Working with Elvis Costello

John McFee of The Doobie Brothers

Evils Costello

John McFee

Cris Cohen: What did you learn from all that time working with Elvis Costello?

John McFee of The Doobie Brothers: Oh, wow. I learned that I better work harder on my lyrics. First of all, he’s such a great lyricist. He knows how to use the language. It’s like he’s English or something [laughs] to understand the English language, which is a foreign language for us. George Bernard Shaw: two people divided by a common language.

With Elvis, yeah, the songwriting aspect was inspiring. And he also, for all his intellect, there’s a lot of emotion there, a lot of feel. That’s a great combination if you can get those things going together. There’s not just one formula that makes music work, and that’s another thing that keeps it interesting for me. I’ve tried to learn from Elvis. I’ve tried to learn from every session I’ve ever done… keep my eyes and ears open.

Elvis is no slouch of a guitar player in his own right either. Like the “My Aim Is True” album… when we were cutting that in the little 8-track studio in London, Elvis was singing the lead vocals. Most, if not all, of the lead vocals on the finished product are the live lead vocals while we were tracking, while he was playing the rhythm guitar parts. It’s a live album. Nick Lowe would not let me punch in a note. There’s not one punched-in note on the whole thing. It’s probably more alive than any album that’s been called a live album in the last 30 years. I’m not joking when I say that.