Jewish Stereo Types

Do you know what you get when you google "Memorial Day songs"? You get lists of patriotic songs, and you get lists of anti-war songs. And I can't see how either of those types of songs are really appropriate for a day that is meant for remembering those that died while serving in the U.S.'s armed forces. So instead, I settled on Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon": Video posted by Billy Joel And while no one sings it like Billy Joel himself, I'm also adding this version by Garth Brooks from the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors, even though it's abridged. If you watch until just past a minute in, you'll see why: Video posted by Jason Eric Mumaw Perhaps this song is a little better suited to Veterans' Day, but I think it serves the memory of our fallen soldiers well. The song was criticized for refusing to take sides on the Vietnam War, but I think that that is its strength--and why it's so appropriate for today. *** Yes, Billy Joel i...

Here's the thing: I couldn't find any good Mothers' Day songs at all. So I tried to find a song about or addressed to the singer's mother that would be appropriate for Mothers' Day and which would also fit my theme, and it turned out to be a little bit of a search. (We'll just leave out the jokes about Jewish mothers, okay? After all, it IS Mothers' Day.) Along the way, I found songs sung by a mama, such as "When You're Good to Mama" from Kander and Ebb's Chicago , and most of the songs from Styne and Sondheim's Gypsy , but much as I'd like to get to Sondheim and Kander and Ebb, these do not seem like quite the right kind of mother songs for Mothers' Day. I also found songs about mama's advice, such as Arlen and Mercer's "Blues in the Night" which were better, but, much as I'd like to get to Arlen, didn't seem to strike quite the right note for Mothers' Day either. Then there's this lu...