John Lennon 80th birthday celebrations & tributes: Tame Impala, Patti Smith, more
John Lennon, who died in 1980, would've turned 80 today and there are a number of birthday tributes and celebrations happening around the world and online.
New compilation Gimme Some Truth was executive produced by Yoko Ono Lennon and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, who picked the 36 songs which "have all been completely remixed from scratch, radically upgrading their sonic quality and presenting them as a never-before-heard Ultimate Listening Experience." You can listen to that now:
His son, Sean Ono Lennon, has covered John's song "Isolation" for Late Night with Stephen Colbert, which he has shared ahead of tonight's broadcast. “Hey guys, here’s my version of ‘ISOLATION,’ with me on drums and my nephew Jack on bass,” Sean says. “Crazy how much the lyrics fit our current year…We need his music and his message now more than ever!” Sean is also encouraging others to cover John Lennon songs and to post them with the hashtag #LENNON80, and to tag @johnlennon on socials.
Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, meanwhile, has offered up a cover "Jealous Guy," played solo acoustic, bed-in style:
There are a few virtual tributes today, too. Dear John streams today at 3 PM ET on YouTube with KT Tunstall, Larkin Poe, Peter Gabriel, Richard Curtis CBE, Maxi Jazz of Faithless, Lindsay Ell, PP Arnold, Andy Fairweather Low, John Ilsley of Dire Straits, Graham Gouldman of 10cc, Lawrence Gowan of Styx, Nick Van Eede of Cutting Crew, and more.
Later, Theatre Within's 40th annual John Lennon Tribute streams at lennontribute.org, starting at 7 PM ET, with Patti Smith, Jackson Browne, Natalie Merchant, Rosanne Cash, Martin Sexton, Joan Osborne, Bettye Lavette, Shelby Lynne, Willie Nile, Jorma Kaukonen, Taj Mahal and more.
Happy birthday, John!