Mumford & Sons teamed up with Elvis Costello to record a unique version of Bruce Springsteen’s 1995 song “The Ghost of Tom Joad” for the agit8 campaign to raise awareness for poverty just before the upcoming G8 summit. Several other artists, including Sting and Green Day have recorded other protest songs for project.
According to Rolling Stone, Costello and the group added a verse from Woody Guthrie’s “Do Re Mi” for their version of the Springsteen song.
“We wouldn't know what to say, so it's quite helpful to have music that says things for you,” Marcus Mumford said in a video for the track.
The Associated Press reports that Sting, Green Day, Ed Sheeran and many others have recorded other classic songs for the agit8 project. The album is available to download starting today. Sting recorded a new version of The Police track “Driven to Tears,” while Sheeran covered Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War.”
Tom Morello, fun., will.i.am, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and Kid Rock also contributed.
You can learn more about the project here. It was set up by Bono’s One Campaign.
The G8 summit is set for next week in Northern Ireland.
image: YouTube