Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Tribute: Working Class Hero

I just read a new article on NME.com stating that Green Day would be covering John Lennon's lyrical masterpiece "Working Class Hero" on 'Instant Karma', a tribute album of artists covering Lennon songs. This is certainly an admirable project with all proceeds from the album will go to Amnesty International's campaign to end genocide in the Darfur region.

What the article immediately reminded me of, however, was a Lennon tribute album that I purchased many years ago called, "Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon." It was released in October 1995 and looking back on the artist/track listing, I am realizing just how star-packed it was. I remember playing that CD over and over again, just getting off on how good Lennon's songs were. I paid much less attention to who the participating artists were because I didn't know most of them...I wasn't really into music at the time.

Take a look at the tracklist:

1. I Found Out - Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier - Mad Season [featuring Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, and Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees]
3. Steel And Glass - Candlebox
4. Imagine - Blues Traveler
5. Working Class Hero - Screaming Trees
6. Power To The People - The Minus 5
7. How Do You Sleep? - The Magnificent Bastards
8. Nobody Told Me - Flaming Lips
9. Well, Well, Well - Super 8
10. Cold Turkey - Cheap Trick
11. Jealous Guy - Collective Soul
12. Isolation - Sponge
13. Instant Karma! - Toad The Wet Sprocket
14. Grow Old With Me - Mary Chapin Carpenter
15. Mind Games - George Clinton

I've since lost this CD, like so many others I may not be reminded of in the future. The standout tracks for me were Candlebox's "Steel and Glass" (a song I still have never heard the original version of), the Flaming Lips' "Nobody Told Me," and George Clinton's "Mind Games." God, his version of "Mind Games" was so damn good. And the Atomic Dog actually sings this song. Unfortunately, the only version I could find online of it is the 30 second Amazon tease. But I'll take what I can get for now. I think I may need to repurchase this one.

I was able to find full versions of:

The Lips' Nobody Told Me from seven years before they would blow up with Yoshimi.

Toad The Wet Sprocket's very well played version of Instant Karma!.

No comments: