"Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King" --James Taylor

Four men on the balcony
Overlooking the parking lot
Pointing at a figure in the distance
Dr. King has just been shot
And the sirens long melody
Singing Savior Pass Me Not
                       -Paul Simon


"So Beautiful or So What" by Paul Simon, sung by Paul Simon

Video by PaulSimonVEVO

Right, so this song is not about Martin Luther King Jr.'s life or his dream, but as Paul Simon told Mojo Magazine, "'So beautiful or so what' is a valid question when you're facing the enormity of the infinite. Or pure Love," which makes it clear where Dr. King's death comes in.

***

It's news to precisely no one that Paul Simon is Jewish, with a musical career that began when he started singing with Art Garfunkel when they were both 13. In the six decades (or so) since then, he has picked up 16 Grammys (out of 35 nominations); was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; landed in the top ten of Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time; and was the first to win the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, among other honors--and gifted us with classic song after classic song.




I'll come back to Paul Simon again in the future, but for today I want to bring a second song, which is a beautiful tribute to Dr. King's dream: James Taylor's "Shed a Little Light". James Taylor isn't Jewish, but this cover is a joint effort by the Maccabeats (who are!) and Naturally 7, and Taylor called it "One of the best covers of 'Shed a Little Light' that I've heard," and no wonder:

Video posted by Maccabeats Video and Naturally 7-Topic

Comments

Post a Comment

Note: Unfortunately, comments left when using Safari disappear into the ether. Chrome seems to work, though, which I’m sure is a total coincidence. Thank you for going that extra mile!

Popular posts from this blog

Thank you, all those who have served in our military!

Image
When I went Googling searching my memory for songs appropriate to Veterans Day, I found I had pretty much the same problem I had looking for appropriate Memorial Day songs--lots and lots of lists of patriotic songs, but not so many that highlighted servicemen and -women. So I thought I would present serviceman Irving Berlin's complaint about army life during WWI, "Oh, How I Hate To Get Up in the Morning": Video posted by MuricaForever Since I've already written about Irving Berlin in posts about "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade," I thought I'd just bring you Irving Berlin himself, singing his own song. And now here's what he had to say about writing it: There were a lot of things about army life I didn't like, and the thing I didn't like most of all was reveille. I hated it. I hated it so much I used to lie awake nights thinking about how much I hated it. [But] I wanted to be a good soldier. Every morning when the bugle...
Read more

It's the first night of Chanukah!

Image
In honor of which, I bring you two--yes, two!--Chanukah songs. The first is "Candlelight," sung by the Maccabeats (in their first viral video): Video by Uri Westrich The melody is by Taio Cruz (although he thought it was for a song titled "Dynamite"), and he is not, to the best of my knowledge, Jewish. The parody lyrics, however, are by two members of the Maccabeats (an a cappella group formed of current and past Yeshiva University students), David Block and Immanuel Shalev , and if they (and the singers) are not all Jewish, someone made a serious mistake in their university application. And in case you were wondering about the lines in "Candlelight" that runs: We say "Ma'oz Tzur" Oh, yeah, for all eight nights, that is my second song, a very traditional Chanukah song--"Ma'oz Tzur," sung here by students of Israel's Technion *: Video by Technion This traditional melody for "Ma'oz Tzur" has been...
Read more