Sing a new song
Ventura man reimagines Lennon for the 21st century
By Michel Cicero 01/21/2010
Fast-forward to October 2009, and Benson is surveying the Halloween store in Ventura with the same sort of impish glee he had on that fateful night of rock ’n’ roll. He spies a white suit, followed by a pair of angel wings. His wheels begin to turn and he sees a long wig and round sunglasses and himself wearing it all.
“My family knows if I get an idea in my head, I’m going to follow through with it,” says Benson. But life has a tendency to interrupt, and his plan to be John Lennon (though John Travolta was a close second) for Halloween didn’t come to pass. Coincidentally, Benson had been tinkering with Lennon’s opus “Imagine” in the recording studio, rewriting the lyrics for a post-Sept. 11 world with his friend, recording artist Mark Borsuk of Moorpark.
Kevin Benson’s video of “Try to Imagine.”
It was not Benson and Borsuk’s first attempt at songwriting together. In 2001, inspired by the unity and compassion of the American people following the events of Sept. 11, the two men crafted the song “We Are America,” and distributed it to families, survivors and rescue workers. The response was phenomenal, and they have received numerous awards and a ton of press since, as well as an invitation to participate in The Voices of September 11th’s annual memorial luncheon at Ground Zero in New York City. The CD will also be included in a Sept. 11 time capsule at the Smithsonian Institute.
Benson, a politically aware and opinionated — though not offensively so — man of faith, grew up in the 1960s when music and activism went hand in hand. A fan of parody and music, the idea to rework a song as culturally powerful as “Imagine” came naturally. Finding Lennon’s message to be a tad unrealistic, Utopian even, he decided to keep the overall theme, but inject a little common sense into it, and thus, “Try to Imagine,” a protest song for the present, came into being. “Try to imagine that your country, wasn’t in disarray/that the politicians that you vote for, would do as you say,” sings Benson, on location throughout the city of Ventura, clothed in his Lennon costume, in a video available on YouTube. The video was shot and edited by Benson’s son Kenneth, who plays guitar for the local rock band Dirty Words.
“We all feel the system is broken a little,” says Benson. “Under Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama . . . people are feeling it.” While the song is a gentle bipartisan wake-up call to U.S. citizens, its scope is meant to be broader. “Part of it is about government, but part of it is reflecting on humanity — wouldn’t it be great if all people worked together to make a better world?”
Ultimately, Benson would like to use the song and video to raise money for worthy causes, but he needs more hits on YouTube. Borsuk is a professional singer-songwriter who has worked with the likes of Spencer Davis and Andre Crouch, but Benson is not. He has a smoke, fire and water damage clean-up business (which is how the two met) — and their collaboration is not a money-making venture in the least, but, “to be a good philanthropist you have to be a capitalist,” says Benson. “If you don’t have anything, you can’t give anything.” Realistically idealistic? Perhaps that is the place where Kevin Benson and John Lennon meet. Where hearts and minds merge in that same spirit of freedom that causes a small boy and a rock star to stop time together in pursuit of happiness.
To learn about “We Are America,” visit www.weareamericasong.com.
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Comments
Horrible....simply frightening and awful.
Blasphemy. Are you attempting to kill John Lennon again?
YOU SHOULD BE TRIED FOR ARTISTIC ATTEMPTED MURDER.