JK joins in sweet remembrance of Mary Travers

[Luftmensch067]

In a four-hour memorial at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, two dozen speakers, including Whoopi Goldberg, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and the former senators George S. McGovern and Max Cleland, praised Ms. Travers as a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, a supporter of civil rights and a role model for young women.

Senator Kerry, before thanking Ms. Travers for her support of his campaigns over the years, commented on the solidly left-leaning bent of the speakers as well as of the audience.

"I think if Mary were here," he said, "she’d look out at all of you and say this is like a class reunion of the Nixon enemies list."

Theodore Bikel, the actor and singer, pithily tied together Ms. Travers’s roles as political activist and glamorous pop-music touchstone. "There were other people besides Mary who taught us that dissent was right and dissent was just," he said. "But only Mary taught us that dissent was also beautiful."

more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/arts/music/11travers.html?_r=1

[wisteria]

1. How nice. n/t

[YvonneCa]

2. "Leavin' on a jet plane"...

..."don't know if I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go."

Boy, does THAT bring back memories... :(

[Inuca]

3. Memory lanes

are hard to walk on at times, I know....

[MBS]

4. lovely story, thanks

And JK's quote was great! :evilgrin:

[MH1]

10. "reunion of the Nixon enemies list" - LOL

I thought that was great too.

[BlueIris]

11. That made me giggle, too. nt

[beachmom]

5. The answer, my friend, is Blowin' in the Wind ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t4g_1VoGw4

I grew up with their music.

[karynnj]

6. That had to be a lovely event for all present

I love the comment that Mary taught us that dissent was also beautiful. It really was with the gorgeous, heart felt protest songs of Peter, Paul and Mary.

Blowing in the Wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t4g_1VoGw4

Peter Yarrow's Great Mandella
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpIh68Kh_-s

(While looking for "Last Night I had the strangest Dream", which I couldn't find video from Peter, Paul and Mary, I found this cool site with a list of the best peace songs - http://current.com/items/89572109_the-list-of-best-all-time-peace-songs.htm

I bet more people are won over by the idealism and beauty of the message delivered this way than by angry screams, 4 letter words, and bashing everyone not 100% in the same position you are.

Not to mention, Puff, the magic dragon, ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wik2uc69WbU&feature=related ) which made an appearance in the 2004 primaries when Peter Yarrow campaigned with Kerry and the Republicans were upset that no one cared that Kerry pretended to puff on an imaginary joint. What I wonder is how much the support of Peter, from PPM, helped Kerry get some of the antiwar vote.

[beachmom]

7. I totally agree. It reminds me of this line from Tom Lehrer:

Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs.

http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/t/tomlehrer3903/thefolksongarmy185496.html

This is why the anti-war movement in the 21st century has been a bust. They were filled with extremist radicals like Answer, while not having ANY GOOD SONGS. I mean really, the only decent song was "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks, and that was really an argument for dissent, not a peace song. Well, there was Bruce Springsteen as well, but it just didn't gain traction.

All of this, of course, is related to the fact that radio is so terrible these days. Even if there are decent songs of the caliber of Bob Dylan, what are the chances we would ever hear it on FM radio?

(Remember, Bruce Springsteen's new music gets ZERO radio airplay, which is less about politics and more that his new music doesn't fit into their extremely narrow formats. They play his old stuff because it is "classic rock", but his new stuff simply has no home on radio today.)

[YvonneCa]

8. There were a few songs...

...but they received almost NO coverage/play. Many artists sang them during LIVE EARTH concerts...and even that was barely mentioned by so-called 'news' organizations. Melissa Etheridge, for example, had a fantastic reception from the audience, yet no one played her music later on. Sad.

[karynnj]

9. Interesting

There really is very little music on the radio compared to the 1960s - and the stations have incredibly narrow formats. In the 1960s, when Dylan or the Beatles came out with a new song it immediately was heard by millions. It is hard to imagine how a song would get that kind of audience now even if every power that exists loved it.

Even here in NJ, where Bruce Springsteen really is the boss, there was no airplay of his newer music. (I'm still mad that Christie used "Born to Run" as the music before his acceptance speech. Christie, by the way, is a huge Springsteen fan claiming to have gone to 140 concerts by 2004 - when he wrote a local op-ed about still liking Springsteen in spite of his tour for Kerry, which he said he didn't attend because he feared being shown on the jumbotron - though I doubt anyone would have recognized him. You wonder if he has ever listened to Bruce's words. I doubt he will ever get a Springsteen pic, much less a guitar!)

[beachmom]

12. For a long time, I just thought our culture had gone downhill. That

must have been why there didn't seem to be any good music anymore (or very little). Then this past summer, I discovered that the internet is a great place to find good new music. It ends up there really is a cultural renaissance going on, especially in the indie rock category, but since radio won't play it, it is kind of like a tree falling in a forest and no one hearing it. Like it never existed.

I shouldn't condemn ALL radio. National Public Radio is an excellent place to discover new music.

http://www.npr.org/music/

Other than that, internet radio is just wonderful, plus reading reviews by ezines like Pitchfork, Metacritic, and Pop Matters.

If I may proselytize, check out Fleet Foxes!! Very 60s retro, yet it sounds new. If you love Peter, Paul, and Mary as well as Crosby, Stills, and Nash, plus the Byrds, take a listen:

http://www.lala.com/#album/360569445171207776/Fleet_Foxes/Fleet_Foxes

(You can listen to the entire album once through on La La. After, if you want it on your computer only, the entire album costs $.99)