Veterans Day: Wars and Peace

Billy Joel - "Goodbye Saigon" - It’s Veterans Day weekend and I am trying to imagine what it must have been like for my family members and friends to experience war up close. There are no words to adequately describe my gratitude but there is this Joel song. I consider it to be a tribute. God bless our soldiers.  (B. Rosenbaum)

Barry McGuire - "Eve of Destruction" - The more things change, the more they stay the same…this song was written and performed as a protest song in the tumultuous times of the 1960’s. Topics included (but were not limited to) racial tensions, the threat of nuclear war and distrust of government power. The video images that accompany this link are updated from the 1960’s to the early 2000’s.

"Eve of Destruction" was written by P.F. Sloan in mid-1964. Several artists have recorded it, but the best-known recording was by Barry McGuire. This recording was made between July 12 and July 15, 1965, and released by Dunhill Records. The accompanying musicians were top-tier Los Angeles session players: P. F. Sloan on guitar, Hal Blaine on drums on, and Larry Knechtel on bass guitar. The vocal track was thrown on as a rough mix and was not intended to be the final version, but a copy of the recording "leaked" out to a disc jockey, who began playing it. The song was an instant hit and as a result the more polished vocal track that was at first envisioned was never recorded. (J Gaffney)

Max Roach (with Abbey Lincoln) - "Triptych: Prayer, Protest, Peace" (from Max Roach’s We Insist! - Freedom Now Suite, 1960) - Politics on the brain this week, and last. Here’s a challenging listen, but hopefully worth the effort. This is a selection from Max Roach’s 1960 We Insist! - Freedom Now Suite. This is a duet between Roach (a drummer) and vocalist Abbey Lincoln, on a wordless vocal. You’ll want to brace yourself for the middle of this one; it gets intense. Keep in mind the year, 1960 - this record is one of the first really overt Civil Rights statements in America… for comparison, Sam Cooke’s "A Change Is Gonna Come" and Dylan’s "The Times They Are a-Changin’" were both 1964. (K. Saulnier)

Toby Keith - "American Soldier" - For Veterans Day, I’d like to submit this song from 2003. I do think we lay it on a bit thick with the “support the troops” mantra, but the kids who serve are truly a remarkable bunch. (T. Williams)

Professor Williams does not say that he served for many years in the U.S. Army, that he has trained officers at the Army War College, and continues to work/teach for the Army even after his retirement.  It's a choice he made many years ago knowing, like the people in Toby Keith's song, that he would be away from his family for long stretches of time.  (RBK)

The Guess Who - "American Woman" - My little barb from Canada. (D. Dugre-Martin)

Ms. Dugre-Martin does not inform us that her son currently serves in the Canadian Army and just began a one-year deployment to the Middle East.  Nevertheless, her choice of song for this week comes from one of Canada's most popular rock bands of the 1970s. This version includes the acoustic blues opening from the album - the extremely popular 45 rpm release consisted of only the "electric" version. (RBK)

Rhiannon Giddens - "Last Kind Words" - Hard to find songs from World War I from the African American viewpoint.  This tune, written and recorded in 1930 by Geeshie Wiley - one of only six songs the Ms. Wiley recording her lifetime - is not really a "war song" but can be viewed as a response to the treatment Black soldiers received upon their return home after fighting for their country. According to the website "African American Odyssey", more than 350,000 African Americans served in the "Great War", all in segregated units often led by Black Captains and Lieutenants (by October 2017, over 600 Black officers were commissioned).

Ms. Giddens is one of number of young Black artists who are bringing to light more music from the rural South. (RBK)

Have a great Thanksgiving. No matter your religious beliefs or political bent, we can all use the time to reflect on this and previous years, thanking the people who watch over our cities, serve overseas or here in the US, work in hospitals and hospices as well as nursing homes and in soup kitchens.

Rounding Third, Heading for Home

This blog's title is a line from "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" by the late, great, Chuck Berry and it is apropos for this semester as we have two weeks before Thanksgiving break two weeks after we return, and, then, a week for exams and final papers - in other words, the final third of the Fall semester.

Now that that's out of the way, here's some music!

Photo: Elliot Landy

The Band - "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" - I’m not a fan of The Band, but I listen to a lot of ‘70s music on my satellite radio and after this song played earlier this week it’s been in my head.  I wondered about the lyrics and what it said about us then, about life in 1969 and now.  I wondered whether it was right to continue playing it or whether it was a reminder of our real past.  

I don’t think the song glorifies anything - in fact I think it’s a haunting reminder that war has a steep cost.  It’s a complex topic that defies tidying up.

Here’s a Harvard University Press essay on the subject…it might offer a bit of perspective.  

https://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2012/04/the-night-they-drove-old-dixie-down.html (T. Williams)

(Editor's note: In interviews that I have read with The Band's main composer Robbie Robertson, this song is written from the Confederate viewpoint....and it's haunting.)

Here's a "live" version from The Band's final concert, filmed by Martin Scorcese and released in the movie "The Last Waltz."  

Billy Joel- "I’m in a New York State of Mind" - I was visiting NYC frequently when this song came out. It seemed like all of us knew the lyrics. It’s a song that reminds me of having lunch at Katz’s Deli, sitting in the lobby of the Waldorf people watching and taking the Circle Line around Miss Liberty. (B. Rosenbaum)

(Editor's note - Written when Joel was in Los Angeles, CA, trying to become a pop music star, this song is quite a blues tune. Te composer sings the heck out of it on this track, the original version.)

Queen - "Another One Bites The Dust" - Just saw "Bohemian Rhapsody" and so I nominate “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen. As my wife points out, it’s such an iconic song that you can recognize it within three bass notes. And, the song resonated with the generation it was written for, but still holds up as a fantastic song. (C Hakala)

(Editor's Note - Sure sounds like the quartet has great fun recording this tune and, Lord, it is funky!)

Hippo Campus - "Bambi" - My song submission this week is Bambi by Hippo Campus. This group was in New Haven recently so I went to watch them live and had a really good time. They have been around since 2013, but I only have known about them for maybe a year, and didn't really listen to more of their stuff until I was invited to see them live. (M. Winslow)

(Editor's Note - Don't know much about this band but I do know that they're from St. Paul, Minnesota.  This is a real "ear worm", just like the other tunes that have been posted already.)

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Phil Collins - "Both Sides of the Story" - This is a song performed by Phil Collins and was released in 1993 as the lead single from his fifth album Both Sides released that same year. The fact is, in life there are many sides to most stories: Republicans, Democrats, Independents; Red Sox – Yankees; bosses and subordinates; man and woman. At times it may be easier to see things through one’s own lens and not consider both sides of the story.  This song keeps things simple by presenting only 2 sides or points of view to a few identified issues/topics, but its message can be expanded. We must be curious and investigate deeper information on the messy problems that we face…we must endeavor to see both sides of the story. (J. Gaffney)

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The Band - "Life Is A Carnival" - My turn! I really loved The Band's second album just titled "The Band."  Saw the group live in 1970 as they toured that album and they were pretty impressive.  As they got more popular, the quintet started to fall apart.  But "Life Is a Carnival", from their 4th studio album "Cahoots" is among my favorites of their tunes for all kinds of reasons. Here's a few: 1) - the guitar work and solo; 2) - the amazing blend of voices; 3) - the funky rhythm pushed forward by drummer Levon Helm and bassist Rick Danko and 4) - the wonderful horn arrangement by Allen Toussaint.   This remastered version really makes the song sparkle!  (RBK)