We Must Remember This Date Forever

Today is a date that will forever be remembered in history. A date that inspires overcoming disaster and rising above adversity.

Never forget, my friends. Never forget the day when the news came through and America changed forever.

God bless America.

Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground

Somewhere out there in outer space, high above the earth, the Voyager space probe carries with it a “golden record”; a collection of songs for another civilization to one day, hopefully, experience. Among these songs is an instrumental piece by bluesman Blind Willie Johnson, played on guitar with slide, entitled “Dark Was The Night”. Few if any instrumental pieces have such a beautiful, painful, emotionally evocative tone than this one. It’s apropos, then, on this Good Friday. The Johnson song is derived from an old hymn:

Dark was the night, and cold the ground
On which the Lord was laid;
His sweat like drops of blood ran down;
In agony he prayed.

“Father, remove this bitter cup,
If such Thy sacred will;
If not, content to drink it up
Thy pleasure I fulfill.”

Go to the garden, sinner, see
Those precious drops that flow;
The heavy load He bore for thee;
For thee he lies so low.

Then learn of Him the cross to bear;
Thy Father’s will obey;
And when temptations press thee near,
Awake to watch and pray.

Ry Cooder, himself not a bad slide player (check out his work on the soundtrack to Paris, Texas) said of Blind Willie: “Beyond being a great guitar player, I think this guy is one of those interplanetary world musicians-and there are only a few. Blind Willie Johnson is in the ether somewhere. He’s up there in the zone.”

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, “Dark Was The Night” was also used in the Italian film, The Gospel According to St. Matthew - regarded as one of the best depictions of Christ’s passion.

A Quicktime version of Johnson’s achingly beautiful masterpiece can be heard here.

Happy Easter.

^{This post was inspired by a Metafilter entry, submitted in September of last year.}