{"id":807907,"date":"2020-05-29T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T14:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=1006307"},"modified":"2020-05-29T08:00:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T14:00:48","slug":"carlos-santana-cindy-blackman-santana-cover-john-lennons-imagine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/carlos-santana-cindy-blackman-santana-cover-john-lennons-imagine\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Santana, Cindy Blackman Santana Cover John Lennon\u2019s \u2018Imagine\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Carlos Santana<\/a> and his wife, drummer Cindy Blackman Santana<\/a>, covered John Lennon\u2019s \u201cImagine\u201d to raise money to feed those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Carlos and Cindy partnered with WhyHunger \u2014 an organization founded by Harry Chapin in 1975 \u2014 and SongAid, a global platform that allows artists to donate proceeds to charities. The cover also appears on Cindy\u2019s upcoming album, Give the Drummer Some<\/em>, slated for mid-September release.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow more than ever, it\u2019s important that we all come together to ensure no one in our world goes hungry,\u201d Yoko Ono said in a statement. \u201cI am excited that Cindy Blackman Santana<\/a> and Carlos Santana\u2019s beautiful rendition of \u2018Imagine\u2019 is helping to kick off this important campaign and bring my late husband John Lennon\u2019s vision of a peaceful world, free from hunger, to this critical cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beginning Friday, SongAid will release a weekly playlist of songs by artists contributing to the cause, with proceeds going to WhyHunger\u2019s Rapid Response Fund.<\/a> In addition to \u201cImagine,\u201d other tracks on this week\u2019s playlist include Tom Morello\u2019s \u201cSave the Hammer for the Man,\u201d Darryl \u201cDMC\u201d McDaniel and the Hellraisers\u2019 \u201cI Was Born\u201d and \u201cTake the \u2018A\u2019 Train\u201d by the Silkroad Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma. Future artists to appear on playlists include Wilco, Steve Miller and more.<\/p>\n

Carlos and Cindy called Rolling Stone<\/em> from their home in Hawaii \u2014 where they\u2019ve been hunkered down in quarantine since March \u2014 to discuss the cover, life in isolation and the future of Santana. \u201cThis is the time and the place to say that John Lennon was ahead of a lot of people with \u2018Imagine,’\u201d Carlos says. \u201cIt\u2019s about love and love alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why did you choose to cover \u201cImagine\u201d? <\/strong>
Cindy<\/em>: We were in the studio with Narada [Michael Walden] and every song that we had done up to that point was original. He said, \u201cIf you were going to cover a song, any song, what song would it be? What are your top three?\u201d And this was my top one [laughs]<\/em>. I love the simplicity of the song. I think it\u2019s really beautiful. It\u2019s a message that we need, especially now.<\/p>\n

Did you guys talk to Yoko about it?<\/strong>
Carlos<\/em>: No, not outwardly. Inwardly, yes.<\/p>\n

Cindy<\/em>: We didn\u2019t talk to her about it, but we did get the thumbs up of approval when she heard it. She said she loved it, so we\u2019re really honored.<\/em><\/p>\n

What kind of impact do you think the song has on the pandemic? <\/strong>
Carlos<\/em>: People are invited to use their imagination because imagination is a muscle. John Lennon and George Harrison, they had a different vista awareness of collective consciousness commonality; it\u2019s not that that Paul [McCartney] doesn\u2019t or Ringo [Starr] doesn\u2019t. But as you can tell by the songs John wrote, they transcend. They hang with immortality in a different way.<\/p>\n

I truly believe that John Lennon was a warrior reincarnated with war paint on his face, but he wanted to create peace. In other words, when you have war paint on your face, it means that you\u2019re not afraid to die and you don\u2019t take crap from anybody. So to me, John Lennon is the warrior and George Harrison was a spiritual peace warrior and I admire both qualities immensely.<\/p>\n

Why did you decide to partner with WhyHunger?<\/strong>
Cindy<\/em>: This is the first chance that I\u2019ve had, and I believe that Carlos has had, to work with them. We are very impressed because their mission statement is stated in their title: What they want to do is feed people.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve noticed that they\u2019ve been very diligently trying to put together these song releases; our song will be the lead track of this campaign. They\u2019ve been working really hard. We love their integrity and we love their work ethic and we love the fact that they are doing this for the right reason.<\/p>\n

Cindy, what is it like to prepare to release an album in the middle of a pandemic?
<\/strong>Cindy<\/em>: It actually feels necessary. Carlos\u2019 sound and energy is uplifting as soon as you hear it.  It touches your core, it touches your heart. That, coupled with the lyrics that we have, the songs that we\u2019ve chosen, and the overall energy of the record \u2014 it feels like it\u2019s right to release it now because we want to uplift people. We want to help raise the vibration of every single person and every single piece of creation on this planet and in this realm.<\/p>\n

And so we really feel that this is the right time to release this record. We\u2019re motivated by helping, uplifting and inspiring people. Showing people that they are light and helping them feel their own heart centers and cores, because that will uplift the vibratory frequency of everyone else.<\/p>\n