John Lennon would have turned 80 years old this year; to mark the occasion, books, online events, and the compilation Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes have honored the icon. Another tribute, Jem Records Celebrates John Lennon, features several East Coast bands reinterpreting both Beatles and Lennon solo material. While some covers work better than others, the compilation overall provides a fun tribute that includes less-obvious updates of deeper cuts.
Highlights include the Midnight Callers’ “Child of Nature,” the Lennon-penned track dating back to the Beatles’ 1968 India retreat. This cleverly segues into what the song eventually became: “Jealous Guy,” the Imagine track. The Beatle-esque Grip Weeds (whose cover of “The Inner Light” has received airplay on the Sirius XM Beatles Channel) turn in two stellar performances: a faithful rendition of “You Can’t Do That” and an impressive version of “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Due to the latter’s complexity, the song is notoriously difficult to cover; however, the Grip Weeds turn in one of most appropriately psychedelic renditions I’ve heard. The group is rapidly becoming one of the foremost interpreters of the Beatles catalogue.
Other standouts include the popular New Jersey band the Weeklings, who add a Bo Diddley-like shuffle beat to the Rubber Soul track “The Word” (along with tight harmonies). They also manage to make the seemingly impossible happen; they turn the random Beatles outtake “What’s the New Mary Jane” into a listenable track, smartly mixing in elements of “I am the Walrus” and “Helter Skelter” with a dash of “All Together Now” thrown in for good measure. The result is simply brilliant, good fun.
The Gold Needles add a twist to “Cold Turkey” by mashing it with “Hey Bulldog,” lending the track a bluesy air. It’s a different take that still retains the bite of the original lyrics. The same cannot be said for Richard Barone’s take on “Revolution,” which combines elements of “Power to the People.”
While the fast version of “Revolution” stays relatively faithful to the original, shoehorning in the “power to the people” refrain seems out of place here, with the phrase sounding too cheerful. The heavy blues feel of the Anderson Council’s “I Found Out” is appropriate, but the whooshing sound effects toward the middle of the song are an unnecessary flourish, particularly considering the bare-bones approach of the Plastic Ono Band original.
The collection features liner notes by author Kenneth Womack, who provides a brief history of the Jem Records label. Co-founded by Marty Scott in 1970, the label became famous for distributing imports and indie artists through subsidiaries such as Passport, Passport Jazz, and PVC. After the company reached its peak in the ’70s and ’80s, Scott relaunched the business in 2013. All the artists appearing on this compilation are signed to the renewed label.
Jem Records Celebrates John Lennon provides some refreshingly new takes on classic Lennon material by under-the-radar artists deserving of more attention. Instead of turning in mere replicas, these bands reinterpret the classic tracks without diluting the lyrics’ original meaning. That is a tribute an artist of John Lennon’s caliber well deserves.
- How John Lennon Came Roaring Back on the Beatles’ White Album - November 22, 2023
- Five ‘With the Beatles’ Deep Cuts That Illustrate Their Lasting Debt to R&B - November 20, 2023
- Five Must-Hear Deep Cuts from the Beatles’ ‘Past Masters’ - March 7, 2023
