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Celebrating Lennon, Peace & Love

Just a month shy of the 28th anniversary of John Lennon’s assassination comes the DVD Come Together: A Night for John Lennon’s Words & Music. This DVD represents a night of performance by a veritable Who’s Who of popular singers, musicians and actors and had been in the works for a year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Lennon’s death. It just happened to coincide with the detestable events of 9-11. It’s ironic that this event, which was to promote Peace and Love, happened in New York, one of the two locales that the terrorists targeted. The Big Apple was the place that Lennon loved so much and would adopt as his home after the separation of The Beatles.

Why it took 8 years for the DVD to be released is a bit mind-boggling since the VHS was released in 2002, 5 days before the anniversary of Lennon’s death . Some of the special guests aren’t even that big of a name any longer. Some have not recorded anything new in the past 2 or 3 years. But in 2001, most of the guests were popular, and for the most part, they do a decent job in covering Lennon’s solo music as well as Beatles tunes.

Between songs, various actors read quotes from song lyrics as well as made statements about Lennon’s life, his influence and about the fireman and police officers who were the heroes of the events surrounding 9-11. The program is hosted by Kevin Spacey, who not only speaks a couple of times throughout the event, but also does a really great job singing “Mind Games.” Quite honestly, he was better than a couple of the other recording artists that appear on the disc.

Other actors include Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Leelee Sobieski, Yoko Ono Lennon, Steve Buscemi (a former NYFD employee), Benjamin Bratt, Kevin Bacon, Tim Roth, James Gandolfini & Edie Falco. Everyone but Sobieski seems to be somewhat believable in the words they are reading, especially Hoffman, who seems to be pulling some of what he is saying straight out of his head and heart. Sobieski seems extremely nervous (and is probably the only actor/actress who wasn’t even born while Lennon was alive).

When an actor isn’t onstage, video clips or audio played alongside a slide show are shown on a large screen set at the back of center stage. There are some really nice elements pulled together of Lennon’s philosophy or just his love of life and his family. Other images and video play on video walls behind the performers throughout the show.

Cyndi Lauper performs via satellite with her band on location at the Strawberry Fields memorial in New York. Other performers play live at Radio City Music Hall as the show was broadcast on WB Televison and TNT. This includes Stone Temple Pilots ripping out a killer version of “Revolution,”  Dave Matthews performing a solo version of “In My Life,” Moby, Sean Lennon & Rufus Wainwright harmonizing on “Across the Universe” as well as Sean and Rufus (and some unknown, unannounced third party) singing “This Boy,” followed by Sean’s solo performance of “Julia.” Rapper Craig David sings alongside a very good acoustic guitarist for the song “Come Together.”

Other performances were backed by a stunning session band lead by former Eurythmics member Dave Stewart . Stewart also joins up with Nelly Furtado for “Instant Karma.” In addition, the band backs Yolanda Adams & Billy Preston (the only performer in Come Together to record with Lennon) opening the show with “Imagine;” Lou Reed, a contemporary of The Beatles and Lennon, playing “Jealous Guy;” Alanis Morissette singing “Dear Prudence;” Marc Anthony does an interesting job of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds;” country singer Shelby Lynne performs “Mother;” Natalie Merchant does her version of “Nowhere Man;” the show finale, lead by Shaggy, has everyone onstage singing to all of the other famous actors, artists and singers out in the audience.

It’s unfortunate that none of the former Beatles; Lennon’s first son, Julian (who is almost the spitting image of his father and sounds quite like him); Klaus Voorman (who played bass on many of Lennon’s solo albums); or any other contemporary of Lennon appeared on the program. Harrison was seriously ill at the time and would die a couple of months later. Maybe the others refused to appear. Maybe they weren’t invited.

Although Sean Lennon has become a fine guitarist and decent singer, it seems odd that he would perform “Julia,” a song John wrote for his mother by the same name, and dedicate it to Yoko. And as much as Yoko wants peace and to honor John’s memory, at least we are spared hearing her sing. She does give a nice, short speech. But like almost every speech given during the show, one or two sentences are said before a pause so the audience can clap, followed by a couple of more sentences, then applause, and a couple of more sentences, ad nauseam.

For the most part, this is an extremely enjoyable 90 minute performance. With 16 songs, most of them decent, this is something that Beatles and/or Lennon fans will like to add to their collection. Presented in full screen in both Dolby Digital Stereo or 5.1 Surround, the sound quality and visuals are superb.

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