Confessions of a Fanboy

This is a funny little cover from the Working Class Hero tribute album of a few years ago, not to be confused by the atrocity committed by Green Day. For starters, it’s about as poorly produced a track as you’re likely to hear. I hope they didn’t actually pay Rubin for whatever it is he did or didn’t do. The lo-fi vibe can be both charming and annoying.

On the charming side, Anthony Kedis’ reverb-drenched vocal actually impersonates Lennon better than you might think. After all, Kedis is not exactly a titan of vocal prowess. He doesn’t sound like Lennon throughout the song, but there are certain words and syllables where the combination of Kedis’ voice and the effects processing it create a Lennon-esque effect.

On the annoying side, it sounds as if this song was recorded in a 10-minute session. The sound is thin. Maybe Rubin was charging them by the track because it sounds like there’s one guitar line, a bass, drums, and Kedis’ vocal. There are no vocal overdubs, hardly any guitar overdubs (if there are any at all), no additional instrumentation- nothing. Speaking of bass, you would never know Flea played this. There is nothing special, interesting, or frenetic about the bass line played on this song.

This is an example of why most tribute albums are better ideas in theory than in principle. The idea of the Chili Peppers covering John Lennon is excitng, interesting, and appealing. The reality? Not so much. It’s not horible, but if you paid $15 to hear what it might sound like to hear the Peppers do Lennon, you got screwed.

As an aside, if you’re like me, you need a program to keep up with who was playing guitar with RHCP at any given time. For those of you keeping score at home, this was during the Dave Navarro era.

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