Lisa Hannigan
Interpretation is also creativity. There was a time when everyone, singer and musician would perform or record music that had been introduced by another artist. There must be at least 20 versions of “Round Midnight” or “Lover Man” none of which are copies of the others. Having someone re-interpret music opens it up to a new audience and possibly invigorates old audience. In the 1970’s everyone wanted to do their own material and their audience settled for music that needed to sound the same, every time. We got locked into lip-sync, digital overdubbing and fireworks.
I’ve listened to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” maybe thousands of times in the 1960’s, when the times did change. Overtime, listening to the original, I remember the words but not the meaning. On the Imagine Project, Hancock, Lisa Hannigan and The Chieftans have me paying attention again.
The “Imagine Project” may or may not be as big of a commercial success as Herbie Hancock’s last two compilation albums and success is not the goal here. What is important I feel is that songs like Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up”, which was first released almost 25 years ago, gets a hearing by a new audience.