Harp, January 2005: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Elvis Costello stands and delivers </h3></center> | <center><h3> Elvis Costello stands and delivers </h3></center> | ||
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"''The Delivery Man'', on the other hand, I deliberately fractured the structure, I haven't laid it out in a beginning, middle and end, storybook fashion, because for me the enjoyment and power of this work is to roll with it. I wanted to make a mobile repertoire which would allow me to tour; a more vital repertoire, a more workable repertoire to augment the hundreds of songs I've already got. And also to be able to introduce other elements into the story as I went along; to actually leave it open, not only to interpretation, but to expansion and continuation." | "''The Delivery Man'', on the other hand, I deliberately fractured the structure, I haven't laid it out in a beginning, middle and end, storybook fashion, because for me the enjoyment and power of this work is to roll with it. I wanted to make a mobile repertoire which would allow me to tour; a more vital repertoire, a more workable repertoire to augment the hundreds of songs I've already got. And also to be able to introduce other elements into the story as I went along; to actually leave it open, not only to interpretation, but to expansion and continuation." | ||
While the fanciful story of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is well known-love tangles, magic spells and mischievous fairies named Oberon and Titania | While the fanciful story of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is well known-love tangles, magic spells and mischievous fairies named Oberon and Titania — the tale behind ''The Delivery Man'' came from a song Costello wrote for Johnny Cash two decades ago. | ||
"The story is predominantly laid out in the central title song. It's about three women who live in an isolated community, and they are, respectively, Vivian, a divorcee who's somewhat disappointed in life, frustrated, who likes to let everyone think she's having a wild old time; her best friend is Geraldine, who's a rather pious war widow and she lets everybody believe he was an ideal husband, and in the absence of her husband she's bringing up her daughter Ivy. Into their life comes Abel, the delivery man who serves their community and they each project onto him different things they are lacking in their lives. He's an object of lust for Vivian. He's an object of trepidation and some devotion to Geraldine and obviously an object of curiosity to the younger girl Ivy. And the thing that's not stated inside the record, but again that I'm bringing to it, is that Abel is based on a character in a song that I wrote for Johnny Cash called 'Hidden Shame' a number of years ago. That character was in turn based on a true story. It was about a man who spent most of his life in prison, he was recidivist, he had not committed any capital crimes and then 30 years into a life almost totally of incarceration, he confessed to a murder he'd committed as a child. | "The story is predominantly laid out in the central title song. It's about three women who live in an isolated community, and they are, respectively, Vivian, a divorcee who's somewhat disappointed in life, frustrated, who likes to let everyone think she's having a wild old time; her best friend is Geraldine, who's a rather pious war widow and she lets everybody believe he was an ideal husband, and in the absence of her husband she's bringing up her daughter Ivy. Into their life comes Abel, the delivery man who serves their community and they each project onto him different things they are lacking in their lives. He's an object of lust for Vivian. He's an object of trepidation and some devotion to Geraldine and obviously an object of curiosity to the younger girl Ivy. And the thing that's not stated inside the record, but again that I'm bringing to it, is that Abel is based on a character in a song that I wrote for Johnny Cash called 'Hidden Shame' a number of years ago. That character was in turn based on a true story. It was about a man who spent most of his life in prison, he was recidivist, he had not committed any capital crimes and then 30 years into a life almost totally of incarceration, he confessed to a murder he'd committed as a child. | ||
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"People have said that I've made up some kind of musical or something that's like (Neil Young's) Greendale, but no, it's neither of those things. Certainly if you take any of the old Hollywood musicals — can you tell me the story of any of the Fred Astaire musicals? But you can remember all the songs. So you want the songs to affect people on their own merits, not to have special pleading that comes with attachment to this narrative, but there is a certain further interest I think in provoking the imagination of the listener with the idea that they are actually characters speaking and that's underlined by the fact that I have guest singers to heighten the sense of the personality of Geraldine (Emmylou Harris) and Vivian (Lucinda Williams). | "People have said that I've made up some kind of musical or something that's like (Neil Young's) Greendale, but no, it's neither of those things. Certainly if you take any of the old Hollywood musicals — can you tell me the story of any of the Fred Astaire musicals? But you can remember all the songs. So you want the songs to affect people on their own merits, not to have special pleading that comes with attachment to this narrative, but there is a certain further interest I think in provoking the imagination of the listener with the idea that they are actually characters speaking and that's underlined by the fact that I have guest singers to heighten the sense of the personality of Geraldine (Emmylou Harris) and Vivian (Lucinda Williams). | ||
"To say that Lucinda throws herself into the role of Vivian would be | "To say that Lucinda throws herself into the role of Vivian would be something of an understatement, that's a pretty abandoned performance she gives isn't it? I've heard her sing like that live, but never on record. I feel great that she did that in response to the song. I literally wrote the song ("There's a Story in Your Voice") both about a character but I wrote it with Lu in mind. Lu embodies that quality that's described in the first verse, better than anybody I can think. She has that wounded, angry, crazy — she can represent all of those things so brilliantly." | ||
something of an understatement, that's a pretty abandoned performance she gives isn't it? I've heard her sing like that live, but never on record. I feel great that she did that in response to the song. I literally wrote the song ("There's a Story in Your Voice") both about a character but I wrote it with Lu in mind. Lu embodies that quality that's described in the first verse, better than anybody I can think. She has that wounded, angry, crazy — she can represent all of those things so brilliantly." | |||
The most obvious precedent for ''The Delivery Man'' record, although it doesn't have a story, per se, is what many consider his last great rock masterpiece, King of America, which was also recorded in America. The overriding theme of that album was exile. For subjects for those songs, Costello mixed the impressions of his father, Ross, a bandleader who came to America in the 1920s with his own, then relatively fresh impressions, to create songs that musically leaned heavily on traditional American popular song forms. | The most obvious precedent for ''The Delivery Man'' record, although it doesn't have a story, per se, is what many consider his last great rock masterpiece, ''King of America'', which was also recorded in America. The overriding theme of that album was exile. For subjects for those songs, Costello mixed the impressions of his father, Ross, a bandleader who came to America in the 1920s with his own, then relatively fresh impressions, to create songs that musically leaned heavily on traditional American popular song forms. | ||
"There was a country ballad and what I call a Ray Charles blues or a Willie Nelson blues; and 'Poison Rose,' a blues with a sophisticated harmony. I think this record does something similar in that the tale I'm telling invites a relationship with a number of American vernacular forms. I've always drawn strength from them." | "There was a country ballad and what I call a Ray Charles blues or a Willie Nelson blues; and 'Poison Rose,' a blues with a sophisticated harmony. I think this record does something similar in that the tale I'm telling invites a relationship with a number of American vernacular forms. I've always drawn strength from them." | ||
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'''Harp, January / February 2005 | '''Harp, January / February 2005 | ||
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Roeland Byrd interviews Elvis Costello. | [[Roeland Byrd]] interviews Elvis Costello. | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
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<br><small>Clipping.</small> | <br><small>Clipping.</small> | ||
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<br><small>Clippings.</small> | <br><small>Clippings.</small> | ||
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<small>Photo by [[Danny Clinch]].</small><br> | <small>Photo by [[Danny Clinch]].</small><br> | ||
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<small>Cover.</small><br> | |||
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{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} |
Latest revision as of 09:15, 11 October 2020
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