Sleep In John Lennon’s Bed… For Mere Pennies
Lots and lots of mere pennies; 196,100 pennies to be exact. Or a cool $1,969 of the green stuff. The third, and possibly most famous John & Yoko Bed-In was held in Suite 1742 of Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel in 1969. And you can stay in that same room if you’ve got the money.
The first 7 day long Bed-In was on John and Yoko’s honeymoon also in 1969 just a few months earlier. There was actually an attempt at a second Bed-In that failed, but the big deal about this whole Bed-In fiasco, was of course, the fact that Lennon is said to have written the entire song, Give Peace A Chance during the third Bed-In. How long he had the song already brewing in his head to me, is questionable. And there’s that whole deal with Paul helping to write it (to the point of being credited at one point) But still, it is a huge history marker of the era.
If I won the lottery, I don’t think that would be enough to get me to pay that much money to sleep in Lennon’s bed though. What about you? I do like the Lennon solo albums but I prefer the Beatles as a whole as opposed to their separate musical endeavors.
The offhanded topic of this post is an Original vs. Cover poll.
Give Peace A Chance was released as a single on vinyl; I’ve actually never seen the LP of it. But I honestly don’t know without looking it up if it’s rare or not. I’m just not that interested. It’s good song and a great idea, but for me, it’s just not on my amazing songs list. Later it was released on The John Lennon Collection.
One note about this song is that my girl Joni Mitchell has lyrics related (maybe). On California from the Blue album she sings, “They won’t give peace a chance…” I have no clue if this is really related or not. Just like to mention Mitchell whenever the opportunity arises.
Many covers have been done of Give Peace A Chance, by Paul, Elton John, and more. Most notable in my adolescence was the version by the Peace Choir in response to the Gulf War. Who remembers that version? I was 14 or 15 years old and I actually remember thinking it was pretty cool. But do I still? I decided to look it up and holy, this video has some pretty crazy blasts from the past. I was shocked that it was such a strange mix of musical (and some not so musical in my opinion) individuals. I was mostly speechless watching it now. But there are some cool cats on there as well.
My vote goes to the original. But maybe you think the Peace Choir should win…
Take a look and cast your vote.
[Video via here, many thanks] Tags: 1969, Beatles, bed-in, Blue, give-peace-a-chance, John Lennon, john-lennon-collection, Joni Mitchell, peace-choir, yoko
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POSTED IN: 60s Music, Acoustic Music, Original Vs. Cover, Peace
2 opinions for Sleep In John Lennon’s Bed… For Mere Pennies
Ben
Jul 25, 2007 at 10:52 pm
I have no recollection of this Peace Choir cover whatsoever, which kind of surprises me. But man alive, no matter how great the cause may be, these joint “superstar” collaborations can be quite horrible. Watching that video was embarrassing. Who cares if you like all the artists involved, it doesn’t mean they all sound good together. It comes off as nauseatingly ridiculous. You bounce from some hair band singer screeching like an alley cat to some adult contemporary star’s showy, melodramatic crooning to some hip-hop guy acting too cool to do much but stare at the camera and mouth the lyrics. Again, no matter how much you like the artists individually, meshing them together sounds like trash. It’s like taking every food you can think of and tossing it into a blender to ensure everybody will like something about how it tastes. Instead, it makes you barf.
Jennifer
Jul 25, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Um, so are you saying you don’t like this version or what ;)
Man remind me not to get on your bad side. Also, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t remember this — maybe you blocked it out.
It is embarrassing though. Although, I was having a bummer day and needed a good laugh; which your comment very much provided so thanks for stopping by!
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