Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Up With People

Artist: Up With People
LP: Livin' On
Song: "Tomorrow's Gonna Be a Fresh New Day"
[ listen ]

We have a new president, hurrah! My conservative Republican mother called to tell me that even she's excited about the way President Obama is bringing all sorts of people together. I won't get to watch today's historic speeches until after work, but when I went to The Sandwich Tree to get my morning coffee, I did have the pleasure of seeing former President George W. Bush lift off in his helocoptor and fly away. Here's a song for President Barack Obama's inauguration day, and here are some notes from the back of this 1974 Up With People LP:

Recorded in London and in Tucson, Arizona, LIVIN' ON is the Up With
People Sound: big, alive, and very new, with twelve never-before-
recorded songs from the all-new Up With People show. From Carnegie
Hall to Paris' Olympia Theatre, from outdoor music festivals to London's
Royal Albert Hall, on national television and in village squares around
the world, Up With People has captivated audiences with its original
music, its contemporary kaleidoscope of sight and sound, and its fresh
expression of hope and concern.


It's a big show with a hundred or more performers on stage, from every
part of the United States and about 20 other countries. They sing as
if born to it, play a variety of instruments from electric guitars to funky
brass, dance up a storm, and generally carry on with a professional
but human touch you'll seldom find in so large a production. Their
music is all new, from rock to country to anything else that really comes
across, and they put it out for two unforgettable hours—or more—a night.
And it talks to you. Their concerns are serious but somehow exhilarating;
they make the faceless crowd feel like real people again from the first
note to the final chord and usually a lot longer. When you walk out of
one of their shows you feel a little more tolerant, a little more
involved, a little more human.


So lay this record on your stereo, sit back, and imagine dimming lights,
stomping feet, a hush as Up With People takes the stage: LIVIN' ON!


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