TOWERS OF SONG

Despite the spin and hype, I wanted to make a playlist that, without irony, was a minor but heartfelt memorial to the victims and those who grieve for them. I was drawn to tunes that carry the United States' churchical traditions.

You'll never walk alone...

The outline of a figure emerges from the dust, the phantom image of Walter Benjamin standing at Ground Zero, surveying the rubble and ashes.

The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the “emergency situation” in which we live is the rule. We must arrive at a concept of history which corresponds to this. Then it will become clear that the task before us is the introduction of a real state of emergency; and our position in the struggle against Fascism will thereby improve. Not the least reason that the latter has a chance is that its opponents, in the name of progress, greet it as a historical norm.


There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair, to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm.

TOWERS OF SONG 11.09.06

BILL MONROE & HIS BLUEGRASS QUARTET
Wicked Path of Sin
ALFRED KARNES
Where We'll Never Grow Old
CHARLIE HADEN & HANK JONES
Hymn Medley: Abide With Me/Just As I Am Without One Plea/What A Friend We Have In Jesus/Amazing Grace
THE GOSPEL CLEFS
Open Our Eyes
ROSCOE LEE BROWNE, ROBERTA FLACK & RUBY DEE
Roses And Revolutions (extract)
NINA SIMONE
4 Women/Save Me (Live at Antibes 1969)
GEORGE JACKSON
Aretha Sing One For Me
BOHANNON
Save Their Souls
SAM TAYLOR
Heaven On Their Minds
DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND (w/ IVAN NEVILLE)
God is Love
THE ROOTS
Don't Feel Right
ALBERT AYLER
New Ghosts
GOLDEN GATE JUBILEE QUARTET
Job
REVEREND LOUIS OVERSTREET
I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord
SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Sweet Inspiration
ARETHA FRANKLIN
I Say A Little Prayer
ALICE COLTRANE
Wisdom Eye