MLK Shot This Morning, er. . . Evening

U2’s powerful song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” commemorates this date in 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in town to support striking sanitation workers, and the day before he had given his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.

U2’s song, which was from The Unforgettable Fire (1984) album, recounts the assassination:
U2 Unforgettable Fire
Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

The shooting occurred at around 6:01 p.m. on this date, so why does “Pride (In the Name of Love)” refer to “early morning”? I have seen various explanations.

Some wondered whether at the time of the shooting, the band was in Dublin.  In that city, the time is six hours later than Tennessee time, making it just after midnight and “early morning” in Ireland. But then the date for them would have been April 5, and the song still has the correct Tennessee date of April 4.

The time change could have been poetic license, but most likely it was an error.  Perhaps the error occurred due to Bono’s memory of when he heard the news.

Sources note that Bono eventually recognized the mistake years later and began singing “early evening” instead of “early morning.” For example, in U2’s performance at the 2009 concert to celebrate the inauguration of Pres. Obama, Bono sang the “early evening” lyrics.  Most recently, on U2’s Songs of Surrender release of new recordings of old songs including “Pride (In the Name of Love),” Bono again used the “early evening” line.

This energetic Chicago performance also uses the historically accurate time of day starting at around the 2:15 mark:

John Legend recorded a moving version of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” for King (2008), a series on the History Channel. His version, which also appears on the CD Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement, is less bombastic than the U2 version, but it is still powerful.

Legend replaces the “early morning” line with the words “late afternoon.”  Thus, he gives us a third time option in the lyrics to “Pride (In the Name of Love).” Check it out, with the time of day mentioned at around the 2:20 mark.

Unfortunately, I listened repeatedly to the U2 albums The Unforgettable Fire (1984) and Rattle and Hum (1988).  So,I always expect to hear “early morning” as in the original music video.

Either way, it is still a great song about a great man. And, the time of day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed is much less important than what he accomplished in his life in the name of love.

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    The Lincoln Lawyer (Short Review)

    The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the book by Michael Connelly and starring Matthew McConaughey, is an old-fashioned legal thriller. The story follows criminal defense attorney Mickey “Mick” Haller (McConaughey), a criminal defense attorney who does much of his work out of the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car, as he takes on a big case representing a rich client accused of assaulting a woman. The movie also features Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy, and John Leguizamo.

    The Lincoln Lawyer Movies often depend on your expectations and mood. And if I were grumpier on the day I watched The Lincoln Lawyer or if I had high expectations, I might stress that there are some unbelievable points, and there might be easier ways for the lawyer to handle the legal ethics issues in the movie. Also, the movie features one of my pet peeves of portraying the bad guy as some sort of evil diabolical genius who would fit better in a James Bond movie than in a movie trying to be realistic.

    But those are minor gripes if you just want some fun entertainment. The Lincoln Lawyer is one of those movies where you just have to decide to roll with it. The story is fun, and, as he did in Time to Kill, McConaughey makes an engaging lawyer with a very good supporting cast. While The Lincoln Lawyer is not in the same league as law movies like Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Verdict (1982), or even Tomei’s My Cousin Vinny (1992), it is a fun and interesting ride, like one of the better movies based on books by John Grisham or Scott Turow. In a recent interview, McConaughey mentioned the possibility of sequels following the further exploits of Haller. I would see the sequel, assuming I’m in the right mood that day.

    What did you think of The Lincoln Lawyer? What is your favorite lawyer movie? Leave a comment.

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    Chimesfreedom Blog To Be Made Into a Movie!

    Chimesfreedom Marquee

    We have been waiting to share this exciting news until the papers were finally signed. Chimesfreedom is going to be made into a major motion picture to be released in summer 2013. We cannot reveal too much about the story as the screenplay still needs to be developed further, but the movie will incorporate stories relating to several of our posts as well as the real life drama of blogging.

    We are thrilled with the support and encouragement we have received so far, and the studio is currently negotiating with Aaron Sorkin for screenplay development. As you probably know, Sorkin wrote the screenplay for the recent The Social Network. The producers are still signing up the actors and director for the movie, so look for announcements soon with more details.

    In the early days of this blog, we never imagined this day would arrive. To celebrate, give a listen to “April Come She Will” from Simon & Garfunkel’s famous 1981 Central Park Concert. [Update: For anyone reading this post after the day it was posted, note the date that this information was posted.]

    Who should be cast in the Chimesfreedom movie? Did you know that today’s holiday supposedly has its origins in confusion that resulted from the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar? Leave a comment.

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    All This Science I Don’t Understand: William Shatner

    William ShatnerI enjoy William Shatner’s half-hour talk show on the Biography Channel, Raw Nerve. The show features an intimate conversation with various guests, and I like that Shatner asks each guest to bring an object from home that has some special meaning. William Shatner is not a trained inteviewer, but he is William Shatner and he brings his Shatnerness to each show. Although he interviews a wide variety of guests, a few shows have featured Star Trek alum, and one show revealed Walter Koenig, who played Chekhov on the original series, to be quite thoughtful about his career. It was also interesting to see Shatner struggle with how he has treated other cast members disrespectfully in the past.

    William Shatner, who turned 80 last Tuesday, has a personality that has aged well. He makes a good career of mocking his image as a younger man who was full of himself. One of the best things one can do in maturity is to laugh at one’s younger self.

    Time Magazine recently did a fun feature of The Top 10 Unforgettable William Shatner Moments, only a few of which involve any scenes from Star Trek. One of my favorite moments is from the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, where William Shatner’s performs Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” What is better than one William Shatner? Three William Shatners! The video starts off amazing and just gets better, so make sure you hang around for the second and third William Shatners to appear. Unfortunately, there is no evil Shatner with a goatee but there is a lot of cigarette smoking.

    While his performance of “Rocket Man” above is great because it is funny, Shatner’s cover of Pulp’s “Common People” with Joe Jackson is just a great version of of a great song. I have it on my iPod by choice.

    “It was fun.” — James T. Kirk, in Star Trek: Generations.

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    Buy from Amazon

    Is Your Job Your Life?: Lessons from A Folk Singer & Al Pacino

    U.S. Department of Justice
    The New Yorker recently published a sad story by Jeffrey Toobin about the prosecution of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, and how the fallout from the case affected a young Justice Department lawyer named Nicholas Marsh, who committed suicide. (Casualties of Justice, Jan. 3, 2011).

    The media is all over a story until suddenly the story disappears, and it was that way with the Sen. Stevens prosecution.  There was extensive coverage of the case against Ted Stevens, who was charged with failing to report gifts of reduced rates on renovations to a house. While the case was pending, Stevens lost reelection in 2008. Then the media coverage died down. But the Stevens case did not result in a conviction, and the Attorney General’s Office ultimately asked for all charges to be dropped against Stevens because prosecutors breached ethics by failing to disclose information indicating Stevens may not have been guilty. Stevens died in a plane crash in Alaska in 2010.

    Nicholas Marsh was one of the prosecutors in the Alaska investigation that resulted in nine successful convictions revealing corruption in the state political system. Although Marsh participated in the Stevens case, Toobin wrote that apparently Marsh had nothing to do with the unethical actions by his fellow prosecutors. But because of Marsh’s involvement in the case, officials removed Marsh from his high-esteem position and moved him to a lower-prestige department. Meanwhile, the Office of Professional Responsibility continues to investigate the conduct of the Stevens prosecutors.

    Even though Marsh may ultimately be cleared, the stress from the ongoing investigation took its toll on him. Depressed and unsuccessfully fighting his demons, in September 2010 he hanged himself in the basement of his suburban Washington, D.C. home. Married less than five years, he did not leave a note for his young wife.

    It is tragic to think of Marsh feeling his life was crashing down as his career identity was crumbling. Maybe he could have left town and started over again and eventually been happy again. But one suspects that for whatever reasons he felt like he could not get away.

    In an earlier post about life lessons, Chimesfreedom discussed Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer-Prize winning book, Denial of Death.  In the book, Becker explained that people identify with things — be it possessions, esteem, organizations, sports teams, etc. — to give meaning to their lives and to give us defense mechanisms against our fears.  Many of us identify ourselves by our jobs. And, as has happened frequently to far too many people in the last several years during the recession, if we lose a job we feel we lose our entire identity and our defense mechanism against our fears.

    Railroad Workers The story about the Stevens case reminded me of a song by folk-singer and activist Charlie King.   King is an excellent performer, full of stories and good songs about social issues.  One song, entitled “Our Life is More than Our Work,” has common-sense lyrics reminding us something we often forget when we get wrapped up in our own worlds: “You know that our life is more than our work / And our work is more than our jobs.”

    The song reminds us that we are not our jobs.  Additionally, we each have work to do during our lives that is beyond our jobs. But even that broader work is not the whole of your life.

    The New Yorker story about the Alaska prosecution also reminded me of Insomnia (2003), a movie that focuses on a criminal case in Alaska involving questionable professional ethics that haunt the lead character. Insomnia is a very good movie about a Los Angeles detective played by Al Pacino who goes to Alaska to investigate a crime. While there, he is unable to sleep from the constant daylight and from being haunted by his past choices. The movie, directed by Christopher Nolan, features excellent acting by Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and a creepy Robin Williams. It reveals how our jobs can take us down a well-worn path where we feel we do not have control.

    Most likely, there were other factors contributing to the Nicholas Marsh tragedy besides the ethics investigation, and it is ridiculous to think that lessons from an action movie or a folk song could save a life. But music and movies can make us think about our lives and maybe change our attitudes a tiny bit. And that’s something. As Charlie King sings, “Think how our life could be, feel how our life could flow / If just for once we could let ourselves go.”

    King, Charlie – Our Life Is More Than Our Work

    {Our Life Is More Than Our Work – Charlie King}

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