Resistance Song for Day 37 - "The Partisan" by Leonard Cohen

Day 37 - "The Partisan" by Leonard Cohen

Songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)

     "The Partisan" may be the ultimate resistance song, written by the greatest verser of our time.  Before picking up an instrument Cohen authored not one, not two, but three bestselling poetry collections ("Let Us Compare Mythologies" in 1954, "The Spice-Box of Earth" in 1961, and  "Flowers for Hitler" (1964), back in the day when "bestselling poetry" wasn't an oxymoron.  He also squeezed in two award-winning novels:   "The Favorite Game" (1963) and "Beautiful Losers" (1966).  He won his country's highest award for both poetry and performing arts.  For an entire generation before the World Wide Web began to flourish, circa 1993, the Internet consisted of email, a few university databases and, primarily, a billboard structure known as "Usenet".  The latter had forums for almost everything but, for most of that time, only one was dedicated to a contemporary poet, songwriter or lyricist:  alt.music.leonard.cohen. 

      It is unclear as to whether or not Hollywood can produce a quality film, let alone one without a soundtrack by Leonard Cohen [or Loreena McKennitt].  Like John Stewart (who needed money for his wife's hospital bills), Leonard Cohen was forced to come out of retirement [because of his manager's handling of his finances].  On November 7th, 2016, the world suffered the first of two tragic days:  to quote another great 21st century poet, Leonard left "the garden darker for lack of one golden flower."

      Originally written entirely in French as "La Complainte du Partisan", "The Partisan" has been covered by almost as many singers as Cohen's "Hallelujah".   It is a reminder of the sacrifices made by those who have opposed oppression in the past, and a tribute to those among us who continue to do so.

Lyrics:

When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender
This I could not do
I took my gun and vanished

I have changed my name so often
I've lost my wife and children
But I have many friends
And some of them are with me

An old woman gave us shelter
Kept us hidden in the garret
Then the soldiers came
She died without a whisper

There were three of us this morning
I'm the only one this evening
But I must go on
The frontiers are my prison

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing
Through the graves the wind is blowing
Freedom soon will come
Then we'll come from the shadows

Les Allemands étaient chez moi
Ils me dirent, "Résigne toi"
Mais je n'ai pas peur
J'ai repris mon arme

    The Germans were at my house
    They said:  "Give yourself up"
    but I didn't fear.
    I took up arms.

J'ai changé cent fois de nom
J'ai perdu femme et enfants
Mais j'ai tant d'amis
J'ai la France entière

    I've changed by name 100 times
    I lost my wife and children
    but I've many friends
    I have all of France

Un vieil homme dans un grenier
Pour la nuit nous a caché
Les Allemands l'ont pris
Il est mort sans surprise

    An old man in an garret
    gave me shelter for the night
    The Germans took him
    He died without a whisper.

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing
Through the graves the wind is blowing
Freedom soon will come
Then we'll come from the shadows

Song for Day 29 of a 4 Year Funeral - "Bonny Portmore", performed by Loreena McKennitt

Songwriter Loreena McKennitt.

Day 29 - "Bonny Portmore", performed by Loreena McKennitt

      I'm sure we could produce a movie or series without Loreena McKennitt, but why the hell would we want to?  Consider, among countless others, "Night Ride Across the Caucusus" used in the 1998 movie, "Soldier".  "The Mummers Dance" was used in "The Legacy" television series.  The National Film Board of Canada incorporated "Tango to Evora" in their documentary "The Burning Times" about early European witch trials.  From Wikipedia:

Her music appeared in the movies The Santa Clause, Soldier, Jade, Holy Man, The Mists of Avalon and Tinkerbell; and in the television series Roar, Due South, and Full Circle (Women and Spirituality).

      We're talking about a grand slam of song talents here:  a top ten lyricist (when she writes her own), a premier composer and musician, and a signficant voice.  Before you dismiss the praise heaped on McKennitt as hype/hyperbole, click on some of her early albums and let them convince you:  "The Visit", "The Book of Secrets", "The Mask and the Mirror" and, to stretch a point, "Parallel Dreams". 

      Today is Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt's birthday.  Born on February 17th, 1957, in Morden, Manitoba, Loreena's crippling shyness did not prevent her from achieving fame before that horrible day in July, 1998, when her fiancé, brother and friend died in a boating accident on Georgian Bay.  We're told that she refused to cancel a command appearance shortly after that tragedy.  Halfway through a song that had been inspired by her intended, McKennitt broke down.  The music stopped.  The lights went out.  After long minutes of darkness, the audience prepared to leave.  Suddenly, the lights came on and Loreena took up where she left off.  The crowd erupted into the longest standing ovation in memory.

     The next time logging concerns try to convince you that old growth fauna is a renewable resource (WTF?) that won't be missed, show people this mournful account of oak clearcut more than 350 years ago.  "Bonny Portmore", from McKennitt's "The Visit" album, is an elegy for a forest in Northern Ireland, cleared in 1664 while rebuilding a castle there.  Apparently, the land was acquired because the down-in-their-luck O'Neill's of Ballinderry had to sell the land to Lord ConWay (no relation to Trump Whisperer, Kellyanne).  There are many different versions, including those that personify the trees as a lost lover, all of which choose from a number of extra verses.

      This version is sung by Enya:

   This is from Highlander III:

      On some lyric sources authorship credits are extended to "Dp, Carsten Heusmann, Jan-Eric Kohrs, Michael Soltau, Frank Peterson".  At the very least, this arrangement smacks of McKennitt, through and through.

Lyrics:

O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where will we shelter or shall we sleep?"
For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down
And the walls of bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords of Old England would not purchase Portmore.

      There are far worse ways to spend time than watching Loreena's biographical documentary "No Journey's End".

Links:

 Index of Titles

Song for Day 25 of a 4 Year Funeral - "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan

Boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.

Day 25 - "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan

     Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (1937-2014) was a world class boxer and cause célèbre, framed along with his lifelong friend, John Artis, in 1967 for a triple homicide the year before.  Alibis and evidence, virtually all of it exculpatory, were ignored.  Two key witnesses were compromised and later recanted.  Bullets and shells planted in their car were the right caliber but didn't match the composition of those at the site and [notwithstanding some confusion in the Wikipedia article] didn't work in the murder weapons.

     Pleas from celebrities like Muhammad Ali and Bob Dylan for the release of Carter and Artis were ignored.  In 1975, after playing "Hurricane" for the inmates at Trenton State Prison--one of them Rubin Carter--Dylan released the song, co-written with Jacques Levy, Falana Brown, Tarik L Collins, Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Mercedes Martinez, Tracey M Moore, Denard Smith, Scott Storch, and Scott Spencer Storch, on his "Desire" album.  It was not until 1981 that Artis was paroled.  Carter was released on bail in 1985 after a second conviction was appealed.  The prosecution eventually lost steam and quit.

      The dedication of Brooklyn teenager Lesra Martin and his Canadian foster family was crucial to the cause.  Artis and Carter took up residency and citizenship in Canada, where Reuben died of cancer in 2014.  The 1999 biographical film, "Hurricane", starred Danziel Washington. 

Songwriter Bob Dylan.

     Robert Allen Zimmerman (born May 24th, 1941) took on the name "Bob Dylan" in honor of poet Dylan Thomas, of "Do not go gentle into that good night" fame.  Of his many awards and accomplishments, most recent have been the Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed by President Barack Obama in 2014 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.  The latter was controversial among those who believe that putting music to words precludes them from being literature.  By this..."reasoning"...William Shakespeare became a hack on par with The Archies the moment Pink Floyd member David Gilmour sang "Sonnet XVIII" and Loreena McKennitt performed "Cymbeline" or "Prospero's speech" from "The Tempest".  Literary geeks (roughly:  anyone who knows T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is not free verse) heartily support the Nobel decision but insist that Leonard Cohen should have received one first.

Lyrics:

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees a bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out my God, they killed them all
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously
I didn't do it, he says, and he throws up his hands
I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand
I saw them leavin', he says, and he stops
One of us had better call up the cops
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night

Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Paterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you want to draw the heat

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said, wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men

Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in
They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!
Here's the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame
Remember that murder that happened in a bar
Remember you said you saw the getaway car
You think you'd like to play ball with the law
Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night
Don't forget that you are white

Arthur Dexter Bradley said I'm really not sure
The cops said a poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
You don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
You'll be doin' society a favor
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed

Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder one, guess who testified
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

 Links: 

Songs for a 4 Year Funeral