Having caught Bruce Springsteen performing “We Sall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” last night on PBS from St. Luke’s Church in London, this thought hit me:
The entire album is so full of life but Springsteen’s version of the old spiritual “We Shall Overcome” is amazingly majestic. It’s a low key but extremely moving cover that amazingly also includes a touch of pedal steel guitar.
So here’s my proposal: that the Democratic presidential nominee adopt this song (especially Springsteen’s version) as THE campaign song. It invokes so much of the best of the history and what is right with the Democratic Party and has a religious element to boot.
Now some will argue that this is going backwards, that it’s too identifiable with a very divisive time in this country, that it isn’t the music to woo back disaffected Democrats. However, I see it, along with the appropriate accompanying language in speeches, as a uniting force. And is this country ready for unification. The biggest question is which politician could do so and not come off as some sort of phony or buffoon for doing so?
Here’s the list of the pols who truly have the chance for the Democratic nomination and my take on whether “We Shall Overcome” is a match:
Al Gore: maybe I’ve succumbed to some sort of bias but I can’t see any music in conjunction with Al.
Hillary Clinton: are you kidding?
Wes Clark: It just doesn’t work with Wes.
John Edwards: With his emphasis on poverty-reduction, this would be a very good match.
Mark Warner: Possibly (hey, he was able to use a bluegrass song to boost his gubernatorial prospects) but his speech subject matter would beed a wider arc, a la that of Edwards.
Russ Finegold: I can see it working with Russ although he is mainly identified at this point with Iraq and civil liberties
