Chicago Tribune, 1991-01-01

Elvis Costello rips into one of his heroes on "The Other Side of Summer,"
the opening track of his new album "Mighty Like A Rose."

In the midst of a satiric Beach Boys style "summer fun" tune, Costello
makes a clear reference to John Lennon's 1971 song "Imagine" when he sings
"Was it a millionaire who said 'imagine no possessions'?/A poor little
schoolboy who said 'we don't need no lessons'?"

"I think "Imagine" is a dumb song," Costello said from Los Angeles a few
days ago, where he was preparing for appearances Friday at Alpine Valley
and Saturday at the World Music Theatre.

"I don't have any other startling insights to make. I think the problem is
there are too many people making insights--everybody's got a bloody opinion
about everything, everybody's got a solution. I'm just making fun of it
all.

"Heaven knows you can hear it on a lot of other things I've done how much I
love and respect Lennon. His work was great, but that particular song I
don't think he thought it out. Or maybe he did, but I'm entitled to my
opinion.

"When you have nothing, you can say that you imagine nothing, and when
you've got the opportunity to learn, then you've got the luxury or the
privilege to say you don't need education. I'm not saying education is
perfect, but it's such an inane statement, a slogan for idiocy.

"Rock n roll has this inherent rebellion, but it also confuses freedom for
license a lot, which is dangerous. It doesn't have any responsibility to
itself. These attitudes are self-perpetuating myths and some of them are
quite destructive."