"The Day the Music Died........."

The start of it all.....a sunny morning in Dallas

In yesterday’s Guardian (November 21st 2013) columnist Martin Kettle commented that it is only people who are now reaching retiring age who can remember what they were doing when John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22nd 1963. Kettle’s point is well made – to the vast majority of the population it is now simply an historical event – like the sinking of the Titanic, the trenches of France in the Great War, or the Beatles in life performance – a bit of recent history captured on increasingly ancient looking flickering film. Despite this, the significance of the event has not over the years dimmed and it still has the capacity to intrigue, sadden, anger and mystify those who lived through it and can indeed remember where they where and what they were about on that fateful November day. Those flickering images can immediately transport us back to the sounds, sights and emotions of that weekend - mention Dallas or Book Depositary or Lee Harvey Oswald and I guarantee anyone of my generation will immediately be back there remembering with clarity the images and the feelings of half a century ago.

Seconds later the world changed........

I can certainly remember with precision what I was doing and where I was. It was early evening, I had just had my tea - egg and chips made by my mother - as I sat at a little table in our tiny front room. My empty plate was still on the side of the table and in front of me were my A level geography notes about the geology and topography of the Armorican Massif in north west France – the subject of an essay I was about to begin writing for my homework. My mother was in the kitchen and on the TV  the local evening news programme was coming to an end. I had sat with my mother and watched the programme while we ate our tea in front of the fire. As the programme came to a close the normal programming was suddenly interrupted and the first details began to creep through about Dallas. I called to my mother in the kitchen – “President Kennedy has been shot”  - she came an stood in the doorway, the tea towel in her hands. At that stage there was total confusion, it was not known if Kennedy had survived or not – that only became clearer later on. My mother was pretty unmoved by the whole event – she didn’t have much time for Americans or politicians of any hue but more importantly didn’t really “do” emotions, ideals or being carried away by events. She was the ultimate  utilitarian pragmatist  but I was not only totally engrossed by the developing drama but increasingly caught up in the horror and tragedy of the situation. I, like Martin Kettle, was a teenager and needed no convincing of the significance of the events - I can still remember my feeling at that time and again today as I write this blog or when I see the old footage of the events in Dallas that – in some way -  it was the day that the world’s innocence died. To my generation it seemed, and still does, that an opportunity was lost and that the world was never quite the same again.

One of the most poignant and powerful photographs ever
taken and LBJ swears the oath on the aeroplane, Kennedy's
body stowed in the hold and his wife still spattered with blood

It is, I think, a generational thing. Dallas on Friday, November 22nd 1963 has become such a talismanic event largely because it affected mostly those, like me, who were growing up into the world rather than people of my mother’s generation. It occurred at a time when there was considerable uncertainty in the cold war world of the early 60s, the Cuban missile crisis was still very fresh in everybody’s mind.  The sixties were just getting under way – it was the time of youth and optimism in a dark political and militaristic world - and at the forefront of that were the Kennedy’s, a glamorous couple who, it seemed, had the answers to everything, they had the power to inspire and the power to make things happen. JFK was undoubtedly a celebrity – but not, I venture, the shallow and hollow celebrity of today. Yes, he was young, glamorous, powerful – but above all he could inspire and lead. He offered something that no other person of the time did – and especially to the young. It has occasionally been said that the death of Diana was similar to that of Kennedy – well maybe it was memorable and the outpouring of grieve was considerable, but it did not have the same resonance and even now is fast leaving the national consciousness. Diana’s death was a shock and a loss to those who worshipped the celebrity value of a fairytale princess – but a princess who had no substance other than her glamour and her life style. She was merely the stuff of tabloids - a Walt Disney Cinderella type character. Kennedy offered – and still does - so much more.

In the hours that followed I can still remember with great detail the events as they unfolded. On the Saturday morning, as I walked around the town centre in Preston where I lived, I joined the crowds of people standing outside electrical shops and TV rental companies as everyone craned their necks to see the latest black and white images from America. In the Saturday afternoon I went to watch my football team, Preston North End, play Rotherham. Preston were at the top of the division and would have expected to win but the game, as I remember it was overshadowed by the news from America – the footballers looked uninterested, the crowd silent and the game, passionless, dragged to an uninspiring 2-2 draw. It was almost as if the players and the fans had silently agreed that on this terrible day to celebrate a goal or a victory would be tasteless and a draw seemed a respectful result.The players seemed to be waiting for the referee’s final whistle anxious to return to the dressing room and be away from the trivialities of a football match. Many fans had stayed away and when that final whistle went there were no rousing cheers or the usual chattering and joking supporters forcing their way out of the gates – everyone was silenced, their passion and emotion already spent, anxious to be away and  return home to the warmth and security of their firesides. That night the scathing satirical BBC TV ‘That Was The Week That Was’ cancelled its scheduled show and instead  put on a serious programme about the Kennedy administration  to reflect the mood and the respect: “the first western politician to make politics a respectable profession for thirty years — to make it once again the highest of the professions, and not just a fabric of fraud and sham…….We took him completely for granted”  I recall the unusually sombre David Frost announcing - the usually scathing, ribald and cynical lampooners on the show suddenly becoming serious, meditative and respectful to the dead President

My two books

And so it went on – the photographs coming out of Washington, the image of Lyndon Baines Johnson being sworn in as President on the aeroplane while Kennedy’s wife stands at the side still wearing the blood speckled pink costume she had worn in Dallas, the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, the funeral. And two years later, in 1965 – just before I went off to teacher training college – I walked into Sweeton’s book shop in Preston and paid 55 shillings (I know because the price is still written inside the front cover) for a copy of Arthur M Schlesinger’s newly published study of the Kennedy administration “A Thousand Days – John F Kennedy in the White House”. The book still stands on my bookshelf and has been read and dipped into many times over the years. It was the first biographical book or political work that I ever bought.

And as I looked into Schlessinger’s book this afternoon, reaching back to that time when I bought it as a twenty year old it was like taking a step back into the world’s and my own history - touching the past - refreshing my thoughts, feelings and fears of that time half a century ago. And as I flicked through I came across the last few pages which relate the immediate aftermath of the events in Dallas – the way that the assassination was reported across the world, the despair in Washington and across America, the tributes that poured in from the great and good and from the humble and unknown and I was immediately struck by something – how similar those last pages are to the last pages in the great biography by Carl Sandburg of another assassinated President - Abraham Lincoln. Sandburg’s great trilogy “Abraham Lincoln”  -  a book  I read at college as part of our American history course - sits on my bookshelf at the side of the Kennedy book and is also something I dip into from time to time and which I have read many times over the past 40 or 50 years.  Sandburg records that at the death of Lincoln a Swedish reporter wrote that "in the harbour of Stockholm flags hung at half mast on all the ships........Our men clenched their fists in vain fury and our blue eyed women shed many tears in memory of the remarkable man". And Schlessinger says of Kennedy's death someone in Ireland  wrote "Ah, they cried the rain down that night" - and someone else said "We'll laugh again. It's just that we'll never be young again" Maybe Schlesinger got the idea for the final pages of his work from Sandburg’s, I don’t know,  but the tributes and the words in the final volume of the trilogy “The War Years 1864-65” feel very similar to Schlessinger's

When Kennedy died I can remember reading a list of alleged similarities between the two men and their respective deaths. For example, both presidents were concerned with the problems of black Americans and made their views strongly known in '63. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, which became law in 1863. In 1963, Kennedy presented his reports to Congress on Civil Rights, and the same year was the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  Both presidents had a son die during their presidency. Both presidents were shot in the head, both were shot on a Friday in the presence of their wives, both were accompanied by another couple and the male companion of the other couple was wounded by the assassin. Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, ran from a theatre to a warehouse whilst Kennedy’s alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald ran from a warehouse to a theatre. The list of “similarities” – many mythical – grew in the weeks following Kennedy’s killing and many of them have, over  a period of time, been  “debunked” but what cannot be denied is that these two men had great similarities – they were leaders who inspired and invoked great affection, they had both in their lifetime and since their deaths achieved almost mythical status and they were known for their considerable powers of oration and rhetoric and ability to express simply but powerfully the hopes and dreams of their fellow men.

Lincoln at Gettysburg - an artist's rather fanciful picture

And by a curious coincidence, this week of remembrance for Kennedy and that fateful day in 1963 is also the 150th anniversary of what was possibly  Lincoln’s greatest (certainly, most quoted) speech the Gettysburg Address delivered at Gettysburg on November 19th 1863 when America was still deeply involved in its great and terrible Civil War. The Gettysburg Address is a supreme example of Lincoln’s ability to use the power of words and rhetoric to express the feelings, the hopes, the fears, the dreams, the beliefs of a nation and of every common man:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

Abraham Lincoln

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.

Even today, one hundred and fifty years on it is difficult to read Lincoln’s words without a sense of awe – the man had a feel for the occasion and for the beauty and simplicity of words. His words that I would guess all – friend and foe – could relate to and understand and would compel anyone to rise to. In short they are the words that would make men want to follow him into battle or to aim to make the world a better place. Kennedy, too, had this power. His Inauguration Address in January 1961 gave warning of his power to inspire and many of the quotes from that speech have become part of political and popular culture:

“.....Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.......... If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich..........Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.........Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country....”

Kennedy at his Inauguration

These are the great ideals which get to the core of humanity – it is what leadership is about – inspiring others so that they want to be lead by you and they want to aspire to the things to which you aspire. And throughout Kennedy’s presidency, as with Lincoln, there came comments, quotes and speeches that caught the imagination and set these men apart from their political peers:

·         “Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.....”.

·         “The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings”

·         “I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose” .

And, as we listened to words such as this from JFK we all fell under his spell – it was a dream of what we all might be. As the Pied Piper's magic flute lead the rats and then the children of Hamelin  so did Kennedy's words lead my generation. The children of Hamelin listened to the promises in the Piper's music and they believed him:

..........For he led us, he said, to a joyous land, 

Joining the town and just at hand, 

Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew,

And flowers put forth a fairer hue,

And everything was strange and new;

The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here, 

And their dogs outran our fallow deer, 

And honey-bees had lost their stings, 

And horses were born with eagles' wings........

And so, too, did we believe Kennedy when he told us that soon he would put a man on the moon, that he would keep us safe in the frightening months and years of cold war world, that he would make everyone equal and free - like the Piper he was promising "a joyous land". And to add to this he said we could all be part of it and be important - and by association we all thought that a bit of the glamorous life that was Camelot, the Kennedy ideal would rub off on us all.

Kennedy was fortunate, he came to power at a time when global communications were becoming a reality and his words spread not only around his own country but around the world – he became not only an American politician but a world politician. The things that he said in his day and his country were immediately responded to by people in other nations and are still just as relevant today – they cannot and have not been forgotten as all too frequently are the sound bites of our modern politicians – off the cuff comments instantly made and sooner forgotten. Lincoln did not have Kennedy’s global opportunities but his words, when reported, still gave him world status for exactly the same reason that Kennedy’s did – they inspired and made people want to be better:

·         “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.......”

·         ” May our children and our children's children to a thousand generations, continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us by a united country, and have cause yet to rejoice under those glorious institutions bequeathed us by Washington and his compeers”.........

·         “ Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap -- let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; -- let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.......”

New Yorkers read the news

In the cynical world that we now inhabit it may be that the language of Lincoln and perhaps even Kennedy looks a bit “old hat”. Watch Kennedy’s Inaugural Address when on a cold wind swept day he did not have the benefit of auto cues and all the paraphernalia of the modern, hi-tech, media savvy politician where every word is measured and calculated, where every detail is costed and has passed through various vetting stages so that it does not promise what cannot be delivered and in being so is anodyne and neutral. Read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and understand that he penned and spoke these few words while himself being very unwell – witnesses tell that he was weak and looked haggard, he felt dizzy and a few days later went down with small pox. But in just over two minutes, he reiterated the principles of human equality,  talked of  "a new birth of freedom" and looked forward to true equality to all citizens. Just like Kennedy a century later and just like the medieval Pied Piper he held out a dream, something to aspire to and to inspire. Like Kennedy’s Inaugural address it was not  the speech of the bean counter and the HR manager, the speech of the uncommitted and dispassionate that promises nothing and inspires no one – the two men held out ideas and promises that are eternal in man’s quest for good governance, moral leadership and man’s place on the planet – and that is why they appealed to our inner nature.

An unremarkable and rather ugly building that became
imprinted on everyone's consciousness 

It is possible that the only politician of today who still has the power to inspire is Barrack Obama – and a few months ago I read an article about him and his speech making abilities. The writer referred to Obama’s powers of oration and suggested that in this country (the UK) we “do not have a tradition of rhetoric or great orators” and so should not expect it of our politicians. Given the points that the writer was making in the wider article he may well have a point but I found it difficult to believe that this was a reason for our politicians not to develop those skills – for in the end these are what people relate to and remember. I also thought it a sad indictment on the nation that has brought forth Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Cromwell, Swift, Dickens, Kipling, Churchill, Gladstone, Foot, Bevan, Lloyd George, Powell – there can be few nations on Earth with the literary wealth and parliamentary history to compete with the UK. If we in the UK - the land of Shakespeare and the mother of Parliaments -  cannot produce great, inspiring leaders capable of appealing to and verbalising our inner thoughts and aspirations as Kennedy and Lincoln did – then who can?

The Funeral 

An oft quoted comment is that “A dream without a plan is just a wish” – very true, dreams by themselves are not enough. If one has a dream for something better then one needs a plan in order to make that dream a reality – but it is the dream that is important. Sadly, our politicians of today have forgotten the importance of the dream, the ideal – they concentrate only on the detailed and costed plan. Without the dream, the ambition, the aspiration or the inspiration there will be no plan and no enthusiasm or commitment  amongst the populace. Kennedy and Lincoln knew this and were masters at defining their dream and making it the dream of others. They made their respective societies believe that every individual could play an important part in the fulfilment of that dream – and in doing that it made every individual feel better about him or herself. We could all make a difference they told us, and each of us could make the world a better place. That is why they caught the imagination of the world and especially the young. In Kennedy’s Inaugural Address some of his concluding comments spelled this out:

“All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course.......”

A statement such as this is inclusive – it has a hidden message and sub conscious appeal to our inner self - that we can all be part of that dream, we can all effect change and be better people for it. It speaks to our innermost emotions and feelings. It is what leadership should be about, giving a society a direction and  something great and worthwhile to aspire to rather than the modern politician’s safe and anodyne shopping list of policies cobbled together by bean counters, media executives and special advisors. But, it has an inherent danger. Its strength is also it weakness for in appealing to our innermost emotions, ideals and aspirations it can also threaten those who  are not or do not wish to be part of that dream and different ambitions, ideals and aspirations. Kennedy was loved by millions across the world but his dream was also a threat to some. Lincoln too was loved by many but hated by others. Martin Luther King, closely involved with the Kennedy presidency, was an integral part of the Kennedy dream and he projected his vision, his dream, through his mighty “I have a dream speech” in the march on Washington in August 1963 - his vision, his dream was a touchstone that perhaps more than  any other would ultimately change the world and bring about something that had begun with Lincoln a century before – the improvement in the lot of black Americans. But it also threatened the status quo and within a few years King was dead by the sniper’s bullet, just as Lincoln had died at the hand of an assassin and so, too, did Kennedy fifty years ago today.

Fifty years ago I can remember feeling that somehow Kennedy’s death had shaken my simple faith that all was right with the world – the ideals and promises he had offered seemed now dead. Simplicity and innocence had died – now fifty years later I still believe that to true. The world changed fifty years ago today - to use today’s terminology it was a game changer. In the years since Dallas much of the Kennedy myth has been debunked - he was, it seems, a serial adulterer and he very skilfully used the power of the media to promote the Kennedy image. But in a sense that highlights how innocent we all were and how we believed what he said and promised - it does not detract from what he offered to us or the impact that he had upon our lives then and, for people of my generation still does, today. Since Kennedy politicians of every hue have realised the potential of the media and the importance of their own "image" - sadly, however, they are not, as Kennedy was, "men of substance" and their hollow words simply come out as cynical, opportunistic sound bites.  I cannot listen to the darkly allegorical song by Don McLean “American Pie” without thinking about that loss of innocence. “The three men I admire most, The Father, Son and Holy Ghost”  at one level in McLean’s song referring to Buddy Holly and other victims of the air crash which killed Holly in 1959 but metaphorically it is also about the loss of innocence and despair of a whole generation when JFK, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King all fell to the assassin’s bullet and the world became less innocent and a poorer, more fearful and complicated place – in short, “The day the music died........”

"........I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.....

......Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again......

.......And in the streets, the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died......"

"A generation lost in space, with not time to start again" - these words sound remarkably like the those of the handicapped  little boy in the Pied Piper who could not walk fast enough to keep up with the Piper and the following children. The door in the hillside closed before he could follow the Piper to the land of his dreams -  he felt "bereft" - and so, too,with our generation Kennedy, the "piper," was taken away - "the day the music died" and we were "a generation lost in space with no time left to start again".

".........I can't forget that I'm bereft 

Of all the pleasant sights they see, 

Which the Piper also promised me....... 

..........And just as I became assured

My lame foot would be speedily cured, 

The music stopped and I stood still, 

And found myself outside the hill, 

Left alone against my will, 

To go now limping as before, 

And never hear of that country more........"

Robert Kennedy

And perhaps the most relevant comments on Dallas came from Robert Kennedy when he himself was in the running for President in 1968. Robert Kennedy said (quoting George Bernard Shaw) “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”  This is the very essence of what his older brother John Kennedy had offered – to “dream of things that never were”.  And we all responded “why not?”  - but then came Dallas. The Kennedy's and King were all dreamers who offered their dream to mankind and, it seems, like Lincoln suffered the consequences.  Perhaps the only other person whose death had a similar effect on my generation was John Lennon - also gunned down - and he too was the ultimate dreamer. His song "Imagine" did exactly what Robert Kennedy spoke of it asked the question "why not". And Robert Kennedy went on “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation”  Again, exactly what his older brother promised us -  that we could all play a part in this great venture to make things better, and thus be better people ourselves – but then came November 22^nd 1963.

At the funeral of JFK his brother Robert quoted Shakespeare (Romeo & Juliet). His words were perhaps the most apposite, pertinent and true of all the words spoken then or since for their reflection of what people of my generation  were thinking  about the man gunned down in Dallas.Juliet's words about Romeo said what we all felt and, I venture, still do even though the years have passed:

When [he] shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.