Song for Day 53 - "Requiem For The Masses" by The Association

Day 53 - "Requiem For The Masses" by The Association

1968: top: Jim Yester, Brian Cole, Ted Bluechel;
bottom: Russ Giguere, Larry Ramos, Terry Kirkman

     Founding members of the California pop group, "The Association", 23 year olds Jules Alexander and Terry Kirkman, met in Hawaii in 1962 but couldn't get together again until the former was released from the U.S. Navy the next year.  The band's first hit was "Along came Mary", from the same album as "Cherish", in 1966.  Subsequently we saw "Windy", "Never my Love" and "Requiem for the Masses" in 1967.
    
     "Requiem for the Masses" was motivated by a frightful flight to Milwaukee.  Its central theme is, loosely, violent spectacles but the subject matter migrates, beginning with the death of a bull-fighter, fashioned after Federico García Lorca's elegy to his friend,  "Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías" (which may work better as a poem  than as a song). Sadly, so much is lost in translation to English language and performance standards that few will doubt how poetry died in anglophone cultures.

Davey Moore and 'Sugar' Ramos,
Dodger Stadium, March 21, 1963

      "Requiem for the Masses" then seems to reference boxer Davey Moore, (1933-1963), who died of injuries sustained in the ring  and was the subject of Bob Dylan's "Who Killed Davey Moore?" and of "Davey Moore" by Phil Ochs.  This death inspired the 2004 film "Million Dollar Baby", starring Clint  Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.  Since Moore's accident boxing rings must have 4 padded ropes, the bottom one being more slack.

      The song then attacks racism and protests [the Vietnam "television"] war and nationalism (i.e. red, [pallid] white and blue of the flag).   The song's author, Terry Kirkman, insists that the Nixon White House asked Warner Brothers Records to stop promoting the song and it faded from sight.

Lyrics:

Songwriter Terry Kirkman.

Requiem aeternam, requiem aeternam
Mama, mama, forget your pies
Have faith they won't get cold
And turn your eyes to the bloodshot sky
Your flag is flying full

[Chorus]
At half mast, for the matadors
Who turned their backs to please the crowd
And all fell before the bull

Red was the color of his blood flowing thin
Pallid white was the color of his lifeless skin
Blue was the color of the morning sky
He saw looking up from the ground where he died
It was the last thing ever seen by him

Kyrie Eleison
Mama, mama, forget your pies
Have faith they won't get cold
And turn your eyes to the bloodshot sky
Your flag is flying full

[Chorus]

Black and white were the figures that recorded him
Black and white was the newsprint he was mentioned in
Black and white was the question that so bothered him
He never asked, he was taught not to ask
But was on his lips as they buried him

Rex tremendae majestatis
Requiem aeternam, Requiem aeternam