On which I write about the books I read, science, science fiction, fantasy, and anything else that I want to. Currently trying to read and comment upon every novel that has won the Hugo and International Fantasy awards.
These are all the Musical Monday videos that I have posted over the years in relation to holidays other than Christmas and Halloween. I haven't really posted enough videos to justify an individual playlist for any holiday other than those two, so I have consolidated them into one list. I have listed the videos by holiday, and listed the holidays in the order that they arrive on the calendar every year.
As today is the Fourth of July, it seems appropriate to pick a song from the 1776 film adaptation, a musical about the creation and signing of the Declaration of Independence. This particular song takes place after the Declaration has been introduced to the Continental Congress, while Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin are taking a moment in the hall to reflect on what it might mean. Of course, they begin debating what bird will be the symbol of the new nation they intend to create, with Jefferson suggesting the dove, Franklin promoting the turkey, and Adams backing the eagle. There is witty banter and good-natured humor here, which is a good thing given the fairly tough sledding that lies ahead in the show as Representative Rutledge from South Carolina centers much of the upcoming debate on the protection of slavery.
Despite being an excellent musical, 1776 is less than historically accurate. Some inaccuracies are minor - Adams and Franklin weren't political enemies, but they weren't friends either, so the relatively warm relationship between the two that is depicted in the play is simply incorrect. Judge Wilson wasn't actually a judge yet, and Cesar Rodney wasn't an old man, although he was dying of cancer. Some inaccuracies are major - the South didn't stage a dramatic walk-out over the alleged anti-slavery paragraph in the Declaration of Independence, and the question of independence didn't hang on deleting it from the Declaration. John Dickinson's objections to the Declaration appear to have been rooted in his Quaker faith, not in a desire to preserve his wealth. And so on. This is not so much a criticism as it is an observation. Drama sometimes requires certain concessions be made in terms of historical accuracy. The play would certainly have been less interesting without the central political conflict at its heart, even if that conflict is technically made up, it certainly reflects the ideological split that would plague the new nation for at least its first century, and whose effects we still feel.
Even with these flaws, 1776 is a fantastic show that captures the spirit of the age it depicts. The fact that it places some sentiments in the mouths of the wrong character, creates composite characters constructed out of multiple historical figures and labels them with a real person's name, or shows characters appearing in Philadelphia who could not possibly have been there (or excludes characters who actually were there) is more or less beside the point. Telling a story of the scale of 1776 in the span of a single musical production requires compromises. What matters in this format is capturing the sense of the story, and this musical does that incredibly well.
So this past Saturday was the 4th of July. That meant that I spent part of the day in New Harmony, Indiana with a portion of my mother's enormous extended family, and then drove halfway across the state to Lexington, Indiana to watch fireworks with the redhead's almost equally large family. It was a day of small town Americana: Golf cart parades, a band that would have fit in Mayberry, hamburgers, hot dogs, second- and third-cousins whose names I couldn't remember, four kinds of fruit cobbler, and finally whiffle ball, water balloons, fireworks, and glowsticks in the back yard with a dozen kids.
But whenever I think of July 4th, I think of this song. I don't know exactly why I view it with this sort of melancholy, but I don't see the holiday so much as a joyous celebration as an event laden with national memory. The holiday seems to me as one filled with old soldiers long gone, standing in the background. Maybe that's why I like Tom Doyle's American Craftsmen books so much, since in those the ghostly gray soldiers are actually tangible to the living. I have a few ghostly soldiers in my heritage, and the 4th always reminds me of them - they feel closer on this day for some reason. And Crosby, Stills, and Nash seem to capture how I feel perfectly.
On a side note, when the lines "I think about/a hundred years ago/how my fathers bled" were originally written, they referred to the U.S. Civil War, which had taken place roughly one hundred years prior to the composition of the portion of Daylight Again that was originally the song Find the Cost of Freedom. Now, a hundred years ago is World War I. In the blink of an eye, we will be one hundred years away from World War II. Time marches on, and the grey soldiers get farther and farther away from us.
