Month: May 2014

Guilt: not an American tradition

Germans feel guilty for something that happened long before they were born. As far as I am aware Americans do not actively feel bad about what happened to the Native Americans.

guilt1From Quora, in answer to What do Germans feel about Holocaust movies, international student Johannes Adams gave an intriguing answer. His parents are German, though he was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. He’s a citizen of both Germany and the US and is fluent in both German and English.

Shame is an emotion that almost all Germans will feel when considering the last 100 years.We are ashamed of what our country, our forefathers and possibly even our grandparents did. And for good reason.

The Holocaust will forever remain a crime that words cannot, and should not be able to describe.

But here for me exists the main problem, and please bear with me even if it sounds morally disturbing and despicable. The German people have embraced their past, doing their best over the last 70 years to make amends to humanity and work towards a peaceful world .

We Germans accept the crimes of our people and country, allowing the collective guilt that exists already to pile up without an argument. We carry it, without protest, we feel guilty for something that happened long before we were born. As far as I am aware Americans do not actively feel bad about what happened to the Native Americans, in my experience my friends get quite hostile and defensive when I broach this topic. I think every current country and its people have something to be ashamed of, but usually these things are omitted from text books and generally hushed up.

But for the Germans, we continue to be told by all how horrible we were…

Germans should continue to feel differently towards the Holocaust even as history will continue to obscure and grey the horrid events of the past. Likewise I believe that the general trend of making 3rd generation Germans feel bad for things that they had nothing to do with must stop.

On the primary point: I think he is right that Americans don’t, and apparently never have, collectively felt guilt over the genocide of the American Indians or slavery or internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II. It’s just not who Americans were/are. They are a “let’s move on” sort of people.

The truth and reconciliation process, in South Africa after apartheid, and in Rwanda after the terrible genocide of the mid-1990s, isn’t the American way, I don’t think. Had it been so, perhaps the problems of previous generations might have been ironed out, and we would not live in a country so racially polarized, still.

Joe Cocker is 70

The Cocker version sounds sexy, whereas Randy Newman, who wrote it, makes it sound a tad sordid.

Joe_Cocker_-_The_EssentialNeed to note the significant birthday of Joe Cocker, a great UK interpreter of other people’s songs in an R&B style. He’s #97 on Rolling Stone’s list of Greatest Singers of All Time.

On my Top 10 roster of favorite songs by Cocker are three Beatles tunes. Most of the songs on this list, plus a ton more, are located HERE.

10. Cry Me A River, which you can hear HERE.
Like many of his great songs, it appears on the Mad Dogs & Englishmen album, the only one of his I own on vinyl.

9. You Can Leave Your Hat On – The Cocker version sounds sexy, whereas Randy Newman, who wrote it, makes it sound a tad sordid

8. Darlin’ Be Home Soon – Lovin’ Spoonful cover

7, Many Rivers To Cross – there’s a version that appears on a Coverville cover story at 94:15; the whole Joe Cocker section starts at 40:45.

6. Delta Lady – Leon Russell wrote this about Rita Coolidge; both appear with him on Mad Dogs

5. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window – took a snippet of a Beatles song from the second side of the Abbey Road LP and made it a real song

4. Feelin’ Alright – actually, the first version of this song I heard from Three Dog Night, but the original was by Traffic.

3. With A Little Help From My Friends – when they make lists of greatest covers, songs that are so transformative that you almost forget the original. One must consider this song from Sgt. Pepper, originally sung by Ringo. Like most people, I first became aware of Cocker’s version via the Woodstock movie and soundtrack album. It ranks so (relatively) low on this list from overexposure, including as the theme song to the TV program The Wonder Years.

2. The Letter – letting that Box Tops hit and letting it breathe

1. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away. I LOVE the background singers on this song from the movie Help! Here’s another link.

S is for the Staple Singers

This century, Mavis Staples, who was the primary voice on so many of the Staple Singers’ songs, has been putting out several well-received albums.

Staple-SingersA major competitor of Motown serving up black music in the United States in the 1960s and early 1970s was STAX Records, which I wrote about extensively HERE.

One of the great groups on the label was The Staple Singers, “an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck “Pops” Staples (1914–2000), the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha (1934–2013), Pervis (b. 1935), Yvonne (b. 1936), and Mavis (b. 1939)… While the family surname is ‘Staples’, the group used the singular form for its name, ‘The Staple Singers’.”

They had appeared on other labels before joining STAX, releasing songs such as For What It’s Worth [LISTEN], a cover of the Buffalo Springfield hit, that went to #66 in 1967 on Epic Records.

LISTEN to:
When Will We Be Paid (1970 – a description of the song HERE)
Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha Na Boom Boom) (#27 in 1971)
Respect Yourself (#12 in 1971) – my favorite song of theirs
I’ll Take You There (#1 in 1972) – my second favorite
If You’re Ready (Come Go with Me) (#9 in 1973)
Let’s Do It Again (#1 in 1975) – their big hit on Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label, after STAX’s demise
The Weight, with The Band, from the 1976 movie The Last Waltz

They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

This century, Mavis Staples, who was the primary voice on so many of the group’s songs, has been putting out several well-received albums. The first one I picked up was 2007’s We’ll Never Turn Back. “Produced by roots rock and blues musician Ry Cooder, it is a concept album with lyrical themes relating to the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Upon its release, We’ll Never Turn Back received positive reviews from most music critics. It was also named one of the best albums of 2007 by several music writers and publications.”

LISTEN to:
99 and 1/2
I’ll Be Rested

“During a December 20, 2008 appearance on National Public Radio’s news show ‘Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me,’ when Staples was asked about her past personal relationship with [Bob] Dylan, she admitted they ‘were good friends, yes indeed’ and that he had asked her father for her hand in marriage.” She ultimately said no, because the interracial relationship would have been too difficult back in that period.

Finally, LISTEN to a live version of Wrote a song for everyone, a tune from her 2010 album You Are Not Alone. That album was produced by Jeff Tweedy of the band Wilco.

 

ABC Wednesday – Round 14

Marcia on the bridge

When she lived in in Binghamton, her name was pronounced MAR-sha, but since the sojourn South, she became mar-SEE-ah.

Marcia Green on the Clinton St Bridge

This is a picture of the younger of my sisters, Marcia when she was about four. I THINK the dress was pink.

She’s standing on the Clinton Street Bridge that crosses the Chenango River in Binghamton, NY; the shot is from Front Street heading downtown. We crossed that bridge a LOT on our way visiting my mom at work.

As I’ve noted before, she’s been wading through the photographs, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia. As the youngest, she was was the only one of the three kids who moved to Charlotte, NC when my parents moved there in 1974, though I did live there briefly in 1975, and Leslie, on her way to Puerto Rico, stayed there for a time.

When she lived in Binghamton, her name was pronounced MAR-sha, but since the sojourn South, she became mar-SEE-ah. Took me a couple of years for my brain to fully embrace the change.

One of the things Leslie and I always marveled about was Marcia’s memory of the details of our childhood. She recalls people and events that have long escaped us. She’s becoming the family historian.

Anyway, it’s her birthday, so I just want to wish her a happy natal day!

40 Years Ago: The crooked student government elections

Draped across the McKenna Theater was this massive banner which read: MIKE HIRSCH HAS CULTURE.

voteUnlike in high school, where I was reasonably popular (student government president, drama club, et al), I was rather uninvolved in college; getting married at 19 will do that. I didn’t hang out at the bars and drink; the age of consent was 18 then. I just went to class, and came home, did the grocery shopping and like chores, I would go bowling occasionally with guys I knew, primarily my fellow political science majors.

In the spring of 1974, a bunch of my poli sci acquaintances decided to run as a team with some other folks, who I’ll call the Party and Dance folks. They figured they would capture the beer crowd (the poli sci) and the pot folks (P&D).

But there were eleven slots, but they had only ten folks willing to run. So my buddy/classmate Richie was tasked with recruiting me. I said yes, at least partly out of guilt – I was so disconnected from extracurricular campus life – perhaps with of the idea that participation would look good on the resume.

I was to run for Cultural Chairman (sic). Five areas were in the budget, and the cultural area was to fund the arts activities and the various clubs. I recollected that there was no real competition in any race except for one, and you can guess which one. Draped across the McKenna Theater was this massive banner that read: MIKE HIRSCH HAS CULTURE. I figured I had lost the race. It’s not as though we had debates on the issues; it was a popularity contest, he had name recognition, and I did not.

But the rumor mill was rife with reports of rampant voting irregularities, with some people casting their ballots more than once. Since I was what was likely the only competitive race, I reached out to Michael Hirsch. We met somewhere for coffee or tea. He seemed like a good guy. We agreed that since we didn’t know WHO was rigging the election, that neither of us would challenge the results. As it turned out, everyone on my ticket enjoyed large majorities, except for me, who won narrowly.

Two years later, I became the election commissioner. I hired a townie (non-student) friend of mine named Anne Sergeant to sit at the ballot table. She was instructed to mark their student ID cars in the 37 square on the back. She discovered that several people came back throughout the day to vote again, but she shut them down. And since she wasn’t a student and was unknown to most of them, she couldn’t be talked into letting them vote again.

Several years ago, I thought about this incident and wondered what became of Michael Hirsch. Unfortunately, Mike Hirsch, an advocate for services to people afflicted with AIDS, died of complications of the disease in February 1989. “He was 34 years old and lived in Manhattan.”

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