"Blue Sky" Singers Can Reconcile, Embrace the Love and Each Other!

Dickey Betts wrote the song "Blue Sky" for the Allman Brothers Band that is so lovely and sweet, and on this day of love that we don't really celebrate is a good listen.   I used to play this a lot before Stango and I were married, and "borrowed" a CD of his that I had in my possession when we experienced a couple of years' relationship hiatus.

The band just accepted a Lifetime Achievement Grammy award on Sunday without Dickey.   The band fully deserved this award and worked so hard to get there.  Congratulations, Allmans!  It was a true privilege to see you perform at the Beacon Theater.

But the estrangement bothers me. Naturally I speak from the outside.  I know nothing about the interpersonal relationships.  Dickey hasn't played with the Allmans in many years.  Some say Duane was right.  Some say Dickey is right.  I don't know who is right, who is wrong, and maybe everyone is right and everyone is wrong.  Dead or alive (Duane passed away), we can get beyond the differences, no?

Can't the grown men all embrace the love and get past their issues/egos/pride?  Am I too naive to think a bear hug is the cure-all?  Familial estrangement usually runs deep and complicated, but it always hurts me to hear of it.  If we don't start at home, and our own brothers and sisters, our own flesh and blood can't get along, how exactly will we find world peace?

This video is from the good ole' days.
And the music is stellar.



The lyrics, written by Betts:

Walk along the river, sweet lullaby, it just keeps on flowing.
It don't worry 'bout where it's going, no, no.
Don't fly, Mister Blue bird, I'm just walking down the road,
Early morning sunshine tell me all I need to know.

You're my blue sky, you're my sunny day.
Lord, you know it makes me high when you turn your love my way,
Turn your love my way, yeah.

Good old Sunday morning, bells are ringing everywhere.
Going to Carolina, it won't be long and I'll be there.

Wish I could embed the video from Relix that shows the entire acceptance speech, but I can't figure it out so I present instead this news piece covering the event:

 


Time to go embrace the loved ones and give Stango a thank-you hug for introducing this into my sphere back in the day. 

Who Run The World? Girls. And Women. Modest Ones, Too.

Beyonce's "Run the World" came up this morning also at spin class.  Warning: if you aren't one of the more than 100 million people that have already seen the video, both the lyrics and content are racy.  Not x-rated, but if you're coming from Satmar Williamsburg (though if you are here in the first place I imagine you might be able to handle it) you might want to heed some caution.




Sure, I'm not a fan of her hypersexualized style, but I agree with her message:

Behind every wheeler-dealer power broker is an even smarter woman.

I'm more attuned to the vibe offered up by the Grateful Dead when they sang "Women Are Smarter."  Here is Warren Haynes playing that tune with The Dead from a few years ago.




And yet the glass ceiling still exists.  But the women know they still have the power.


While all those vc guys (Venture Capitalists) have been out on boondoggles these past few years,  the women are still wiser and smarter than any private-jet boys club in the friendly skies.  There are plenty of successful female CEOs.  I am thinking Meg Whitman, the former CEO of EBay.  Or Barbara Walters.  Or Irene Rosenfeld, the Chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods.

In my post about how the women are smarter from last year, I linked this idea to the Jewish view on this topic.  And now more specifically I would like to recognize one Jewish woman who was so powerful yet so modest in her delivery.  Apologies in advance for posting her photo on the same page as a half-naked pop star...but I am trying to bring it all together to make a point!

the late Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson z'l

They say that there are barely any photos of the late Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson.  She was the wife of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a man who had great influence in the lives of countless Jewish people whether they realized or not and whose work continues to spread in a most positive way to all corners of the world.  The Rebbetzin was so completely modest that this is one of the few known photos of her, released either late in life or posthumously.  She was a champion of her husband's work, and I imagine that she was always kind and modest in her way.

Here is just one story about the Rebbetzin.

Her yahrtzeit is this coming Wednesday night and Thursday, the 22nd of Shevat.

Here is an article in The Jewish Forward about how many girls are named after her.  Kind of reminds me of being named Rachel in the 1970s and going to Jewish youth group and camp events.  5 girls turn around when they call your name.  You stop turning around because inevitably that cute boy isn't calling your name.

And she was able to help influence the world with nary of photograph of her.

What would Beyoncé think of that?