Andy Bell covers Yoko Ono’s Christmas hit ‘Listen, The Snow is Falling’
Ride guitarist and songwriter Andy Bell has released a dreamy cover of the Yoko Ono Christmas classic, ‘Listen, The Snow Is Falling’. The new cover is taken from Untitled Film Stills, the last of Bell’s recent trilogy of EPs, which was released last Friday via Sonic Cathedral.
Bell has issued the cover along with a fittingly festive video (watch below) today as we gear up for the Christmas period. Yoko Ono’s 1971 original served as the B-Side to John Lennon’s ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’.
Bell’s EP trilogy has consisted of remixes, acoustic versions and covers of songs that inspired Flicker, the Ride guitarist’s second solo studio album, which was released in January.
“The song ‘Jenny Holzer B. Goode’ [on Flicker] refers to a few of the female artists from the music and art worlds who I find inspiring – along with Jenny Holzer, others referred to include Laurie Anderson, Yayoi Kusama, Elizabeth Fraser, Cindy Sherman and Yoko Ono,” Bell said in a new press statement. “So, it felt right to cover ‘Listen, The Snow Is Falling’, my favourite Yoko song.”
Bell has deftly recaptured the sentimental, ethereal qualities of Ono’s original recording while stamping some of his own DNA into proceedings. The delicacy of his vocals is accompanied by shimmering guitar layers reminiscent of the shoegaze era. Where Ono’s version closes out with subtle slide guitar runs courtesy of Lennon, Bell brings in a perfectly prominent distorted lead solo.
“The first pop song — if you can say pop song — I ever wrote was ‘Listen, the Snow Is Falling,’” Ono once told The Tennessean of the track. “I did that before [Lennon and I] got together. Then, when we got together, I made it into a real pop song. When you see the original, you couldn’t pick out why it was a pop song.”
I’m not usually one to rave about Christmas songs, but this is the best I’ve heard in a long time. Bell was right to consider this Ono at her best and was certainly right to treat us to this wonderful cover. If I were in control of the universe, this would be Christmas number one for 2022. Alas, I’m not; it will undoubtedly fall upon yet another odious earworm.
The accompanying video was designed and filmed by Chris Tomsett (Innerstrings) and features Bell busking in Crouch End, North London, in his trademark poncho and Japanese fighter pilot hat. During the shoot, Bell was filmed busking for half an hour in between showers of rain, and by total coincidence, he was handed a pound and a Shoegazer badge by a passerby.
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