Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello - Flowers in the Dirt (1987)

Paul McCartney released his sixth studio album, Press to Play, on 25 August 1986 through Parlophone Records. His first after the breakup of Wings not to be produced by George Martin, it was co-written and co-produced by Eric Stewart of 10cc fame, and became his second critical and commercial failure in a row, after Give My Regards to Broad Street. This failure hurt Paul pretty bad, and he felt he needed to bounce back both from the middling sales and from the criticism he received, and set about to try to stage a comeback. It was at this point that his manager suggested a new collaborator, Elvis Costello. The pair had met during the concerts for Cambodia in 1979, and shared an engineer and a studio while recording Tug of War and Imperial Bedroom in 1981. Paul had even played with Elvis' keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas in a TV show in early 1987, but had never performed with Elvis himself before. After Elvis agreed to join him, the first thing he did was change a few words of a finished song, "Back on My Feet", and travel to Paul's farm in Scotland to co-write fourteen brand new songs. Elvis had Liverpudlian roots and a verbose, literate style that complemented Paul's melodic sensibilities particularly well, making for an inspired choice of partner. The songwriting sessions go smoothly, as they write together with ease and complement each other much like Lennon and McCartney did, playing mirrored acoustic guitars and bouncing ideas off of each other. The results of these songwriting sessions were great, and so the two made plans to record them together, starting with demo sessions in February and March 1988. But the trouble came when it came to recording together.

Elvis, who had already been burned by trying out a contemporary 80s sound on the awful Goodbye Cruel World, wanted them to go for a stripped-down, bare-bones sound for the album. Paul, who was very hurt by the commercial failure of Press to Play, found himself chasing trends and playing catch up, and wanted a contemporary-sounding album, which he thought could be the key to a comeback. With that in mind, they recorded with Hamish Stuart of the AWB, guitarist Kevin Armstrong, and drummer Chris Whitten, who despite being great were a clear mismatch for the material. The ever-present drums with gated reverb, synthesizers, and all that goes along with it were there from the get-go. There is even a quite humorous moment when Paul mentions new wave pop band the Human League as a possible inspiration for one of the tracks and Elvis has to leave the room to calm himself down. By that point, it was clear that the differences between the two were too great for a full album together, so they decided to split amicably and each do what they think is best for the material. Elvis takes a couple of the pair's songs and releases Spike, and even has his only ever Top 20 hit with "Veronica", a McCartney co-write. Meanwhile, four producers and nearly two years later, Paul releases his own Flowers in the Dirt, a real mishmash of styles and genres which was considered a return to form and gave him a hit with Costello co-write "My Brave Face". From then, they kept using songs from these songwriting sessions all the way to the mid-90s, showing how fruitful these had been, but sadly never wrote together again. With that, fans of both artists were left with the sense that the two could have done much more together.

But what if Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello had managed to record a full album together? To answer that question, we will be gathering together every single song the two wrote as songwriting partners and turning it into a full-blown record, as Paul's very own version of the Travelling Wilburys, joining forces with another great songwriter to try and reverse his failing fortunes, as well as his attempt at finally finding the ideal writing partner almost twenty years after parting ways with John Lennon. It would have been recorded in early 1988 and released sometime later that year, instead of taking more than two years to complete with many producers, as was the case with Paul's Flowers in the Dirt. Given enough luck, they might even beat George Harrison and his Wilburys to the punch, making them the copycats! As for the rules, only McCartney/McManus originals are allowed to be considered, so even Elvis' "This Town", which even features Paul playing the bass, cannot be included in this album as it was written solely by him. And unless no duo version of the song exists, solo versions of the songs are not allowed to be included, as this would have been a full collaboration between the two and we need the both of them to be in every song. That also helps us with the problem that the production in the songs Paul took with him is remarkably different to the songs Elvis took, which would make for a jarring listening experience with two very different sounds. Fortunately, the McCartney/McManus demo sessions have been very well documented, so there don't seem to be many exceptions to this rule, giving us little to fix in this album. With all that out of the way, here's what our joint Costello/McCartney album looks like:

The Lovers That Never Were (Flowers in the Dirt)

Veronica (Spike)

Tommy's Coming Home (Flowers in the Dirt)

Twenty Fine Fingers (Flowers in the Dirt)

So Like Candy (Flowers in the Dirt)

You Want Her Too (Flowers in the Dirt)

Shallow Grave (Flowers in the Dirt)

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Mistress and Maid (Flowers in the Dirt)

I Don't Want to Confess (Flowers in the Dirt)

That Day is Done (Flowers in the Dirt)

Don't Be Careless Love (Flowers in the Dirt)

My Brave Face (Flowers in the Dirt)

Pads, Paws and Claws (Spike)

From a Playboy to a Man (Flowers in the Dirt)

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Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello - Flowers in the Dirt (1987)

McManus and McCartney playing together at the Royal Albert Hall, April 1999.

"The Lovers That Never Were", "Tommy's Coming Home", "Twenty Fine Fingers", "So Like Candy", "You Want Her Too", "That Day is Done", "Don't Be Careless Love", "My Brave Face" and "Playboy to a Man" are solo acoustic demos from October and November 1987, featuring both McCartney and Costello, taken from the Special Edition of Flowers in the Dirt. Those nine tracks, in the other they were presented in the box set, will make the bulk of the album, with any other material we choose to include getting added into this sequence. Coming from these same demo sessions are "I Don't Want to Confess", "Mistress and Maid", and "Shallow Grave", which didn't make the main box set but were released as a Record Store Day exclusive in 2017 in a three-song cassette. Now, the sound quality of this cassette is noticeably rougher than the first nine songs, having been recorded on the very same day they wrote the songs. But the fact that they are great performances of essential songs, and that they come from the exact same late 1987 period, makes their inclusion a no-brainer, sound quality be damned. That leaves "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws", which are solo Costello demos from late 1987, taken from the deluxe edition of his Spike album. Now, while these demos sadly don't feature McCartney in any form, the fact that they're just Elvis with an acoustic guitar means they fit quite well with the other duo demos. And of course, given that Paul would most likely take the lead on about 90% of the other songs, it makes sense to have two songs serving as Elvis' "solo spot", where he would sing lead and Paul would just harmonize with him, taking a backseat role on an album that's already quite heavy on him.

The rougher cassette recordings are added right to the middle of the sequence, with the morbid "Shallow Grave" serving as side one closer and the great "Mistress and Maid" as the opener to side two. The lesser "I Don't Want to Confess", one of only three songs that didn't make it to any Paul McCartney or Elvis Costello album within the next ten years, gets placed in the middle of side two, where it won't bother anybody. Meanwhile, Elvis' two solo spots are added to opposite ends of the album, with the second and second-to-last songs being "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws" respectively. Ideally, the album's backing band would consist of McCartney, Costello, Attractions drummer Pete Thomas and keyboardist Steve Nieve, as well as Paul's guitarist Robbie McIntosh. A best-of-both-worlds scenario where we get the power of the Attractions and the technical ability of Paul's solo band, him obviously taking bass duties. And produced by Geoff Emerick, who had a lot of experience working with Elvis (he had produced the fantastic Imperial Bedroom album), and especially Paul, serving as engineer on nearly a dozen of his albums. A familiar figure to both, who could mediate whatever creative issues the two had and help them get the best album possible. This would most likely be a more stripped-down affair as Costello had intended, foregoing the more contemporary, slick sound McCartney had insisted on. I personally have nothing against the eighties sound, but there's a great mismatch between the folky, sometimes somber but sweet songs these two wrote and that type of production, which was much more suited to the poppier material Paul was writing outside his collaboration with Costello.

Since the name Flowers in the Dirt is taken from the lyrics to "That Day is Done", and is also a pretty nice title, we can retain it as the album's title for our reconstruction. The album is fourteen songs long, as that's exactly how many songs the two wrote from scratch ("Back on My Feet" only received  some small tweaks by Costello). It was also how many songs were featured in any early Beatles album, a detail which certainly would be picked up by Elvis. And since all the songs are on the short side, it works pretty well and makes for a regular 42-minute record, fitting into LPs, CDs and cassete tapes with ease. As for the cover, I took one of the few existing photos of the two during the sessions for FITD, threw some effects on it, and added both of their names and the album title. Of course, Paul will get top billing, but their names are the same size and both are featured prominently on this cover. It ended up looking more like the late 1990s than the late 1980s, but I figured it was good enough, and as rough as the material in the album itself. When it comes to the lead single we have it pretty easy, as both of them had hits with this material: Elvis with "Veronica", and Paul with "My Brave Face". I can see the both of them getting released as singles, with Paul's getting released first as a question of hierarchy more than anything. The strength of this collaboration is such that it easily obscures both Spike and the original Flowers in the Dirt, making for Paul's greatest late-career album and one of Elvis' greatest efforts, even in the form of half-baked demos! Then it's a shame those two couldn't put their differences aside and turn this album into a reality, with both putting their twenty fine fingers to very good use in this record.

Sources:

- Paul McCartney - Flowers in the Dirt [Archive Collection]

- Elvis Costello - Spike [Deluxe Edition]

- The Paul McCartney Project