Another album with a confusing release
history,
The Delivery Man was
originally issued in September 2004 as a 13-track CD in the US, a
14-track CD in the UK ("She's Pulling Out The Pin" appeared between
"Heart Shaped Bruise" and "Needle Time"), and a 15-track CD in Japan
(in
addition to "She's Pulling Out The Pin" appearing in the same spot,
"The
Monkey" closed the disc). The vinyl edition included all 15 songs on
two
discs.
"The Monkey" and six additional outtakes and alternates from the album
sessions were released in January 2005 as a 10" vinyl EP entitled
The Clarksdale Sessions. A CD
version followed in March, but rather than being a standalone release,
it was the second disc in a two-disc "deluxe edition" of
The Delivery Man. The first disc
matched the 14-track lineup described above.
DELUXE
EDITION EXTRAS
SHE'S PULLING OUT THE PIN
[The Delivery Man UK & Japanese
CD
bonus track; also on The Delivery Man vinyl edition]
Elvis told
The Independent that "She's
Pulling Out The Pin" was left off the US edition of
The Delivery Man because "it slows
the flow." Does that mean it didn't slow the flow on the UK and
Japanese
versions of the album, or was he slowing the flow on those albums
deliberately? In any event, it was available as a standalone download
on
iTunes US at the time of the album's initial issue and received a
physical US release on the deluxe edition.
THE MONKEY
[The Delivery Man Japanese bonus
track; also on The Delivery Man
vinyl edition, "Monkey To Man" CD single and The Clarksdale Sessions]
Co-producer Dennis Herring plays guitar on this cover of Dave
Bartolomew's song, to which "Monkey To Man" is the unauthorized sequel.
Although they are all the same basic performance, the version on
The Clarksdale Sessions and
The Delivery Man: Deluxe Edition
ends
with a crossfade into the next track, while the Japanese CD, vinyl
edition, and "Monkey To Man" CD single have a "clean" fadeout.
COUNTRY DARKNESS (The Clarksdale
Sessions Version)
[also
on The
Clarksdale Sessions]
NEEDLE TIME (The Clarksdale Sessions Version)
[also
on The
Clarksdale Sessions]
THE SCARLET TIDE (The Clarksdale Sessions Version)
[also
on The
Clarksdale Sessions]
IN ANOTHER ROOM
[also
on The
Clarksdale Sessions]
THE DELIVERY MAN (The Clarksdale Sessions Version)
[also
on The
Clarksdale Sessions]
DARK END OF THE STREET
Although the bulk of
The Delivery Man
was recorded at Sweet Tea in Oxford, Mississippi, the backing
track
for "Monkey To Man" was recorded during an April 15, 2004 visit to
Delta
Recording in nearby Clarksdale, as were "The Monkey" and the six tracks
listed above. Most notable is the otherwise unreleased original "In
Another Room" (which ends with an uncredited snippet of Professor
Longhair's "Tipitina," an odd bit of foreshadowing of Elvis' next major
project, the New Orleans-inspired
The
River In Reverse). A 1992 recording of Dan Penn and Chips
Moman's
"Dark End Of The Street" appears on Rhino's
Kojak Variety. The rest are
alternate versions of
The Delivery Man
songs, with "Needle Time" and "The Scarlet Tide" offering very
different
arrangements, while "Country Darkness" and "The Delivery Man" are
closer
to the album versions.
ADDITIONAL EXTRAS 2004
THE DELIVERY MAN (Live for iTunes)
[The Futurama Sessions iTunes
download]
THE MONKEY (Live for iTunes)
[The Futurama Sessions iTunes
download]
NEEDLE TIME (Live for iTunes)
[The Futurama Sessions iTunes
download]
MONKEY TO MAN (Live for iTunes)
[The Futurama Sessions iTunes
download]
BUTTON MY LIP (Live for iTunes)
[The Futurama Sessions iTunes
download]
At New York's Avatar Studios on September 23, 2004, Elvis and the
Imposters recorded "live in the studio" versions of five songs
exclusively for iTunes. The title refers to Elvis' Futurama brand
guitar, which features prominently on all tracks.
LOVE THAT BURNS (Live, Memphis,
Apr. 17, 2004)
["Monkey
To Man" CD single]
This live cover of a song by the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac was
recorded at Memphis' Hi-Tone Café, where the
Club Date: Live In Memphis DVD would
be recorded five months later. The "Monkey To Man" CD single seems to
have been the victim of very spotty distribution, and it is unlikely to
be found for a reasonable price. (The four-track single's complete
tracklist is: "Monkey To Man," "The Monkey," "Love That Burns," and the
"Monkey To Man" video in QuickTime format. Be warned that there is also
a two-track single which includes only "Monkey To Man" and "The Monkey."
MY FLAME BURNS BLUE (BLOOD COUNT)
(Soundtrack Version)
[Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
soundtrack album by various artists]
With Elvis' vocal backed by only Joe Lovano's tenor sax and Bill
Charlap's piano, this is obviously quite different from the live
version with a 52-piece orchestra on the album
My Flame Burns Blue. It was recorded
in 2004 at Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey, but not released
until 2007.
BEDLAM (Frankincense/Nashville
Mix)
[iTunes
download]
In May 2007, more than two years after the release of
The Delivery Man, this puzzling
track appeared on iTunes as a standalone download. A month later it was
included in the
iTunes Originals
download-only compilation (discussed on the
Momofuku page), where it was
given a different parenthetical
title, "Nashville Alternate Version.
" It is the same basic
performance that appears on
The
Delivery Man in a subtly different mix. (For instance: The album
mix has a shout of "Bedlam!" at 1:59 that does not appear in the
Nashville mix. From 2:04 to 2:24, the album mix has some strident piano
playing prominent in the mix accompanying the lyrics about the player
piano. This is buried in the Nashville mix. Starting at 4:04, the album
mix has percussion on the left channel that is either buried or missing
on the Nashville mix.) Why such a subtle variation would be released,
especially so long after the release of
The Delivery Man, remains a mystery.
UNRELEASED
& UNRECORDED
LOVE THAT BURNS (Studio Version)
An account of the Clarksdale session on studio owner
Jimbo
Mathus' former website (and preserved on the
Internet
Archive) mentions the recording of "an old Peter Green song" with
Mathus joining in on guitar. This song is almost certainly "Love That
Burns."
BUTTON MY LIP (Unedited)
Elvis told
Entertainment
Weekly's Chris Willman that the released take of "Button My Lip"
originally ran a little over nine minutes, but it was edited down to a
little under five for the album.
SUSPECT MY TEARS
BURNT SUGAR IS SO BITTER
Two songs first heard during Costello & Nieve's 1999
Lonely World
Tour were revived at the
concerts that immediately preceded the recording sessions for
The Delivery Man, but it is unclear
whether they were actually attempted in the studio at the time. Both
would eventually appear on
Look Now
in 2018.
I'LL WATCH OUT FOR YOU
Elvis premiered this ballad at one of the Memphis concerts
(the April 17, 2004 early show) coinciding with the recording of
The Delivery Man. Not only did it
not appear on the album, it has never been heard from again!
COMIN' HOME BABY with Nancy Sinatra
A duet with Nancy Sinatra on this Bob Dorough/Ben Tucker song
(recorded by Mel Tormé, among others) was planned for her 2004
self-titled album, but it failed to make the final cut because,
according
to Sinatra, "there wasn't enough time to wait for Elvis Costello to
do his vocal." Although she speculated that it could appear on iTunes
or
a followup album, it has yet to materialize and may still be awaiting
Elvis' vocal.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Elvis first mentioned
The Delivery Man
in his 1999 concerts as the title of a song cycle he was writing. He
played two of its songs ("I Dreamed Of My Old Lover" and "Heart Shaped
Bruise") and at one point (October 27 in Nashville) even recited part
of
the unfinished story, including some lyrics which later turned up in
"The Delivery Man" and "Episode Of Blonde." Elvis was always unclear
about whether he planned to turn this story into a concept album or a
stage production or something else entirely. The eventual album
The Delivery Man downplayed the
original concept by alternating between the story's songs ("Button My
Lip," "Country Darkness," "There's A Story In Your Voice," "The
Delivery
Man," ""Nothing Clings Like Ivy," "The Name Of This Thing Is Not Love,"
"Heart Shaped Bruise") and unrelated material. Additionally, the
story's
songs were presented out of sequence, and at least one key song ("I
Dreamed Of My Old Lover") was left unreleased for the time being.
(There
is no evidence that it was even attempted during this period. It was
finally released on
Secret, Profane
& Sugarcane in 2009.) The original story actually developed
from a character in "Hidden Shame" (released in demo form on Rhino's
All This Useless
Beauty and re-recorded for
Secret,
Profane & Sugarcane), but it is unclear whether the song was
ever intended as part of the song cycle. It is possible that additional
songs remain unreleased. As a full production of
The Delivery Man seems unlikely at
this distance, perhaps a more plausible vehicle to present the full
story
would be a collection of Elvis' demos for the project.
A Pretenders website
reported
in September 2004 that Elvis and Chrissie Hynde had recorded a version
of Bread's "Everything I Own" for the film
Happy Feet. The eventual film
(released in 2006) did include a Chrissie Hynde cover of "Everything I
Own" on its soundtrack, but it had no apparent Elvis involvement.
