Today is one of this country’s days of infamy. I know of no one who doesn’t look at this day as a complete tragedy. A lifelong friend of mine, Cole Bennett, in the contemporary folk band Jamison Priest, wrote a song about it and sings the lead vocals for this track. I believe he has captured perfectly the essence of how the effects of what happened that day lingered on and impacted all of us, some much more personally than others, in a myriad of ways large and small. If you’re intrigued by the opportunity to hear a beautifully poignant ballad about an event that changed so much for so many, then this is, in my opinion, just what you should listen to today.
It’s available for previewing/purchase here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001YNVGIC/ref=dm_ws_tlw_trk11?ie=UTF8&qid=1417990523&sr=8-1
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/infamy/id308443710?i=308443946
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jamisonpriest2
At any rate, we can all stop for a moment and say a prayer for all those who lost their lives and their loved ones as well; a price paid we’ll never fully comprehend.
P.S. The lyrics are available for those of you who may not wish to purchase the song–although I must warn you, you are missing out on something one-of-a-kind–on the band’s website. Click music, then lyrics & stories, and you’ll find “Infamy” near the bottom of the page:
Be You Very Well 
Dec 25, 2014 @ 10:25:09
After reading your lovely words, I decided to tell you how this song came about. I really wanted to write a song that combined the Pearl Harbor incident with the story of Glenn Miller’s tragic death (via the routine unloading of bombs over the English channel by returning British bombers during the fog of night). The more I tried, the harder it became; I experienced true writer’s block.
A song that provided incidental inspiration for this strategy was Mark Knopfler’s “5:15 a.m.,” which combines two related narratives so beautifully that I still can’t quit listening to it over and over–the story of a coal miner and a slot machine salesman in Modernist North England. Knopfler is a genius, and I wanted to imitate it as well as I could.
Anyway, after trying for months, I ended up traveling to Hawaii on a coincidental Spring Break trip with a group of ACU students to help a church there. On the plane, I wrote a few throw-away lines about WW2 and music and gave up again. We landed, got settled with our hosts, and went to bed amid hibiscus scents topical trade winds.
I woke up starkly at 6:00 am the very next morning, took some paper and a pen, and wrote the whole song “Infamy” in one draft. The story of a Pearl Harbor widow who lost two things she loved most in life–her husband and her love for dance–in the same moment struck me as poignantly sad. My friendship with a woman in Abilene, who spoke so glowingly of a husband who continued to embrace life’s fun times during and after her pregnancy and birth processes, added to the mix.
So, it does combine two stories, sort of: the story of a couple deeply in love and the story of Pearl Harbor, which took the US by surprise in both large and small ways. Sign up now and see the world for free. Indeed.
Thank you for honoring my song in on your blog.
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Dec 25, 2014 @ 14:21:06
Was dashing into Christmas Day mass when I saw this and approved it before I’d even had a chance to finish reading it. What a privilege to hear the back story as well as your creative process on Christmas; a most unexpected gift. Then I listened to the Mark Knopfler track–breathtaking, as so much of his music is–and found they both have a similar atmosphere. You, my friend, definitely achieved something special. Please keep writing in whatever form your creativity takes you; it’s a good thing you’re young so that you still have many good years ahead of you, both in academia now and maybe later, living in Hawaii.
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