Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur Quiz

Answer: Give Peace A Chance

John Lennon wrote this song during the Amsterdam bed-in in 1969, after a reporter asked John and Yoko what they were trying to do. John replied, "All we are saying is give peace a chance." The song was then recorded on June 1, 1969 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada, during the couple's second bed-in.

This song was recorded for "Instant Karma" by Aerosmith, and featured Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars. Another version was recorded by the Puppetmastaz, but was not included on the final release.

Answer: Cold Turkey

"Cold Turkey" was originally recorded by The Plastic Ono Band. In the book "The Love You Make", Peter Brown said that John originally wanted this to be a Beatles song but that Paul McCartney didn't like it. Brown also said that John's inspiration for this song came when he and Yoko gave up their heroin habits cold turkey.

A Lenny Kravitz version of this song was included on the "Instant Karma" CD.

Answer: Working Class Hero

This song was on Lennon's first post-Beatles solo album in 1970. At the time, it was very controversial because it was one of the first popular songs that used the f-word. On the album's liner notes, the word was replaced with asterisks at the request of the record label, and no radio station would play an unedited version of the song.

Green Day recorded this song for the Amnesty International campaign and their version was released as a radio single about six weeks before the CD came out. Singer Billie Joe Armstrong said that the band chose to do "Working Class Hero" because the themes (of class struggle and social alienation) really spoke to them - and he loved the line "you're still [just] peasants as far as I can see".

Answer: Beautiful Boy

"Beautiful Boy" was written for Sean Lennon, John's son with Yoko. It was included on 1980's "Double Fantasy", an album released just weeks before John's murder. It is not to be confused with the song "Beautiful Boys", by Yoko Ono, also included on "Double Fantasy".

"Beautiful Boy" was covered by Ben Harper for this CD.

Answer: Gimme Some Truth

"Gimme Some Truth" was included on John's 1971 album "Imagine" and featured George Harrison on lead guitar. The song's theme about corrupt politicians (especially the lyric that speaks about "Tricky Dicky") became even more relevant a year later when the Watergate Scandal erupted, with President Nixon at the heart of the controversy.

Two versions of this song appeared on the final North American release of "Instant Karma": on disc one, it was performed by Jakob Dylan (yes, Bob's son) featuring Dhani Harrison (and yes, George's son); disc two featured a recording by the Jaguares.

Answer: Imagine

"Imagine", originally released in 1971, described an idea of utopia, which he and Yoko called 'Nutopia' in 1973. The concept 'Nutopia' was a 'country' which had no borders, no passports, and no formal citizenship, among other things. Though the song was very popular, this particular interpretation of utopia was also widely criticized. Church officials and pious members of the population felt that having no Heaven, no Hell, and especially no religion did not equal a utopian society.

This song also had two versions included on "Instant Karma", one by Avril Lavigne (who I think did a fantastic job), and another by Jack Johnson (who did a reasonably good job as well, but substituted the classic piano melody for guitar). Another version by Willie Nelson is available only on the special "Borders" edition of the CD.

Answer: Power to the People

Lennon recorded "Power to the People" as a single with The Plastic Ono Band in 1971. It did fairly well on the charts, but later on John would say that it was actually one of his least favourite songs.

"Power to the People" was performed for "Instant Karma" by the Black Eyed Peas.

Answer: Instant Karma!

John's "breakfast, lunch and dinner" quote comes from the fact that "Instant Karma!" was one of the fastest-released songs in history. He recorded it the same day he wrote it and it was released only ten days later. The song was released as a single in 1970 and was in the top five on charts in the US, the UK and in other parts of Europe. It is one of three John Lennon solo songs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with "Imagine" and "Give Peace A Chance".

On the North American release, "Instant Karma!" was recorded by U2. The international version of the album contained two more versions of the song, performed by Duran Duran and Tokio Hotel. Several other covers were recorded but not used, including ones by The Sheer and The Waking Eyes.

Answer: Happy Xmas (War is Over)

"Happy Xmas" was recorded by John and Yoko in 1971 and featured children from the Harlem Community Choir in New York. The lyrics came from a campaign that the Ono-Lennons did in December 1969, in which they appeared on posters and billboards in eleven cities around the world with the caption "War is over! (If you want it). Happy Christmas from John and Yoko".

No versions of "Happy Xmas" appeared on either the North American or international release of "Instant Karma", but the song was recorded by Anjelique Kidjo for "Borders", the special edition of "Instant Karma". Maroon 5 also recorded the song for the "Make Some Noise" campaign, which is available for download online, but was not included on the CD.

Answer: (Just Like) Starting Over

The song was included on 1980's "Double Fantasy" album and was the first single released from it. John chose it as the first single, because he felt that it was the most appropriate, as it was his first new song since 1975. "(Just Like) Starting Over" was Lennon's biggest American hit, and it came posthumously; it was number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for five weeks in 1981.

"(Just Like) Starting Over" was recorded for the Amnesty International project by The Flaming Lips.

Answer: Whatever Gets You Thru the Night

"Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" was Lennon's only number one hit in the US before "(Just Like) Starting Over". It featured Elton John on piano and backing vocals. John took the title from a quote he heard from Reverend Ike, a television evangelist - "Let me tell you guys, it doesn't matter. It's whatever gets you through the night."

This song was done by Los Lonely Boys for "Instant Karma". No version of it was included on the international release, but a second one was recorded by Les Trois Accords and is available through iTunes.

Answer: Jealous Guy

John was known to have severe jealousy problems, both with his first wife Cynthia and then with Yoko. The song was written for Yoko, both to apologize for the jealousy and to try to explain that that's just the way he was. Wikipedia cites this song as being one of the most commonly covered John Lennon songs - at least ninety-two versions are known of.

Youssou N'Dour recorded "Jealous Guy" for "Instant Karma". The song was also covered by k-os, but it was not included on the final cut of the CD.

Answer: Mother

"Mother" dealt with the theme of abandonment, specifically the feelings that John had of his parents abandoning him. His father left the family when John was an infant and then his mother was killed by a drunk driver when John was a teenager. Other songs written for John's mother include "Julia" and "My Mummy's Dead".

"Mother" was covered by Christina Aguilera, who did a fantastic job, in my opinion. An iTunes bonus track of "Mother" is also available, as recorded by Emmanuel Jal.

Answer: #9 Dream

"#9 Dream" was on the 1974 album "Walls and Bridges". The weird repeated line in the song is "Ah! bowakawa pousse, pousse?" The song followed the theme of John's obsession with the number nine. Among other pieces of evidence, his birthday was October 9, his son Sean was also born October 9, he met Yoko on November 9 (1966), and he also wrote songs called "Revolution 9" and "One After 909".

For the "Instant Karma" campaign, "#9 Dream" was recorded by R.E.M. for the US release, as well as the international release which also included a version by A-ha.

Answer: True

The rights to use John Lennon's songs, as well as the rights to the publishing royalties, were donated by Yoko to Amnesty International. The campaign was started as the "Make Some Noise" project, which encouraged musicians to perform and record covers of John's classic tunes, and it eventually gained enough popularity for a two-disc album to be put together.

It was released in June 2007 (the 12th in North America, the 25th in Europe). Said Yoko of the project: "It's wonderful... music that is so familiar to many people of my era will now be embraced by a whole new generation." Larry Cox, executive director of AI, added that a new generation using John's songs to campaign for peace and world order is a notion that would have made John very proud. Though personally, I think John would've been a lot more proud if our world had made more progress towards peace and order, and his songs needn't still be socially relevant 30 years later.