How's this for an Odd Couple of the '80s? Pop-folksinger Joni Mitchell said she persuaded spike-haired punker Billy Idol to team up with her on her new album because she wanted "an aggressive singer" for the song "Dancin' Clown." "I laughed, and I was shocked," Idol said about the phone call last month from Mitchell. "I wondered if it was right for me to do, but she read me the lyrics over the phone and the track was near to what I would sing about anyway. . . . I'm not used to singing for real," Idol said, joking. "I usually scream, make a noise."

SOME OF General Motors' UAW workers were wearing their protest against lack of profit-sharing this year on a T-shirt when they met at a conference in Las Vegas this week. The message read: "Profit Sharing Scorecard: Ross Perot -- $720,000,000; GM Executives -- $169,000,000; GM employes -- 0."

IT'S LECTURE time again. Free Press classical critic John Guinn is speaking Monday at 8 p.m. at Village Record & Tapes, Kercheval near St. Clair in Grosse Pointe, and will repeat the talk Wednesday at 8 at the Birmingham Community House. The topic will be the upcoming Detroit Symphony programs, featuring music of Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. The programs are presented by the Free Press and the Detroit Symphony League.

STAND BY, NEW YORK! Grammy-winning soul singer James Brown says he will play a free concert in Gotham this summer so poor children will get a chance to hear the Ambassador of Soul. "I'll play for 99 cents, or for nothing," he said. "Some kids can't afford to go to concerts."