Can Led Zeppelin save the world?

Some "world citizens" with an ambitious stated goal, "to save our planet," are organizing a two-day concert to be held this September in Toronto. And they want Led Zeppelin to reunite for the event.

In fact, the organizers of the "Imagine Concert for World Change" want Led Zeppelin to reunite so badly that they have already obtained a double-neck guitar for Jimmy Page to play and even had a representative of the Mohawk Traditional Council bless it.

According to the description of a video posted to YouTube on Monday:

This sacred guitar will give birth to 3 other sacred instruments, each representing the four directions of the medicine wheel. Attached to the instrument is a medicine bag and an eagle's feather[.]

After rubbing the medicine bag which contains white magickal medicine, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham will be given special powers to unite humanity for healing Mother Earth.

During his spiritual invocation, the tribal cleric chanted and shook the medicine bag in front of the guitar. In the company of a prayer circle, he then intoned, "We ask that the energy flow through this instrument to bring back to our Mother Earth the true spirit of the great law of peace."

Artie Kornfeld is one of two primary organizers, and he's probably best known for being one of the four guys behind Woodstock back in 1969. For the Imagine Concert, the other primary organizer is David Kam, who says while narrating the YouTube video, "If Led Zeppelin reunites for our Imagine concert, who's to say that the whole world can't come together to save our ailing planet?"

Also in the video, the Mohawk representative says, resolutely, "If I gotta call Jimmy Page myself and tell him to play this guitar, then that's what I'll do."

It turns out that Led Zeppelin is rather central to the concert's aims. David Kam posted on his Twitter feed on June 19, "Seems led zeppelin is pretty important to the 7 fires prophecy. 96 year old william commanda grand chief of north american natives is coming." More details about how Led Zeppelin fits in with this prophecy are contained in the YouTube video's description:

IMAGINE: 2 Days of Love & Music is a unity gathering of millions of world citizen's to save our planet, led by native and indigenous elders from around the world. This will help fulfill the 7-Fires Prophecy foretold for hundreds of generations by native and indigenous nations.

Then the 8th fire can be ignited with the magickal music of Led Zeppelin!

The Imagine Concert's official website, imagineconcert.com, brands the event with a Woodstock theme. It is billed there as "2 Days of Love & Music," and the text of a press release promises:

It is anticipated to be a similar gathering of people as was Woodstock 1969, which took place over 40 years ago. If you missed Woodstock 1969, then IMAGINE in September 2010 is the place to be.

The original Woodstock logo combined a white dove, itself a symbol of peace, perched atop the headstock of a guitar being played. The Imagine Concert's logo (shown at right) plays off of that visual, overlaying a peace sign with the headstock of a guitar. Among other images seen in the logo are the face of a dove, the outline of a heart, and wings that could belong to either an angel or a dove. Incorporated into the logo are the words "The spirit of Woodstock '69 returns!"

The Imagine Concert logo is in ways also similar to that of the Show of Peace, a much-delayed concert that already has some backing from Jimmy Page. Once scheduled to have taken place in Beijing this April after having gone through a long history of being scrubbed in various locations over several years, the Show of Peace has been slated for Oct. 10 in Beijing. The new date was part of an announcement issued little more than a month before the April 17 was scrapped. Since then, no official word has been issued about what artists have confirmed they would play at the Show of Peace, and all that appears on the concert's official website at showofpeace.com is the same wish list of "target artists to be invited" that could be seen at least seven months ago.

The Imagine Concert has already suffered the same fate of having been rescheduled several times.

• One plan was for the concert to be held later this month, coinciding in theory with the international G-20 Toronto Summit being held June 26 to 27. "Organizers soon realized there weren't enough cops to both protect the world leaders and secure their concert site," David Fleischer wrote for the local website Torontoist in February.
• The planned dates of July 10 and 11 were scrapped in favor of two unspecified days falling sometime within the 30-day window of September.

An official (and undated) press release for the event says:

IMAGINE "2 days of LOVE & MUSIC" will blend messages of peace, love, sustainability and a call to action to end poverty on the 10th anniversary of the UN Millennium Development Goals. This festival will inspire 5 generations, offering an opportunity to attend the event to change the world; it will be a happening you will never forget.

Discussions with legends of Rock-n-Roll in the music industry are taking place to solidify performances at the festival. Details about the performance line up will be announced at the upcoming press conference in approximately three (3) weeks, date to be announced.

The Imagine Concert shares a sustainability theme with the Show of Peace, which features prominently the holistic equation "Peace = Green + No War + Water + Food + Health + Education." The sustainability aspect to the Imagine Concert:

The Green Expo will present seminars, messages from highly respected speakers and companies raising awareness to natural and green products and services.

As organizer David Kam announces in the video:

"The reason why it's called World Citizens Gathering is because we don't care about what the leaders think anymore. Now it's up to us, citizens of the world, to come together to save our planet."

But Kam must realize that it's much easier said than done. His Twitter feed contained this remark on June 19:

"We are the underdogs. Worlds largest concert organizer and ticketing company out to shut down our event for charity. David vs Goliath"