Well, I’m back in America, the land I love, and the city that made me, New York. After 48 hours of near continuous travel by boat, car, and plane, I’ve made it home to Brooklyn. Over the last five months I’ve been to Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Bangkok, and Railay Beach in southern Thailand. For someone who has never left the USA before, and never really planned to, it was an eye opening experience. I found people in the Australasia region to be both extremely warm and friendly, and positive to Americans especially because they love Barrack Obama. Thanks Mr. President for making Americans cool again overseas. I’ve also arrived just in time for the American Spring, which will lead right into summer, giving me 3 summers in a row, suck it winter. I’ve only been in New York for 24 hours, but I’m already looking for a new apartment, been invited to a musical, and eaten the most delicious NYC bagel I’ve ever had. To celebrate even further, I’m posting John Lennon’s performance of “New York City,” from his fabled Madison Square Concert live performance. I’ve already linked to performances of “Come Together,” “Mother,” and “Cold Turkey,” from the same concert, so it doesn’t hurt to keep globbing on more of the same Lennony goodness. Anyway, it’s good to be back, and it’s good to be home, and I look forward to resuming my daily activities of providing you with the best rock and roll music in the world.
Revolution, liberty, discovery, and moral courage. These were themes prevalent in Ted Kennedy’s eulogy for his brother Bobby, after his insane assassination in 1968. Drawing directly from one of Bobby’s greatest speeches, Ted quoting Bobby, said that, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Well, I don’t know about you, but that’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard or read. To me, it encapsulates the frontier thinking that marked the cultural and social revolutions going on in the 1960s. Bobby originally gave that speech in apartheid afflicted South Africa in 1966, where racism and intolerance were raging. Ted’s eulogy for his brother was also perhaps his finest moment and speech, summing up his brother’s life by stating that “his brother not need to be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life,” and that “he be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, and saw war and tried to stop it.” It’s at this point, where Ted’s voice begins to quaver, and he delivers Bobby’s greatest thought ever, “some men see things as they are, and say why, I dream things that never were, and say why not.”
I watched President Obama’s speech on jobs last night. It stirred something very emotional in me. It wasn’t because the speech was so wonderful, though I thought it was one of Obama’s better oratories, but perhaps because I too am unemployed. I was laid off last May from a job that I worked at for four years. I performed the job with excellence, always achieving the highest raise in my yearly reviews, and winning the praise and respect of my coworkers and bosses. It wasn’t a great job; it paid poorly, and there was little room for advancement, but it did cover my bills and provided me stability in a fierce economic climate of doom and gloom. I also naively thought the job was recession proof because of my low pay and high competence, but like millions of others, I was laid off because they claimed that they couldn’t afford to keep paying my health insurance. At least that’s what I was told. Obama’s speech last night moved me, and I hope his leadership is strong enough to see it through, but the insane political circus of the day fills me with doubt. Politically, I believe in great leaders. I believe in leaders who can inspire and touch the masses with truth and courage. I believe in leaders who demand excellence from themselves and excellence from their country, and the world. I believe in leaders who feel heavily the weight of the awesome powers they seek, and who knowingly carry the terrible responsibility such powers demand once they possess them. This is why Robert F. Kennedy is my hero. He represented all of those things, and elevated political discourse into poetry of the highest magnitude. He embraced all people, and never spoke down to any audience. He also never pandered to audiences, as he was unafraid to tell them the truth even if it made him more unpopular. The more I learn about Robert F. Kennedy, the more sad I become contemplating his senseless killing. What’s amazing is that Robert Kennedy felt this same sadness when Martin Luther King Jr. was brutally assassinated. Not only did he feel sadness, he felt a responsibility to face a justifiably irate crowd of black Indianans and offer what little solace he could. He didn’t speak down to them, or tell them that rioting or thoughts of revenge were wrong, instead he persuaded them to examine the tragedy not through a prism of violence, but through a prism of peace. Eluding to his brother John’s death for the first time in a public forum, he quoted the Greek poet Asechylus, “even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom, through the awful grace of God.” His entire speech was unprepared and eloquent beyond any other leader’s ability. I think if he lived, and was elected president, he could have been another Lincoln. Sadly, his greatest bond with Lincoln, was his untimely death brought about by the bullet of a madmen. Enjoy this video of Robert F. Kennedy, and expect another update on the man tomorrow.
Soul week grooves on with part 84 of my youtube countdown. Today I have Marvin Gaye, the Prince of Soul, singing “The National Anthem” at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game. For my money, this is the greatest National Anthem ever, slightly better than Jimi Hendrix’s psychedelic Woodstock performance. Marvin managed to turn the normally stuffy and militaristic anthem into a smooth soul jam complete with the most seductive beat and vocal delivery ever achieved for the song. There is just too much to love about this video. I love the way he sexualizes the song, driving every woman in the crowd absolutely crazy. I love the way the NBA arena reflects off his large sunglasses. Most of all, I love the way he squeezes all that emotion from his performance to the point where he looks like he is going to cry. The most amazing feat of the song is that Marvin’s version somehow reflects the entire history of cultural cool that America has produced in its history, not just its military glory and political power. It’s almost a personal anthem, reflecting Marvin’s sad yet sexy soul. Whatever it is, its a pure wonder, and an essential listening experience. Enjoy. Oh, PS, expect more Marvin this week.
