrable and the rest, as they say, is history. Pruchased everything in chronological order until MLAR which really bummed me out when it came out. Took a rest. Then picked back up with the severe disappointment being the Brodsky release.

[always dancing]

I also discovered Elvis while working in a record store in college. A local band called The Sharks (who actually won one of the first MTV band contests) also played covers of Elvis. I first saw Elvis at the Heatwave Festival in Toronto in 1980. Great time. Was anyone there? I still remember Elvis had a purple and black checkered blazer on.

[StrictTime]

December, my junior year of high school. My parents had played Armed Forces when I was younger, and I decided to listen to it one night on a whim. I was hooked, and started listening to My Aim, which they had as well. Around February I picked up This Year's Model and quickly became a total Costello-head. I picked up Get Happy!! and Trust, and then went willy nilly picking up everything I could. Now I'm a freshman in college and I own every studio album and a few other things. My vinyl copies of Trust and Imperial Bedroom are on the wall behind me as I write. So basically, on a whim, and I'm sure glad I picked up AF that night.

[always dancing]

Strict time just made me feel old

[johnfoyle]

A reference to Buddy Holly in a 1978 Dublin newspaper.


Evening Herald , March 11 '78

The fact that he , like me, wore glasses sealed the deal.

[charliestumpy]

In 1977-8 a Chelsea chum Jimmy said 'hear this' and loaned me 1st 2 Costello vinyl albums to play (record to cassette...).

I then started buying/hearing/occasionally seeing/reading/usually appreciating...

[BlueChair]

Twenty-odd years after charliestumpy's discovery comes mine.

As my musical horizons expanded, the name Elvis Costello came up time and time again, but it wasn't until I was 18 that I took a chance on My Aim Is True through one of those music clubs (Columbia House, probably) before getting hooked and continuing with This Year's Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!!, Trust and Imperial Bedroom in very quick succession. Of course, I had heard "Pump It Up" countless times, but hearing those early albums in their entirety did me completely in.

Elvis actually hit town with Steve Nieve shortly after I first got into him, but it wasn't until the When I Was Cruel tour a few years later that I felt familiar enough with his music to splurge for concert tickets. The other artist I passed up seeing in 1999 because I was only just starting to get into him was Tom Waits, and he hasn't been back since.

[StrictTime]

Strict time just made me feel old

Sorry dude. You all make me feel like a youngin again... Kidding, kidding!

[always dancing]

I am a dudette.