A Good Ol' Fashioned Fourth

Well, not really.

We were up early enough--5 a.m. But we were on a flight from Kochin, Kerala in south India on our way to Chengdu, Sichuan, China via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As the day broke, I saw the southern most tip of India below me narrow into a vanishing point followed by a string of tenuous islands, followed later by a view of Sri Lanka, the land of the mythical city of Lanka, home of Ravana, the demon king in the Ramayana, the classic Indian epic. Not exactly the normal scene for Fourth of July celebration. Yet, I needed to do something. No hot dogs, no picnic, no parades, no band playing Sousa marches (not even on my iPod!).

First, I needed to address my custom of reading some outstanding work of American history for the Fourth. I panicked at first. I had only two paper books with me, neither a work of American history. But my trusty Kindle came through. I searched and discovered that I had The Education of Henry Adams that I hadn't finished. In fact, I hadn't finished it since my senior year in college when David Schoenbaum assigned it for his class on 19th century Europe. At the time I wondered how this work by an American about himself (written in the third-person) and published in 1918 could qualify for a 19th century Europe course. But I under-estimated both Schoenbaum and Adams. Now I could make up for it, and I dove back in. (I'd read some in Jaipur last year.) A great choice. Modern Library chose it as the outstanding work of non-fiction in the 20th century, and I wouldn't disagree. The work is a masterpiece. 

But one can only read a masterpiece for so long on a flight, where thrillers or less demanding works are the norm. So while disappointed that I didn't have "Stars and Stripes" or "Washington Post", I decided to listen to American music; American composers and performers. The list included the following: 

•        Frank Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey Band (early Sinatra)
•       Paul Simon ("The Myth of Fingerprints") and Simon & Garfunkel (Simon rates as the greatest popular American songwriter of the Baby Boomers—sorry Billy Joel). 
•       Stephen Schwartz's "All for the Best" from "Godspell", his musical of Mathew's Gospel, very early 70's America. The Gospel according to soft-shoe.
•        Barbara Streisand's "All in Love is Fair" from her "The Way We Were' album, one of the first albums that C and I bought when we were newlyweds. Babs rates as the best Boomer female vocalist, no?
•       Louis Armstrong. What more to say
•         "America" from "West Side Story". Bernstein & Sondheim. Wow. Great piece of Americana.
•         "America" from Simon & Garfunkel's classic "Bookends" album. Another piece of Americana.
•         "American Pie" by Don McLean. The beginning of college for me marked by this elegy for a crazy time in the 60's. A lot of history in this song.
•         Nathan Gunn performing Billy Joel's "And So It Goes". I'm a Billy Joel fan, but this performance is even better. Ran out of time to get to "We Didn't Start the Fire". Too bad. Kate made it into a fun 4th game.
•         "Anyone Can Whistle" by Stephen Sondheim (an American great) performed by Cleo Lane and James Galway (we'll make this Irishman an honorary American).
•         Ella Fitzgerald. Great. (Can’t recall which song. L)
•         "Appalachian Spring" by Aaron Copeland. Our greatest American  composer for orchestra? “Yes” for my money, and this is his best work. A pure joy. I couldn't listen to it all because I wanted to get a lot of variety, but it's great. Sorry I didn't get to "Rodeo"!
•         The Fifth Dimension performing "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" from the American Tribal Love Rock Musical "Hair". The popular rendition by a fun, talented vocal group from the 60's.
•         "At the Zoo", Simon & Garfunkel.
•         "Attaboy" by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thille. Fun American folk music.
•         Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings". Is there an American orchestral piece more beautiful and haunting? (No!) Played continually on the radio when FDR died.
•         Dave Brubeck Quartet performing "Blue Rondo a al Turk". Classic jazz, the original American musical form.
•         "Because All Men Are Brothers" performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary with Dave Brubeck. Jazz meets folk. Fun. A song of hope and humanity.
•         George Winston performing "The Black Stallion" theme composed by Carmine Coppola for the film we saw at a drive-in with the G family. Great memory. I'm a big George Winston fan.
•         Billie Holiday singing "Blue Moon".
•         Tony Bennett. Vintage and still with us.
•         Aretha Franklin "Chain of Fools". Too little Motown so far!
•         Phillip Glass from his music from the terrific American documentary by Errol Morris, "The Fog of War" about Robert McNamara. An American tragedy to my mind. Great music. Also listen to Glass's soundtrack for the film of "The Hours".
•         "Colour My World" by Chicago, one of my favorite 60's/70's groups. Hard to pick, but this came up first.
•         Pete Seeger performing "Guantanamara". Another American performer for the ages.
•         George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" performed on piano by the Five Browns. This prompts a great memory: in the Bicentential of the signing in 1976, C and I took my Aunt Barb to Ames to hear Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic perform an all-American concert culminating with Bernstein conducting and playing the piano for "Rhapsody in Blue". To say it was memorable understates it entirely.  

I ran out of time. Some greats have been left out for a lack of time: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Judy Garland, Bette Midler, B,S & T, more Sinatra—I thought I'd get to them later. I didn’t even look further down the list! 

Having reviewed this, I'd say we Americans have done okay with our music. I like it anyway. Happy belated Fourth to everyone!