Tag Archives: The Delivery Man

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Song of the Day #975: ‘The Scarlet Tide’ – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello missed a shot at an Oscar nomination for his song ‘God Give Me Strength,’ co-written with Burt Bacharach for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart. That song is a thing of beauty, far superior to the schlock that wound up nominated (though I am a fan of ‘That Thing You Do,’ the Adam Schlesinger-penned title track from that Tom Hanks film).

But the Academy made up for their oversight eight years later by nominating today’s track, ‘The Scarlet Tide,’ which Costello wrote for the film Cold Mountain. He didn’t win (the award went to some forgettable tune from Return of the King, piling on to that film’s sweep) but he did get the chance to perform, with Alison Krauss, in front of one of his largest audiences ever.

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Song of the Day #974: ‘Country Darkness’ – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello followed up the disappointing North just a year later, with 2004’s The Delivery Man. And where North felt stilted and mannered, the new album was bursting with energy.

Another of Costello’s half-baked concept albums, The Delivery Man purports to be the story of the title character and his relationships with three different women. Those women are played on the album by Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris, each of whom duets on at least one track. The narrative is really quite flimsy, though, as if Costello abandoned the idea midway through recording.

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Song of the Day #273: ‘The Delivery Man’ – Elvis Costello

deliveryA year after When I Was Cruel, Costello released the only original album of his that I’ve chosen not to own — a collection of MOR ballads called North. I think I listened to the album twice before coming to terms with the fact that I’d never listen to it again. Even worse than the uninspired Goodbye Cruel World, it’s the only time in Costello’s career that he didn’t even make it out of the gate.

But a year after that debacle came another excellent album, The Delivery Man. Costello has always been a fan of concept albums and this one was conceived as a passion play starring three characters — Abel, Vivian and Geraldine. I think the story got lost somewhere along the line, or maybe these are just the songs that fill in the spaces between the dialogue we don’t get to hear… at any rate, the album doesn’t work as a play, but it definitely works as an album.

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Song of the Day #48: ‘There’s a Story in Your Voice’ – Elvis Costello and Lucinda Williams

Elvis Costello has done a lot of duets in his time. He’s been around so long now, and worked in so many different genres, that there’s really not a thing he hasn’t done in the music business.

His stellar album The Delivery Man, a concept album about a love triangle in the deep south, contains three duets: two with Emmylou Harris (who must appear as a backup/second singer on far more songs than she sings on her own) and this one with Lucinda Williams.

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