Elvis Costello and John Lennon...what if?

[docinwestchester]

I was listening to Elvis's iTunes Originals show today. EC talks about Kid About It being written in part as a reaction to hearing the news about John's death. He mentions that they never met.

We know that Paul and EC had a pretty fruitful collaboration, one we hope may be rekindled again someday. Doesn't it seem logical that John and Elvis would have hooked up musically as well? They had a lot in common, including their Liverpool roots and musical influences. John collaborated with Bowie and Elton, among others. I'm sure Yoko would have approved.

What a creative combo that would have been. Damn shame...

[Jack of All Parades]

I have over the years been unable to workup any convincing self-arguments that such a collaboration would have occurred. Just cannot make myself hear it. It probably most boils down to that old and tired conceit that Lennon was the facile one with words and that McCartney had a direct tap-in to the melody gods. Too facile an argument I know but here it makes sense for me. Too much ego on the part of both wordsmiths to coexist comfortably I think and really no need to assist one another in that way. The success of the other collaboration really does stem from the opposite way in that each artist's individual strengths compliments the other artist's weakness. This too is a facile overstatement but it gets at the heart of why I have never been able to convince myself that such a collaboration would have been attempted.

[Jeremy Dylan]

I'm sure they would've at least sung together at some point. I read an article where Lennon quoted EC's lyrics a few months ago. Can't remember where.

[History History]

Lennon says something like: 'As Elvis Costello says, what's so funny about Peace, Love and Understanding' in one of his last interviews.

[ramalama]

In an odd coincidence, I was just singing to myself this morning "Was it a millionaire who said imagine no possessions?"

[verbal gymnastics]

Given that Elvis and Sting made up after the "Look out there goes Gordon" line in How to be Dumb, it could still have been a possibility even if Elvis had written the "Was it a millionaire..." line.