If you’ve been keeping tabs on the always quirky rockers The Flaming Lips, you’ll discover a not-so-hidden trend: they like covering the Beatles. Last month they released their track-for-track cover of the classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (titled With a Little Help from My Fwends), but a quick search of Cover Me will bring up 5 other Beatles/John Lennon songs they’ve covered, going all the way back to 2010. You can’t really argue with the formula, though, because it seems to be working.
The group’s most recent Beatles-related cover is of Lennon’s and Yoko Ono‘s protest-song-turned-Christmas-classic “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” The song is part of Amazon’s All is Bright, a playlist of exclusive holiday tracks available to subscribers of Amazon Prime. Yoko Ono sings on the song as well, and is even billed first, but the Lips’ sound is overpowering; this track has their fingerprints all over it. Lead singer Wayne Coyne’s slightly distorted vocals kick the song off, followed by psychedelic instrumentation, and the whole affair sounds, well, kind of like what you’d expect a Flaming Lips cover to sound like. It’s faithful to the original while having a style all its own. Listen below, and Amazon Prime members can enjoy the full playlist here.
Check out more from the Flaming Lips at their website, and more from Yoko Ono at her website.
