Barenaked Ladies Assemble 'Junk' For McCartney Tribute

By DARREN DAVIS, Launch.com, September 6th, 2001.

Vocalist-guitarist Steven Page and keyboardist Kevin Hearn of Barenaked Ladies joined with Stephen Duffy of the Lilac Time for a rendition of the Paul McCartney solo track, "Junk." The collaboration will be included on the tribute album Listen To What The Man Said: Popular Artists Pay Tribute To The Music Of Paul McCartney, due out October 9.

Hearn told LAUNCH how he and Page approached the cover version: "I don't know. I think he probably went and got the lyrics, and he came in with a little Casio keyboard, and we used the drum machine on that because we wanted to keep it very simple and we also wanted the instruments to reflect the title of the song, too — just use instruments that you'd find lying around the house, you know?"

Hearn added that he had been playing the track since he was a little kid: "I kind of just went ahead from where I had been playing it for so many years. It probably mutated a little bit. " The keyboardist added, "We didn't actually listen to the original track. I just went in and laid it down from what I can remember."

Barenaked Ladies have a few shows scheduled for the end of the month, and the band is readying their Greatest Hits collection for release November 13.