First We Take Manhattan

The loss of Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell over the last week adds to the somber mood that has gripped a large segment of this country. Kate McKinnon, who has been impersonating Hillary Clinton on SNL Cold Open, somehow found a way to bring it all together in her haunting solo of Hallelujah. This truly seems like the end of an era, one we won't fully realize until the reality of Donald Trump's presidency sets in next year.

Cohen's music always carried with it a sense of tragedy. The songs have often been romanticized by other singers who covered them, but in their original form they evoke a feeling of despair, which we struggle to fight our way through. Songs like So Long, Marianne grew even more haunting with his recent live appearance, even though he had a sardonic grin at the end of each performance, as if to say it will be OK.

Leon Russell had his own way to evoke a sense of loss, rooted in blues and early minstrel traditions. You listen to his original version of Masquerade and it conjures up an entirely different impression than George Benson's cover, which became a runaway hit. For the most part Russell kept to himself after his peak in the 1970s, seemingly content to write songs for others, but he too enjoyed a comeback in his August years.

2016 has been a very rough year for music. We lost so many great songwriters and performers. Some we knew would have to go, but the deaths of David Bowie and Prince took us by surprise, and left many with an inconsolable sense of loss. Their music will help ease us through what is going to be a very troubled time come January. Leonard Cohen's First We Take Manhattan in its own odd way can serve as our call to arms to take back our country.

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

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Dispatches from Vilnius

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