Protest songs in White House
2010-02-10 14:38
Washington -The stately East Room of the White House rang with the sound of 1960s protest music on Tuesday, as President Barack Obama hosted an evening of the music which formed a soundtrack to the civil rights movement.
"The times, they are a changin'," sang Bob Dylan, strumming an acoustic guitar, backed by piano and double bass, topping a star-studded bill, recreating the spirit of nearly half-a-century ago on a snowy Washington night.
"Thank you for braving the storm," Obama said, in remarks applicable to the latest Washington blizzard but which also rang true to veterans of the racial struggle which paved his way to becoming America's first black president.
"To everyone here, or watching at home, let us enjoy the music we hear tonight, let the music feed our spirits, give us hope, and carry us forward. As one people and as one nation," Obama said. "Enjoy."
Protest heroine Joan Baez sang civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome, as Obama and wife Michelle sang along, in the latest White House musical soiree, following previous events dedicated to country and classical music and jazz.
Soundtrack of a revolution
The president lauded singer-songwriter legends Dylan and Baez, who in 1963 sang of revolution and change a few hundred yards away on the National Mall, at a time of turbulence and generational rebellion.
The pair "sang of a day when the time would come, when the winds would stop. When the ship would come in," Obama told an invited audience of more than 200 people seated beneath ornate chandeliers.
"They sang of a day when a righteous journey would reach its destination," said Obama, who also invoked the powerful legacy of civil rights hero Martin Luther King and other members of the "Moses generation".
Clearly moved, Obama noted that the concert will be broadcast on US public television on Thursday, the eve of the 201st anniversary of the birth of his political hero, Abraham Lincoln, the president who freed the slaves.
Other artists striking notes of historic national struggle and reciting prose and poetry of redemption, included R&B legend Smokey Robinson, Natalie Cole, Jennifer Hudson and Morgan Freeman.
The concert, also carried on the White House website, was brought forward by one day to beat the latest snowstorm blanketing Washington in an unusually brutal winter.