07.18.2024
Elvis Costello & Daryl Hall At Radio City
Ultimate Classic Rock: Allison Rapp: July 17th 2024 – Photos By JC Olivera & Adam Bettcher
Elvis Costello and Daryl Hall’s joint tour came to New York City on Tuesday night, specifically to the showplace of the nation, Radio City Music Hall.
For those scratching their heads after hearing those two names together — this writer included when she initially heard it several months ago — there is a history. Four decades ago, Hall contributed harmony vocals to one of Costello’s albums, 1984’s Goodbye Cruel World, on a song called “The Only Flame in Town.” (Hall also appeared in the accompanying music video. From Costello’s album liner notes: “Naturally, my romantic rival was Daryl, but my only real humiliation was in having a Columbia promotion woman hector the makeup girl: ‘Make him look handsome,’ while a very hungover Daryl sat in the next chair looking like a movie star. His hair was perfect.”)
And it isn’t as though the two come from entirely different worlds, even if from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. While Hall and his one-time musical partner John Oates crafted what might be described as new wave soul, Costello was just a couple years away from taking similar elements and mixing them with a pub rock feel and a Dylan-like lyrical sensibility. Of course, none of these terms are absolute and mostly exist to help categorize artists on a commercial level, but if there is one thing Hall and Costello have in common, it’s that they created the kind of “pop” music that moved the musical needle forward.