Come together… if that ain’t a message we could all use right about now, then I don’t know what is.
Back in 2020, Eric Church was gearing up to reissue his 2014 The Outsiders record later this week (in the UK) and it got me thinking about his cover of The Beatles’ 1969 hit “Come Together” that originally appeared as a bonus track on the 1st pressing of The Outsiders vinyl record.
Written primarily by John Lennon with a little help from Paul, “Come Together” was supposed to be a campaign song for Timothy Leary who was running for California governor against Ronald Reagan.
And while the title was nice idea, John later admitted that the song was just nonsense:
“It’s gobbledygook. ‘Come Together’ was an expression that Leary had come up with for his attempt at being president or whatever he wanted to be, and he asked me to write a campaign song.
I tried and tried, but I couldn’t come up with one. But I came up with this, ‘Come Together,’ which would’ve been no good to him… you couldn’t have a campaign song like that, right?”
But after Leary went to jail for possession of marijuana, ending his campaign, John’s “Come Together” became the first track on their iconic Abby Road record. And to this day, “Come Together” is still one of the biggest hits they ever recorded.
Eric has been known to play “Come Together” from time to time in his live show, but unless you got your hands on the vinyl, you might not have heard the studio version before.
And if you haven’t heard it before, I think you’re gonna like it:
And of course, here’s the live version featuring some killer vocals from the crazy talented Joanna Cotten.
Eric Church Honors The Beatles’ John Lennon With “Mind Games” Cover
Taking it back to 1973.
A few years back a stellar group of artists came together to honor John Lennon for what would’ve been his 75th birthday. The tribute concert featured performances from Chris Stapleton, Sheryl Crowe, John Fogerty, Peter Frampton, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Morello, Willie Nelson, The Roots, Steven Tyler and more.
And it also featured the great Eric Church, who performed a knockout cover of John’s “Mind Games.”
Lennon originally started writing “Mind Games” in 1969 as a song titled, “Make Love, Not War.” Lennon would go on to finish the song in the following years before eventually releasing it as a single titled “Mind Games” in 1973.
It would eventually go on to be the title track to his Mind Games album later that year.
“John Lennon wrote and made music that mattered. It said something, it meant something.
And I think in this day and time, we should do more of that. This is one of those that mattered, this is ‘Mind Games.'”
You hear that country music?
Write and make music that matters…
