Tag: U2

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day News: From D.C. to Burma

martin luther king jr. autobiography Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, and Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in the United States. Below are some recent stories related to the holiday. For more history on the holiday, as well as Stevie Wonder’s birthday song for the great man, check out this Chimesfreedom post on MLK Day.

– The National Park Service will correct a paraphrased quote on the Martin Luther King Day Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. The chiseled quote is not only an inaccurate quote, but the change makes it sound like a boast: “”I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” King actually said in a 1968 speech, “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

– Occupy Wall Street activists plan to honor King.

– The Grio noted that some people prefer to celebrate Robert E. Lee’s birthday on the King holiday.

– The Milwaukee Courier wrote about “the New South” and the legacy of King.

– Slate has some newly discovered photos taken at the Lorraine Motel around the time King was killed.

– Amnesty International considers what King would think about today’s criminal justice system and what he had to say about capital punishment.

– The Huffington Post collects a number of quotes from MLK. Hopefully these are more accurate than the one chiseled in stone on the memorial.

– Finally,  consider U2’s song “MLK,” the final song song from their Unforgettable Fire (1984) album.

In thier 2009 performance, U2 dedicated the songs to Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who for fifteen years was under house arrest in Burma to suppress her struggle for democratic freedoms. I think King would have been happy to share his song with her. I think he’d be even prouder to share his birthday weekend this year with Burma’s release of a large number of dissidents and the government signing a cease fire with rebels. Walk on.

  • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On “Meet the Press” After Selma-to-Montgomery March
  • MLK Shot This Morning, er. . . Evening
  • Martin Luther King Jr. on “The Merv Griffin Show”
  • Martin Luther King Jr.: “The Other America”
  • The Tragic Civil Rights Hero Clyde Kennard
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and “We Shall Overcome”

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

    Pop Culture Roundup for Late October 2011

    Below are links to some of the latest pop culture stories you might have missed. . .

    Halloween

    Prince Charles
    The new Dracula costume?

    The Chicago Tribune‘s listed the top 25 scariest movies for Halloween.

    Batty? Prince Charles claims he is related to Dracula.

    Salon is featuring a slide show of the top ten Halloween special moments from The Simpsons.

    Zombies rise again in pop culture. Wait, what’s that at my door. . . arrrrrr.. . .


    Literature

    Renovation of Edgar Allen Poe’s cottage in the Bronx, where he wrote “Cask of Amontillado,” is almost finished.

    Did you know the original Pinocchio is a tragedy that ends with Pinocchio’s execution?


    Movies

    The Guinness Book of World Records named Samuel L. Jackson as highest grossing actor of all time. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness.

    “He’s brought the theater of the absurd to the masses.”- Jack Black on Will Ferrell receiving Mark Twain Prize.

    Check out this review of new documentary about the band The Swell Season, which features Once stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

    Tim Burton has designed a balloon for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

    A new biography delves into the life and career of Spencer Tracy.

    The Princess Bride cast reunited for a recent photo shoot.

    Washington Cougars Clock
    Betty White is now a Cougar.

    Television

    Betty White received an honorary doctorate degree from Washington State Univ. She’s a Cougar now.

    Survivor’s Rupert Boneham is running for governor of Indiana.

    Music

    U2 revisits Achtung Baby while pondering the band’s future.

    Listen to Tom Waits’s new album, Bad as Me on the NPR website.

    “I love to be in a barbershop where I know I don’t have to get a haircut.” — Tom Waits in interview about new CD.

    The Flaming Lips will pay tribute to Steve Jobs by playing “Revolution” by the Beatles at the O Music Awards.

    One writer gave a nice appreciation of Extreme’s “More Than Words” . . . with words. (from Popdose)

    If you are a fan of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, you should check out this person’s blog.

    Folk-singer Pete Seeger enters his ninth decade as an activist.

    The iPod turns 10 this month. How has it changed music?


    What are your favorite pop culture stories this month? Leave your two cents in the comments section.

  • Mississippi John Hurt: “Lonesome Valley”
  • The Heroic Death of Folksinger Victor Jara
  • Springsteen and Hansard “Drive All Night”
  • Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle
  • U2: “City of Blinding Lights” at Obama Presidential Center
  • “There’s No End to Grief, That’s How We Know There’s No End to Love”: The Story of U2’s “One Tree Hill”

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

    MLK Shot This Morning, er. . . Evening

    U2’s powerful song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” commemorates this date in 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in town to support striking sanitation workers, and the day before he had given his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.

    U2’s song, which was from The Unforgettable Fire (1984) album, recounts the assassination:
    U2 Unforgettable Fire
    Early morning, April 4
    Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
    Free at last, they took your life
    They could not take your pride

    The shooting occurred at around 6:01 p.m. on this date, so why does “Pride (In the Name of Love)” refer to “early morning”? I have seen various explanations.

    Some wondered whether at the time of the shooting, the band was in Dublin.  In that city, the time is six hours later than Tennessee time, making it just after midnight and “early morning” in Ireland. But then the date for them would have been April 5, and the song still has the correct Tennessee date of April 4.

    The time change could have been poetic license, but most likely it was an error.  Perhaps the error occurred due to Bono’s memory of when he heard the news.

    Sources note that Bono eventually recognized the mistake years later and began singing “early evening” instead of “early morning.” For example, in U2’s performance at the 2009 concert to celebrate the inauguration of Pres. Obama, Bono sang the “early evening” lyrics.  Most recently, on U2’s Songs of Surrender release of new recordings of old songs including “Pride (In the Name of Love),” Bono again used the “early evening” line.

    This energetic Chicago performance also uses the historically accurate time of day starting at around the 2:15 mark:

    John Legend recorded a moving version of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” for King (2008), a series on the History Channel. His version, which also appears on the CD Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement, is less bombastic than the U2 version, but it is still powerful.

    Legend replaces the “early morning” line with the words “late afternoon.”  Thus, he gives us a third time option in the lyrics to “Pride (In the Name of Love).” Check it out, with the time of day mentioned at around the 2:20 mark.

    Unfortunately, I listened repeatedly to the U2 albums The Unforgettable Fire (1984) and Rattle and Hum (1988).  So,I always expect to hear “early morning” as in the original music video.

    Either way, it is still a great song about a great man. And, the time of day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed is much less important than what he accomplished in his life in the name of love.

  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and “We Shall Overcome”
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day News: From D.C. to Burma
  • “There’s No End to Grief, That’s How We Know There’s No End to Love”: The Story of U2’s “One Tree Hill”
  • Springsteen and Bono Sing “Because the Night” in Dublin
  • Martin Luther King Jr. on “The Merv Griffin Show”
  • Martin Luther King Jr.: “The Other America”
    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

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