Did anyone see the Lennon Tribute concert on Oct. 2nd? (1 Viewer)

[Keith Paynter]

Just looking for some feedback - I missed it last night, and am curious to hear what happened. My bad, I totally forgot it was on (I think it ran on TNN and HBO, but I don't get the latter...)
Thanks.
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"Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear."

 

[Sean Cauley]

It was interesting, but not exactly perfect. Some of the Lennon/Beatles songs covered were done well, and some were total misses. Stone Temple Pilots did a faithful "Revolution," Sean Lennon did three songs ("Across the Universe" with Moby and Rufus Wainwright, "This Boy" with Wainwright and somebody else I didn't recognize, and "Julia" by himself), and Kevin Spacey gave a pretty rousing rendition of "Mind Games" (and no, I'm not kidding). Dave Matthews' "In My Life," Alanis Morrisette's "Dear Prudence" and Cyndi Lauper's "Strawberry Fields Forever" (performed in New York's Strawberry Fields, just inside Central Park across the street from the Dakota Apartments) were also decent, if not exciting, covers.
Some of the misses included Craig David's cover of "Come Together" (which was fine until he ditched his source material for some fast-talking rap and a brief bit of P. Diddy's "Bad Boy for Life"), Dave Stewart & Nelly Furtado's "Instant Karma," and Lou Reed's gravelly, off-tempo butchering of "Jealous Guy." Marc Anthony's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" just seemed like miscasting, but wasn't inherently a bad performance.
Yolanda Adams opened the show with an overblown gospel-influenced "Imagine," which neglected the beauty of the original song's simplicity by hamming it up way too much (much in the way most people have ruined ballgame renditions of the national anthem for years, showing off and overdoing every syllable). They should probably have just run a tape of Neil Young's performance from AMERICA: A TRIBUTE TO HEROES.
Different celebrities introduced each musical act, usually quoting Lennon awkwardly. They included Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Ben Stiller and many more. They also showed home movies and photos of John, Yoko and Sean with voice-over by Lennon himself (most from interviews, although one poignant moment came from a home recording of him talking about birthdays with a four-year-old Sean). It was striking to note how many of the seventies-era photos and movies featured the New York skyline in the background, including the World Trade Center towers (one photo showed them under construction).
There was also a lot of tribute to the police, firefighters and other rescue workers in New York; each commercial break began with a PSA for www.helping.org .

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

quote: Some of the misses included Craig David's cover of "Come Together" (which was fine until he ditched his source material for some fast-talking rap and a brief bit of P. Diddy's "Bad Boy for Life"), Dave Stewart & Nelly Furtado's "Instant Karma,..." [/quote]I thought Craig David was the highlight of the whole show, personally. If you can't have a little fun with Come Together, what can you have fun with? I missed Nelly Furtado. Was Dave Stewart singing with her? It looked like he was the leader of the "house band" for the whole show.
Otherwise, I agree with Sean's assessments.
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Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA
[Edited last by Ken_McAlinden on October 04, 2001 at 12:51 PM]

 

[Sean Cauley]

I actually liked most of Craig David's version of "Come Together" (he has a great voice), and was actually quite impressed by the rapid-fire rap-scat he did near the end. It was mainly the "We ain't go-in' no-where/we can't be stopped now/so just give peace a chance" ending I thought was silly. It's one thing to modernize a classic, but it's a little obnoxious to remind people of P. Diddy's latest single.

 

[Jim Benard]

Anyone know if/when this will be shown again? DVD coming?