On the opening track of the CD, the old
hag Madonna climbs out of her English cave and destroys
John Lennon's 'Imagine'. Only a self-important
idiot would pick a song like this to perform at a benefit
concert. Can we now say that this song has been redone too
many times? Madonna has never really been a good vocalist
and with not much music to back her up in the background,
her voice sounds bare and flat. To quote Madonna's arch
nemesis Simon Cowell, "it was absolutely dreadful".
Maroon
5 is next with 'She Will Be Loved', one of the
great singles of 2004 which coincidentally conceived arguably
the strangest music video of all time. Lead singer Adam
Levine sounds sorta hungover and bounces off key here and
there but it's still an award winning performance in comparison
to Madonna's retched track.
The
next two tracks begin with the sounds of two great singers
of our time Norah Jones and Mary J. Blige. It seems like
years since I have heard Norah Jones. Mary J. tackles an
old Stevie Wonder classic 'Love's In Need Of Love Today'
and makes it her own, transforming into a modern day Aretha.
She hasn't lost a step. Norah is probably the complete polar
opposite. She sings a song called "We're All In This
Together". I love her songs and voice but like most
of her music, it causes me to drift away... to sleep.
Can someone please tell Brian Wilson, the
old Beach Boy to hang up his surfboard? He sings a song
he wrote called 'Love & Mercy'. Nice song but
I think he should stick to writing and producing. I exactly
pin down what his voice reminds me of. It's sorta like Barney
the purple dinosaur crossed with some other children's show.
You know when that guy from Blue's Clue's would break into
song? Exaclty... And aren't we being a bit insensitive to
allow a beach boy to perform on a benefit for tsunami relief?
Other low-lights include a boring performance
by Gloria Estafan who pulled out one of her pukey songs
from the 80's vault that should have just stayed they for
eternity. Elton John waddles his way through 'Don't
Let Your Son Go Down On Me', a Jacko favorite and is
also fitting considering Indonesia is the underground child-sex
trade capital of the world. Annie Lennox scares young children
with 'Why' and after hearing her voice, I was asking
myself the same question, WHY, 
WHY,
WHY...? ; Stevie Wonder & India Arie duet on 'Time To
Love', country guy Kenny Chesney sings 'I Can't Go There'.
I can't really comment on his song because I skip over it
everytime. Overrated artist of the century Sheryl Crow add
her two cents with a track called 'Free To Fly'.
And the worst track on the WHOLE CD is by
St. Louis hip hop reject Nelly. The song is called 'Dey
Say' HA HA HAAHA HA. Dey Say? Are you kidding me? Would
people buy his records less or would he lose his popularity
if he used correct spelling? If that doesn't make you laugh,
he brings back Spandau Ballet's 'True', which if you aren't
under 25 you would remember that track was already used
in "Set ADrift On Memory Bliss" by PM Dawn. Are
you telling me that rappers have sampled enough songs where
they now need to sample the same ones over again? We need
to have a hip hop conference to discuss this matter. I want
Russell Simmons there, KRS-1 and Louis Farakan. This is
an issue that needs to be discussed and brought to the forefront
of their community.
Other highlights of the CD include : The
male Celine Dion, Josh Groban's performance of 'Where
You Are', John Mayer's cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Bold
As Love', Sarah McClachlan's 'Angel', Lenny Kravitz's
acoustic version of 'Let Love Rule'. The greatest
and most important moment of the CD is found on a very special
collaboration between two REAL legends of music. Eric Clapton
strums his gee-tar and ex-Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters
produce a truly inspirational rendition of the classic 'Wish
You Were Here'.
You can't actually purchase the CD in storesas
of yet, it's only available
here...
