Two-tune Tuesday

It's Tuesday. It is also hard to put any other piece of sentence-ending punctuation to the end of that sentence.

One cartwheel over the quicksand curve
of Tuesday to Tuesday and you’re gone,
summering, a ship on the farthest wave.

- from The Young, by Roddy Lumsden

It is, however, not snowing or icing, and the temperature hovers at a fluctuating 33°-34° F (1° C) as I drive in this morning. I set my alarm for 4:00 this morning just in case, to check for snow or ice and what that might portend for the college on this week of fall quarter finals. One quick look told me I could safely slide back under the warm covers for another hour or so.

The worst thing possible on a very cold winter early-morning is having to get out of a warm bed. The best thing possible on a very cold winter early-morning is getting to go back into a warm bed. So it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

A two-tune playlist was all I got this morning, since both tunes were long running. Nick Cave's O Children is a tune I could easily let repeat over and over. A lot has been written about the lyrics in this tune, with interpretations running the gamut of children in concentration/labor campus to the legacy one generation imposes on the next. I have no idea what the song is supposed to convey, but it is wonderful music.

Then Charlie Haden's recently (2005) reconvened Liberation Music Orchestra did a nearly 17 minute medley around America the Beautiful from the Not In Our Name album). Haden brought the group back together to record a message of protest to the politics of the Bush II presidency and, in particular, the actions being taken by the US against other countries. Charlie uses the music to articulate a different definition of patriotism and to make the statement that what was (then) currently taking place was not being done in our (collective) name or with our blessing.

That is the history of this ensemble, albums of protest and declaration, mostly about military action abroad. The band on this album is a veritable who's who of jazz greats and the music is wonderfully rich and powerful.

So only two tunes this Tuesday morning, but two wonderfully rich and powerful tunes.

Today's playlist:
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, O Children
- Charlie Haden, America the Beautiful (Medley)


- Posted via Hermes.