In 1997, Elvis Costello approached Prince and asked if he could record Prince’s hit “Pop Life” from the album AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY (1985) for his upcoming compilation EXTREME HONEY: VERY BEST OF WARNER BROTHERS YEARS. Prince rejected these, as well as numerous requests from other colleagues in previous years.
This year Costello released THE BOY NAMED IF with the Imposters, our review is here.
A resounding “no” from Prince
Costello and his backing band, The Attractions, already had the track “in the style of [John Lennons] ‘Instant Karma,'” as the musician put it to the Chicago Tribune in 1999, played live prior to the request. The studio version should sound like a “slightly lighter feel”. When asked, Prince responded with a resounding “No,” which probably had nothing to do with Costello, since Prince always turned them down. In addition, he had only just stepped out of his contract with Warner Bros., although it’s not clear if the singer even knew Costello’s cover would appear on a record released by Warner Bros.
You can catch Costello’s live version of “Pop Life” here:
Prince on the issue of cover versions
“I don’t mind if fans sing the songs. My problem is when the industry ‘covers’ the music,” explained Prince, who died in 2016, on Lopez Tonight in 2011. “See, covering the music means the original version no longer exists. A lot of times people think I’m re-enacting Sinead O’Connor or Chaka Khan songs, even though I originally wrote those songs. And it’s fine when my friends ask to play them, but there’s this thing called the ‘Compulsory Licensing Act’ that allows artists to freely play co-workers’ music through the record companies to use without permission. And that doesn’t exist in any other art form, be it books or movies. There is only one version of the series ‘Law & Order’, but there are multiple versions of ‘Kiss’ and ‘Purple Rain’.”
Here’s how Costello handled the cancellation
Costello probably didn’t fall into the friend category at this point, but he had an alternative plan for his compilation. “I wrote this other song with the same kind of rhythm that I liked better than ‘Pop Life,'” he said in 1999, referring to “The Bridge I Burned.” “Because you know what? I actually think I’m a better songwriter than him [Prince]. I know it’s immodest of me to say this, but I think it’s the truth. And then I thought I’d do him the favor of quoting his song in mine, but he didn’t seem to take the compliment.” Costello continued, “I thought he would find my track funny, and especially the fact that I wanted to quote lines from ‘Pop Life’. I don’t know if he ever heard the song, but suddenly I got some very threatening letters from the lawyers. So I did what you always do in a situation like this: I shouted some Renaissance philosophy through a megaphone as a substitute at this point in the verse of my song and still got the record out.”
Two cease and desist letters later, “The Bridge I Burned” appeared on 1997’s EXTREME HONEY: VERY BEST OF WARNER BROTHERS YEARS. A few references in Costello’s song remain, however, including a Prince-esque “Dig it!” that sounds similar to the one in “Pop Life.” Furthermore, the line “You mother underneath your breath, it echoes round the world” in the second stanza provides an allusion to the title of the “Pop Life” album AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY.
That same year he performed at a Prince tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, where he covered the previously unreleased number Moonbeam Levels. The musician has also brought “Purple Rain” to the stage several times in the past:
Listen to Costello’s entire 1997 record here: