What a Wonderful World...

One of my best friends, Kenny, from work, posted recently and told me the same story at work of hearing Joey Ramone's cover of What a Wonderful World after leaving work one night...Joey was dying of cancer when he recorded this version on his last album...

Well...Kenny tells the story better than I do:):)...

Kenny's Maze...

I have to mention, here, that it is so fascinating to me how many of very good friends are big punk fans...and I am so late coming to the punk scene:):):)...I saw the Ramones at Lollapalooza long before I knew what a big deal they were in the American punk scene and in punk music, generally:):):)...they were awesome:):)...

But so many of my very close friends are big punk fans:):):)...and it's just so curious to me that I'm so late coming:):)...though Melissa rented the first 3 episodes of Six Feet Under, this week...and one of the characters on there explains it better...the lead guy is a Sting/U2 kind of guy...and she's a punk girl:):):)...AMAZING television writing, by the way, Six Feet Under, when you get a chance:):):)...

Also...if you're a punk fan...Kenny posts some punk music lyrics...he's a big Agnostic Front and NOFX fan, if you're interested (Jas...that reference was for you, especially:):):)...great stuff, Kenny's blog:):):)...

So...anyway:):):)...

Kenny tells me this story that night...

And it occurs to me that What a Wonderful World was Brandi's and my song...I had totally forgotten, really, it's been so long...

Especially Louis Armstrong's 1970 version, which I found late in our relationship...

Where Louis is talking to the kids of a similarly disgruntled and disillusioned generation...amidst a similar war...and with similar problems...

And he says to the young audience...with these beautiful violins in the background:):):)...

"Some of you young folks been saying to me...'Hey pops...what you mean what a wonderful world?...how about them wars all over the place?...You call them wonderful?...and how 'bout hunger and pollution?...that ain't so wonderful either'...

Well, how about listening to old pops for a minute...seems to me, it ain't the world that's so bad...but what we're doin' to it...and all I'm saying is see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance...

Love, baby, love...that's the secret...yeah...

If lot's more of us loved each other...we'd solve lots more problems...and man...this world would be Odessa...

And that's why ol' pops keeps sayin'...

I see trees of green...
Red roses too..."

And then he sings the song:):):):)...Louis also died shortly thereafter singing that version:(...and it's the most beautiful version he ever sang, I think...I definitely recommend that folks check it out:):):)...

Brandi and I used to dance to that song every time we had a chance...I love it almost above all others, really...I first heard it on the soundtrack of Good Morning, Vietnam...when it came out in 1987...and I've loved it ever since:):)...

Louis gets it more than most, I think...

That saving the world is about saving it...not about burning it down in spite of it...and that spite and bitterness and hate and hostility are no way to do anything positive or constructive in the world...

And that saving the world is about people...about caring about them...not about taking them down...

That 1970 version of What a Wonderful World should be "required":):) listening for any political theorist or activist or anyone interested in politics, I think:):)...it captures the essence of what is missing and needed in contemporary politics...and the essence of everything that is wrong with contemporary democracies...

We miss you, Louis...you too, Joey...

And I miss a time in my life when more people believed that sentiment more...

Back in 1998...during that summer Brandi and I spent in Washington, D.C....this was the spirit that drove us...

We were saving the world...we knew all the cynicism and challenges that lay ahead...and we were taking them all on, anyway...

More people need to believe that...

If we're ever going to do anything decent and hopeful and constructive in this world...

Otherwise...

We're all stuck in the same messes...

Without anything but our bitching and grumbling and gadgets and drugs and sex and money and power or whatever other kinds of bullshit we keep near us to keep the bad feelings at bay...

And all the same problems still in place...

How long does denial maintain it's grip, I constantly wonder these days?...because goddamn if it can't keep a firm fuckin' grip on folks' imaginations and dealings with reality so much of the time...

"Love, baby, love...that's the secret...yeah...

If lot's more of us loved each other...we'd solve lots more problems...and man...this world would be Odessa..."

Sing it, Louis...

Have a great weekend, everyone:):):)...

Love,
Ben

P.S. I'm working on teaching applications this weekend:):):)...I'll do my best to get back with folks who have been trying to get a hold of me...Ned and Marilyn...you too, in particular...amidst the need to be on this:):):)...but I'm thinking of you:):):)...