Thursday, December 30, 2010

"Let There Be Love" - Nat King Cole




2010 is probably not going to go down as one of the all-time great years, but there is hopefully reason all there for all of my friends here on Multiply to celebrate tomorrow night.

Allow me to share a great song by one of the smoothest jazz players and vocalists of all time. I think Mr. Nat King Cole is timeless,and the message of this song never grows obsolete! Happy New Year to all!

10 comments:

  1. Without doubt one of the best singers of his period and this is an old favourite of mine.

    I wish you and yours the very best for the New Year.

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  2. Probably not Doug.

    The year before was much different from my vantage but ironically last night I was looking for songs and one of my favors as you probably know is Nat......The man would smoke a ton of cigarettes before heading into the studio to do his recordings believe it or not. However the songs he came out with. I often find that some of my favorites within music as well as other areas of entertainment are some of which were inspired by NK Cole. Denzel, Sydney P., two say just two. Couple with Harry Belafonte one whom he went to school with back within NY.....Sidney Portia is one that never can be remade. There is is only one of the like of him and this is a fitting write.

    "Let there be Love" and "Let there be a Way"





    With that said I bid you a tremendous 2011 - this one shall be much different within the world I hope. And where there is hope - there is a way. As our streets within this world do have names.

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  3. Thanks Jim. Happy New Year to you and yours as well!

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  4. It interesting that the holidays bring so many people back to the original music of the past--I don't think that's an accident. As time passes, we can sift through the stuff that is pleasant and transient, and focus on what really stays with us. I think of the holidays and my parents playing Nat King Cole records on long winter nights on our big boxy "hi-fi" in the living room. Good times.


    There is a moment where the years melt away for me Jack, and also its a respite from the worries that the future might (or might not) be as good fro kids today as the older times were for many of us.


    But I also think many exposed to this music for the first time ( coming from the world of rap and hip-hop and modern rock) might fall under the spell of music like this.


    The positive comments of younger people on You Tube from seeing musical clips like this always makes me happy.

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  5. I think all of Nat King Cole's face seems to sing, he just feels the music.

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  6. Very well put, Cassandra. His was a voice and a face that expressed a love of performing music!

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  7. A classic ...reminds me of radio programmes when I was growing up...all the the best to you and yours too Doug!

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  8. Yes...a master of song styling at the height of his powers...the best to you and your family in 2011 as well AA!

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  9. He always looks good natured. I don't know anything about the man himself, or what kind of person he was off the screen, Doug.

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  10. I think he was a good natured man, Cassandra. A perfectionist with his music, but I've seen a couple documentaries on him with filmed interviews and reflections by his friends. You can tell he was well-liked by peers.

    Nat King Cole handled the virulent race issue in American at the time with courage, poise and great class. He was consulted by President Kennedy on race matters. Like JFK, he died all too young. In Cole's case it was from a cigarette habit.

    Here's a couple brief examples of Nat King Cole's aplomb in tough situations, from Wikipedia. I doubt most people (myself included) could have handled a KKK cross-burning on the family lawn as well as he did:

    "Cole fought racism all his life and rarely performed in segregated venues. In 1956, he was assaulted on stage during a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, with the Ted Heath Band, (while singing the song "Little Girl") by three members of the North Alabama White Citizens Council (a group led by Education of Little Tree author Asa "Forrest" Carter, himself not among the attackers), who apparently were attempting to kidnap him. The three male attackers ran down the aisles of the auditorium towards Cole and his band. Although local law enforcement quickly ended the invasion of the stage, the ensuing melée toppled Cole from his piano bench and injured his back. Cole did not finish the concert and never again performed in the South. A fourth member of the group who had participated in the plot was later arrested in connection with the act. All were later tried and convicted for their roles in the crime.

    "In 1948, Cole purchased a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Ku Klux Klan, still active in Los Angeles well into the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn. Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any undesirables moving in. Cole retorted, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."

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