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Songs about JFK assassination


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On December 6, 1965, on the album Turn! Turn! Turn!, the Byrds released He Was A Friend Of Mine, a traditional song that Rodger McGuinn had rewritten and transformed into a eulogy for JFK. 

 

On June 17, 1967, after an incendiary introduction by guitarist David Crosby, the Byrds performed the song at the Monterey Pop Festival. 

 

 

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Phil Ochs, live in Montreal, on October 22, 1966...

And another interesting introduction: 

"You're under arrest, lock the doors...(laugh)...it worked...(laugh)...

-long pause- (tuning)

"As you know, I'm a folk singer for the F.B.I..."

-longer pause- (more tuning)

"Here's a song, about the Kennedy assassination called The Crucifixion..."

 

 

 

 

 

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Not a song about the assassination, but a reaction to it. 

jfkDALLAs_465_372_int.jpg
 
As Richard Metzger wrote in 2015:

After the tragic events in Dallas, Garland, then doing a weekly series on CBS, went to the network executives with the idea to do a tribute to the fallen President. They were very cool to the idea. One of the CBS brass is alleged to have told her that in a month or so, that no one would even remember Kennedy! Undaunted Garland chose to end her next show with a powerful performance of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” that left no one, but no one wondering who she was singing it for. (According to Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft, in the studio Garland had said “This is for you, Jack,” but it was edited out for broadcast...)

 

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/watch_judy_garland_sing_her_heart_out_for_jfk

Edited by Robert Burrows
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2 hours ago, Robert Burrows said:

Phil Ochs, live in Montreal, on October 22, 1966...

And another interesting introduction: 

"You're under arrest, lock the doors...(laugh)...it worked...(laugh)...

-long pause- (tuning)

"As you know, I'm a folk singer for the F.B.I..."

-longer pause- (more tuning)

"Here's a song, about the Kennedy assassination called The Crucifixion..."

 

 

 

Haunting.

 

 

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All very cool, Robert! I always wondered if Phil Ochs might have been the initial inspiration for that opening socially conscious Dylan stage.

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  • 1 month later...
10 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Well, if you've never seen it.  Not to make light of the assassination or it's importance in History.  But for the sake of levity . . . 

 

Levity aside, that's as powerful as anything else.

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