The LitWorld Girls Club in Kibera took a trip to a children's home that bears an apt benevolent name - New Life Home Trust. The centre, located a few miles away from the sprawling Kibera slums, hosts abandoned kids, most of whom are HIV positive.
It is in this centre that the children get the enviable opportunity to have what is closest to them as a normal upbringing, to help them cope with their otherwise difficult circumstances. Their backgrounds and life stories are shared here, giving them the strength and hope they so much need amid the wish that they will one day be adopted into new families in order to get the parental and sibling love that they so desperately need.
The girls from LitWorld Girls Club joined the children at this centre as they went on their daily activities, played with them and helped with their feeding. The bright looks on the excited kids' faces told it all – they had a marvelous time and such visits does a lot to boost their morale and undoubtedly their physical, mental and spiritual health.
The girl's club too, living up to their credo, left with new experiences firmly etched in their minds. It was an opportunity to give back to the community by spending time with those who needed their love most.
At the end of the day, as the compassionate girls trooped back to take their transport home, it was evident that their handlers were keen to do this again –soon.


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Tag: You've Got A Friend
I can't believe it's Sunday again – boy, this first week of 2022 flew by really quickly! Well, this means it's time for another installment of my favorite weekly feature where I time-travel to celebrate music of the past and sometimes the present, six tunes at a time. Off we go!
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble/Chitlins con Carne
Let's kick it off with a great jazzy instrumental by Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of my favorite electric blues guitarists. Chitlins con Carne is from the fifth and final album of Vaughan and his backing band Double Trouble, appropriately titled The Sky Is Crying. This record appeared in November 1991, 14 months after Vaughan's tragic and untimely death in a helicopter crash. He was only 35 years old – what a huge loss! Chitlins con Carne, composed by jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, was first released on his 1963 album Midnight Blue. In case you're curious you can check out the original here. Following is Vaughan's excellent rendition!
Christine McVie/Got a Hold on Me
Christine McVie is best known as keyboarder, vocalist and songwriter of Fleetwood Mac, which she joined in 1970, coming from British blues band Chicken Shack. At the time she became a member of the Mac, she was the wife of bassist John McVie whom she had married in 1968. Their union fell apart after Christine had an affair with the band's lighting engineer Curry Grant during the production of the Rumours album in 1976. Let's just say there were many on and off relationships within Fleetwood Mac! Christine McVie wrote some of the band's best-known songs, such as Don't Stop, You Make Loving Fun (about her affair with Grant, though at the time she claimed it was about a dog!) and Say You Love Me. To date, she has also recorded three solo albums. Got a Hold on Me, co-written by her and Todd Sharp, is from her second solo effort Christine McVie, which came out in January 1984. I've always loved this pop-rock tune – simple and a bit repetitive, but quite catchy!
James Taylor/Fire and Rain
Last Sunday, I caught a great CNN documentary, Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name, focused on their 2010 Troubadour Reunion Tour – I could still kill myself that I completely missed that tour! Anyway, one of the tunes they played was Fire and Rain, my favorite James Taylor original song. I also love his rendition of King's You've Got a Friend. Fire and Rain is off Taylor's sophomore album Sweet Baby James from February 1970. The tune also appeared separately as a single in August that year. It became his first hit, reaching no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, no. 2 in Canada and no. 6 in Australia. It also charted in the UK (no. 48) and The Netherlands (no. 18). Here's a beautiful live performance captured from the BBC's In Concert series in November 1970. James Taylor, his smooth voice and his great guitar-playing – that's really all you need!
Them/Gloria
Next, let's jump back further to December 1964 and some dynamite British garage rock: Gloria by Them, a band formed in April 1964 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Fronted by Van Morrison (lead vocals, saxophone, harmonica), the group's original line-up also included Billy Harrison (guitar, vocals), Eric Wrixon (keyboards), Alan Henderson (bass) and Ronnie Milling (drums). Gloria, penned by Morrison, was first released in November 1964 as the B-side to Baby, Please Don't Go, Them's second single. The tune was also included on the group's debut album The Angry Young Them from June 1965, which in the U.S. was simply titled Them. This song's just a classic. I wish I could say the same about Van Morrison these days!
Elvis Presley/Heartbreak Hotel
As frequent visitors of the blog may recall, my childhood idol was Elvis Presley who, btw, would have turned 87 yesterday (January 8). While I no longer idolize him or anyone else for that matter, I still dig Elvis, especially his early period. One of the coolest songs I can think of in this context is Heartbreak Hotel. Credited to Tommy Durden, Mae Boren Axton and Presley, the slow jazzy blues tune first appeared as a single in January 1956 and became Elvis' first big hit. Among others, it topped the charts in the U.S., Canada and The Netherlands, and reached no. 2 in the UK. Heartbreak Hotel was also included on the compilation Elvis' Golden Records from March 1958. In addition to Presley's regular backing musicians Scotty Moore (electric guitar) and Bill Black (double bass), the recording featured Chet Atkins (acoustic guitar), Floyd Cramer (piano) and D.J. Fontana (drums). Feel free to snip along!
Mark Knopfler/Prairie Wedding
And once again, this brings me to the sixth and final track in this installment. It's yet another tune my streaming music provider recently served up as a listening suggestion: Prairie Wedding by Mark Knopfler. The song is from the former Dire Straits frontman's second solo album Sailing to Philadelphia that came out in September 2000. Written by Knopfler like all other tunes on the album, the track features Gillian Welch and her musical partner David Rawlings on backing vocals, as well as Guy Fletcher on keyboards. Fletcher also served in that role in Dire Straits from 1984 until the band's final dissolution in 1995. Great tune with a nice cinematic feel!
Here's a playlist of the above tunes:
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on January 9, 2022 January 9, 2022 Categories The Sunday SixTags Alan Henderson, Baby Please Don't Go, Bill Black, Billy Harrison, Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name, Chet Atkins, Chicken Shack, Chitlins con Carne, Christine McVie, Curry Grant, D.J. Fontana, David Rawlings, Dire Straits, Don't Stop, Double Trouble, Elvis Presley, Elvis' Golden Records, Eric Wrixon, Fire And Rain, Fleetwood Mac, Floyd Cramer, Folk, Garage Rock, Gillian Welch, Gloria, Got a Hold on Me, Guy Fletcher, Heartbreak Hotel, James Taylor, John McVie, Kenny Burrell, Mae Boren Axton, Mark Knopfler, Midnight Blue, Prairie Wedding, Ronnie Milling, Rumours, Sailing to Philadelphia, Say You Love Me, Scotty Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Sweet Baby James, The Angry Young Them, The Sky Is Crying, Them, Them Crooked Vultures, Todd Sharp, Tommy Durden, Van Morrison, You Make Loving Fun, You've Got A Friend15 Comments on The Sunday Six
Three Ladies Who Did It Twice
Tina Turner and Carole King have now joined Stevie Nicks as only female music artists inducted twice into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
On Saturday night, Tina Turner and Carole King were officially inducted for the second time into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Prior to them, only one other female music artist had accomplished that feat: Stevie Nicks.
I fully realize many music fans are highly critical of the Rock Hall, some to the point where they no longer care, as do certain artists based on what they've said. Debates about the secretive selection process and who's in the Rock Hall and who's not are certain to continue.
Instead of rehashing controversy, I'd like to celebrate these three amazing women, Stevie Nicks, Tina Turner and Carole King, and their great music. All three are among my longtime favorite artists and very deserving inductees, IMHO.
Nicks was first inducted as a member of Fleetwood Mac in 1998, together with former and current band members Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan and Christine McVie.
From Rock Hall website: After forming as a British blues band in the late '60s, Fleetwood Mac evolved into one of the most influential rock groups of the '70s. Not only did they write some of the decade's most indelible songs—and release one of the best-selling albums of all time, 1977's Rumours—but the troupe created a distinctive "California sound" that endures today as a sonic touchstone for countless bands.
Here's one of my favorite tunes written by Nicks for Fleetwood Mac from the band's second eponymous album that appeared in July 1975: Landslide. I really dig her singing and Buckingham's acoustic guitar playing.
Nicks' induction as a solo performer happened in 2019. From Rock Hall website: Stevie Nicks' life and career have always had a touch of magical enchantment. Tonight represents a crowning validation of her spellbinding gifts as a rock & roll icon, as she becomes the first woman to be twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – with Fleetwood Mac in 1998, and now as a solo artist.
Following is Stand Back, a tune from Nicks' sophomore solo album The Wild Heart, which appeared in June 1983. Also released as a single, the song became one of her highest-charting, climbing to no. 5 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at no. 10 in Canada, and reaching the top 40 in various other countries, including The Netherlands, Germany and Australia. It's definitely a child of its time!
Tina Turner was first inducted into the Rock Hall in 1991 as part of Ike & Tina Turner. From Rock Hall website: A charismatic bandleader and an unbridled whirlwind of sexual energy formed one of the most formidable live acts in history. Ike and Tina Turner were such a presence onstage that even their own albums don't do them justice. The explosive duo made such enduring hits as "River Deep–Mountain High," "Proud Mary" and "Nutbush City Limits." Ike Turner was a talented songwriter and guitarist. Unfortunately, his physical and psychological abuse of Tina Turner will forever diminish him. Here's the amazing Nutbush City Limits, which actually was written by Tina Turner – I always mistakenly had thought Ike had penned it! The tune was the title track of Ike & Tina Turner's studio album from November 1973 and became a signature song.
From Rock Hall press release announcing 2021 inductees: …Tina Turner is known as the Queen of Rock & Roll, a title she earned not just once but twice. The first time, she rose to fame in the 1960s as part of the duo Ike and Tina Turner, belting out soulful rock songs in a non-stop stage show where she danced the audience into a frenzy. But all of that is backstory to the most successful and triumphant rebirth in the history of rock…
The most important album of Turner's solo career is Private Dancer from May 1984, which not only turned her into a viable solo artist but an international superstar. Here's the title track, written by Mark Knopfler. While it's obviously a radical departure from the R&B sound of Ike & Tina Turner, I still love that tune!
Carole King's initial induction into the Rock Hall occurred in 1990, together with her ex-husband and former lyricist Jerry Goffin. From Rock Hall website: Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote much of the soundtrack of the Sixties. Chances are, you have danced around to a hit single by the dynamic songwriting duo. Goffin wrote the lyrics and King wrote the music for such hits as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "One Fine Day" and "Don't Bring Me Down."
After their breakthrough Will You Love Me Tomorrow, which The Shirelles took to no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1961, Goffin-King became a hit machine. There are so many tunes I could have picked here. I decided to go with Chains, first recorded by American girl group The Cookies in 1962, climbing to no. 6 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart and reaching a respectable no. 17 on the mainstream Hot 100. The tune was also covered by The Beatles and appeared on their UK debut album Please Please Me.
This brings me to Carole King's second induction as a solo artist. From Rock Hall website: After writing the soundtrack of the 1960s, Carole King wove a tapestry of  emotion and  introspection as a singer-songwriter in the 1970s.  Her solo work was a clarion call to generations of female artists and  millions of  fans  –  giving  them voice and confidence.  King has too many accolades to list – six Grammys,  the  2013  Library of Congress Gershwin Prize,  a  2015 Kennedy Center Honor,  and beyond.
As somebody who has loved Carole King's music since his childhood days, I'm very happy she also finally got the Rock Hall's well-deserved recognition as a solo artist. It was also great to read that she was able to attend Saturday's induction ceremony – unlike Tina Turner who is turning 82 on November 26 and sadly not in good health. You can watch King's performance of You've Got a Friend here, featuring Danny Kortchmar (guitar) and Leland Sklar (bass), among others – probably King's last major public performance, since she has said she's no longer touring.
Similar to Goffin-King, there were so many songs I could have picked from King's solo career, including pretty much any track from Tapestry. Instead, I decided to highlight Hard Rock Cafe, a song from her eighth album Simple Things that appeared in July 1977. I've always liked this happy song, which also was released as a single and charted in the top 30 in the U.S., Canada, Australia and various European countries, including Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.
Sources: Wikipedia; Rock Hall website; YouTube
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on November 1, 2021 February 6, 2022 Categories ListsTags Carole King, Chains, Christine McVie, Danny Kirwan, Danny Kortchmar, Don't Bring Me Down, Fleetwood Mac, Hard Rock Cafe, Ike & Tina Turner, Jeremy Spencer, Jerry Goffin, John McVie, Landslide, Leland Sklar, Lindsey Buckingham, Mark Knopfler, Mick Fleetwood, Nutbush City Limits, One Fine Day, Peter Green, Please Please Me, Pop, Private Dancer, Proud Mary, R&B, River Deep - Mountain High, Rock, Rumours, Simple Things, Singer-Songwriter, Soul, Stand Back, Stevie Nicks, Tapestry, The Beatles, The Cookies, The Shirelles, The Wild Heart, Tina Turner, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, You've Got A Friend6 Comments on Three Ladies Who Did It Twice
Ten Days of Tapestry
A legendary album turns 50 – part X
This is it – today, exactly 50 years ago, on February 10, 1971, one of greatest records in pop history was released: Tapestry by Carole King. As such, we've come to the final part of my series to celebrate this iconic record. Perhaps some readers will breathe a sigh of relief, after having seen Carole King-related posts from me for the past nine days in a row! 🙂
To quickly recap, during the previous nine parts, I've covered all of side A – I Feel the Earth Move, So Far Away, It's Too Late, Home Again, Beautiful and Way Over Yonder – and most of the B-side, i.e., You've Got a Friend, Where You Lead, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and Smackwater Jack. This leaves two tracks: The album's title song and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.
I'll leave it up to Carole to comment on the title track: "It is typical of the magic that seems to surround that album, a magic for which I feel no personal responsibility, but just sort of happened, that I had started a needlepoint tapestry a few months before we did the album, and I happened to write a song called 'Tapestry,' not even connecting the two up in my mind," she explained during a recorded 1972 conversation with producer Lou Adler, as quoted by Songfacts. "I was just thinking about some other kind of tapestry, the kind that hangs and is all woven, or something, and I wrote that song. And, you being the sharp fellow you are, (giggles), put the two together and came up with an excellent title, a whole concept for the album."
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman is a tune Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote together with input from Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler. It was first recorded and released by the amazing Aretha Franklin in 1967. One of Franklin's signature songs, it peaked at no. 8 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100.
Apparently, the tune was inspired by a chance encounter between Gerry Goffin and Jerry Wexler. Songfacts again quotes Lou Adler: "Last year (2007) I spoke to Jerry Wexler at his home in Florida, and he told me the story that Gerry was coming out of a building in New York, (Goffin now remembers it as an Oyster House), and Jerry Wexler is passing in a car, and yells out, 'Why don't you write a song called 'Natural Woman'?' They felt the title was so distinct and so important to the song that they gave him a piece of it." Certainly a nice way to earn a credit!
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman is yet another track from Tapestry that never became a single. I guess in this case, it's understandable – after all, who could possible trump the Queen of Soul. Here's Aretha Franklin's incredible cover.
According to this Los Angeles Times story, Tapestry was recorded in just three weeks. Carole and her studio musicians worked pretty quickly, recording two to three tracks per day. Adler noted the album's studio budget was only $22,000.
Tapestry is one of the most successful albums in pop history. It topped the Billboard 200 for 15 consecutive weeks and to this day holds the record for most consecutive weeks at number one by a female solo artist. Altogether, Tapestry was listed on this chart for 318 weeks between 1971 and 2011, including 302 weeks consecutively from April 10, 1971 to January 15, 1977. It took until 2017, until English songwriter and vocalist Adele beat that record with her album 21.
Tapestry has been certified 13x Multi-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as of February 5, 2021, meaning it has reached at least 13 million sold copies. The album won four Grammy Awards in 1972, including the particularly prestigious Album of the Year. In Rolling Stone's most recent 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Tapestry was ranked at no. 25.
James Taylor and Joni Mitchell recording background vocals for Carole King's "Tapestry."
(Jim McCrary/Ode Records/Lou Adler Archives)
The above Los Angeles Times article also noted Carole was largely indifferent about the popularity Tapestry had brought her. While she went on to release 15 additional studio albums, she didn't tour behind her records or do much else to promote her music.
One exception happened in 2010 when Carole teamed up with James Taylor for an international tour – that's the one I missed, for which I could still kill myself! "It worked extremely well," Taylor told the L.A. Times. "Then at the end of it, when everybody's saying, 'Keep the big ball rolling,' Carole says, 'No, let's quit while we're still ahead.' And she walked away."
On March 4, 2004, Tapestry was among 50 recordings that were added for 2013 to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. Recordings added to this registry are selected to be preserved in the Library of Congress, since they are considered to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important." Some of the other additions for 2013 included Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles), At Folsom Prison (Johnny Cash), What's Going On (Marvin Gaye) and Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen).
Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; Los Angeles Times; RIAA website; Library of Congress website; YouTube
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on February 10, 2021 February 27, 2022 Categories Music HistoryTags (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, 21, Adele, Aretha Franklin, At Folsom Prison, Beautiful, Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Home Again, I Feel The Earth Move, It's Too Late, Jerry Wexler, Johnny Cash, Lou Adler, Marvin Gaye, Pop, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Smackwater Jack, So Far Away, Tapestry, The Beatles, Way Over Yonder, What's Going On, Where You Lead, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, You've Got A Friend9 Comments on Ten Days of Tapestry
A legendary album turns 50 – part IX
We're almost there. Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of Carole King's Tapestry, her iconic album from 1971, which I've been celebrating with this series over the past eight days. Up to now, I've explored all of side A, i.e., I Feel the Earth Move, So Far Away, It's Too Late, Home Again, Beautiful and Way Over Yonder, and the first three tracks on side B: You've Got a Friend, Where You Lead and Will You Love Me Tomorrow. Next up: Smackwater Jack.
Smackwater Jack is Tapestry's second tune Carole co-wrote with Gerry Goffin. Unlike Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Smackwater Jack wasn't released until Tapestry. It's a great mid-tempo bluesy rocker. Rolling Stone's Jon Landau called it an "uptempo shuffle." In particular, I dig the piano work including Ralph Schuckett's electric piano, and Danny Kortchmar's electric guitar. Also, as a retired bassist, I have to call out Charles Larkey's great bassline.
In addition to its music, Smackwater Jack stands out lyrically. It sounds less personal and less emotional than the other tunes on Tapestry. This doesn't make it any worse; in fact, I think it's a great outlaw story told in a very cinematic fashion you could picture in a Western movie.
Check out this excerpt from the lyrics: …The account of the capture/Wasn't in the papers/But you know, they hanged ol' Smack right then/Instead of later/You know, the people were quite pleased/'Cause the outlaw had been seized/And on the whole, it was a very good year/For the undertaker…
Smackwater Jack also appeared separately as Tapestry's second single, paired with So Far Away. Like the album's first single It's Too Late/I Feel the Earth Move, Billboard treated it as a double A. It peaked at no. 14 on the Hot 100.
Interestingly, Quincy Jones covered Smackwater Jack as the title track of his studio album that also appeared in 1971. I had not been aware of this. I can't say I like it as much as Carole's original version. Still, I think Jones deserves credit for making the tune his own by giving it a funky soul vibe – check it out!
Sources: YouTube; YouTube
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on February 9, 2021 February 27, 2022 Categories Music HistoryTags Beautiful, Carole King, Charles Larkey, Danny Kortchmar, Home Again, I Feel The Earth Move, Jon Landau, Pop, Quincy Jones, Ralph Schuckett, Smackwater Jack, So Far Away, Tapestry, Way Over Yonder, Where You Lead, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, You've Got A Friend4 Comments on Ten Days of Tapestry
A legendary album turns 50 – part VIII
Part VIII of my 10-day celebration of Carole King's Tapestry is bringing us close to the album's 50th anniversary day, which is this Wednesday, February 10. The previous parts have featured all of side A – I Feel the Earth Move, So Far Away, It's Too Late, Home Again, Beautiful and Way Over Yonder – and the first two tracks of side B, You've Got a Friend and Where You Lead. Next up is the third track on the B side, and it's a true standout: Will You Love Me Tomorrow.
Also sometimes known as Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, this beautiful ballad is one of two tracks on Tapestry, co-written in 1960 by Carole and her then-husband and lyricist Gerry Goffin. It was first recorded and released by American girl group The Shirelles that same year. The song became their first no. 1 single in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. It also climbed to no. 4 in the U.K., giving them their biggest hit there. Will You Love Me Tomorrow became the breakthrough hit for Goffin-King.
On the Tapestry version, James Taylor not only provided acoustic guitar but also backing vocals. Oh, and there was another prominent backing vocalist: Joni Mitchell. The vocals of the three artists beautifully blend, making the tune one of the outstanding gems on Tapestry.
According to Songfacts, apparently because of its perceived sexual lyrics, Will You Love Me Tomorrow met with some resistance from radio stations, but not enough to stop it from becoming a huge hit – absolutely laughable, especially from today's perspective!
Songfacts also notes Shirley Alston, the lead vocalist of The Shirelles, initially dismissed the song as "too Country and Western". But producer Luther Dixon reassured her the group could adapt the tune to their style. He also asked Carole and Gerry to add strings and speed up the tempo. They did and the rest is history.
Tapestry producer Lou Adler, who also owned King's record company, explained, as quoted by Songfacts: "The only thing we reached back for, which was calculated in a way, which of the old Goffin and King songs that was hit should we put on this album? And, that's how we came up with 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.' I thought that song fit what the other songs were saying in Tapestry. A very personal lyric." Interestingly, Carole's version of Will You Love Me Tomorrow was not released as a single.
Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on February 8, 2021 February 27, 2022 Categories Music HistoryTags Beautiful, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Home Again, I Feel The Earth Move, It's Too Late, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Lou Adler, Luther Dixon, Pop, Shirley Alston, So Far Away, Tapestry, The Shirelles, Way Over Yonder, Where You Lead, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, You've Got A Friend7 Comments on Ten Days of Tapestry
A legendary album turns 50 – part VI
This is part VI of Ten Days of Tapestry, a celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the legendary Carole King album released on February 10, 1971. Parts I-V covered the six tracks on the record's A-side: I Feel the Earth Move, So Far Away, It's Too Late, Home Again, Beautiful and Way Over Yonder. On to side B!
The opening track of the B-side is one of Carole's best known tunes, mainly because of James Taylor's great cover: You've Got a Friend. It's yet another track with beautifully written lyrics by Carole who also composed the music.
When you're down and troubled/And you need some love and care/And nothing, nothing is going right/Close your eyes and think of me/And soon I will be there/To brighten up even your darkest night…Such a great pick her upper!
As quoted by Songfacts, Carole said the song "was as close to pure inspiration as I've ever experienced. The song wrote itself. It was written by something outside of myself, through me."
Notably, You've Got a Friend never became a hit for Carole. Instead, it was the aforementioned great cover by her friend James Taylor that topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, giving him his only no. 1 single in the U.S. to this day. Taylor, who played guitar on Tapestry, was working on his third studio album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon in parallel and recorded the tune for that album.
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on February 6, 2021 February 27, 2022 Categories Music HistoryTags Beautiful, Carole King, Home Again, I Feel The Earth Move, It's Too Late, James Taylor, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, Pop, So Far Away, Tapestry, Way Over Yonder, You've Got A Friend17 Comments on Ten Days of Tapestry
James Taylor Releases American Songbook Cover Album
I suppose if you're a cynic you could point out that when an artist releases a cover album of American standards or Christmas tunes for that matter, it's a sign they've run out of ideas and may consider retirement, or they simply are trying make a quick buck. While in some cases this notion may not be unfounded, I feel differently when it comes to James Taylor. To me, his just-released new album American Standard is a legitimate undertaking by an artist who wants to highlight songs that have played an important role in his musical journey.
I've admired James Taylor for many years for his warm and soothing vocals and his impressive acoustic guitar chops. I wish I could play like that! His cover of Carole King's You've Got a Friend is one of my all-time favorite tunes. And, yes, Taylor has also written beautiful songs like Carolina in My Mind, Sweet Baby James and of course the amazing Fire and Rain. I realize this may make me a bit biased when it comes to his latest release.
So why come out with a cover album of American standards? Do we really need another version of Moon River and God Bless the Child? Here's what the album's liner notes say, as reported by American Songwriter: "These are songs I have always known. Most of them were part of my family's record collection, the first music I heard as a kid growing up in North Carolina…Before I started writing my own stuff, I learned to play these tunes, working out chord changes for my favorite melodies. And those guitar arrangements became the basis for this album."
James Taylor in his barn studio in Western Mass.
"My collaborator, John Pizzarelli, is a living encyclopedia of the best popular music that the West has ever produced. Like his father, Bucky, he is a master guitarist and a casual, matter-of-fact genius. I asked John to come out to Western Massachusetts, where I live and do my recording in a big barn in the middle of the forest, to help me put down some tracks. I'd show him what changes I had found for a handful of songs and we'd work up the arrangements."
Call me naive, but to me Taylor doesn't sound like some artist who is just out there to cash in on his big name late in his recording career. I won't pretend I'm an expert on the American songbook. I'm not. It's simply not the kind of music I typically listen to. I also doubt this will change all for a sudden. What I do know is that I love how Taylor and Pizzarelli arranged these tunes. I think it's time to let the music do some of the talking or writing.
Teach Me Tonight was written in 1953 by pianist Gene De Paul with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. This jazz standard has been covered by Dinah Washington, Count Basie, Sammy Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin, Al Jarreau and Stevie Wonder, among other countless artists. I dig the beautiful arrangement, including the trumpet solo and percussion played by Walt Fowler and Luis Conte, respectively. Here's the official video.
Another beautiful tune is Almost Like Being in Love. The music and the lyrics were written by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, respectively, for the score of their 1947 musical Brigadoon. The song was first performed on Broadway by David Brooks. Gene Kelly sang the 1954 film version. The tune was also recorded by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Shirley Bassey. As a fan of old James Bond movies, she entered my radar screen with Goldfinger, perhaps the best 007 tune.
My Heart Stood Still was composed by Richard Rodgers in 1927, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. It was written for a British musical revue by Charles Cochran, which opened in London in May 1927. It was also featured later that same year in the American Broadway musical A Connecticut Yankee. Like with most other tracks on the album, it's a tune that was recorded by many artists over the decades, including Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. The lovely violin part is played by Stuart Duncan.
The last tune I'd like to call out is It's Only a Paper Moon, which I previously only knew from the 1973 motion picture Paper Moon. But the song's origin dates all the way back to 1932, when it was titled If You Believed in Me and first performed by Claire Carleton during a Broadway play called The Great Magoo. The music was composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Yip Harburg and Billy Rose. According to Wikipedia, the song's lasting fame stems from its revival by popular artists during the last years of World War II, with hit recordings being made by Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and Benny Goodman.
American Standard, which was released yesterday (Feb 28), is Taylor's 20th studio album. It was co-produced by Dave O'Donnell, Taylor and Pizzarelli. O'Donnell has worked in different capacities (engineering, mixing, producing) with an impressive array of artists, who in addition to Taylor include Sheryl Crow, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and John Mayer, among others. Pizzarelli, a jazz guitarist and vocalist, isn't exactly obscure either. According to Wikipedia, apart from recording more than 20 solo albums, he has appeared on more than 40 albums, including Paul McCartney, Rickie Lee Jones and Natalie Cole.
Taylor will be touring Canada and the U.S., starting in mid-April and featuring special guests. In Canada, it is going to be Bonnie Raitt, while for most U.S. gigs Jackson Browne will be his special guest. This surely does sound tempting to me. If Raitt would be the special guest in the U.S., I'd probably get a ticket right away. Don't get me wrong, I dig Jackson Browne as well but saw him relatively recently in May 2018. My previous and so far only Bonnie Raitt show, on the other hand, dates back to August 2016. And, yes, I admit it, I do have a weak spot for her – she's just an amazing lady!
Sources: Wikipedia; American Songwriter; James Taylor website; Dave O'Donnell website; YouTube
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on February 29, 2020 Categories Music ReviewsTags Al Jarreau, Alan Jay Lerner, Almost Like Being in Love, American Songbook, American Standard, American Standards, Aretha Franklin, Billy Rose, Bing Crosby, Bonnie Raitt, Carole King, Carolina in My Mind, Charles Cochran, Chet Baker, Claire Carleton, Count Basie, Dave O'Donnell, David Brooks, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Eric Clapton, Fire And Rain, Frank Sinatra, Frederick Loewe, Gene De Paul, Gene Kelly, God Bless the Child, Goldfinger, Harold Arlen, If You Believed in Me, It's Only a Paper Moon, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, John Mayer, Keith Richards, Lorenz Hart, Luis Conte, Moon River, My Heart Stood Still, Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Paper Moon, Paul McCartney, Pop, Richard Rodgers, Rickie Lee Jones, Sammy Cahn, Sammy Davis Jr., Sheryl Crow, Shirley Bassey, Stevie Wonder, Stuart Duncan, Sweet Baby James, Teach Me Tonight, The Great Magoo, Walt Fowler, Yip Harburg, You've Got A Friend12 Comments on James Taylor Releases American Songbook Cover Album
My Playlist: Music Artists Who Do It All
Some of my favorite singer-songwriters from the 1960s through the 2000s
The singer-songwriter category is very broad, depending on how you define it, spanning different music genres, including folk, rock, country and pop. According to Wikipedia, singer-songwriters are artists who write, compose and perform their own music, oftentimes solo with just a guitar or piano. All Music adds that although early rock & roll artists like Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly wrote and sang their own songs, the term singer-songwriter "refers to the legions of performers that followed Bob Dylan in the late 60s and early 70s." You could make the same observation about blues pioneers like Lead Belly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and Lightnin' Hopkins.
Based on the above definition, artists who write and perform songs as part of a band are not singer-songwriters. Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger would be popular examples in this context. While I've seen Elton John being mentioned as a singer-songwriter, to me he's not, at least not in the strict sense. While he has written the music to his songs and performed them, he has relied on Bernie Taupin for the lyrics. By comparison, the other big pop piano man of our time, Billy Joel, has written the music and lyrics for pretty much all of his songs, so he fits the category.
With the singer-songwriter definition being out of the way, let's get to some of my favorite artists in that category. I'd like to tackle this chronologically, starting with the 60s and Bob Dylan. The Times They Are A-Changin' is the title track from his third studio album, which appeared in January 1964. According to Songfacts, the tune "became an anthem for frustrated youth," expressing anti-establishment sentiments and reflecting the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. Songfacts also quotes Dylan from the liner notes of his Biograph box set compilation album from November 1985: "I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, with short, concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. This is definitely a song with a purpose. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to." Sadly, the song has taken on new relevance in present-day America, especially over the past couple of years.
Next up: Donovan and Sunshine Superman, one of my longtime favorite '60s tunes. The song is the title track of Donovan's third album released in August 1966 in the U.S. It did not come out in the U.K. due a contractual dispute between British label Pye Records and U.S. label Epic Records. This also impacted the release of Donovan's fourth album Mellow Yellow, which like Sunshine Superman appeared in the U.S. only. After the labels had worked out their issue, Pye Records released a compilation from both records in the U.K. in June 1967 under the title of Sunshine Superman.
Jumping to the '70s, here's Fire And Rain by James Taylor. Apart from his cover of the Carole King tune You've Got A Friend, the opener of his second album Sweet Baby James from February 1970 is my favorite Taylor song. It became his first big hit in the U.S., peaking at no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Songfacts quotes Taylor from a 1972 interview with Rolling Stone, during which he explained how the song came about: "The first verse is about my reactions to the death of a friend [Susie Schnerr, "Suzanne"]. The second verse is about my arrival in this country [the U.S.] with a monkey on my back, and there Jesus is an expression of my desperation in trying to get through the time when my body was aching and the time was at hand when I had to do it. And the third verse of that song refers to my recuperation in Austin Riggs [from drug addiction] which lasted about five months." Wow, certainly a lot of stuff packed in one song!
In November 1970, Cat Stevens (nowadays known as Yusuf/Cat Stevens) released Tea For The Tillerman, his fourth studio album. One of my favorite tunes from that record is Father And Son. According to Songfacts, while Stevens made up the story about a son wanting to join the Russian Revolution and his dad pleading with him to stay home to work on the farm, the lyrics were inspired by Stevens' lonely childhood and differences of opinion between him and his father about his chosen path to become a professional musician.
I already mentioned Carole King, one of my favorite singer-songwriters of all time – in fact, make that one of my all-time favorite music artists! Sometimes one forgets that before becoming a recording artist and performer, King had a close to 10-year career writing songs for other artists, together her then-husband Gerry Goffin. More than two-dozen of these tunes entered the charts, and various became hits. Examples include Chains (The Cookies, later covered by The Beatles on their debut record), The Loco-Motion (Little Eva), One Fine Day (The Chiffons) and Pleasant Valley Sunday (The Monkees). King composed the music for these tunes, while Goffin wrote the lyrics. Then, in February 1971, Carole King released her second solo album Tapestry. Instead of obvious choices like I Feel The Earth Move, It's Too Late or You've Got A Friend, I'd like to highlight Way Over Yonder. Among others, this gem features James Taylor on acoustic guitar and Curtis Amy who plays the amazing tenor saxophone solo. To me, this is as close to perfection as music can get – emotional, beautiful and timeless!
Joni Mitchell is one of those artists I really should know much better than I currently do. In June 1971, her fourth album Blue appeared, which according to Wikipedia is widely regarded by music critics as one of the greatest records of all time. Here's This Flight Tonight. If you don't know Mitchell's original, yet the melody and the lyrics somehow sound familiar, you've probably heard the cover by Scottish hard rock band Nazareth. I certainly have, since they scored a no. 1 hit with it in Germany in 1973. The song also charted in the U.K. (no. 11), U.S. (no. 177) and Canada (no. 27).
More frequent visitors of the blog won't be surprised about my next choice: Neil Young. Wait a moment, some might think, based on what I wrote in my clever introduction, should he be in the list? After all, he has been affiliated with bands like Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and he continues to perform frequently with Crazy Horse. Well, in addition to these bands, Young has done plenty of solo work, plus Crazy Horse is his backing band. At the core, there's no doubt to me that Young nicely fits the singer-songwriter definition. Here's The Needle And The Damage Done, one of Young's finest songs first recorded for Harvest, his fourth studio album from February 1972. The tune was inspired by the death of Young's friend and former Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten from heroin addiction. With the U.S. battling a horrific opioid addiction crisis, eerily, the song's lyrics remain as relevant today as they were more than 45 years ago.
While with the explosion of the singer-songwriter category in the late '60s and 70s I could go on featuring artists from that time period, I also would like to least touch on more recent decades. In the '80s, Suzanne Vega emerged as one of the most popular artists in the category. At the time, I frequently listened to her second album Solitude Standing from April 1987 – yes, it's the one with Tom's Diner. While that song represents cinematic-type storytelling at its best and perfectly describes the New York morning rush, I've become a bit tired of the tune due to over-exposure. Interestingly though, it wasn't much of a chart success at the time, unlike Luka, the track I'm featuring here, which became Vega's biggest hit. The song's upbeat melody is in marked contrast to the lyrics addressing the horrible subject of child abuse.
When it comes to '90s singer-songwriters, one name that comes to mind is Alanis Morissette. In June 1995, the Canadian artist released her third studio album Jagged Little Pill, which became her first record that appeared worldwide and catapulted her to international stardom. The album became a chart topper in 13 countries, including Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., and is one of the highest-selling records of all time, exceeding more than 33 million copies worldwide. It won five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. Here's the record's second single Hand In My Pocket, a nice rock tune Morissette co-wrote with Glen Ballard who also produced the album.
The last artist I'd like to highlight in this post is English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. During her career, which was tragically cut short in July 2011 when she died from alcohol poisoning at the age of 27, Winehouse only released two albums. Her acclaimed second record Back To Black from October 2007 won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2007 Grammy Awards. With close to 3.6 million units sold in the U.K. alone, Back To Black became the U.K.'s second best-selling album of the 21st century; worldwide sales exceeded 12 million. Here's the opener Rehab, which also was released separately as the album's lead single. The lyrics describe Winehouse's refusal to attend rehab for alcoholism following her management team's suggestion. The tune has a nice soul vibe and like many of her other songs has a retro feel.
Sources: Wikipedia, All Music, Songfacts, YouTube
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on December 20, 2018 February 27, 2022 Categories ListsTags Alanis Morissette, Amy Winehouse, Back To Black, Bernie Taupin, Billy Joel, Biograph, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blue, Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Buffalo Springfield, Carole King, Cat Stevens, Chains, Chuck Berry, Country, Crazy Horse, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Curtis Amy, Danny Whitten, Donovan, Elton John, Father And Son, Fire And Rain, Folk, Gerry Goffin, Glen Ballard, Hand In My Pocket, Harvest, I Feel The Earth Move, It's Too Late, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Lead Belly, Lightnin' Hopkins, Little Eva, Luka, Mellow Yellow, Mick Jagger, One Fine Day, Paul McCartney, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Pop, Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Solitude Standing, Sunshine Superman, Suzanne Vega, Sweet Baby James, T-Bone Walker, Tea For The Tillerman, The Beatles, The Chiffons, The Cookies, The Loco-Motion, The Monkees, The Times They Are A-Changin', This Flight Tonight, Tom's Diner, Way Over Yonder, You've Got A Friend, Yusuf Cat Stevens7 Comments on My Playlist: Music Artists Who Do It All
What I've Been Listening to: Carole King/Tapestry
From the first to the last note Tapestry beautifully shines, truly making it a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
Carole King's Tapestry set a new standard in the singer-songwriter category. The benchmark has yet to be surpassed, almost 46 years after the album's release in February 1971.
Apart from its great music, I will always connect Tapestry with the time in the mid-70s when I started to get into music. My sister had the record and was playing it all the time. Recently, I got a vinyl copy of this gem as well. I had owned it on CD for many years, but nothing beats the vinyl experience!
While Tapestry brought Carole King on the map as a solo artist, at the time of its release she already had been a successful songwriter for other artists for more than a decade. Together with her lyricist and first husband Gerry Goffin, Carole had written a number of major hits during the 60s, such as The Loco-Motion (Little Eva), Take Good Care of My Baby (Bobby Vee), One Fine Day (The Chiffons), Pleasant Valley Sunday (The Monkees) and, not to forget, (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin).
But back to Tapestry, which was Carole's second studio release. Her debut, Writer, did not receive much initial attention, though that changed after Tapestry became popular. It's one of those rare albums where I almost find it impossible to point out obvious highlights – each of its 12 tunes is simply outstanding, making it worthwhile to listen from the first song to the last song.
The opener I Feel The Earth Move is one of only a few up-tempo tunes on the album with a dose of rock and blues. Another great song in this category is Smackwater Jack. It is also one of three tunes from the '60s Goffin-King songwriting era. The other two are the beautiful ballads Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? and Natural Woman.
If I would have to choose my favorite from Tapestry, it would be You've Got A Friend, both musically and in terms of its exceptionally beautiful lyrics. It is one of various tunes featuring James Taylor, who also recorded his own version, which became one of his signature songs.
Another tune I'm particularly fond of is Way Over Yonder. In addition to great lyrics, Carole's singing and piano-playing are outstanding. But what's really giving me the goose bumps is the background vocal (Merry Clayton) and the tenor sax solo (Curtis Amy).
Speaking of additional musicians, Tapestry features numerous of them, though most of the songs are dominated by Carole's powerful voice and piano. Additional instrumentation is oftentimes in the background, especially for the ballads, which gives the songs great dynamic. Some of the fantastic musicians include Danny Kootch (acoustic and electric guitar), Russ Kunkel (drums) and Charles Larkey (bass), Carol's second husband at the time. Oh, and there is Joni Mitchell, who shares background vocals with James Taylor on Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
Tapestry has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, including more than 10 million in the U.S., making it one of the most successful albums of all time. It is No. 36 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Here's another gem: It's Too Late.
This post was updated with images and clips on November 28, 2020.
Author christiansmusicmusingsPosted on January 29, 2017 November 28, 2020 Categories What I've Been Listening To...Tags (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Vee, Carole King, Charles Larkey, Curtis Amy, Danny Kootch, Gerry Goffin, I Feel The Earth Move, It's Too Late, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Little Eva, Merry Clayton, One Fine Day, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Russ Kunkel, Singer-Songwriter, Smackwater Jack, Take Good Care of My Baby, The Chiffons, The Loco-Motion, The Monkees, Way Over Yonder, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Writer, You've Got A FriendLeave a comment on What I've Been Listening to: Carole King/Tapestry

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Error Deploy Django Project to Heroku "heroku[router]: at=error code=H10 desc="App crashed" method=GET path="/" "? Error :
2022-10-12T15:20:31.186252+00:00 app[web.1]: [2022-10-12 15:20:31 +0000] [4] [WARNING] Worker with pid 10 was terminated due to signal 15
2022-10-12T15:20:31.284067+00:00 app[web.1]: [2022-10-12 15:20:31 +0000] [4] [INFO] Shutting down: Master
2022-10-12T15:20:31.284096+00:00 app[web.1]: [2022-10-12 15:20:31 +0000] [4] [INFO] Reason: Worker failed to boot.
2022-10-12T15:20:31.457411+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Process exited with status 3
2022-10-12T15:20:31.847763+00:00 heroku[web.1]: State changed from up to crashed
2022-10-12T15:20:35.000000+00:00 app[api]: Build succeeded
2022-10-12T15:22:25.882709+00:00 heroku[router]: at=error code=H10 desc="App crashed" method=GET path="/" host=dataimprovement.herokuapp.com request_id=bcbbfbfa-aae2-416d-bfbe-1c972b39dd77 fwd="180.252.117.170" dyno= connect= service= status=503 bytes= protocol=https

(venv) D:\project upload\dataimprovement>heroku logs --dyno router
2022-10-12T15:06:42.844541+00:00 heroku[router]: at=error code=H10 desc="App crashed" method=GET path="/" host=dataimprovement.herokuapp.com request_id=e6128a90-7896-4662-b9fd-812b0304a02e fwd="180.252.117.170" dyno= connect= service= status=503 bytes= protocol=https
2022-10-12T15:06:43.900566+00:00 heroku[router]: at=error code=H10 desc="App crashed" method=GET path="/favicon.ico" host=dataimprovement.herokuapp.com request_id=4475ddaf-1fd0-4bb2-a744-b26e35ec130f fwd="180.252.117.170" dyno= connect= service= status=503 bytes= protocol=https
2022-10-12T15:22:25.882709+00:00 heroku[router]: at=error code=H10 desc="App crashed" method=GET path="/" host=dataimprovement.herokuapp.com request_id=bcbbfbfa-aae2-416d-bfbe-1c972b39dd77 fwd="180.252.117.170" dyno= connect= service= status=503 bytes= protocol=https

This is my structure project:
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1. Then This is my app #layanan :
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2. Then this is my app #Items :
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Can you guys tell me what wrong with my code when I deploy to heroku hosting ?, Because I was looking this error more than 2 days and I don't know how to fixed it.
Thanks.
[1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/mDamq.png
[2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/yOthf.png
[3]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/8J8ux.png

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Sexual Health Clinics are a viable and confidential Covid-19 vaccination setting
Positive Life, the only charity in Northern Ireland for people living with HIV, has called for sexual health clinics to be used to administer the Covid vaccine for people living with HIV as the vaccination programme is set to move into its second stage.
Belfast Health & Social Care Trust have begun to issue letters informing people living with HIV that in order to receive a vaccine as a priority group they must inform their GP of their positive status if they have not already done so.
The prospect of having to potentially disclose such confidential and sensitive information to GPs and other staff in local health care settings has left many Positive Life service users feeling anxious. There is a very real fear about having their HIV status exposed to people they might know from the local community receiving or administering the vaccine within GP surgeries.
Sexual health clinics are a well-placed and viable alternative providing a well-established sense of confidentiality. It is from these clinics that people living with HIV already access medication and services. In very many cases, GPs would not be aware of a patient's status.
Staff at the clinics are also trained to administer vaccinations, providing the HPV vaccine regularly to patients who request it.
Currently around 1200 people are living with HIV in Northern Ireland.
Chief Executive of Positive Life, Jacquie Richardson said:
"GUM clinics are the most appropriate settings to administer the Covid-19 vaccine for people living with HIV. They are a familiar environment and staff understand the issues and fears around sharing a diagnosis.
"We are asking the Department of Health to divert the vaccines intended for people living with HIV towards these clinics where trained and qualified staff can administer them instead.
"Most people living with HIV interact with the GUM clinics on a regular basis to access medication and the services they provide. They know the clinicians and feel safe in this environment.
"This is and continues to be a very anxious and uncertain time for people living with HIV with many experiencing retraumatisation. The arrival of these letters and the thought of being forced to share status is a source of further distress.
"Making this very minor alteration would make a huge amount of difference and put a lot of people at ease."


Here are a few extra photos that did not fit my story pages. They are poor quality, but do show what Canvey beach area looked like from the 1940's onwards.
I have included some grainy shots for interest, for instance the pony rides and what I believe to be the seafront (?) with the family playing cricket or rounders.
There are also two coloured photos of Florence Road when I visited there in the early 80's (I think) or late 70's.
This gallery was added by Tricia Booth on 29/07/2010.
Thanks for all these pictures and words Tricia. These are the years I also remember of the Island, from when I was born 1947 til we left to live in Norfolk in 1962. Janet has got some very similar pictures, somewhere in the archives, of my brother and me on those ponies in the early 50's.


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What We Can Learn from the Trump Win
Billionaire real-estate mogul Donald Trump is the new President-Elect of the United States and most of the world is still in shock about it. No one thought it would happen. Many thought it couldn't happen. But it did. Like the referendum on Britain leaving the European Union, all the polls were wrong, all the predictions were wrong and all the pundits were wrong. Now, everyone is trying to analyze how they got it wrong and why. Personally, I don't think that is too difficult to figure out. I also do not think this is going to bring about any major change in behavior on the part of the political class. A simple look at the Democrats in America proves that point. They are now saying that the defeat of Hillary proves that they need to move further to the left. This is exactly what they said after Obama was elected twice, that his victory proved the country wanted to go in a more socialist direction. So, win or lose, they are going to be moving left and will use victory or defeat to justify it no matter which one occurs. The Republicans, likewise, are saying that now is the time to move on matters that they have given a priority to rather than the issues Trump championed. Neither side wants to change.
However, regardless of why it happened or how it happened, the victory of Donald Trump provides everyone with a great deal of learning material concerning government and how the world works, because things in the United States are not all that dissimilar to many other parts of the world. I was remarking on this long before this intolerably long campaign season was even half over. Even if he had lost, Donald Trump would have still done the American people a great service by revealing facts about the federal ruling elite that most did not know or wanted to deny. Some of these points, Trump revealed personally but others were revealed simply in the course of his unprecedented and unorthodox campaign by others who either wanted him to win, wanted Hillary to lose or who simply wanted to reveal how corrupt and hypocritical the most powerful people on the planet really are. What was revealed will probably be taken by most readers here with a yawn. Many people have been saying it for a long time but now there is proof, and proof that was revealed in full public view for all the world to see, at least if they want to.
The election of Donald Trump revealed that neither of the major parties of the United States really believe in what they have each long claimed to champion. They are liars, hypocrites and corrupt to the core and that is no longer an opinion but a verifiable fact. We should start with the Grand Old Party itself, the Republicans. Trump showed that the Republican establishment are a bunch of liars, plain and simple. Their opposition to Trump, originally at least, was that he was not a "real" conservative. They had plenty of facts to support them too. Trump used to be a Democrat, he used to be in favor of abortion and he used to support government-run healthcare. Trump supporters said, that did not matter because he had changed all those positions and he was someone who could win. The establishment, however, showed their hand with this exchange. In the last election, after all, it was they who said everyone had to support Mitt Romney because he was the candidate who could win (though he didn't of course) even though he too had previously been pro-abortion and previously supported government-run healthcare too. Likewise, none of them made an issue out of the fact that another candidate, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, had previously been a Democrat. Even President Ronald Reagan had previously been a Democrat.
They also said that, in defense of their case, that Trump had proposed more government programs and more government spending, which a "true" conservative would not do. This, however, rings hollow in the wake of the George W. Bush administration which created entire new government departments, new government programs like the failed "no child left behind" program and which had spent more money than all American presidents of the past combined until Obama came along and took that title away. So, given the fact that these same people often supported Jeb Bush and would never say anything negative about George W. Bush or anything he had done, it was revealed that they did not mean a single word of it. Their opposition to Trump was not principled at all as they had shown by their own actions that these principles were not so important so long as someone other than Trump was the candidate.
Another thing that many neocons in particular claimed to base their opposition to Trump on was his stated opposition to military interventions overseas and his opposition to the Iraq War. This too rings hollow when one remembers, as I do, that when George W. Bush was running for president, he promised the same thing. He said that America should not be the 'policeman of the world' and that nation-building was not something that the U.S. military should be tasked with. Maybe, since Bush was 'one of the club', they knew he was lying to the American people when he said that, but no one at the time made an issue out of it. Either way, they were either lying about their opposition to Trump or they were complicit in the lie of George W. Bush. They have tried to have it both ways and some of us have not failed to notice.
There were also those in the establishment who based their opposition to Trump on moral, religious grounds. Trump is widely known for his playboy past, his affairs and his multiple marriages. All of this, as well as him never being known as someone who attended church regularly, was used as justification for not supporting him and urging Christian evangelicals not to support him either. However, just since the Bush administration, these same people had supported Senator John McCain, a man who had numerous affairs, cheating on the wife who had stood by him during his time as a prisoner of war, his long medical recovery and who had herself been nearly killed in a car accident that left her crippled. McCain had a number of affairs and finally divorced his first wife to marry his latest mistress in 1980. The next GOP candidate who, again, the establishment clearly favored and supported, was Mitt Romney, a member of an American religious sect which most traditional Christians do not consider to be truly Christian and which does or did believe in such bizarre things as the Garden of Eden being in Missouri, Native Americans being Jews, that Black people don't have souls and, more famously, believing in polygamy and magic underwear. Obviously, none of these people really cared about their candidate being a strictly traditional Christian.
All in all, the more excuses the Republican elites came up with to justify not supporting Trump, even after he proved to be the most popular of the candidates on offer, fails to hold up given who these same elites had supported in the past. There was also the issue of the pledge, at the beginning of the nomination campaign to support the eventual nominee no matter who it was. All the candidates but Trump eagerly promised to support the winner and castigated Trump for not doing so. A short time later, he finally did but once Trump did become the nominee, many of these same people broke their pledge and refused to support him. This revealed to everyone how dishonest these individuals are.
The most prominent was certainly Senator Ted Cruz, the favorite of the 'constitutional conservatives'. Cruz refused to honor his pledge to support the nominee, Trump, but still claimed to be principled in doing so, saying that it was because Trump had "attacked" his family, referring to a rude internet meme about his wife Trump had re-tweeted and questions raised by Trump about Cruz' father and the assassination of President Kennedy. However, this showed Cruz (or "Lyin' Ted" as Trump called him) to be rather disingenuous given how, early on, he had been Trump's best friend in the campaign and had refused to attack him or condemn him when Trump said even worse things about other GOP candidates. Cruz only seemed to care about Trump's junkyard dog tactics when he was not the one being targeted. Trump, on the other hand, was so bluntly honest about the situation that most found it humorous, openly stating that he only started attacking Cruz when Cruz started to become a threat to his 'front-runner' status.
The biggest revelation, overall, though was just what both the Republican and Democrat elites think of their own voters and the democratic process. At the Republican National Convention, all former Republican presidents and all but one former Republican presidential candidates refused to attend because of their opposition to Trump. This was especially noticeable on the part of the Bush family. George W. Bush, a man who had no hesitation about going to war to "spread democracy" and even defended the democratic change he brought to Iraq when it resulted in a pro-Iranian government, refused to accept the democratic will of the Republican voters when their choice proved to be Donald Trump. Not only did they refuse to endorse him, they refused to show him any support whatsoever and refused to vote for him. They had not treated John McCain the same way, even though McCain and Bush had been bitter enemies. Respect for the will of the voters but only when the voters choose the way their betters want seems to be the rule.
The Democrats, on the other hand, have long been openly hypocritical in this regard but still managed to surprise at least a few people when evidence emerged about how un-democratic the Democratic Party really is. Everyone already knew about how the Democrat nominating process makes use of so-called "Super Delegates" to ensure that the Party elite can override the will of the Democrat voters, so long as the popular support for a certain candidate is not too overwhelming. However, it was clear in this election that, from start to finish, Hillary Clinton was going to be the nominee no matter what actual Democrat voters really thought of her. Opposed by a few relatively unknown and completely forgettable nonentities plus one eccentric, elderly socialist from Vermont, it was clear that Hillary was never supposed to have any real competition in winning the nomination of her party to run for president. However, thanks to the "Wikileaks" revelations, we have since found out that the Democrat elites were lying when they claimed to be neutral and were actively working to help Clinton and sabotage her socialist rival Bernie Sanders who proved to be her only half-way effective competition.
We also found out that most of the talking points and slogans spouted by the Democrat Party to be purely self-serving lies. The Democrats have been the most vocal of all in denouncing the "fat cat" bankers, the Wall Street financiers, the super rich and so on, claiming to be the party of the struggling, working man or woman. However, this election showed that Wall Street overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton. Most billionaires in this country supported Hillary Clinton and she received a huge amount of monetary support from the biggest and wealthiest banks (most famously Goldman Sachs). Trump, on the other hand, received practically no support from any of these sectors. As Bernie Sanders (before showing himself to also be a complete hypocrite and endorsing Hillary) asked during the campaign, if Hillary really meant what she said about cracking down on Wall Street, the big banks and drastically raising taxes on the rich, why were all of these people giving such overwhelming support to her campaign? Either they are being completely suicidal or she is being totally dishonest. Well, again thanks to leaked information about speeches she gave to a group of Brazilian bankers, Hillary herself answered that question by telling the audience that she had to have a "public position" that was very different from her "private position" on issues for the sake of political expediency. Hypocrites and liars the lot of them!
Of course, we also have a whole ball of hypocrisy concerning the Democrats criticism of Trump. The same people who said that Bill Clinton getting oral sex from an intern in the Oval Office was a private matter that had nothing to do with how he did his job, and who voted against removing him from office for lying under oath about it, suddenly went into hysterics because of a secretly taped Trump boasting about what celebrity groupies will let famous men to do them. The same people who said that all the women who came forward in the past accusing Bill Clinton of everything from sexual harassment to outright rape were lying attention-seekers, suddenly produced their own assortment of women claiming Trump did the same to them and should have all their stories taken at face value. You had Hillary Clinton saying that someone like Trump was not to be trusted with nuclear codes based on things he said in his speeches whereas she should be trusted with them, even though she voted to invade Iraq, pushed for military intervention in Syria and Libya and threatened to launch military attacks on Russia for allegedly hacking her email. Of course, Hillary also thought it outrageous that Trump should say he would be okay with American allies like South Korea and Japan having nuclear weapons while having nothing to say about the growing number of American enemies having atomic arsenals.
No, if armed conflict is something you wish to avoid, Hillary Clinton certainly did not seem to be the "safe" candidate. She probably only thought she could get away with it because of the lying hypocrites of the anti-war movement who only seemed to oppose the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan while Bush was in office but had nothing to say about these and other armed interventions undertaken by Obama. The same people who made jokes about Mitt Romney (admittedly easy) for claiming Russia to be a threat to the United States, suddenly saw Russians hiding behind every corner, warned that Russia was about to launch World War Three and who seemed to blame Russia if the weather was bad or their soup was cold. Hillary made a big spectacle out of her effort to "reset" Russo-American relations, yet said that our relations are now extremely bad and Russia is the biggest threat to us while absurdly claiming that Hillary was the best person to deal with them!
Treatment of minorities was also a major plank of the Hillary Clinton campaign. She certainly seemed less than honest when she called Trump and his supporters homophobic considering that, for the first time ever, a gay man spoke at the Republican National Convention and Trump spoke in favor of and in defense of the gay community at the RNC and was met with thunderous applause. Hillary, on the other hand, had the father of a gunman who massacred gay nightclub patrons at one of her rallies. However, none of that can hold a candle to the Democrat hypocrisy on full display concerning the Black community. These same people who coddled "Black Lives Matter" activists, who said that Blacks are being hunted and murdered (by government employees), that they face "systematic" and "institutional" racism on a daily basis, suddenly did the fastest 'about face' in history and claimed that everything in the Black community was fine and dandy when Trump said that, yes, Black people have it bad in this country and that is why they should stop voting for Democrats as that has obviously not helped them.
This also played into a much larger ball of lies and hypocrisy for Hillary Clinton though. Her speeches on unity, tolerance and slogan that we are "better together" rang false when she was dismissing half of the American electorate as "deplorable". She castigated Trump for saying that many of the illegal aliens from Mexico were rapists but thought nothing of labeling huge numbers of her own countrymen as racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic and so on. The Democrats said it was racist and bigoted to oppose bringing in Syrian refugees yet Hillary accepted large donations from countries like Saudi Arabia which are in the neighborhood of Syria and yet which have refused to take in any refugees. That also made her seem rather hypocritical to call Trump, who I do not recall ever saying anything negative about homosexuals, a homophobe while accepting donations from countries like Saudi Arabia where homosexuals are put to death. Perhaps laws against homosexuals are only bad when Russia enacts them? No, it has been made abundantly clear in this campaign that the Democrats could not possibly care less about any of the minority groups they claim to champion. These people are important for them only so long as they generate votes to keep Democrats in power. Look at it this way; when South Africa practiced racial segregation, that was considered a heinous enough crime for the United States to put sanctions on the country. Yet, countries which do far worse to women or homosexuals are not treated the same, even by the leftists who claim to be the champions of female and homosexual rights. Liars and hypocrites.
And that is the bottom line. What we have learned through this whole process, either because of Donald Trump himself or because of the reaction to Trump, we can see clearly that the political class in this country, left and right, does not believe a word of what they have been spouting for years. They are corrupt, lying hypocrites, kept in power by a corrupt and dishonest media, who will do or say anything to stay in power and pursue their own agenda. Many of us have long suspected it but this campaign has put it out in the open for all to see. We continue to see it even now as the champions of tolerance who voted for the candidate that promoted "togetherness" take to the streets to smash cars, set fires and beat up people because their candidate lost. I pointed it out before and warned that I would point it out again, that these people are proving the late Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini correct when he said that liberals (which would include both Republicans and Democrats by his definition) were phonies who believed in liberty for themselves but not for you. "The liberal state is a mask behind which there is no face, a scaffolding behind which there is no building" he said. It is all a scam, a scam the Republican and Democrat rulers of this country have been running on the people as a whole for many years. No matter if Trump proves to be a stunning success or a horrendous failure as president, he has at least, even if inadvertently, done us a service by throwing this fraud into the light of day.
Posted by MadMonarchist at 12:48 PM
Labels: opinion, politics, USA
As always, your analysis is on point. But more to it, is the vitriol with which people have treated those of us who support him. At first, I simply stated I like some of his policies. Then came the wave of "But racism/sexism/Islamophoia/Xenophobia/x ..." Did nothing but strengthen my support for the man. The Left has learned nothing. God-bless man.
Thank you. It has finally been said clearly and succinctly.
First i would like to congratulate you for the election of Donald Trump. I know it is less than ideal, but at least America will become a pseudo-monarchy under God-Emperor Trump, who will soon ascends to his throne. Also you will have one of the best looking first lady in the world, and Trump's children are all very likeable.
I know what you mean about both parties are corrupt. People all over the world are tired of the same politicians promising change and betterment, only for nothing to happen. During the 2014 presidential election, my country also elected a non-establishment president. Now the Philippines have Duterte as their president, and the European have Nigel Farage, Geert Wilders, AfD, Front National, etc.
I hope that Brexit and Trump will be a wake up call to establishment politicians. So they will stop acting high and mighty, and finally listen to the common man and face reality.
Stephen Clay McGehee November 16, 2016 at 6:29 PM
Excellent summary, sir. Democracy has been shown, for all the world to see, to be the fraud that it is - and which a number of very wise men warned of in years past. Was it always like this? Perhaps; however, it doesn't really matter whether a democracy starts out this way or just ends up this way. Democracy has incentives for corruption and its own demise woven into its very fabric.
Did you notice that Trump, the Clintons, and even Putin all wore purple the day that Trump won? That's because they are ALL members of the cult of Freemasonry. Their enmity is all an act of showmanship. Inside the brotherhood is a common understanding that they all kowtow to the final agenda: to bring in the NWO of satanic paganism. High level Masons are pedophhiles, murderers, sadistic torturers, and cannibals. They murder, rape and eat babies, children, young women, and they hate Christians. The 'brotherhood' (cult of same-minded schizophrenic psychopaths who read cryptic messages in ancients texts of the kabal and others telling them to rape, kill and eat people to avoid hell) all wore purple to acknowledge another fraudulent 'king' sitting on a 'throne' to put their agenda into further action. They are all frauds. Revelations 2:9 and 3:9. Their house of cards will definitely be toppled soon and they will be buried in their underground 'dungeons' where they are hoping to escape the wars and calamities they have planned to depopulate the world, pretending to be God. Fiat.
I'm a little disappointed that someone with your knowledge chose to stick to the anti establishment lens view of this. As an immigrant and a part time Chinese nationalist it's obvious to me that identity politics and nativism were just as much a reason for all of this. Tila Tequila wasn't doing Sieg Heil in D.C. for no reason.
I could spend a couple of paragraphs tracing the white identity politics to as a response to government intervention in de-segregating America but I'll leave it at this. To the Chinese nationalist this just merely puts the nail in the coffin of American leadership and the superiority of Western liberal idealism, enlightenment thinking, and humanist values.
This merely confirms that Chinese nationalists goals of a new world order that is post Western and none Western European derived or lead is here. Trump swept away all that made the Chinese communist party insecure and kept them up at night. He represents not a confident, secure, outward looking America, but a vain, insecure, frightened, cornered and angry ethnocentric America. The CCP propagandists now have proof of western hypocrisy when it comes to their ideals of a liberal pluralistic democratic values.
MadMonarchist December 7, 2016 at 1:22 AM
I'm not clear who these "Chinese nationalists" are that you speak of. In your last paragraph you mention the PRC and CCP, not the "Nationalist Chinese" of the ROC on Taiwan. I never knew the Chinese Communists to ever entertain for a moment "the superiority of Western liberal idealism, enlightenment thinking and humanist values". Nor, in my view, should they ever have.
It is only natural that the Chinese should believe in Chinese values and look toward a great future for China. However, I will also add, in reference to your opening comment, that I too am a little bit disappointed that someone who calls himself even a "part time" Chinese nationalist would immigrate to a foreign and overwhelmingly non-Chinese country.
I have no wish to disappoint anyone but I cannot help but wonder how anyone who has read enough to have an informed view of the amount of my knowledge could be surprised to find me critical of liberal democracy. Perhaps I would be more concerned about the opinion of Chinese communists on how hypocritical western pluralism is if China did not staunchly oppose this.
I am somewhat familiar with China, had had my highest education from a professor from China, not long ago a cousin of mine taught school in China. The in-group preference is strong there and Americans, at least many Trump supporters, have had enough of those, such as you describe yourself, saying, "nationalism for me but not for thee".
THE INVISIBLE MAN January 9, 2018 at 7:20 PM
As a foreign observer I couldn't agree more. Not a fan of Trump, but neither am I a fan of the hypocrisy that's running rampant, and being exposed more and more by the day. And to be honest? That's the main reason I don't hate Trump. I don't like him, but I don't hate him like my friends do, because his enemies slapped together are no better than he is.
One thing you missed though, Hollywood has shown itself to be jaw-droppingly shameful in this light recently. They talked big about Trump's sexual misconduct scandal while covering up some truly hideous behaviour towards women (though not exclusively women) and their sham Golden Globes award demonstrates that they haven't learned a thing either.
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