“How Do You Sleep?”

Upon entering the wonderful world of youtube.com this evening I damn near suffered from a brain aneurysm. In the group of videos recommended on the home page, I was introduced to Jesse McCartney’s “How Do You Sleep” video.

Any John Lennon fan would see that artist’s name grouped with that song title and think the same thing I did:

“Are you fucking kidding me? Paul McCartney has a snot-nosed kid covering (or responding to) John Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep’ song?”

For anyone who doesn’t know, “How Do You Sleep” is something of a battle track aimed at Paul McCartney off of John Lennon’s “Imagine” album. It is one of my favorite battle-ish tracks of all time. Not only did John Lennon attack the government, military, government, and the concept of “god” while doing it with incredible melody and production during his solo career, but he lays into Paul McCartney with dis tracks and response tracks. Does he do it for obvious reasons or personal reasons most of us could never understand? Who cares. It’s great.

“a pretty face may last a year or two. But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do. The sound you make is muzak to my ears. You must have learned SOMETHING in all those years. Ughhh….how do you sleep? Ughhhh…how do you sleep at night?”

Here’s the full song if you haven’t heard it before:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCJhe9E1Wlo[/youtube]

For those who don’t need the little history lesson, you’ve skipped ahead to this part. Well here is the “How Do You Sleep” song by Jesse McCartney:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1RC7AxpD9c[/youtube]

For those who decided to skip the video altogether, you may have missed the fact that it features Ludacris. This cameo, for some reason, added validity to my fear that this guy actually has some clout and that this song is in reference to the John Lennon’s song with the same title.

Well…it’s not. Kid…I researched this shit. I put my journalistic training to use and I surfed the rough waters of the internets until I came up with cold hard FACTS. Boom bam. You’re welcome! This Jesse McCartney dude is not related to Paul McCartney. Not only that, but he is probably totally unfamiliar with John Lennon’s song. I suspect his career and the song title is a failed attempt by whatever collective of schmucks tried to manufacture a hit with this twat.

According to wikipedia:
“Jesse Abraham Arthur McCartney (born April 9, 1987) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. McCartney rose to fame in the early 2000s as member of the boy band Dream Street. He subsequently branched out into a solo career, having appeared in the television series Summerland.”

Why the hell did I waste part of my life (and possibly yours) dissecting something that doesn’t matter at all to anyone? Because after a long day of work I tried finding something enjoyable on youtube, but instead my head almost exploded.

If nothing else, I hope I introduced some people to the wonderful solo work of a highly under-appreciated John Lennon album.

Also, to make this hip-hop related, I’m amused by the fact that Ludacris will seemingly do anything if the money is right. Or maybe he was obligated to appear on this kid’s track due to a Mickey Mouse contract. Friends and contemporaries of mine swear that Luda is dope and I can understand why they think that. However, the Lennon spirit in me tells me otherwise.

Tell me. Tell me.
How do you sleep at night?