Search - Various Artists :: Tribute to John Lennon

An excellent covers album....

P. Philips | Sutton Coldfield UK | 11/15/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I ordered this from Amazon.com since I'm in the UK and this title wasn't available from Amazon UK. It took about 2 weeks to arrive and was worth the wait. As other customers have said, as a rule Lennon/Beatles cover songs aren't much good at all but this CD is a notable exception.



I admit that my reason for buying this CD was initially due to the fact that I'm an Alice In Chains fan and their late lead singer Layne Staley appears with MadSeason, his side project alongside Alice In Chains. They perform 'I don't wanna be a soldier', a song which I never thought was one of Lennon's best.

This version though(I think) is better than the original, yet at the same time sounding quite authentic, as well as being unavailable on any other album.



There are other notable tracks apart from this one, such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers' version of 'I found out'.

This sounds a lot 'grungier'(for want of a better word lol) than most of their stuff, and works well, as do tracks like 'steel and glass' by Candlebox. 'Cold Turkey'Lennon's description of the nightmare of heroin addiction, is another good track. This track starts off deceptively quietly before getting heavier, even if it isn't as harrowing as the original.



So a good covers album then, one which I feel would be particularly interesting to fans of the individual artists here, since these tracks are as far as I know unavailable elsewhere."

An OK tribute to Lennon

Giuseppe Randazzo | Brooklyn, New York United States | 03/23/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I must admit that the reason I bought this CD is because I'm a fan of John Lennon and of the grunge scene of the early 1990's. So needless to say, I enjoyed the cover of "I Don't Want To Be A Soldier" by Mad Season (LAYNE STALEY'S VOCALS ARE ALWAYS AMAZING) and "Steel and Glass" by Candlebox, but for me the best track was "Working Class Hero" by The Screaming Trees. Mark Lanegan's voice is unbelievable and this cover is closest in my opinion to the original in quality. A pleasant surprise were Mary Chapin Carpenter's surprisingly good cover of "Grow Old With Me" and the cover of "How Do You Sleep" by The Magnificent Bastards. Collective Soul does a very good cover of Jealous Guy. Now, on to the bad. No surprise The Red Hot Chili Peppers would be found here with their cover of "I Found Out", I never liked "Power To The People", so I was going to skip it anyway, but The Minus Five didn't do all that bad with it. It actually shocked me that an established band like Cheap Trick couldn't pull off "Cold Turkey".All in all, this disc is really worth picking up used, I'm glad I didn't pay full price, but it is a keeper since about half the tracks are at least decent."