War Child, an award-winning charity that provides humanitarian assistance to war-affected children in some of the worlds most devastated regions, aren’t screwing around here. Their new benefit album Heroes is grabbing some of the biggest names in all of Baby Boomdom in an effort to open your heart, open your wallet, and, for god sakes, help these damn kids!
But hold on, Gorilla vs. Bear readers, this ain’t just your daddy’s hippie comp. In a twist that has M. Night Shyamalan jealous (a.k.a. “your daddy’s director”), the good people at War Child have asked these music legends (including Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Brian Wilson, and The Clash) to “select one of the classic tracks from their own songwriting canon and nominate an artist from the next generation (i.e. younger artists, not Star Trek) to create a modern reworking of that classic song.” In some circles, this process is known as, umm, “covering,” but hey, come on, they worked really hard on this press release!
"I have been supporting War Child since 1995,” McCartney said (unlike that John Lennon guy, right Paul?). “Their work with children in war zones saves lives and their work with those who take decisions that help them to do something about it saves even more lives... the breadth of talent on this project is amazing; it's great that so many people gave their time, energy and support to this initiative. I urge everyone to support War Child."
Set for release via EMI's Astralwerks label November 25, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this torch-passing, old-via-young album will be contributed to, duh, War Child’s efforts, cleverly mirroring the intrinsic aims of War Child's efforts in war zones across the world -- to place faith in the next generation (again, not Star Trek). "We are enormously proud to be involved with a project that encompasses such musical depth, socio-economic scope and global significance," said Glenn Mendlinger, GM over at Astralwerks. "It is our sincerest hope that this is the first of many new efforts by the music community to raise awareness of the plight of children throughout the world.”
The full track listing will be announced soon, but Heroes already boasts some pretty hefty star-power, including:
- Beck covering Bob Dylan’s "Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat”
- Duffy covering Sir Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”
- Rufus Wainwright covering a medley of two tracks from Brian Wilson’s SMiLE
- The Kooks covering The Kinks' "Victoria"
- Hot Chip covering Joy Division’s "Transmission"
- The Hold Steady covering Bruce Springsteen’s "Atlantic City"
To read more about War Child’s great cause, children’s rights, and additional ways to get involved, click here and here. And while you’re there, you can ask them where the heck the Bowie cover is!
