Boogie Oogie Oogie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTGlwq8F7qs

Until The Eagle Falls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqhd6yMUWFI

Sukiyaki

Kyu Sakamoto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35DrtPlUbc

A Taste of Honey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcad9bNv670


4 P.M.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdK0ALLHqfg

A Change Is Gonna Come

Sam Cooke

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs

Al Green

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nua5klb4Os

R. Kelly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP1klx58e_8

Jana Mashonee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMNmUOi5VHg

Seal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHa096VQ8FE


Luther Vandross

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqUM7OYPQIM

Pledging My Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT_eOiTwtoQ

I Will Always Love You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=V5EANmeAXgw&feature=endscreen

Because You Loved Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDcuRgk-JEI

My Heart Will Go On

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNIPqafd4As

In The Air Tonight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkADj0TPrJA

Holding Back The Years

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG07WSu7Q9w

The Eloquence of Camelot

Ahh... I suppose even Camelot had its Wizards and Demons. And I always envisioned the Tale of King Arthur as being one of tragedy rather than triumph. But it is the notion of Grand Ideas --- "We choose to go to the moon..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwFvJog2dMw

or self-sacrifice asking not what this country can do for us but we can do for this country, that I so much miss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm6mX2gX8mo

Peace,

Two Speeches That Changed History

In the aftermath of our discussion concerning the glory of Camelot, I found the following New York Times article to be particularly interesting.

Peace,

Two speeches changed history

50 years ago, JFK spoke on civil rights and nuclear testing

WASHINGTON— These days it is hard to imagine a single presidential speech changing history.

MEYER LIEBOWITZ/ NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES President John F. Kennedy gave two speeches 50 years ago this week that helped to transform the United States, both of which were full of political risks.

But two speeches, given back to back by President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago this week, are now viewed as critical turning points on the transcendent issues of the past century.

The speeches, which came on consecutive days, took political risks. They sought to shift the nation’s thinking on the “inevitability” of war with the Soviet Union and to make urgent the “moral crisis” of civil rights. Beyond their considerable impact on American minds, these two speeches had something in common that oratory now often misses. They both led quickly and directly to important changes.

On Monday, June 10, 1963, Kennedy announced new talks to try to curb nuclear tests, signaling a decrease in tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. Speaking at American University’s morning commencement, he urged new approaches to the Cold War, saying, “And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.”

“In the final analysis,” he continued, “our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

The next evening, Kennedy gave an address on national TV, sketching out a strong civil rights bill he promised to send to Congress. For the first time, a president made a moral case against segregation. He had previously argued publicly for obedience to court orders and had condemned violence, but not the underlying system.

“We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution,” Kennedy said. “The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.”

Action followed. An agreement to establish a hot line between Washington and Moscow came in a few days, and a limited nuclear test ban treaty in four months. In just over a year, the 1964 Civil Rights Act became the most important American law of the 20th century. Kennedy did not live to see the comprehensive civil rights legislation, a crowning achievement of his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Republican leaders like Rep. William McCulloch of Ohio and Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois.

Robert Dallek, Kennedy’s leading biographer, said the two speeches were “not just two of his best speeches, but two of the better presidential speeches of the 20th century.”

Though Theodore Sorensen, the president’s main speechwriter, was the principal writer of both speeches, they were prepared in very different ways.

The American University speech was a month in the making, growing out of Kennedy’s sense that if some progress on controlling arms was to be made, it had to happen in 1963, not in the election year of 1964, and from signals from the Kremlin that new talks might be productive. But it was kept secret from the Pentagon because of fears that generals might object to conciliation.

In contrast, the civil rights speech was written in a few hours and was almost not given.

Dallek said the American University speech reflected Kennedy’s “real passion” about his presidency, the goal of building “not merely peace in our time but peace for all time,” as Kennedy put it that morning.

To achieve it, Kennedy said, it was necessary to “examine our attitude toward peace itself.”

On June 11, Kennedy had planned to speak about civil rights if there was trouble in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where Gov. George C. Wallace had vowed to stand in the way to prevent the integration of the University of Alabama. But Wallace simply made a statement and stepped aside, and the process went smoothly. The speech seemed unnecessary.

Sorensen, who had labored over the Monday speech, went home, only to be summoned back at midafternoon when the president’s brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy persuaded Kennedy to go ahead. Sorensen finished his draft with only minutes to spare, and Kennedy ad- libbed concluding paragraphs.

The president had come to the civil rights issue only “grudgingly,” as Dallek put it. He thought segregation wrong and the Southerners who defended it “hopeless.” But for more than two years in the White House, he had treated the issue as a distraction from not only foreign policy but also tough domestic issues like a tax cut to spur the economy.

Sadie

For those who could not make out all the words on the previous Youtube posting, here is a clearer version of Sadie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCnIRVXprhY

Forrest Gump: The Death of Jenny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJ0VsnCvDo

So Not Over You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWO7JR5uBn4

A Heart is a House for Love

One of my all-time favorite movies is The Five Heartbeats, and one of my all-time favorite scenes is when The Five Heartbeats are performing A Heart is a House for Love in the rigged talent show. When the lead singer has enough of the abuse and hits that note that commands everyone's attention, well let me just say a shiver goes down my spine. Whenever I am down, all I need to do is play that scene over again, and voila, I am ready to fight on again.

Sadly, the true voice behind that song passed away this past week. Marvin Junior of the Dells died. His obituary follows, but first view his triumph at

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7w2rn_the-dells-a-heart-is-a-house-for-lo_music

Peace,

Everett Jenkins '75

Marvin Junior, 77, Robust, Earthy Baritone for the Dells

Gilles Petard/Redferns

Marvin Junior, right, with from left, Verne Allison, Chuck Barksdale, Johnny Funches and Mickey McGill of the Dells.

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

Published: May 31, 2013

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Marvin Junior, whose raw but robust baritone served for half a century as the sturdy foundation for the Dells, a Chicago doo-wop and rhythm-and-blues group that was formed when he and most of its other members were in high school in the early 1950s, died on Wednesday at his home in Harvey, Ill. He was 77.

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The cause was kidney and heart problems, said his son Marvin Jr.

Iron Throat is what David Ruffin, the former lead singer of the Temptations, once called Mr. Junior. “Two tons of fun” is what he called himself. He grew up hoping to be the next Ray Charles and eventually inspired other singers, including Teddy Pendergrass.

His voice was huge and versatile — it often reached into tenor territory — and it held up through more than two dozen albums and 57 years of performing. Unlike some other acts of their era, the Dells had no angry breakups and few personnel changes.

“They grew up together and they never let the industry separate them,” Mr. Junior’s son said. “They didn’t let anybody separate them.”

Mr. Junior wrote the Dells’ first hit, “Oh What a Nite,” with the group’s Johnny Funches. Originally released in 1956, it was rerecorded with a new arrangement in 1969 and released as “Oh, What a Night.” Many more hits would follow, including “Stay in My Corner,” which was originally released in 1965 and also rerecorded and released again in 1969. The reworked versions of both songs went to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and reached the Top 10 on the pop chart.

Among the Dells’ other hits were “I Touched a Dream,” “Give Your Baby a Standing Ovation” and “The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind).”

The Dells consisted of five members: a trio of harmony singers (Verne Allison, Mickey McGill and Chuck Barksdale for a vast majority of the group’s existence) and the baritone-falsetto counterpoint of Mr. Junior and Johnny Carter, a former member of the Flamingos, who replaced Mr. Funches in 1960.

“I describe it as thunder and lightning,” Mr. Junior’s son said of the two men’s performing dynamic. “Johnny would set it up with the lightning, then Marvin would come with the thunder.”

The Dells served as consultants, and an inspiration, for “The Five Heartbeats,” Robert Townsend’s 1991 film about a fictitious singing group. Mr. Townsend spent time touring with the Dells while doing research for the film. “A Heart Is a House for Love,” which the Dells recorded for the film’s soundtrack, reached the Top 100.

The Dells were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Mr. Carter died in 2009, and the Dells have not performed since then.

Marvin Junior was born on Jan. 31, 1936, in Harold, Ark. His family moved to Illinois when he was a boy.

In addition to Marvin Jr., he is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, the former Ruby Caldwell; two other sons, Shawn and Todd; three daughters, Faye Jones and Latanya and Toya Junior; 10 grandchildren; and a brother, Jack Dabon.

Most of the original members of the Dells met while they were students at Thornton Township High School in Harvey. For a long time they practiced under an overpass in the Chicago suburb.

“It had good acoustics,” Marvin Junior Jr. said.