Ten Bold Cover Tunes Part VII: The Kennedy Center Honors Edition

Annually since the late 1970s, a range of performance artists have been honored in Washington by the Kennedy Center. Even though the president of the United States has no direct role in selecting the honorees, the number of popular music artists recognized seemed to increase during the Obama years--perhaps a nod to #44's rock star image.

The most fun part of the annual ceremony is when popular artists serenade honorees with covers of the honorees' well known tunes. During these televised performances, the director always treats the audience watching at home to reactions shots of the honoree(s) and the POTUS and First Lady. The former can often be seen to be forcing back tears, while the latter reveal themselves to be human beings capable of appreciating the art of the masses.

What follows, in no particular order, are ten noteworthy Kennedy Center cover performances.

#10: Beyonce's Cover Of Tina Turner's "Proud Mary." "Proud Mary" was written by John Fogerty and recorded originally by his band Creedence Clearwater Revival. But Ike and Tina Turner's gritty and energetic version was so captivating that the song forever after became associated with them.

Beyonce's 2005 cover at the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors captures the energy of the Ike and Tina version. President George W. Bush's reaction suggests that the song transported him back to his pre-politics partying days, which were legendary.

Video: Tina Turner "Proud Mary"

#9: Lyle Lovett's Cover of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows." Before the 1960s, rock lyrics about relationships existed on a spectrum from macho male posturing (inherited from Chicago blues) to tear-jerking sentimentalism. With the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" (1966) and Beatles' offerings of the same time period, rock songs about relationships became outer expressions of internal grief; odes to codependency and control that have probably exerted more influence on youth over the years than the raunchy sex and violence recordings that the so-called "pro-family" groups have been obsessing over for many years.(Perhaps that's because the so-called pro-family groups are led by people for whom relational co-dependency and control are common states of being.). Brian's Wilson's "God Only Knows" from that Pet Sounds album is perhaps the archetype in the genre: 

If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I'd be without you

Yep, if you leave that old singer he might actually kill himself! Really healthy message, eh?

I enjoy Lyle Lovett's cover from the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors because he looks and sounds like a wedding singer who can't figure out why the bride is marrying that obnoxious asshole. 

But even better is Brian Wilson's reaction shot: I imagine him thinking, "If people knew the pain I was in when I wrote that song they would be crying instead of cheering." 

Video: Lyle Lovett "God Only Knows" 

#8: Eddie Vedder's Cover of Bruce Springsteen's "My City of Ruins." At the 2009 Kennedy Center celebration of Bruce Springsteen, with the country still reeling from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder performed a perfect song for the times. Springsteen's "My City of Ruins"--written in 2000--may experience a resurgence as our current recession/depression almost makes prior crises seem like cakewalks by comparison. 

Video: Eddie Vedder, "My City Of Ruins" 

#7: Mavis Staples and James Taylor's Cover of the Beatles' "Let It Be." At the 2010 celebration of Paul McCartney, the great Mavis Staples transformed "Let It Be" into a Sunday sermon. When she and James Taylor were joined by rocker Steven Tyler and a choir for an uplifting version of "Hey Jude," the capacity of the Beatles' music to unite genres was on glorious display for all to see and hear. 

Video: Mavis Staples and James Taylor "Let it Be" 

#6: Kings of Leon Cover of the Eatles' "Take It Easy." Kings of Leon are multiple Grammy Award recipients and big stars in their own right, but I have to think that it must have been super intimidating for lead guitarist Matthew Followill to perform the guitar solo on "Take It Easy" just a few feet away from Joe Walsh--arguably one of the greatest guitar players in the history of the universe. Followill acquitted himself quite well, as did the entire band in a cover that stays true to the country and western vibe of the original while maintaining the Kings' flair for energetic rock. 

Video: Kings of Leon "Take It Easy" 

#5:  Bruce Springsteen's Cover of Sting's "I Hung My Head."  No one will ever come close to Johnny Cash's version of "I Hung My Head," but in this 2014 celebration of Sting, Bruce Springsteen comes close. 

Video: Bruce Springsteen "I Hung My Head" 

#4:  Snoop Dogg's Cover of Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island." What's priceless about this 2013 Snoop Dogg celebration of the great Herbie Hancock is how the brash rapper gets a crowd of uptight DC bureaucrats to discover their inner Break Boy and Break Girl. 

Video: Snoop Dogg "Cantaloupe Island"

#3:  Garth Brooks' Cover of Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon."  Also in 2013, Garth Brooks delivered up a special rendition of Billy Joel's epitaph to the Vietnam War. Actual veterans join Brooks on stage, presenting the audience with literal enactments of the song's lyrics. I'm always wary of the showcasing of veterans at establishment entertainment and/or political events, mostly because such spectacles are typically the result of some producer willing to exploit the soldiers' service and pain for cheap patriotism points. In this case however, the soldiers exude a genuine love and expression of solidarity for each other that transcends whatever ill intent the producers might have had. It's quite amazing. 

Video: Garth Brooks "Goodnight Saigon" 

#2:  Bettye LaVette's Cover of The Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me."  This 2008 cover of the classic Who tune from the rock opera "Quadrophenia" is probably my favorite cover of the ten mentioned in this post. Bettye LaVette, one of the most underrated blues/soul singers of her generation, captures the song's emotional roller-coaster of grief and hope in a way that perhaps only someone schooled in (or has lived) the blues and soul can deliver. Watching Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and Barbara Streisand all mesmerized by the performance is an added treat. 

Video: Bettye LaVette "Love Reign O'er Me"

#1: Heart's Cover of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."  Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, accompanied by Jason Bonham (the late Zep drummer John Bonham's son) on drums, a wicked horn section and other orchestral elements, a guitar player who has the solo down,  and a gospel choir, deliver a ridiculously great version of one of the iconic tunes of the classic rock era. One wonders if the Wilson sisters, who grew up as Zep fans, ever dreamed they would someday perform the tune in front of their heroes. The reactions from surviving Zep members John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, and Jimmy Page is also endearing. Jones appears to be studying it as if he is a musicologist, Plant looks like he wants to burst out crying, and Page just seems overjoyed that for one night no one is thinking about whether or not he plagiarized the song. 

Video: Heart "Stairway To Heaven" 

Prior Posts in the Ten Bold Cover Tunes Series: 

Part I

Part II

Part III: Guitar Hero Edition

Part IV: Dare To Cover Johnny Cash Edition 

Part V: I Won't Back Down Edition 

Part VI: Bring It On Home To Me Edition 

COVID-19's Challenge to Free Speech

Note: For a video version of this rant, click HERE.

In 1963 the Speech Association of America (SAA) adopted a "Credo For Free And Responsible Communication in a Democratic Society." The SAA later became the National Communication Association, and reaffirmed the Credo in 2017. 

As someone who regularly teaches a course called "Freedom of Speech in the United States" and relies on First Amendment freedoms to provoke students, produce blogs, and engage in other forms of activism, I find myself coming back to the Credo often. Regularly reminding myself of the Credo's six principles helps me to make sure I am holding my students and myself to high standards worthy of the life and death struggles for freedom that preceded us and continue to this day. 

We free speech advocates have always assumed that active use of First Amendment freedoms enhances civic health. COVID-19 challenges that assumption, as we now find ourselves in a bizarre and disturbing place where some citizens insist that "peaceful assembly" includes the right to risk infecting oneself or others with a deadly disease at a public gathering. Huge segments of social media and cable television denigrate and distort peer-reviewed medical findings while amplifying junk science. Meanwhile, the President of the United States treats daily briefings as a kind of Open Mic Night where he feels free to riff on whatever comes to his mind, even to the point of suggesting that ingesting bleach or disinfectants might cure the virus. In another essay I've argued that these types of bullshit, bluster, and bullying tactics are never particularly helpful in any context, but are absolutely useless when confronting a novel coronavirus. 

Forgive me for having to state what is or should be an obvious point: Just because an act of communication might technically deserve First Amendment protection, it does not follow that that same act of communication is responsible. In "normal" times, irresponsible communication in the public sphere certainly produces negative consequences, from distracting our attention away from urgent issues to defaming good people to delaying actions needed to fix what's broken in our society. 

In the COVID-19 era, the irresponsible communicative acts of distraction + defamation + delay = DEATH. (I want to say that we can and must do better, but my fear is that the response will be "OK Boomer."). 

What follows is the Credo for Free and Responsible Communication in a Democratic Society. Please read it, reflect on it, and use it as a way to hold yourself and others accountable for your and their communication practices. Be especially mindful of the admonition in principle #5 that we should "expose abuses of the communication process." Those abuses, some of which I mentioned earlier, are having a profoundly negative effect on our ability to loosen the deadly grip of the coronavirus on our nation and world. 

Here is the Credo: 

Recognizing the essential place of free and responsible communication in a democratic society, and recognizing the distinction between the freedoms our legal system should respect and the responsibilities our educational system should cultivate, we members of the Speech Communication Association endorse the following statement of principles: 

Principle #1: We believe that freedom of speech and assembly must hold a central position among American constitutional principles, and we express our determined support for the right of peaceful expression by any communicative means available. 

Protesters, many of them armed, berate security officers at the Michigan State Capital. Though protesters had their temperatures checked before entering the building, we know that coronavirus carriers are often asymptomatic. Can this possibly be a form of "peaceful expression?" (photo from BBC News)

Principle #2: We support the proposition that a free society can absorb with equanimity speech which exceeds the boundaries of generally accepted beliefs and morals; that much good and little harm can ensure if we err on the side of freedom, whereas much harm and little good may follow if we err on the side of suppression. 

Principle #3: We criticize as misguided those who believe that the justice of their cause confers license to interfere physically and coercively with the speech of others, and we condemn intimidation, whether by powerful majorities or strident minorities, which attempts to restrict free expression. 

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has faced the most hostile reaction to stay-at-home orders, from threatening signs to armed militia members showing up at her private residence. Polls show support for the governor's coronavirus actions even as strident protesters try to coerce her into retreat.  Masses of people who understand and accept the need to maintain stay at home orders until there is a clear downward trend in coronavirus cases--with full knowledge of the economic harm the orders are causing their communities and them personally--are the true "silent  majority." 

Principle #4: We accept the responsibility of cultivating by precept and example, in our classrooms and in our communities, enlightened uses of communication; of developing in our students a respect for precision and accuracy in communication, and for reasoning based upon evidence and a judicious discrimination among values. 

Principle #5: We encourage our students to accept the role of well-informed and articulate citizens, to defend the communication rights of those with whom they may disagree, and to expose abuses of the communication process. 

[Note: Chris Hayes' exposure of "coronavirus trutherism"is a good example of how a public sphere pundit can expose abuses of the communication process. MSNBC is not a great news and opinion network, and not everything on Fox is awful; but one of the worst media tragedies of our time is that the loyal followers of each will never see the segments worth seeing on the "other side." Fox viewers really do need to see this segment by Hayes--it might literally save their lives.] 

Principle #6: We dedicate ourselves fully to these principles, confident in the belief that reason will ultimately prevail in a free marketplace of ideas. 
______________________________________________
Will reason ultimately prevail in the free marketplace of ideas? Given the extreme levels of misinformation and disinformation--some of it shared innocently on social media but much of it promoted willfully by bad faith actors--I am not sure that reason WILL prevail. We need to prepare ourselves for what will in our public sphere probably be a long period of malicious efforts to distract us from the urgency of the crisis at hand and defame  those good faith actors doing all they can to lead us through it. Distraction and defamation will succeed only in delaying actions necessary to help solve this terrible problem. Remember, distraction + defamation + delay = death. 

Some seem to think that reason would stand a better chance of prevailing in the marketplace of ideas if private sector social media companies would simply censor all of the bad faith nonsense out there. If history has taught us anything, it's that censorship does not stifle stupidity, and more dangerously any censorship regime gives too much power to whoever decides what communicative acts are "in" and what communicative acts are "out." You might love the censor when he shuts down what you despise, but it's only a matter of time before he cancels you too. 

If people of goodwill refuse to act, then documents like the Credo For Free and Responsible Communication in a Democratic Society are nothing more than pious platitudes on a page. I urge all of us to digest the principles and take an honest inventory of where we come up short. Monitoring my own communicative weaknesses and pledging to do better puts me in a much better position to expose the weaknesses of others. The alternative is to continue living in tribal, self-righteous bubbles overflowing with BS, bluster, and bullying. How's that working for us?