A Celebration of BLES & SOUL [[The 1989 Presidenital Inaugural Concert) ~

[Soul Sister]

Jimmy's lawyer executive producer Howell Begle sent us this yesterday, it's the Concert he produced for the "1989 Presidential Inauguration", featuring R & B and Blues Artists. It took Howell 25 years to get this released on DVD. It was a "special" on PBS but there is a whole hour of the concert on this dvd that was never seen before. We'll watch it later today.

S.S.
***




New York Times ~

[Soul Sister]

OOPS...typo in title:

"A celebration of BLUES AND SOUL"

For some reason there is no way to edit it ???

S.S.
***

[stalebagel]

I had the honor of attending this concert as a guest of Lee Atwater and it was mind blowing.
I still talk about it today.

[skooldem1]

Welcome back. Good to see that you are well enough to join us again.

[stalebagel]

Thanks Skooldem1:
It is a great feeling to be back. Thanks to you and the others who expressed concern about my heart attack, and special thanks to Ralph for posting my wife's letter. All the words of support meant a great deal to me -- and they still do!

[Soul Sister]

Glad to see you are doing well, Al. Must have been awesome to see this in person, the DVD was spectacular.
Stevie Ray Vaughn blew me away! Who knew?!
His mentor Albert Collins what a guitarist, WOW!!! Great sow!!! Blues fans would love it.
It was also good to see Billy, Chuck, Sam, Eddie & Carla on the R & B/Soul side.

S.S.
***

[stalebagel]

Glad to see you are doing well, Al. Must have been awesome to see this in person, the DVD was spectacular.
Stevie Ray Vaughn blew me away! Who knew?!
His mentor Albert Collins what a guitarist, WOW!!! Great sow!!! Blues fans would love it.
It was also good to see Billy, Chuck, Sam, Eddie & Carla on the R & B/Soul side.

S.S.
***

The show was and still is the greatest music concert I've ever seen. I even still have the poster for the concert. Lee Atwater put it together with his knowledge and appreciation of Blues and Soul which he honed during his days as a musician on the road backing up Stax artists.

Many Thanks for your good wishes.

Al

[smark21]

Lee Atwater may have been a fan of the blues and R and B, but in terms of his political work, he was never hesitant to appeal to white racism to get votes and win campaigns. He was a toxic influence on the political culture. How fitting he died of cancer at a young age. Poetic justice at its finest.

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiw...aters-infamous

[R. Mark Desjardins]

As the old saying goes, "No wine is served before its time." Thanks for posting this information, Soul Sister.

[Soul Sister]

You're very welcome, R. Mark.

S.S.
***

[Soul Sister]

Al,
Yes, a good concert, I wouldn't call it the greatest.
Howell Begle was a mover and shaker in getting the concert for the inaugeration as he did with Clinton's inaugeration too.
As founding member and board of directors member with the R & B Foundation of America he was the instrument to make this happen as well as the Executive Producer.
There were others too.

S.S.
***

[stalebagel]

Smark:
There you go again with your wrong observations. On his deathbed, Lee Atwater recanted his behavior in the 1988 presidential campaign and asked God for His forgiveness. I'd like to think He granted Lee's request.

You always seem to have difficulty in telling the full story. To make a comment like yours about Lee's death from cancer at an early age as being "fitting" is reprehensible, but what the heck, it is coming from you, so we can expect your disgusting total lack of human compassion. You've proven it enough times.

[Roberta75]

Smark:
There you go again with your wrong observations. On his deathbed, Lee Atwater recanted his behavior in the 1988 presidential campaign and asked God for His forgiveness. I'd like to think He granted Lee's request.

You always seem to have difficulty in telling the full story. To make a comment like yours about Lee's death from cancer at an early age as being "fitting" is reprehensible, but what the heck, it is coming from you, so we can expect your disgusting total lack of human compassion. You've proven it enough times.

Im real sure there was nazis on they deathbed that asked God for forgiveness for the atrocities that kill 7 million in world war 2 Mr Abrams. I personally believe you ask God in private for forgiveness of your sins and hate and evil ways. To ask publicly could be misttaken for saving your tarnished legacy but only God knows the real answer to that. Did mr Atwater or the nazis apologize to African Americans and Jews before asking God for his forgiveness thats the real way to show remorse and ask for a clean soul imo.

Roberta

[smark21]

Lee Atwater's recantation and apology might hold more weight with me if he had done so when he was still healthy and working, rather than at death's door. I'm cynical about such matters and makes me think he recanted only because he was afraid he would be sent to hell for what he did by playing some nasty racial politics during his political career. Sorry, I can't express compassion for someone like him.

So did you/do you support the political and campaign tactics of Lee Atwater during the 80s? Do you think the Willie Horton campaign ads helped make for a better America?

[stalebagel]

Sorry Smark, when I knew Lee he was playing behind Wilson Pickett. He actually helped me get Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey -- about as liberal an icon as you can get -- for the liner notes of the classic Stax "Stay in School album.
Besides, in 1988 I was a reporter covering all the presidential candidates including Jesse Jackson so I held no political views of my own. Besides, I was living in Canada.
Sorry Smark, try again.

[stalebagel]

Roberta:
Thank you for your very insightful posting.
If you would please take a minute and Google Lee Atwater's apology in Life Magazine [[as reported by the NY Times on Jan. 13, 1991), it should answer the question you so aptly posed.
Happy Easter!
Al

[Roberta75]

Roberta:
Thank you for your very insightful posting.
If you would please take a minute and Google Lee Atwater's apology in Life Magazine [[as reported by the NY Times on Jan. 13, 1991), it should answer the question you so aptly posed.
Happy Easter!
Al

I dont see much of an apology to African American community Mr Abrams but hopefully God forgive his sins, tresspases and real bad errors and judgements and pain he caused in his life. To spread that much hate be it for political outcomes or not is a waste of precious life imo.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/13/us...s-apology.html

He answered to to his King and maker so i dont know what the outcome was and wont know until i see my beloved Father in his Heavenly mansion.

Have a safe and blessed weekend.

Sincerely.

Roberta

[smark21]

According to GOP campaign veteranEd Rollins in a 2008 PBS Frontline documentary on Lee Atwater, ATwater was just spinning away like he always did with his deathbed apology. Rollins alleges that Atwater bragged about reading the Bible all the time in his last months, but after he died, the Bible was found and it was still in its plastic wrapper. It was never opened. Well whether he was sincere or not, it was a case of too little too late as Karl Rove was an Atwater protégée and he helped get George W. Bush into office.

Getting back to the 1989 concert--did any of the musicians on the bill benefit or suffer career setbacks by doing this gig? Or was it just another show, albeit one before the President of the United States?

[stalebagel]

Smark:
I never read any negative reviews and I certainly gave it high praise. Obviously Soul Sister agrees. So let's put this all to rest, okay?
Al

[Soul Sister]

The Concert had nothing to do with one's own political beliefs, it was a celebration of R & B and Blues. Howell Begle was helping many of these artists with 'royalty recouperation' at the time which is how the R & B Foundation got started and has helped many artists who were in financial need especially the older ones, our pioneers in music.
Who or whatever Atwater was had nothing to do with the goal at hand that Begle along with Bonnie Raitt and others were trying to do in getting some of these artists work and help financially.

S.S.
***

[smark21]

Here’s an article from the Feb. 28 2014 edition of the New York Times on the concert and the forthcoming DVD release.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/ar...is-to-air.html

The article gives a good overview of the music, the benefit for the R and B foundation, how the artists felt about the gig, as well as the more controversial aspects of the show—namely Lee Atwater’s involvement following his racially divisive and inflammatory political tactics in the 1988 election.

It’s interesting to note that in the forthcoming video release, none of the politicians who took the stage will be included. And that Atwater’s musical performance has been cut as well. The focus will be on the great musicians on the bill. Howell Begle is quoted in the article, denouncing questions raised about the political aspects of the show as “cynical” and says that the focus should be on the musical performances.

Fair enough.

But I find it troubling that some want to avoid discussion of such of a serious issue as racism and appealing to racism to get elected—sweep it under the carpet and “get back to the music.”

The reason why I asked if any of the performers at this show suffered a backlash is because it has happened before. I believe it was in the early 70s when Sammy Davis Jr. received a lot of criticism for appearing to be close to President Nixon. Is that correct? And in 2001, Ricky Martin suffered a backlash for performing at George W. Bush’s Washington Mall Concert preceding his oath of office. This certainly raises the issue of whether performers outside of the Country and Christian music realms are punished or unfairly attacked for performing for a Republican President.

In my years on the internet, I’ve read the occasional racist anti-African American post by a white person who obviously loves Motown/Soul/R and B music but looks down on African Americans in general. I remember one Motown fan who called your friend Marv the n word and said he should be lynched. I’m not a fan of Marv, but that goes way beyond any sense of decency. Another post I remember argued that Blacks should stop talking about racism and fighting for their rights, and just tend to animals.

I find it mind boggling that one can love African American music and yet hold such strongly racist attitudes. Now perhaps Lee Atwater wasn’t personally a racist, but in his professional work as a political tactician he didn’t hesitate to use appeals to white racism and white fears of African Americans to win votes and power for the candidates he worked for. It’s very troubling he engaged in such work, yet also professed a love and respect for African American musicians. As I said before, there are more than a few white people who hold racist attitudes, but don’t mind African Americans if they’re performing or playing ball or entertaining them.

One of the positives about Motown in the 60s was that the music broke some societal and racial barriers. True, I’m sure some white Motown fans just made an exception for the music and some individual artists on the label, but continued to look down on African Americans and voted for and supported politicians and policies to keep African Americans in their so called “place”. But I like to believe that the music also opened the eyes and hearts of others.

Mr. Abrams, given that you wrote a book about the early years of Motown and your role in elevating the company to the mass cultural phenomenon it became, I find it troubling that you don’t seem to have an opinion about the dual position Lee Atwater had toward African Americans—respect for the music and the musicians, but eager to exploit white racism and fears to get ahead in his political career. I find Lee Atwater to be a two faced hypocrite. Were you/are you not troubled at all by this dichotomy? I hope you, and other Forum members and visitors who read this thread, are troubled by this dilemma.

[stalebagel]

Smark:
Certainly it is troubling, but I NEVER discussed politics with Lee Atwater. Again, for the last time, we knew each other from the Stax days and he knew my love of the music and the fact that I had worked with some of the artists in the show. That's why I received an invitation. I went for the music, period. And I got to review the show. Stop trying to make this into something it isn't meant to be. Again, let it be. I am not going to reply to any more of your postings.