The View from Right Field

A Nobel Prize for Bob Dylan? No Problem, Though I’d Suggest Donna Fargo

The award of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature to Bob Dylan created a mini-brouhaha as to whether the Nobel Prize for Literature should be awarded to somebody who merely wrote songs (and sang them), as opposed to somebody who wrote books.  But I have no complaint.  Songs are just poetry set to music.

I also have no objection to Bob Dylan winning the award.  My only comment is that, when it comes to songs that speak to me, the ones that do it best are country.  I understand many people see country music as “depressing songs about divorce and pain.”  But the best of country is not just “three strings on an old guitar.”  The best songs speak to life.  And when it comes to that kind of country song, nobody does it better than Donna Fargo.  But instead of me trying to tell you that, let her songs do it themselves.  Here are two I especially like:

“Snoopy for President”

In response to people who talk about how bad things are in 2016, I say look at 1968.  Race riots.  500,000 men in Vietnam.  Martin Luther King assassinated.  Bobby Kennedy assassinated.  Riots at the Democratic Convention.  But at least, when it came to the presidential race, 1968 had – “Snoopy for President.”  In 1966, the Royal Guardsmen had had a hit with “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” so in 1967 they followed it up with “The Return of the Red Baron” and “Snoopy’s Christmas.”  (The last one is a great song.)

In 1968, it was “Snoopy for President,” another wonderful song.

 

Bonus Question:  On the original 45 recording, the song started with the names of the candidates for president.  I couldn’t find that version on the Internet, but the names were:  “Kennedy, Nixon, McCarthy, Rockefeller, Snoopy, Humphrey”.  So, the bonus question is: When in 1968 did the record come out?

America's Greatest Composer: John Philip Sousa

For a very nice article on John Philip Sousa, who is, in my opinion, America's greatest composer, see today's Chicago Tribune here.

The article brings back a memory from 2004:  In his senior year in high school, our son Ross participated, as an alumni, in a special concert that his middle school had to honor their orchestra and band directors.  Among the pieces that the band played was "The Stars and Stripes Forever."  Before the band played it, the director said that it was the best band song ever.  After the concert I told the director that "The Stars and Stripes Forever" was not "the best band song ever."  He looked surprised until I explained: "It is the best song ever."  And I still think that is true.

Fourth of July: “The Stars and Stripes Forever”

A band director once told me that “The Stars and Stripes Forever” was the best American march.

I told him it was not the best American march, and he looked surprised.

It is not the best American march, I said.  It is the best American music.

And so, for the Fourth of July, here is “The Stars and Stripes Forever”: