Song 537: This week on the playlist you can hear He Was My Brother by Simon and Garfunkel, written by Paul Simon, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Not long after Sounds of Silence got everyone's attention around the beginning of our freshman year of HS, in the fall of 1965, my best friend got copies of the first 2 Simon and Garfunkel LPs, and when their next 2 albums came along, he quickly added them to his collection, so I got to know their music quite well during my HS phase. Whenever I would visit my buddy, he would play his S&G 33s while we hung out in his room. Listening to this cut, I figured that Paul had written the piece as a way to express solidarity with the brave souls fighting against racism in that era of the civil rights struggle, and I respected him for doing so. However, my research for this bit today taught me that Paul actually had been close friends with one of the three courageous activists killed by KKK-linked cops in Philadelphia, MS, in 1964, for the crime of trying to help enable African Americans to vote. At a point now where, a week after adding Won't Get Fooled Again to this playlist, we seem to have arrived at the Meet the new boss, same as the old boss moment, a certain low-level racist named Joe will soon replace a certain high-level racist named Donald, as one of the core plagues of our culture continues on with no end in sight. 56 years ago Andrew Goodman died so his brothers could be free, and yet, they still are not, and our latest election gives no indication of when, if ever, they could be.
No comments:
Post a Comment