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June 26, 2006
Sounds Worth Saving: #8-#6
I've been away, and this list has dragged on waaaaaay too long. I'll just skim through the next few.
#8: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles, 1967 I know some make the case that the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds was just as groundbreaking, if not moreso; personally, if I have to listen to classic rock I am far more inclined to the Rolling Stones than the Beatles -- though I did go through a massive Beatles phase when I was a teen. But Brian Wilson and Mick & Keith aside, the Sgt. Pepper's album remains as a classic work of musical art, a psychedelic reflection of its time, and an example of musicians advancing their genre in leaps and not steps.
#7: Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address, 1933 FDR took office at a point where the Great Depression was so bad, so dire, and hope so lost that many people legitimately believed that democracy had failed as an experiment and would not survive in the United States. Roosevelt took office at one of those crossroads moments in history where great people must embrace their greatness, and he did not disappoint. He brought hope, faith, optimism, and courage back to the American people; he restored economic confidence and, it can be argued, saved democracy. His inaugural address, with the famous line "The only thing we have to fear... is fear itself," set the tone for the remainder of his administration. It remains one of the more important speeches in US history.
#6: Reagan's address to the nation after the Challenger accident, 1986 Whatever I might otherwise think of Ronald Reagan, there is no question that he was the most skilled orator of a political generation. And whatever I might think of Peggy Noonan's politics, she stands as the greatest speechwriter of the last quarter century. As someone who's worked as a speechwriter, I have to respect her ability to turn a phrase and her skill at using rhetoric. And on this sad occasion, the great speaker and the great speechwriter reached their greatest moment together.
Addressing a nation reeling from the loss of the Challenger on live television, Reagan played the role Americans need a president to play from time to time: he was the comforting, wise father-figure, reassuring us and simultaneously sharing and easing our pain. The passage that directly addressed America's schoolchildren who had witnessed the explosion but were too young to process it was absolutely brilliant; Reagan feels to the listener like our grandfather at that moment. He eloquently remembered the crew of the shuttle and their bravery, and managed to restore faith in the space program in that five minute speech -- not an easy task, when you consider the aftermath of the second shuttle disaster.
With the exception of the gratuitous swipe at the Soviet Union (about how we have our accidents in public and don't try to hide them), every word in this speech still touches me today. As a speechwriter, I know we all wish for someone as gifted to deliver our words. Noonan was never better, never more evocative, and never reached so swiftly and closely for the hearts of her audience. And the closing line, "We will never forget them... nor the last time we saw them, this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye... and, slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God," is so beautiful, so powerful, and so eloquent that I wish I'd written it. Listen to the whole speech here.
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