Pophistory: music, movies, history, and life.
We looked back at another Tom Petty song recently, so let us revisit another old Petty classic with a new lead singer. In Amsterdam recently, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder joined Petty and the Heartbreakers on stage to sing “The Waiting.” Petty focuses on his guitar playing to let Vedder sing the 1981 song. Check it out.
The performance is from 24 June 2012 at Music Hall.
Who would you like to hear sing with Tom Petty? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
On August 23, 1927, Massachusetts executed Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolemeo Vanzetti. The two admitted anarchists were Italian immigrants executed for the 1921 murder of a person during an armed robbery of a shoe company paymaster.
The fish-peddler and shoemaker had no prior criminal record when they were arrested for the murder. But they were prosecuted during a period of anti-immigrant and anti-radical sentiment, and many aspects of their trial were unfair.
The judge overseeing the proceedings saw the two men as “anarchist bastards,” but others rallied in support of the accused. At the time of their execution, protests were held at many places around the U.S.
Many still believe to this day that the two men were innocent of the crime. Also, there have been recent arguments that only Vanzetti was innocent. There is a Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society that works to keep the case in the public eye, and there is an exhibit about the case at the courthouse in Massachusetts.
Many years after the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, folk-singer Woody Guthrie found some kinship in the plight of the two men. In the mid-1940s, he worked on a project of several songs about Sacco and Vanzetti to tell their story.
One of the songs in the cycle is “Two Good Men.”
Like Guthrie’s song about “Tom Joad,” which we discussed previously, “Two Good Men” is a story song. “Two Good Men” focuses on the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Although the song is not as complete and detailed as “Tom Joad,” it contains many details.
Some of the details in the song include the names of the judge (Webster Thayer) and the people who prosecuted the two men: “I’ll tell you the prosecutors’ names,/ Katsman, Adams, Williams, Kane.”
In addition to the details of the case, in “Two God Men” Guthrie also focuses on connecting the execution to the labor movement of his day:
All you people ought to be like me,
And work like Sacco and Vanzetti;
And every day find some ways to fight
On the union side for workers’ rights.
Supposedly, Guthrie was unsatisfied with his cycle of songs about Sacco and Vanzetti. Eventually, he gave up on the project.
Fortunately Guthrie’s songs about Sacco and Vanzetti were not lost. The founder of Folkway Records Moe Asch, who had commissioned the songs, went ahead and released the unfinished product.
Guthrie was probably right that “Two Good Men” and the other songs did not live up to his best work. I prefer folksinger Charlie King’s song about Sacco and Vanzetti with a similar name, “Two Good Arms.” But Guthrie also was right that we should continue to remember and fight against injustices.
{Woody at 100 is our continuing series celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie on July 14, 1912. Check out our other posts on Guthrie and the Woody Guthrie Centennial too. }
Photo via public domain.
What do you think of “Two Good Men”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
Scott McKenzie, who sang “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair),” passed away on August 18, 2012. McKenzie, who was 73, had been living with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease that affects the nervous system.
McKenzie’s most famous song as a singer was “San Francisco,” which was released in May 1967 in honor of the upcoming Monterey Pop Festival. The song and became an instant hit.
John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas wrote the song, but McKenzie had inspired him to write it. Phillips and McKenzie had been childhood friends and played music together. McKenzie, who was born Philip Wallach Blondheim III on January 10, 1939, got his stage name after John Phillips’ daughter, the future actress Mackenzie Phillips.
As Monterey was preparing for the festival and concerned about the large crowds, the song was written as a plea to make the event a peaceful one. Ultimately, the event was both peaceful and successful.
The song, of course became a song for a generation and went far beyond that festival. Wikipedia notes that the song became an anthem for young people during Czechoslovakia’s 1968 Prague Spring uprising. The song has appeared in movies such as Forrest Gump (1994) and has been covered by a number of artists.
Note that the song subtitle “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in your Hair)” differs from the line used in the song, “Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.”
McKenzie’s website states that after the song was a hit, “Scott ‘dropped out’ in the late 60’s. In 1970 he moved to Joshua Tree, a California desert town near Palm Springs.”
He then lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia for a decade before touring as part of The Mamas & the Papas into the 1990s. In 1988, he co-wrote the Beach Boys hit “Kokomo” with John Phillips, Mike Love and Terry Melcher.
McKenzie performed off and on until recently, and he recorded “Gone to Sea” in 2009. He had been in and out of the hospital since 2010 and he likely had a heart attack earlier this month. He asked to leave the hospital and died at home . . . in another California city, Los Angeles.
RIP.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
We previously reported on one of the many parodies of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” as it was made into “The Star Wars That I Used to Know.” Well, now Gotye has created a new video incorporating many of the YouTube versions of his hit song. Slate calls it “a delightfully populist response to the popularity of his song.” I think it is just fun.
Gotye’s blog has a list of the videos in his new video.
What do you think of Gotye’s new video? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
Although I rarely write about Russian punk bands on this blog, we cannot ignore the news about three members of the band Pussy Riot being sentenced to two years in prison in Russia. Below is a video taken during their actions that are at issue. On February 21, they staged a protest at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, where they gave their “Punk Prayer” of “Mother Mary, please drive Putin away.”
Band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina appeared in their usual tights and face-covering balaclavas at the sacred place to protest President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox church’s close ties to the leader. The three women, who have already been behind bars for six months, were sentenced today to “two years deprivation of liberty in a penal colony” after they were found guilty of the crime of hooliganism.
As the feminist punk rockers were being taken from the courtroom, Tolokonnikova said, “We are happy because we brought the revolution closer.” A number of prominent people have voiced support for the women, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna, Bjork, Sting, chess champion Gary Kasparov, and Paul McCartney. Amnesty International plans to send a truckload of colorful balaclavas to Putin in protest, while there is a “Free Pussy Riot” webpage too. Others have argued that the issue is more complicated and that most Russians do not support the band. As people around the world protest, though, only time will reveal whether the band’s case has lasting impact.
What do you think of the sentence for the band members? Leave your two cents in the comments. If you are unfamiliar with the band, check out this interview with band members a few days before they were arrested.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
