Friday Nite Video: Bruce Cockburn - Call it Democracy

 

Friday Nite Video: How can we ease the pain?

Maxi Priest & Beres Hammond

Friday Nite Video: UB40 - Rat in my Kitchen

Friday Nite Video: Cat Stevens - Wild World

By request...

Friday Nite Video: Peter Tosh - Equal Rights & Justice

The man was a true presence.



Calgarians: Don't miss the Calgary International Reggae Festival - August 11 - 18, 2007
 

Friday Nite Video: Cat Stevens - Oh Very Young

This is Cat Stevens' (now known as Yusuf Islam) website. And here's the link to his children's charity "Small Kindness".

This is just one of their projects:

IRAQ
As the chaos continues in Iraq, Small Kindness is one of only a brave handful of organisations concentrating its efforts amidst the skirmishes and terrible conditions of this war-torn country.

The lives of ordinary Iraqis have been turned upside down. What they need now more than ever is stability and real hope for the future. As fighting rages all around, children are having to dodge bullets to get to and from school. Small Kindness is supporting some three hundred orphans in the region with regular payments plus scholarships to over a hundred university students. In 2004 the charity opened the first EMTEC in the heart of Baghdad University under the auspices of Iraq’s Ministry of Education. The Centre has over three hundred Iraqi girls on roll, providing free tuition in information technology, management studies, language, and accountancy skills.

Friday Nite Video: The Thrill is Gone

BB King, Eric Clapton and Phil Collins

Friday Nite Video: Can't You See?

It's Calgary Stampede time and I'm not a fan of country music but I thought the least I could do was revive one country/southern rock song from way back that I actually do like.

Here's an old clip of the Marshall Tucker Band.

Friday Nite Video: Janis Ian - At Seventeen

Circa 1976 (when I was 17):



This one came to mind when I heard that Jann Arden covers it on her new cd. Glad she's revived it.

Enjoy!
 

Friday Nite Video: Canon Rock

I saw this video sometime last year and thought this guy was absolutely amazing. You don't have to enjoy classical music (which this song originally was) in order to admire his obvious talent.

Check it out:


And who is this young man?

Via Wiki:

In August 2006 the New York Times ran an article which named the guitarist as Jeong-Hyun Lim, a 23-year old from South Korea who had taught himself to play. The arrangement used in the video was written by the Taiwanese guitarist JerryC and is called Canon Rock. Jeong-Hyun Lim's version of the song has received widespread media coverage. [3] [4] [5]

Friday Nite Video: Eric Burdon - Spill the Wine

Enjoy! (Watch out for those flashbacks all you hippies out there.)

Eric Burdon's site.
 

Friday Nite Video: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Because it really was 40 years ago today... that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play...

My favourite song from that album:

Friday Nite Video: Rosie v Elisabeth

Watch the entire segment from The View, beginning with poor little Elisabeth cringing at the list of Bush incompetencies and crimes presented by co-host Joy Behar.


Although scheduled to leave the show in 3 weeks, Rosie announced on Friday she's calling it quits. Can't blame her, really.

I actually used to watch The View now and then, but when they brought annoying Republican apologist Elisabeth on the show, I decided I'd rather scratch my nails on a blackboard - thank you very much - than to listen to her incessant whining and right-wing talking points. I see I haven't missed much since then.
 

Friday Nite Video: Beds are Burning

This song came to mind when I read about Phil Fontaine's speech that issued warnings via the Canadian Club this past week:

National native leader Phil Fontaine warned a blue-chip audience on Tuesday that the anger felt in many First Nations communities has reached a breaking point.

"Frankly, we are fearful of the effect this is having on the well-being and public safety in our communities," said the chief of the Assembly of First Nations in an eloquent speech to the Canadian Club of Ottawa.

"So here I am again today, hammering away at another group. Many of our communities have reached the breaking point. The anger and frustration are palpable."

A report in Tuesday's Globe and Mail quoted a First Nation leader in Manitoba threatening widespread economic disruption and a potential blockade of CN rail lines connecting Eastern and Western Canada.

Fontaine did not dismiss worries about possible confrontations this summer.

While he has a track record of favouring quiet diplomacy over barricades, he suggested to his audience that this tactic has yielded few results.
[...]
Fontaine also urged governments to work harder to settle more than 1,100 outstanding land claims, noting that at the current pace of negotiations, it would take 130 years to resolve them.

We have an obligation to do better for our First Nations people, but that certainly won't be happening under Conservative party rule.
 

Friday Nite Video: Chaka, Gladys & Etta

Ain't Nobody's Business...

Friday Nite Video: Ohio (Remembering Kent State)

From the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Freedom of Speech tour, 2006:

Ohio

On May 4, 1970 the Ohio National Guard opened fire into a busy college campus during a school day. A total of 67 shots were fired in 13 seconds. Four students: (L to R) Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Jeffrey Miller, and Sandra Scheuer were killed. Nine students were wounded.

Visit the Kent May 4 Center for more information.

Last week, a controversial audio tape of the day's shootings was revealed:

KENT, Ohio, May 1 — An audio recording of the shootings 37 years ago at Kent State University includes the voices of Ohio National Guard leaders ordering troops to fire into a crowd of students, according to a man wounded in the shootings, who obtained a copy of the recording.

If confirmed as authentic, the recording could solve the central mystery of the shootings on May 4, 1970, which became a defining moment in the protests against the Vietnam War.

Alan Canfora, who was shot in the right wrist, played a copy of the recording at a news conference here on Tuesday.

Through grainy static and the high-pitched calls of protesters, it was possible to faintly hear someone shout “Point!” Mr. Canfora said the full command is recorded on the tape, with multiple voices shouting “Right here!” “Get Set!” Point!” and “Fire!” Those words, however, were difficult to discern when he played the recording. A 13-second volley of gunfire follows, during which four students were killed and nine were wounded.

“The evidence speaks for itself,” Mr. Canfora said. “The voices are right there, very clear. There was an order to fire.”

The President’s Commission on Campus Unrest, which published its final report on the shootings in September 1970, never addressed whether commanders ordered troops to fire, saying only that the events immediately before the shooting “are in bitter dispute.” Based on the newly available recording, Mr. Canfora said he would call on Congress, the Justice Department and Ohio’s attorney general, Marc Dann, to open new investigations into the shootings.

Is that enough to reopen the investigation?

The audiotape of the shooting was recorded on a reel-to-reel machine by Terry Strubbe, a Kent State student whose dorm room overlooked the demonstrations, said Joe Bendo, Mr. Strubbe’s friend and spokesman. Mr. Strubbe declined to comment.

The tape originally was reviewed by the Justice Department, which contracted with the acoustics analysis firm Bolt, Beranek and Newman, now called BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Mass., to remove static and digitally enhance parts of the tape. James Barger, the scientist who analyzed the tape more than 30 years ago, still works at BBN. Through a spokeswoman, he said that no National Guard voices were audible on the tape.

The original tape sits in a safe deposit box near Kent, where it has been locked for over 30 years, Mr. Bendo said.

The copy obtained by Mr. Canfora came from the Yale University Library, which received it in 1989 as part of a large donation of materials from David E. Engdahl, a lawyer who represented the shooting victims in a civil lawsuit in the late 1970s. Mr. Canfora discovered the tape in the Yale archives a few months ago, he said, while researching a book.

Mr. Canfora, 58, works for the Summit County, Ohio, Board of Elections. He said he spends much of his free time teaching students about the Kent State shootings as director of the Kent May 4 Center, a nonprofit group that operates an informational Web site and organizes annual ceremonies to commemorate the shootings.

As with so many incidents involving governmental/police/military involvement, we may never know exactly what happened. Those of us who lived through that turbulent time however, still view the Kent State massacre as a symbol of exactly what can go wrong when a government involves itself in an extremely unpopular war and refuses to listen to the voices of the people - choosing instead to silence them by any means possible.
 

Friday Nite Video Flashbacks: Network (1976)

"That is the natural order of things today."
 

Friday Nite Video: Neil Young - Helpless

Neil Young and the Band with Joni Mitchell

Friday Nite Video: Boston's Lead Singer Has Passed Away

One of my all time favourite albums since the day it came out has always been Boston's debut, simply titled "Boston". It's one that I've always loved to play especially when I'm driving on the highway, just letting my thoughts drift while I sing along. I've worked on lots in my life to the tunes on that record. It's been a form of meditation.

Sad news tonite: Boston's lead singer, Brad Delp, has passed away at age 55.

On Boston's website:

We've just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll.

He will be missed.

Here's More Than a Feeling. May it bring back good memories.