Trayvon/John Donne

John Donne was a priest, a satirist, and a metaphysical poet in the late-1500s/early 1600s.  His best-known work, by line if not by title, is "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions," whence we get "no man is an island" and "for whom the bell tolls." In an earlier post, from Jan 21, 2012, I alluded to that work, worrying that we no longer even hear the bell, never mind know enough to ask for whom it's ringing.  Recent otherwise tragic events have given me hope that, though there are billions more of us on the planet now than when Donne wrote those words, we can still feel the death of one (though not everyone) totally unknown by us.

Trayvon Martin was a young man who was apparently killed for the same crime so many black people have been killed for: being black.  Unarmed except for iced tea and Skittles (it sickens me just to write that), clad in a hoodie, he was perceived as suspicious and a threat by a white/Hispanic and (legally) armed man, part of an apparently crypto-vigilante "neighborhood watch" group and, under circumstances none of us will ever fully know or understand, shot to death.  While the killer has yet to be arrested, some deep-thinking, sciologically-sensitive folks such as Geraldo Rivera have suggested that young men stop wearing hoodies to prevent such incidents from happening again.  Of course, no one dares discuss making packing heat more difficult--that's just an accepted part of American life.  But sartorial choices--look out!  Remember, "Guns don't kill people; people wearing hoodies might, possibly."  Until the National Hoodie Association achieves the same political clout as the NRA, that's just how it's gonna be in Amuricah.  And yet, all over the country,  from the streets to the Halls of Congress (see Congressman Bobby Rush, D/Ill), people are rising to seek justice.  There may yet be some life in the body politic and some hope for our Humanity.

In 1983, Van Morrison released Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, which contained the song called "Rave On, John Donne" (can you see where I'm going here?  That explains the title of this post...).  In 1984 came the live version, which contains one of the bravest production/overdubbing decisions in recording history.  Instead of saying, smoothly, "Oh, what sweet wine we drink" as on the studio album,  Van elides that phrase into "Oh, what swine..." and then quickly corrects it; but he leaves it in on the album, which I find really self-confident, ballsy, even Dylanesque (the next-best example of such that I can think of is Stephen Stills's version of "49 Bye-byes" from Four Way Street, where he says in the middle of his impassioned rant "I don't know if I want white America to remember or for toget....").  Anyway, this week I'm playing both studio and live versions of Van's song, Loudo's "Hard Day on the Planet," wherein he namechecks and quotes Mr. Donne (oh, that prep-schooled Westchester boy), and lots of "island" and maybe some "bell" and "tolling" songs.  Hope you can join me on Tuesday, noon till two eastern on 100.1 FM, or wool.fm on the webs.

Perhaps clothes do "make the man...?"