So You Wanna Be a Rock N Roll Star (Part 2)
Music and Politics seem to go hand in hand. For years, people were attracted to the idea of a plain speaking musician running the government, which fueled the likes of Frank Zappa, Joe Walsh, and Jello Biafra to run for office.
This month I have been collecting the music related stories of 2020. I have spent time on Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, but I want to cover the rest of the field.
We will start with the latest entrant Deval Patrick. The former Massachusetts Governor has music in his blood. His father is the late Pat Patrick, who had a notable musical career playing saxophone and bass, most notably as part of Sun Ra's Arkestra.
Patrick joined Sun Ra in the 1950s and played on seminal acid jazz albums like Sun Song, Sound of Joy, and Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth, continuing into the 60s playing "Space Lute" on The Nubians of Plutoniana and essential records The Futuristic Sounds Of ... and The Heliocentric Worlds Of.... He would tour and record off an on with the Arkestra at points in the 1970s and 1980s.
He would play with John Coltrane on 1961's Africa/Brass, and play with Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Patti LaBelle, Nat King Cole, Babtunder Olatunji,and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He was a brief member of The Thelonius Monk Quartet in 1970 and even played with NRBQ for a time in the early 80s.
Deval was a fan of his father, and his father was a bit of a packrat, so it was a huge contribution, when Deval donated the elder Patrick's collection to the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Deval Patrick's parents split when he was only 4 years old. His father resided in New York, while he and his mother lived on Chicago's South Side. The distance took its toll, but even so, the governor's relationship with his father endured through the latter's music.
"I didn't know him so well growing up," Patrick says, "and I'm grateful for that music as a pathway."
NPR continues.
Patrick says his father was a pack rat. He kept notes, playbills, recordings and record albums he'd acquired during his life as a touring musician. When the saxophonist died of leukemia in 1991, boxes of his things were left unclaimed in a storage unit. They narrowly avoided the Dumpster on several occasions. But when the owner of the storage unit read that Deval Patrick was elected governor, he called him about the boxes.
"There were thousands of photographs," he says. "There were photographs of his concert tours, of his family ... of almost every concert where he had a camera."
Tulsi Gabbard is married to a musician, Abe Williams who plays guitar and drums, and performed at their wedding. You can catch videos of Tulsi singing as Abe strums a Hawaiian time on Ukelele. Tulsi can be found singing and playing the ukelele herself on YouTube.
She stopped by the Atlanta Music Project in August, and again in November.
She even had a redditor ask her to do the Dio "Metal Horns" for a photo op, and she did. I hope user SenseiJosh11 is cool with me re-sharing the picture here.
Amy Klobuchar may not play an instrument (that I know of) but may have done as much to help musicians as anyone by passing the Music Modernization Act.
Co-sponsored with Orrin Hatch in 2018, it passed the Senate unanimously, and was celebrated by both parties, including Trump favorites like Mike Love, Kid Rock, Kanye West, and John Rich, who were in DC for it.
From her Congressional webpage:
The bipartisan legislation, led by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and cosponsored by Klobuchar, will help ensure that songwriters are paid fair market value for their work by revising outdated songwriter royalty standards. The Music Modernization Act also creates a new, simplified licensing system to make it easier for digital music companies to obtain a license for songs and ensure that songwriters are paid the royalties they are owed.
Amy is a big fan of her states music and some of her time in office has been spent recognizing Bob Dylan and Prince. I suspect The Replacements, Lizzo and Har Mar Superstar are due next.
On Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature:
“Like so many, I grew up listening to Bob Dylan’s music and it filled me with pride to say that he was from Minnesota. Born in Duluth and raised on the Iron Range in Hibbing, Bob Dylan has reminded us through song of his Minnesota roots – as we heard in the lyrics to his song Girl from the North Country, ‘If you're travelin' in the north country fair, where the winds hit heavy on the borderline, remember me to one who lives there, she was once a true love of mine.’ Congratulations to Bob Dylan on his unprecedented contributions to American music and for receiving this most-deserved Nobel Prize.”
On Prince's passing in 2016:
“Like all Minnesotans I am shocked and saddened today. I grew up with Prince's music. He was a superstar composer, an amazing performer and a music innovator with a fierce belief in the independence of his art. He made ‘Purple Rain’ a household name, First Avenue a landmark, and brought international fame to Minnesota's music scene. I was always so proud to say ‘Prince, he is from Minnesota.’ We grieve his loss today.”
Klobuchar;s campaign musical highlight has been to find interesting (and local) songs to play during her campaign, often using the music of Dessa Wander, for example. Klobuchar is a big fan of musicals - from "Sound of Music" to "Hamilton".
She also has received some criticism for using Rachel Platten's “Fight Song”. It's a pretty banal, inoffensive song with a positive message, but it was all over Hillary’s losing 2016 campaign. I would stick away from it as much as I would saying "Whip inflation Now"
Marianne Williamson caught America’s attention at the Democratic Debate. Her mystic presence often evoking thoughts of Stevie Nicks or Kate Bush. Her personal path began as a cabaret singer in her 20s. She described that life as "hell", but through the journey, was able to find peace in her life and turn it into helping others.
Music is always close by either at her church (where Steven Tyler or Cher might pop up), at a fundraiser (with the likes of Taylor Dayne and Chaka Khan) or in her books, one of which is called Healing: Music, Meditation and Prayer . So Bernie Sanders isn’t the only candidate with a Discography. You can catch Marianne on disc with her meditations, speeches and help for weight loss and finances. She is all over Youtube, Spotify, AppleMusic and wherever you find related media.
Relax your Spleen!
Williamson is probably the only candidate that inspired Alannis Morrisette to write a song about them. For Williamson’s 2014 Congressional Run, Morrisette was inspired to write Today.
Here's a few of those lyrics and Williamson plays a role in the video.
Unless we start a revolution
Awaken from this frozen
Start the mending of our union
Today
Unless we revive this constitution
From sure disintegration
Live out this revelation
Today
Smile upside-down
Rupture is rising, families are scrambling for custody
Faithlessly drowned
The chase of this dollar is tilting my altar toward apathy
We're going down, down, down
We're going down unless we move to new ground
The rabbit hole on this search wasn't one I planned on, but I will tell you what: There are a lot of people who think Alanis sang "What's Going On".
Of course, one of the most inspired and memorable moments of 2020 was after the debate when podcaster Boxrec Grey took Williamson’s quotes and overlaid it over the Twin Peaks soundtrack.
So who's the most musical candidate? Bernie? Tulsi? Pete? Marianne? That is your choice, but remember, I haven't even worked my way through the whole list yet.
This month I have been collecting the music related stories of 2020. I have spent time on Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, but I want to cover the rest of the field.
We will start with the latest entrant Deval Patrick. The former Massachusetts Governor has music in his blood. His father is the late Pat Patrick, who had a notable musical career playing saxophone and bass, most notably as part of Sun Ra's Arkestra.
Patrick joined Sun Ra in the 1950s and played on seminal acid jazz albums like Sun Song, Sound of Joy, and Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth, continuing into the 60s playing "Space Lute" on The Nubians of Plutoniana and essential records The Futuristic Sounds Of ... and The Heliocentric Worlds Of.... He would tour and record off an on with the Arkestra at points in the 1970s and 1980s.
He would play with John Coltrane on 1961's Africa/Brass, and play with Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Patti LaBelle, Nat King Cole, Babtunder Olatunji,and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He was a brief member of The Thelonius Monk Quartet in 1970 and even played with NRBQ for a time in the early 80s.
Deval was a fan of his father, and his father was a bit of a packrat, so it was a huge contribution, when Deval donated the elder Patrick's collection to the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Deval Patrick's parents split when he was only 4 years old. His father resided in New York, while he and his mother lived on Chicago's South Side. The distance took its toll, but even so, the governor's relationship with his father endured through the latter's music.
"I didn't know him so well growing up," Patrick says, "and I'm grateful for that music as a pathway."
NPR continues.
Patrick says his father was a pack rat. He kept notes, playbills, recordings and record albums he'd acquired during his life as a touring musician. When the saxophonist died of leukemia in 1991, boxes of his things were left unclaimed in a storage unit. They narrowly avoided the Dumpster on several occasions. But when the owner of the storage unit read that Deval Patrick was elected governor, he called him about the boxes.
"There were thousands of photographs," he says. "There were photographs of his concert tours, of his family ... of almost every concert where he had a camera."
Tulsi Gabbard is married to a musician, Abe Williams who plays guitar and drums, and performed at their wedding. You can catch videos of Tulsi singing as Abe strums a Hawaiian time on Ukelele. Tulsi can be found singing and playing the ukelele herself on YouTube.
She stopped by the Atlanta Music Project in August, and again in November.
She even had a redditor ask her to do the Dio "Metal Horns" for a photo op, and she did. I hope user SenseiJosh11 is cool with me re-sharing the picture here.
Amy Klobuchar may not play an instrument (that I know of) but may have done as much to help musicians as anyone by passing the Music Modernization Act.
Co-sponsored with Orrin Hatch in 2018, it passed the Senate unanimously, and was celebrated by both parties, including Trump favorites like Mike Love, Kid Rock, Kanye West, and John Rich, who were in DC for it.
From her Congressional webpage:
The bipartisan legislation, led by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and cosponsored by Klobuchar, will help ensure that songwriters are paid fair market value for their work by revising outdated songwriter royalty standards. The Music Modernization Act also creates a new, simplified licensing system to make it easier for digital music companies to obtain a license for songs and ensure that songwriters are paid the royalties they are owed.
Amy is a big fan of her states music and some of her time in office has been spent recognizing Bob Dylan and Prince. I suspect The Replacements, Lizzo and Har Mar Superstar are due next.
On Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature:
“Like so many, I grew up listening to Bob Dylan’s music and it filled me with pride to say that he was from Minnesota. Born in Duluth and raised on the Iron Range in Hibbing, Bob Dylan has reminded us through song of his Minnesota roots – as we heard in the lyrics to his song Girl from the North Country, ‘If you're travelin' in the north country fair, where the winds hit heavy on the borderline, remember me to one who lives there, she was once a true love of mine.’ Congratulations to Bob Dylan on his unprecedented contributions to American music and for receiving this most-deserved Nobel Prize.”
On Prince's passing in 2016:
“Like all Minnesotans I am shocked and saddened today. I grew up with Prince's music. He was a superstar composer, an amazing performer and a music innovator with a fierce belief in the independence of his art. He made ‘Purple Rain’ a household name, First Avenue a landmark, and brought international fame to Minnesota's music scene. I was always so proud to say ‘Prince, he is from Minnesota.’ We grieve his loss today.”
Klobuchar;s campaign musical highlight has been to find interesting (and local) songs to play during her campaign, often using the music of Dessa Wander, for example. Klobuchar is a big fan of musicals - from "Sound of Music" to "Hamilton".
She also has received some criticism for using Rachel Platten's “Fight Song”. It's a pretty banal, inoffensive song with a positive message, but it was all over Hillary’s losing 2016 campaign. I would stick away from it as much as I would saying "Whip inflation Now"
Marianne Williamson caught America’s attention at the Democratic Debate. Her mystic presence often evoking thoughts of Stevie Nicks or Kate Bush. Her personal path began as a cabaret singer in her 20s. She described that life as "hell", but through the journey, was able to find peace in her life and turn it into helping others.
Music is always close by either at her church (where Steven Tyler or Cher might pop up), at a fundraiser (with the likes of Taylor Dayne and Chaka Khan) or in her books, one of which is called Healing: Music, Meditation and Prayer . So Bernie Sanders isn’t the only candidate with a Discography. You can catch Marianne on disc with her meditations, speeches and help for weight loss and finances. She is all over Youtube, Spotify, AppleMusic and wherever you find related media.
Relax your Spleen!
Williamson is probably the only candidate that inspired Alannis Morrisette to write a song about them. For Williamson’s 2014 Congressional Run, Morrisette was inspired to write Today.
Here's a few of those lyrics and Williamson plays a role in the video.
Unless we start a revolution
Awaken from this frozen
Start the mending of our union
Today
Unless we revive this constitution
From sure disintegration
Live out this revelation
Today
Smile upside-down
Rupture is rising, families are scrambling for custody
Faithlessly drowned
The chase of this dollar is tilting my altar toward apathy
We're going down, down, down
We're going down unless we move to new ground
The rabbit hole on this search wasn't one I planned on, but I will tell you what: There are a lot of people who think Alanis sang "What's Going On".
Of course, one of the most inspired and memorable moments of 2020 was after the debate when podcaster Boxrec Grey took Williamson’s quotes and overlaid it over the Twin Peaks soundtrack.
So who's the most musical candidate? Bernie? Tulsi? Pete? Marianne? That is your choice, but remember, I haven't even worked my way through the whole list yet.
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