Tribute’s Mixed Message

It’s probably unfair to now judge every all-star pop tribute show against the standards of the recent “Tribute to Heroes” telethon, but still there are lessons to be learned by doing so.

First up: “Come Together: A Night for John Lennon’s Words and Music,” which aired live Tuesday from New York on the TNT cable network and some WB stations. (KTLA-Channel 5 here broadcast the Dodgers-Padres game.)

The telethon and the tribute had some similarities: length (two hours), performances of Lennon’s most memorable song (“Imagine”) and strong ties to an earlier era in rock ‘n’ roll (the ‘60s and ‘70s).

The crucial difference is that the Sept. 21 telethon had a single, overriding vision and a unique presentation, while the Lennon tribute never quite made up its mind what it wanted to be and utilized a far too conventional format.

Planned before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the tribute initially was to be taped Sept. 20 and aired on Lennon’s birthday, Oct. 9.

After the attacks, tribute organizers, including Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, decided to push it back a week and go live. They should have pushed it back much further to give them more time to settle on a tone.

Despite moving moments, including Shelby Lynne’s show-stopping version of the gripping “Mother,” the tribute’s impact was undercut by its attempt to salute Lennon’s music and message of peace while also honoring the firefighters and police officers who lost their lives in the World Trade Center tragedy.

Where the songs on the telethon fit the theme of struggle and resilience, several of the Lennon tunes performed Tuesday had no noticeable connection to that concept.

Host Kevin Spacey tried gamely to bridge the gap by expressing his rage about the attacks and stressing that Lennon may have been a “Liverpudlian by birth” but he was “a New Yorker by choice.” Spacey even sang (gulp) a version of “Mind Games,” as if trying to personally give the evening a defining moment.

Yet, the schism remained, inviting second-guessing at several points.

When Dave Matthews sang the poignant “In My Life,” it would have been more touching and universal to show tender scenes related to the attack instead of Lennon’s childhood photos.

The staging marked a return to the world of show-biz convention too soon after the inspired setting of the telethon, where the musicians performed on a sound stage with no studio audience. That allowed all viewers to feel equally close to the stage, but on Tuesday we went back to the annoying award show-type cutaways to celebrities (from Carson Daly to Richard Gere) in the Radio City Music Hall crowd.

Generally, the most effective moments were the intimate ones, including the teaming of Rufus Wainwright, Moby and Lennon’s musician son, Sean, on the gorgeous, humanistic “Across the Universe.” Alanis Morissette’s unlikely choice of “Dear Prudence” also served as an endearing message of hope, complete with an uplifting chant of “we can work it out” at the end.

Nothing Tuesday, however, matched the memory of the sheer, transforming beauty of Neil Young singing “Imagine” on the telethon. There were good intentions at every turn Tuesday, but sometimes they aren’t enough.

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“Come Together: A Night for John Lennon’s Words and Music” repeats at 11 tonight on TNT and at 8 p.m. Saturday on KTLA-Channel 5.