culture

Inauguration Day
Video Concert
by Eric Jackson but mostly et al

Like so many of the people who supported Barack Obama for president, I have received multiple emails urging me to attend this or that event in Washington on Inauguration Day. It's going to be a huge celebration with concerts and balls and receptions and banquets all over town, and afterwards I wouldn't be surprised if Obama is allowed to skip the usual requirements and be made patron saint of the DC-Maryland-Virginia hotel industry. But I won't be able to make it.

In fact, Obama carried Panama and the Americas --- ran Republicans Abroad off the field and got Americans in this part of the world to cast their absentee ballots in record numbers for last November's elections. It would not be at all surprising if it turns out that Al Franken rather than Norm Coleman is the senator from Minnesota due to the votes of Americans living abroad. And most of us won't be able to make it to DC for the party.

Fear not! Celebrate where you are!

I don't have my radio show anymore, but stay tuned for an announcement about this reporter getting on the air again. Wappin? Well, the announcement will be something else, but right now DJ EJ is back to bring you a selection of videos, a lot of them of the green fur moldy oldie variety, that were selected to be The Panama News Online Inauguration Day Concert.

Everything is not American here. For one thing, this is The Panama News and DJ EJ is a member of Democrats Abroad - Panama. Panama is a Latin American country that forms part of the Caribbean littoral and has a substantial population of West Indian origin. Democrats Abroad is an organization of Americans all over the world. The United States has people from all over the world, some of them naturalized as US citizens and some of them not. People all over the world cheered the Obama victory, viewing it as a matter of an old friend fallen under bad influences finally regaining its senses. So if we have the Englishman Ringo Starr singing "With a Little Help From My Friends," take it as a sign that the USA is going to have more and more helpful friends in the world. If Edmar Castañeda happens to be Colombian, listen to him play, know that he lives in New York and realize what it means for a country to be an attraction for such talented Latin Americans. Listen to Grupo Tuira and take it as an offering of Panamanian culture to Barack Obama (and you) from friends in Panama. Listen to Peter Tosh and feel irie, and know that the pain America feels right now has been faced by many other people in many other places and still, there are always messages of hope amidst the ruins. Listen to Randy Weston, a New Yorker with Panamanian roots, and Carlos Santana, a Californian with Mexican roots, team up with their bands and leave you astounded with the sounds they make.

So much of this concert, though, is specifically American. Bruce Springsteen starts off with a Woody Guthrie anthem and John Mellencamp ends with a more modern song in the same tradition. These corporations that claim to own America and the world, and these right-wing jerks who claim that only those who share their benighted exclusionary world view are "real Americans," are leaving power as of this inauguration, and We The People are having a patriotic celebration.

Is Barack Obama the first black president? By American traditions, I suppose he is. He's the son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, raised partly in Asia and partly in Hawaii (there largely by his white grandparents), educated in New York and Boston and arisen to prominence by way of Chicago.

It wouldn't have happened without the civil rights movement, two of whose anthems are performed by the Chambers Brothers and Mavis Staples respectively. It also wouldn't have happened had antiwar voters --- folks influenced by ideas like those expressed herein by Edwin Starr and the Dixie Chicks --- not flocked to the Obama campaign in the primaries and caucuses. Like Cyndi Lauper, we're tired of all the fakery and have an appreciation for true colors. We're glad to be emerging from a dark age, and if Robbie Robertson is singing about shining a light in another context, we also appreciate the more sympathetic view of working people that shines through in his video.

What, a president who grew up in Hawaii and no surf music? Wouldn't think of such a thing --- in fact, Dick Dale is the guy who invented the surf guitar sound. But of course, rock and roll is not the only way to astound with an electric guitar. See the Luther Allison (blues) and Stanley Jordan (jazz) videos and see what I mean. But then the introductory guitar duet on Lou Reed's video is considered by many critics to be the greatest rock guitar performance of all time.

We're celebrating the inauguration of a Chicago politician as president? Probably most of you never heard of the late Chicago blueswoman Valerie Wellington. Learn about her now and get your mojo working. You will be at a big disadvantage these coming years if your mojo is dysfunctional.

As Dan Quayle would know, it's a terrible thing to have no soul. That's not a problem here. Aretha Franklin, the great Motor City talent of her generation that Motown never signed, commands respect. Her elders, the late David Ruffin and the late Eddie Kendricks, also represent the soul music tradition herein.

Beautiful female voices? You mean, other than those alluded to above? Check. Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstadt take us across the border. Tracy Chapman warns us about across the lines, on whichever side you may be caught. Bush should have taken the title of Natalie Merchant's piece herein as literal advice before that storm hit New Orleans.

And now that our main man is taking over the reins of government, just what is it that we want him to do? Laura Nyro had the general idea.

Bruce Springsteen --- This Land is Your Land
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuc4BI5NWU&feature=related

Chambers Brothers --- People Get Ready
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0FnjkSFwss

Aretha Franklin --- Respect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B16dQS4uNC4&feature=related


Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt --- Across the Border
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeHHaGLkRL0


Grupo Tuira --- La Rosa de los Vientos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUoV65mVgss


Edmar Castañeda --- Jazz Harp Solo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAN8y-pcVH0


Peter Tosh --- The Day the Dollar Die
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPmrWwNeuKE&feature=related


Randy Weston's African Rhythms Trio --- Blue Moses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y390lxxrjY&feature=related


Santana --- Soul Sacrifice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnamP4-M9ko


Ringo Starr et al --- With a Little Help From My Friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ytL-GlzMA


Cyndi Lauper --- True Colors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbZDjnWtK1A


David Ruffin & Eddie Kendricks --- My Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9VgknVCdsc


Dick Dale --- Ghostriders in the Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3CsLvkNfAQ


Robbie Robertson --- Shine Your Light (Ladder 49)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=405rURIgvDw


Dixie Chicks --- Not Ready to Make Nice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO-pgEfdXTQ


Edwin Starr --- War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv5BYEOQYLo


Natalie Merchant --- Build a Levee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCVIHB7zyYU


Valerie Wellington --- Chicago Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY2IV_RLeYA


Lou Reed --- Sweet Jane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y_ts0uDaVk


Luther Allison --- A Change Must Come
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5jMjYJwVjg


Stanley Jordan --- Now's the Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVohmtAT0ww


Tracy Chapman --- Across the Lines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdcvNnAaGbs


Mavis Staples --- Eyes on the Prize
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZWdDI_fkns&feature=related


Laura Nyro --- Save the Country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjdowef1oKE


John Mellencamp --- Our Country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlxQGZDmtyw&feature=related

Also in this section:
Photography, José Ponce's urban scenes
Panama Jazz Festival schedule
Sparky the Wonder Dog
Poets' Corner
More muñeco photos
Music videos, An online inauguration concert

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