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Normally, we don't post music videos in the P&OC Forum -- but I think this one deserves special consideration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cN6wyCHlaU
.
56 years have passed since this recording came out in the summer of 1967. Newark had just erupted in rioting, and Detroit was about to follow. ABC's so-called "contemporary" (top-40-formatted) network wouldn't touch it, but my old friends at CKLW, across the border in Canada, did, and Newsweek ran a short feature on it a month or so later.
And over a half-century later, Janis Ian is still going strong.
We probably don't agree on a lot of things, but "Nice Shot, Lady!"
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 05-17-2023 at 12:58 PM..
This song was pretty heady stuff for 1967. I remember very well what I was up to when this 45 hit the charts in June of 1967. I walked over to my favorite department store- Arlan's,and bought the 45 as soon as I heard it, but I didn't quite embrace the lyrics. Well, I was 16 at the time. The next month I bought the album and after my Dad got me an 8 track player for my high school graduation, Hey, I was rolling on in my '56 Ford!
And speaking of controversy, another song recorded by a gal who knew about cotton and knew about the Mississippi Delta released a song called "Ode To Billy Joe." Bobby Gentry hit the charts at #1 and it stayed at the top of the Billboard Charts for all of August that year while the Beatles 'Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" were blowing minds for the album collector. I remember getting together with my high school friends every Saturday night at our local pizza joint and those lyrics got us to thinking in a big way.
Interracial relationships! It was a ways from the Monkees, Gary Lewis/Playboys, etc., etc. A long ways!
I liked the song at the time, in that special summer, and I believe I still have the 45 packed away in my collection. But it is not as though the originally positive spirit shared then by most of the young has aged well or has brought us closer to the ideals at its foundation.
We're a much bigger mess today than we were then. 56 years of 2 steps backward for every 1 forward will do that.
It continues to be amazing that today we can learn in 30 seconds much more about an artist from decades ago than we ever knew back in the day or have since until now. I turned 17 in '66 and didn't know nor would have ever guessed that she was younger than I.
Thank you all for the kind words, and especially Libertarian Curmudgeon for posting!
Janis Ian
(For verification purposes, my email here - info@janisian.com - is the same email you'll see on the Contact page of my website.)
I grew up in an all white town with maybe a few Asians and tribal members. No Blacks at all. Two of my best friends in high schools were Malaysian and native Hawaiian. That song made me realize that there was indeed racism in this country. We were fairly insulated against the riots at the time but I knew that mom was wrong. Strong song that taught me much. More people should really listen to it.
Normally, we don't post music videos in the P&OC Forum -- but I think this one deserves special consideration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cN6wyCHlaU
.
56 years have passed since this recording came out in the summer of 1967. Newark had just erupted in rioting, and Detroit was about to follow. ABC's so-called "contemporary" (top-40-formatted) network wouldn't touch it, but my old friends at CKLW, across the border in Canada, did, and Newsweek ran a short feature on it a month or so later.
And over a half-century later, Janis Ian is still going strong.
We probably don't agree on a lot of things, but "Nice Shot, Lady!"
I have a couple copies in my record store....have to give it a listen
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