Lennon’s musical legacy lives on

A month ago, a double CD titled Make Noise: Save Darfur hit the music stores in the Philippines.  “Call(ing) on the power of music to stir the public conscience and mobilize millions of people needed to turn things around,” Amnesty International assembled a host of pop legends and contemporary artists to interpret songs from John Lennon’s solo catalogue for the two-CD package.  It was intended to help end the atrocities in this African region called Darfur.  Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow, waived all royalties in this project to help finance this noble work and cause of Amnesty International.

Tributes to the fallen rock icon have actually come in different forms.  One of the most common ways is the interpretation of Lennon’s songs.  But this recent effort is the biggest in years since Lennon’s assassination in December 1980.  In 1995, the first Lennon tribute album devoted to his solo output came out at the end of the short era enjoyed by grunge.  Popular artists of that period, led by the resilient Red Hot Chili Pepper, post-grunge mainstream group Collective Soul, veteran rock group Cheap Trick, the prototype psychedelic-alternative band Flaming Lips and five-time Grammy Award-winning folk singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, took up the challenge.

Almost 30 years since his death, John Lennon remains a very influential artist.  Make Some Noise: Save Darfur makes this tribute significant on two counts: The effort provides a fresh rendition of a wide array of the solo work of Lennon, which brings his materials to the consciousness of this generation of music listeners and buyers; and second and more importantly, the project demonstrates that Lennon’s solo songs are relevant and as powerful as ever.  At least two Lennon songs attest to this: Imagine and Give Peace A Chance.  “You buy an album of Lennon songs and somehow you go home like you’ve helped starving kids.  It does seem too easy,” said The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne about his contribution to the project.

The cast of artists that participated in this 28-track project is obviously much bigger.  U2 opened the double album and sounded off an urgent warning to the listener against apathy and indifference with the group’s modern rendition of Instant Karma.  REM stripped No. 9 Dream of its dreamy feel and converted the song into the group’s straight trademark song with its heavy guitar beat and familiar Stipe vocals.  It’s hard to imagine a female artist doing Mother but Christina Aguilera’s stripped-back version did it justice. 

The reggae backbeat on Give Peace a Chance effortlessly weaved Steven Tyler’s vocals on the rap verses with the chorus part of Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars.  Lenny Kravitz sounded resigned to the Cold Turkey process and one feels that Robert Smith reassures himself of every line of Love with the Cure’s heavy version of the song.  Corinne Bailey Rae’s live version opted to use the outtake version of Lennon’s I‘m Losing You as hinted by the middle count-in.

One highlight of the first disc is the Dylan-Harrison collaboration in Give Me Some Truth; only it features the sons Jakob and Dhani.  Jakob’s vocals took away the whining tone of the original version and opted to be almost conversational in approach.  But one letdown is Avril Lavigne’s version of Imagine, where she failed to emit the necessity for its fruition as did Neil Young in his live rendition right after 9/11.

If there’s any song that blended well with the personality and style of the artist, it is Working Class Hero with Green Day performing it in the opening of the second disc.  Yet Billy Joe deferred to Lennon in the final line of the song as it technically clipped Lennon’s vocal to conclude it.  Black Eyed Peas’ Power To The People smoothened the edges of the song probably with the goal of reintroducing it to the listeners of today.  A better version in my opinion of Lennon’s anthem Imagine is that of Jack Johnson’s.  His somber tone hints about the continuing elusiveness of the song’s ideals. 

Easily a favorite version of a Lennon song is rendered here by Snow Patrol.  With brilliant guitar work that’s reminiscent of a Pink Floyd material in The Wall, the group craftily adapted Isolation so effectively that the song’s abrupt end makes a listener crave for extra verses just to have Snow Patrol on and on.  Further on, Jaguares’ Gimme Me Some Truth remained loyal to the vocal style of Lennon, but only in Spanish.  It was not a good decision for Flaming Lips, the only band to perform in both Lennon tribute albums, to slow down the tempo of (Just Like) Starting Over as it stripped the song of its inherent upbeat and optimistic tone.

Finally, it is interesting to compare Duran Duran’s take of Instant Karma with that of U2’s or Tokio Hotel’s.  Yes, there are three different versions of it in this collection (as if Lennon’s solo catalogue is short of good materials); or A-Ha’s interpretation of No. 9 Dream with that of REM’s.  But I’d rather leave this to the listener.

What would Lennon have thought of it?  Yoko deals with this.  In the liner notes, she wrote, “John would have been proud of it.  Proud that a new generation of artists is speaking and singing out for human rights.  Proud that they’re singing his songs to rally global support for the desperate people of Darfur.  And proud to be aligned with Amnesty International in this effort… John wrote his songs with a very deep love for the human race and a concern for its future.  He believed with his heart it was possible to create a better world.  He also believed that each one of us plays a role in changing the world. I hope the Make Some Noise campaign has the ability to not only save lives in Darfur, but to create the next generation of activists willing to stand for the rights of others and the basic human rights we all share, now and in the future.”

So far, the project has been well-received.  Released on June 12, 2007 in download-only form, the album reached No. 1 in the iTunes albums chart in Portugal, Greece and Ireland.  The CD format debuted at No. 15 in the Billboard Top 200 chart in the US when released in mid-June.

For details, log on to www.instantkarma.org or www.amnesty.org/noise. Get a copy of Make Noise: Save Darfur and enjoy Lennon’s music as well as the artists that put time and effort into this project most likely did.