Alanis Morissette’s music video (R) for “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” is inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-ins (L). Image: screengrab via YouTube/Yoko Ono, Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette is spreading the Christmas cheer with her family in the music video of her cover of the classic John Lennon Christmas song, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).”
The song, released in 1971 by the John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band, came after years of peace activism by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. After they got married in March 1969, the couple spent their honeymoon in an Amsterdam hotel and staged “bed-ins” to protest wars. Footage of their bed-in in Montreal was used in a documentary called “Bed Peace” by Ono.
Morissette’s video is inspired by those bed-ins: clips include her and her family snuggled together, with the poster “bed peace” hanging on their window, akin to that of Lennon and Ono’s protest. The posters “war is over” and “if you want it” are also seen on the window — Lennon and Ono’s slogan as they campaigned for world peace.
Home videos of Christmastime and clips of family and friends singing in their own homes were collected and incorporated as a whole for Morissette’s version, resulting in an endearing video, and which may be refreshing for those who only know of the Canadian rocker’s angsty roots in the 1990s.
The song cover comes also as Morissette’s breakthrough rock album “Jagged Little Pill” turned 25 this year. It is among the biggest bestselling albums worldwide, bearing the hits “You Oughta Know,” “Ironic,” “Hand in My Pocket” and “Head Over Feet.”
Morissette was scheduled to perform in the Philippines last April 6 and 7, but the shows were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The concert dates have been moved for next year, Dec. 7 and 8, 2021. JB
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