History Archives - Page 7 of 32

A Humbug Pill, a Dose of Dope, And a Great Big Bill

How Can a Poor Man On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast near New Orleans, Louisiana. The hurricane and its after effects devastated the city and surrounding areas along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

The following year, Bruce Springsteen visited New Orleans and performed his version of the song “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live.” He used the first verse from the original by Blind Alfred Reed. But then he added three new verses that focused on the situation in New Orleans.

Springsteen’s lyrics criticize the federal response to the emergency, invoking President George W. Bush‘s trip to the area: “He took a look around, gave a little pep talk, said ‘I’m with you’ then he took a little walk.” At his performance in New Orleans, he introduced the song with a reference to the “Bystander-in-Chief.”

Springsteen released his version of “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” on We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (American Land Edition) (2006). Below is the original version of the song by Blind Alfred Reed, who wrote “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” in response to the Great Depression: “When we pay our grocery bill,/ We just feel like making our will.”

Reed, who lived from 1880 to 1956, recorded his version in New York City on December 4, 1929, less than two months after the stock market crash. Check it out.

Ry Cooder also recorded a variation on Reed’s original version, releasing it on his self-titled album in 1970. Musically, one can hear how Cooder’s version apparently influenced Springsteen’s version.

Check out this video of Cooder’s 1987 performance of “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California.

Unfortunately, it seems like we will always need songs like these. Fortunately, we have artists like Reed, Cooder, and Springsteen to keep challenging us.

Photo of Hurricane Katrina via NASA (Public Domain). Leave your two cents in the comments.

Springsteen’s “Long Walk Home” and the Alienating Feeling of Election Results

Bill Cowsill & The Blue Shadows: “Deliver Me”

10 Thoughts on Bruce Springsteen’s “Only the Strong Survive”

Local News Coverage of Bruce Springsteen in 1978

Belgians Reach Out to Bruce Springsteen With “Waiting on a Sunny Day”

“Satan’s Jeweled Crown” & Bruce Springsteen (Cover of the Day)

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

And Rosetta Stoned Me

British Museum On July 19, 1799 near the town of Rosetta, Egypt, a French officer named Pierre-François Bouchard found a large black basalt stone with writing on it. The stone included three languages that said the same thing in Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Egyptian demotic. Scholars thus discovered that the “Rosetta Stone” was the key to interpreting the long-dead written language of hieroglyphics. The stone would eventually become important for interpreting and understanding ancient Egyptian culture.

What Happened to the Rosetta Stone

Napoleon Bonaparte’s armies during the Egyptian campaign took control of the stone. But the British soon took it from the French when they defeated Napoleon in 1801.

The next year, the British placed the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, where it has remained through today (except for a brief period during World War I), including earlier this year when I visited the British Museum in London and took the photo above.

“And It Stoned Me”

I do not know what Pierre-François Bouchard thought when he first saw the Rosetta Stone. But because of Napoleon’s orders to look for artifacts, Bouchard knew he had found something. I do wonder if he had any idea of the impact the rock would have on the world.

If Bouchard knew how important it was, the discovery surely must have “stoned him,” an expression used by Van Morrison in “And It Stoned Me” from his Moondance (1970) album. Below, Morrison performs the song on June 18, 1980 at Montreux.

Van Morrison has explained that “And It Stoned Me” is about an experience he had as a twelve-year-old kid on a fishing trip. During the trip, an old man gave him water from a spring, with everything seeming to stand still in the moment.

In its original review of Moondance, Rolling Stone saw the water in “And It Stoned Me” as rain. The magazine recounted that the song is “a tale of boys out for a day’s freedom, standing in the rain with eyes and mouths open, heads bent back.” The review concluded, “The sensuality of this song is overpowering, communicated with a classical sort of grace.”

The magazine described the song in the same way that Bouchard might have felt upon seeing the Rosetta Stone: “you feel the exhilaration almost with a sense of astonishment.” When I visited the Rosetta Stone in London, I felt some of that astonishment too.

In honor of this date’s discovery of the Rosetta Stone, take a moment to feel a little exhilarated from both mystical experiences and for human beings’ ongoing quest for knowledge.

Photo via Chimesfreedom. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Wonderful Redwood Tree

“It’s All In the Game”: The Hit Song Co-Written By a Vice President

Who Was Poor Old Johnnie Ray?

Van Morrison: “It’s a Long Way to Belfast City Too”

Van Morrison Reworks Songs as “Duets”

Love, Sex, Death, and Springsteen’s “Sha La La”

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Gettysburg in Four Minutes

Pickett's Charge

During the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1, 1863, ending on July 3, the date of Pickett’s Charge. The three-day battle between Union and Confederate armies was the largest military fight in North American history. Additionally, it was an important turning point in the war and led to ten famous sentences by President Abraham Lincoln.

In the video below, Historian Garry Adelman recounts the story of the battle on the fields of Pennsylvania, including how the conflict started by accident. And he does it all in less than five minutes. Check it out.

For more about Gettysburg, check out this video about the soldiers who gathered for the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the battle.

Painting: “Hancock at Gettysburg” by Thure de Thulstrup, showing Pickett’s Charge, restored by Adam Cuerden.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

The Honored Dead and the Gettysburg Survivors

Lee’s Surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House in April 1895

General John Sedgwick and His Last Words

Harriet Tubman and the $20 Bill

The Civil War and Conan O’Brien

“The Abolitionists”: A PBS Series That Makes Things Personal (Short Review)

(Some Related Chimesfreedom posts.)

What a Beautiful Day!

Song Gay Marriage
Hearing Jim Obergefell on CNN today talking about the Supreme Court decision holding the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage could melt the hardest of hearts. The case had started out with Obergefell seeking to have his name on the death certificate of his partner of twenty years. His fight came out of his love, which made the victory all the more sweet.

So, tonight even though up until President Obama we have never had a president say that they supported gay marriage, we have a White House lit up in rainbow colors. And it is hard not only to think of those who can now get married, but also to think of those through the years who did not live long enough to see this day. And one hopes that this decision will aid the ongoing progress, helping teenagers who have historically felt ostracized.

I cannot think of a better song for the day than “What a Beautiful Day,” by Australian singer-songwriter Brett Every and featuring Belinda Crawford. The song and video recounts a beautiful day of two people proclaiming their love while supported by friends and family.

“What a Beautiful Day” is from Brett Every’s album Tales of Ten Men (2012). The song won the Outmusic Awards 2012 Love Song Of The Year.

Somebody to Love

Shelby Lynne Sings “Down Here” For Kids Facing Discrimination

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

The Human Costs of World War II

World War II Deaths

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along the coast of Normandy, France to fight Nazi Germany. Many died or were wounded that day, including 9,000 Allied soldiers. One cannot think about D-Day without thinking of the great loss of life, and a new video explores the human costs in military and civilian lives during the Second World War.

This new 17-minute documentary, The Fallen of World War II, does an excellent job of conveying the sheer numbers of the human loss during World War II. The video by Neil Halloran is an enlightening look at the cost of war.

The Fallen of World War II first examines the number of deaths of people in the military, then it calculates the deaths of civilians, including those killed as part of the Holocaust. Finally, the video compares WWII with other world conflicts, comparing recent years to the historical record. Check it out.