Music and the JFK Assassination

[J. Raymond Carroll]

This from the Kennedy Library:

In memory of the assassination, Igor Stravinsky composed a miniature for baritone (later revised for mezzo-soprano) and three clarinets called simply "Elegy for JFK" (1964-). The text by W. H. Auden consists of four stanzas of free haiku, and the atonal, transparent textures seem to feature an interplay between the diabolical tri-tone (G#-D) and the eternally hopeful perfect fifth (D#-A#)-the "oneness," perhaps, of both "sorrow and joy." Thus music, a vital part of the Kennedy White House years, offered its oven special tribute to the new image, the fresh promises, said the bleak dawn.

When a just man dies

Lamentation and praise,

Sorrow and joy are one.

Why then? Why there?

Why thus, we cry, did he die?

The Heavens are silent.

What he was, he was:

What he is fated to become

Depends on us.

Remembering his death

How we choose to live

Will decide its meaning.

http://www.jfklibrary.net/arts_kirk.html

[Jim Feemster]

BLACK DOG MAN

BLACK DOG MAN

WOULD YOU PLEASE TELL

IF YOU STILL CAN

WHERE YOU WENT

AND WHY YOU RAN

BLACK DOG MAN

BLACK DOG MAN

BLACK DOG MAN

BLACK DOG MAN

DID YOU SHOOT JACK

IN HIS CARAVAN

DID YOUR CHECK BOUNCE

IN YOUR BLOODY HANDS

BLACK DOG MAN

BLACK DOG MAN

BLACK DOG MAN

BLACK DOG MAN

DO YOU DREAM AT NIGHT

OF A MURDERED MAN

AS HIS HEAD EXPLODES

DO YOU SEE THE PLAN

BLACK DOG MAN

BLACK DOG MAN

JIM FEEMSTER

[John Geraghty]

Who wrote that one Jim?

John

[Stan Wilbourne]

gone

Edited March 6, 2010 by Stan Wilbourne

[Jim Feemster]

hi john g,

i wrote it . song writing is one of my hobbies.

i'm writing a concept album with about 12 songs, each one having to do with different aspects of the assassination in the same vain as willie nelson's " red headed stranger " album in the 70's.

black dog man is the first.

the next is about jackie.

not that i have any connections in the music business. just blending two passions with this subject.

great thread, john !

jim feemster

[Robert Charles-Dunne]

Three or four years back, Eric Andersen put out an album called "Beat Avenue." The title song is a 26 minute opus about the Kennedy assassination and is well worth seeking out. Saw Eric perform last year and he's better than ever.

[Christopher T. George]

Hi all

I am not sure whether Frank Zappa ever referenced the Kennedy assassination in any lyrics, but on the inside cover of the 1968 Mothers of Invention album, "We're Only In It for the Money," -- a parody of the famous cover of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" released the year before -- the photograph of Oswald groaning as he is shot by Jack Ruby appears at upper right in the collage of photographs.

Chris

Edited April 12, 2006 by Christopher T. George

[John Geraghty]

Taken from www.jfklancerforum.com

with thanks to David Christie

John Fogerty

I Saw It On TV

They sent us home to watch the show comin' on the little screen;

A man named Ike was in the White House, big black limousine;

There were many shows to follow, from 'Hooter' to 'Doodyville',

Though I saw them all, I can't recall which cartoon was real.

The coon-skin caps, Yankee bats, the "Hound Dog" man's big start;

The A-Bomb fears, Annette had ears, I lusted in my heart.

A young man from Boston set sail the new frontier,

And we watched the Dream dead-end in Dallas,

They buried innocence that year.

I know it's true, oh so true, 'cause I saw it on TV.

We gathered round to hear the sound comin' on the little screen,

The grief had passed, the old men laughed, and all the girls screamed

'Cause four guys from England took us all by the hand,

It was time to laugh, time to sing, time to join the band.

But all too soon, we hit the moon, and covered up the sky;

They built their bombs, and aimed their guns, and still I don't know why

The dominoes tumbled and big business roared;

Every night at six, they showed the pictures and counted up the score.

I know it's true, oh so true, 'cause I saw it on TV.

The old man rocks among his dreams, a prisoner of the porch;

"The light," he says "At the end of the tunnel,

Was nothin' but a burglar's torch."

And them that was caught in the Cover are all rich and free,

But they chained my mind to an endless tomb When they took my only son from me.

I know it's true, oh so true, 'cause I saw it on TV.

I know it's true, oh so true, 'cause I saw it on TV.

and another post by Randy Owen,

-Hemingway Corner did a song called "So Long, JFK." It was more about someone reminiscing along the lines of the Fogerty tune you mentioned. It has a folksy feel to it.

-Spirit of the West did a song called "Sixth Floor." It's almost 6 minutes of rock and was inspired when the band was in Dallas. One of the guys called his wife in Canada and said, "Honey, you won't believe where I'm calling you from!...The building where they said JFK was shot from." The lyrics are a bit rude and mention people "posing on the grassy knoll." But for a rock song, it's actually pretty good.

John

[Michael Hogan]

From the liner notes of Can't Keep From Crying (Testament Records 1964):

"This wholly unusual blues recording presents eleven topical songs on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy written and performed by ten Negro singers and instrumentalists, some of them like Big Joe Williams and Otis Spann, well known and respected as fine, expresive bluesmen; others, like Avery Brady and John Lee Granderson, known only to a small circle of friends and acquaintances. All of the performances save one were recorded in Chicago in the weeks following the November 22, 1963 assassination of the President."

Various Artists

Can't Keep From Crying: Topical Blues On The Death Of John F. Kennedy

[TCD5007]

This remarkable and moving album presents 13 topical songs on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. They were recorded in the weeks immediately following his death on November 22, 1963. The performances range from the bizarre vocals and jagged violin of Jimmy Brown to the blues-band sound of Johnny Young (with Otis Spann and Slim Willis). Features two previously unissued tracks; HighTone Testament series.

Tracks:

Big Joe Williams: A Man Amongst Men

James and Fannie Brewer: I Want to Know Why

John Lee Granderson: A Man for the Nation

Otis Spann: Sad Day in Texas

Mary Ross: President Kennedy Gave His Life

Bill Jackson: The 22nd Day of November

James Brewer: Why Did He Have to Go?

Johnny Young: I Tried Not to Cry

Avery Brady: Poor Kennedy

Fannie Brewer: When We Got the Message

Jimmy Brown: He Was Loved By All the People

Johnny Young: Tribute to J.F.K.

Avery Brady: Poor Kennedy #2

The record was originally released in 1964 as a vinyl record. It was re-released in 1994 on compact disc. One can listen to excerpts at the Amazon website: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000003OQ...v=glance&n=5174

[Myra Bronstein]

I'm trying to compile a list of references to the JFK,RFK,MLK assassinations in songs, apart from those already mentioned has anybody got any more to offer?

Cheers

John

The great Bobby Darin, who penned some of the most best protest songs ever, was devastated when Bobby Kennedy was murdered. He wrote "In Memoriam" about the train that carried RFK's body to his burial site.

Darin was one of the mourners at the cemetery holding a candle. The casket arrived late because of all the mourners

lining the track. By then it was too dark for workers to cover the grave so Darin stood all night guarding the gravesite and wouldn't leave until the workers finished covering the grave the next day.

In Memoriam

He's a ruthless opportunist

And he motivates by greed

He's just the way his father was

And that we sure don't need

So they all cried out destroy him

For he wants to see us drowned

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

Now some had stood for hours

And some sat on the grass

Listening to their radios

For where the train had passed

And a crowd will get impatient

As the clock hands turn around

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

They handed out some candles

To the somber weary crowd

And told us not to light them

Till our eyes beheld the shroud

Not even at that moment

Could there be tranquility

I could feel them push and argue

Hey, sit down, I cannot see

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

When the fathers closed their bibles

And the family left the site

The ropes and walls and hedges

Kind of faded in the night

Replaced by all the people

Who made a prayerful sound

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

Some people say the eighth of June

But the morning of the ninth

The workmen gently lowered him

By the beam of three work lights

Easy, take it easy

Set him down real slow

He'd been on some rougher trips

But he couldn't tell them so

They never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

Now no man has the answers

And he was just a man

And yet I can't help feelin'

That he knew a better plan

A shorter road to justice

On the trip that's freedom bound

But they never understood him

So they put him in the ground.

http://www.bobbydarin.net/inmemoriam.html

[Charles Drago]

I would draw your attention to "And When We are Young," the ballad written and first performed by jazz saxophonist Phil Woods on the day RFK died.

Various renditions are available on CD. In any event, you ignore Mr. Woods at your incalculable loss.

[Kathleen Collins]

Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone has lyrics which read, "You say you never compromised/ with the mystery tramp..."

Someone told me he believed "mystery tramp" came from the pictures of the mystery tramps in Dealey Plaza.

BTW, the song is about Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol star, heiress and drug addict.

Kathy

[Terry Mauro]

Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone has lyrics which read, "You say you never compromised/ with the mystery tramp..."

Someone told me he believed "mystery tramp" came from the pictures of the mystery tramps in Dealey Plaza.

BTW, the song is about Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol star, heiress and drug addict.

Kathy

********************************************************

"Someone told me he believed "mystery tramp" came from the pictures of the mystery tramps in Dealey Plaza."

Who, told you. And, was he conjecturing, or speculating? And, what does Edie Sedgwick have to do with JFK? Another chick he supposedly shtupped? I seriously doubt it. Why muck up the thread with unsubstantiated generalities?

Where's A.J. Weberman when I need him?

Besides, since you seem to have a wild hair up your butt about Dylan, at the moment. One of my all time favorites of his is, "Positively 4th Street" where I happened to have been living in 1966 after returning to New York, having spent the last three or four years living in New Orleans and San Francisco. The best lines are the very last:

POSITIVELY 4TH STREET

You got a lotta nerve

To say you are my friend

When I was down

You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve

To say you got a helping hand to lend

You just want to be on

The side that's winning

You say I let you down

You know it's not like that

If you're so hurt

Why then don't you show it

You say you lost your faith

But that's not where it's at

You had no faith to lose

And you know it

I know the reason

That you talk behind my back

I used to be among the crowd

You're in with

Do you take me for such a fool

To think I'd make contact

With the one who tries to hide

What he don't know to begin with

You see me on the street

You always act surprised

You say, "How are you?" "Good luck"

But you don't mean it

When you know as well as me

You'd rather see me paralyzed

Why don't you just come out once

And scream it

No, I do not feel that good

When I see the heartbreaks you embrace

If I was a master thief

Perhaps I'd rob them

And now I know you're dissatisfied

With your position and your place

Don't you understand

It's not my problem

I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

And just for that one moment

I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

You'd know what a drag it is

To see you

The radically political songs of Dylan's were on those albums made before 1965, and before he went electric. I can't remember anything Dylan wrote after '65 that even remotely made reference to JFK's assassination. I could be wrong, but I was an avid listener and buyer back then, so that would've been something I'd have remembered.

Copyright © 1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music

[James Richards]

'Sleeping In' by The Postal Service

Last week I had the strangest dream

Where everything was exactly how it seemed

Where there was never any mystery of who shot John F. Kennedy

It was just a man with something to prove

Slightly bored and severely confused

He steadied his rifle with his target in the center

And became famous on that day in November

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in

Again last night I had that strange dream

Where everything was exactly how it seemed

Where concerns about the world getting warmer

The people thought they were just being rewarded

For treating others as they'd like to be treated

For obeying stop signs and curing diseases

For mailing letters with the address of the sender

Now we can swim any day in November

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping

(now we can swim any day in November)

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in

[Terry Mauro]

1971

Performer: Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Title: Lucky man

Lyric text:

He had white horses

And ladies by the score

All dressed in satin

And waiting by the door

Oooh, what a lucky man he was

Oooh, what a lucky man he was

White lace and feathers

They laid on his bed

A gold covered mattress

On which he was led

Oooh, what a lucky man he was

Oooh, what a lucky man he was

He went to fight wars

For his country and his king

Of his honour and his glory

The people would sing

Oooh, what a lucky man he was

Oooh, what a lucky man he was

A bullet had found him

His blood ran as he cried

Nobody could save him

So he laid down and died

Oooh, what a lucky man he was

Oooh, what a lucky man he was