My conversion from country music hater to a guy who Tivos the CMAs and owns every Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley album has been well documented on this blog. But Elvis Costello hasn’t really benefited from my change of heart.
Sure, I’ve enjoyed his forays into country styles, blended with his own rock sensibility, but that was the case even before I became a fan of country music.
Almost Blue, his one true country and western album, remains a mystery to me, banished from my CD shelf years ago never to return.
I pledge now to remedy that mistake and pick this album up again (it’s no doubt available in used CD stores for pennies). Admit it, all you country music haters. Yesterday’s rendition of ‘Sweet Dreams’ was quite lovely.
But even when I dismissed this album, I did find a soft spot for its one minor hit, a cover of ‘Good Year For the Roses.’ The song was the lone representative of Almost Blue on Costello’s first Greatest Hits album and I fell in love with it there.
This is just good song-writing, through and through, and Costello does a fine job performing the Jerry Chestnut tune made popular by George Jones.
What strikes me as interesting is how easily these lyrics could have been written by Costello himself. Images like the lipstick on the cigarette and the baby’s crying unheard in the other room have found their way into other songs of his, either through inspiration or coincidence.
On the cigarettes there in the ashtray
Lyin’ cold the way you left ’em
But at least your lips caressed them while you packed
Or the lip-print on a half-filled cup of coffee
That you poured and didn’t drink
But at least you thought you wanted it
that’s so much more than I can say for me
What a good year for the roses
Many blooms still linger there
The lawn could stand another mowin’
Funny I don’t even care
As you turn to walk away
As the door behind you closes
The only thing I have to say
It’s been a good year for the roses
After three full years of marriage
It’s the first time that you haven’t made the bed
I guess the reason we’re not talkin’
There’s so little left to say we haven’t said
While a million thoughts go racin’ through my mind
I find I haven’t said a word
From the bedroom the familiar sound
Of one baby’s cryin’ goes unheard
What a good year for the roses
Many blooms still linger there
The lawn could stand another mowin’
Funny I don’t even care
As you turn to walk away
As the door behind you closes
The only thing I have to say
It’s been a good year for the roses
Meet Me In Montauk 
I bet this CD was “banished” from your collection not because it was a collection of country songs but because it was a collection of covers. When one loves a singer songwriter for the songs he has composed and sings, it’s always a bit of a disappointment to hear him cover someone else’s songs, regardless of the genre.
I adore Lyle Lovett, so I do own his album of covers. I think I’ve only listened to it from start to finish maybe 3 times. When I want to hear Lyle Lovett, I’m not going to reach for an album of covers; I’m going to reach for an album of HIS songs.
You own the more recent country infused Costello albums, don’t you? In fact his recent release, which is country + (to use the oft debated phrase this blogger long ago adopted), sits at #2 on your albums for the year.
Is this album the only covers album Costello ever released? If not, do you own the other/s?
As for the song, it’s nice, but it certainly isn’t “Shipbuilding” or “Almost Blue” or any other Costello penned tune I’d rather hear if I want to hear a Costello “ballad.”
That’s a good point. Costello does have another album of covers – Kojak Variety – that I don’t own.
Okay, I’m going to take a step back here and admit that I too like this song and have done so since the time I heard it on the greatest hits album. Now, as Amy suggested, I don’t hold it in nearly as high regard as dozens of other EC songs and, as Clay said, the song is probably better liked because it seems like a song EC could have written. In fact, candidly, I’m not even sure I knew it was a cover until today.
As for the covers discussion above, I agree with Amy that I am generally less interested in hearing my favorite songwriters (or really anybody for that matter) do covers. This is not to say that I don’t appreciate the odd cover now and again, whether it be “Misunderstood” popping onto KOA or “Big Yellow Taxi” from Counting Crows. Still, as I said yesterday, if the covers are going to be of traditional country tunes, that will usually leave me even less interested.