DNC & Musical Hindsight

[akirlu]

Here in the land of No Broadcast Television, I caught what bits of the Democratic National Convention I caught either via bloggers and their links, or via NPR. My impression is necessarily fragmentary. I tend to agree with Avedon that having many of my favorite bloggers at the convention wasn't an optimum use of the power of blogging. Bloggers are good at links and commentary. Primary reporting isn't a skill most of them have developed. On the other hand, it was amusing to find, now that Atrios has outed himself as Economist Duncan Black, that we worked less than 100 yards apart, back in 1998 or so. (We were both at UCI at the time, and the Economics Department is a stone's throw from the Graduate School of Management.) I liked what I heard of the speeches. Snippets I heard and read of Barack Obama's keynote rocked my socks. I really liked the portions of Kerry's acceptance speech I heard as well (though I'm apparently glad I didn't see it, given what I hear about Kerry having elected to add some new moves to his gestural vocuabulary without getting checked out by pretty much anyone with a sense of rhythm and timing first). I did get just enough of both the blogger convention coverage and commentary to find Michael Bérubé's take on the Kerry speech and the purpose of the convention pretty funny though. Funny literary academics, who'd 'a thunk it?

Back at work yesterday, after some time home sick and waiting for a service call from the apartment management, I got to chatting about the convention with a cow-orker. She said they should have had Mahalia Jackson singing "Hope is on the way." Is that a song? I would have asked, but my packrat brain immediately cued up a snippet of Londonbeat's "Build it With Love," and I was distracted by regret. Because that song, which libertango has long thought of using as a political campaign song, would have been perfect as a cap to the DNC celebration. And I bet they didn't use it. But it's anthemic, it's got soul, it's got brass, it rocks, and you can dance to it. It's pure up-beat, without being the same old cornball stuff, and the lyrics are far more unambiguously political and aposite to what this Democratic party, and this particular national election, need to be about, than dear old "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow," much as one may love Fleetwood Mac.


BUILD IT WITH LOVE - Londonbeat

We can build it with love,
Peace, and happiness, oh
We can build it with hope,
Faith, togetherness

There are roads that divide us
In our separate lives
River deep, valley low, and mountain high

REFRAIN:
We need a bridge between our lives
A bond of understanding for the other side
Let's build a bridge from me to you
Not for the chosen few
But for everyone

We can build it with love,
We can build it with peace,
We can build it with happiness,
If we can learn to believe
There's nothing we can't achieve
We can overcome the bitterness, yeah


Believe it!

Come on board
Set the sails of hope in motion, oh
Shove off the boat
Feel the winds of change
they blow - they blow - they blow

[REFRAIN]

Hey!
We can build it with hope,
We can build it with faith,
And a little bit of willingness

We can finally defeat
Hunger and poverty
But it's going to take togetherness

Yes, it will,
A little bit of willingness

Oh, we've got the power, the knowledge, the hope
The seeds of the flower
To reap what we sow
All of the people
Working together
All of us equal
No one is better

Power, people,
flower, people
Power, people
Flower, people

REFRAIN:
We need a bridge between our lives
A bond of understanding for the other side
Let's build a bridge from me to you
Not for the chosen few
But for everyone

We can build it with love,
We can build it with peace,
We can build it with happiness,
If we can learn to believe
There's nothing we can't achieve
We can overcome the bitterness, yeah


Or, if you happen to have the soundtrack to Virtuosity lying around the house go refresh your memory by listening to cut #10. That way you can hear it in its full and proper glory.

I'm tellin ya, the Democrats should be playing this whenever two or more of them gather, from now to November.