Crooks, Liars, and Love
My daily routine usually begins with a quick look at the news and then a tour of few blogs. This before I have even brushed my teeth. Pitiful (but I know you probably do it too!)
Crooks and Liars is currently my favorite political blog (man, there are a lot of good left-leaning blogs these days). I like C&L for three simple reasons:
• the entries are concise roundups of other stuff from all over the web
• many entries include video (in both wmp and quicktime formats) that really often makes the point
and most importantly
• John Amato, C&L's creator, posts an eclectic mix of music videos at the end of each evening
The night before last, Amato put up a link to George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps from the infamous Concert for Bangladesh. He also posted an alternative version performed by Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Prince that really is good.
I prefer Harrison's acoustic version (see embedded video below). The video is both heart-tugging tribute to Harrison as well as a reminder of all that we've lost since the 60s (although I am certainly glad fashion has changed).
The music embedded in C&L is a nice respite from the complete disintegration documented in the other posts. But somehow While My Guitar really struck accord and forced a lump in my throat.
Harrison's message is painfully simple and dead on: Love. In the era of grandly stupid and selfish control and violence, reinvesting in love is the only way out. The paradox is (and I think the Beatles got a lot of shit for this) it is hard to turn love into political action. Fear and anger are better motivators perhaps.
Needless to say, Amato's music choices recently have grounded me and got me to think about the bigger picture. As Kurt Vonnegut explained (in describing his epitaph):
The only proof he needed for the existence of god was music
5 comments:
Thanks for the video, Greg. Although I'm a huge Beatles fan, I hadn't seen that particular version of "While my Guitar Gently Weeps." The last verse was especially poignant, and isn't in the original on the White Album.
I'm curious why you call the Concert for Bangladesh infamous. I know that I've kept my head buried fairly deeply in the sand, but I haven't heard a critique of it.
Dennis
It's not a critique, Dennis, just a dig a Lipi. I was telling her yesterday that all the animosity between Pakistan and Bangladesh has had nothing to do with Bangladesh's independence and Pakistan's brutal use of force in the war. My theory is Pakistan is just jealous of Bangladesh because they have a song named after them by a former Beatle. Inside joke. Sorry about that.
well put.
OMG, Greg! I finally got around to watching the Petty, Lynn, Prince cover. Out-freakin'-standing.
By the way, did you see George's son in the background playing acoustic?
Dennis
It's great. And Prince! I love at the end how he walks off after throwing his guitar into the crowd. His body language says, "Yeah, I just played the shit out of that thing."
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