1st TAKE/2nd LOOK: #16

Peter, Paul, and Mary get booed by their own fans!

Sunrise over DTLA. Heading west on the 10 looking north. Photo Credit: Ric Leczel

I worked today with a buddy I met in 1982. He owns a termite company. He’s a pretty awesome dude. He has literally crawled underneath houses for over 35 years. He also sings opera at a nightclub level. He decided he had gone to enough Christian churches so he accepted an invitation to dine with a Rabbi and some of the congregation at the Rabbi’s house. He has a friend that owns a castle.

He went to the same Sushi Bar every day for a couple of years straight. Lived in Hollywood for a number of years. Smokes an awesome salmon. He calls me Bohemian. I call him Renaissance Man.

He bought the company from his dad in the 80s. The company will be 100 years old in 2024. The termite business is in his blood. I love working with the guy because I always learn new things. About him. About termites. About the world. But, mostly about me.

Not the selfish me, but the curious me. And how do I learn things about me? Because Jim straight-up tells me. If you notice any subtle changes in my Substack, it may be due to his input. Like this gem

You know all that bullshit you write at the front of the article. It’s a lot of bullshit to read before I read your bullshit.

So I changed it. Today he came at me with this critique

So all that bullshit that used to be at the beginning you now put at the end of the article? Still bullshit.

The best advice usually comes at you from the front. Make sure you don’t duck it.

---

Killed the people to set them free.

A huge component of my Substack is the concept of freedom in general. When the freedom turkey is carved up though, I always go for the individual-liberty leg. It’s meaty, looks like a club, and the bone can be crafted into a spear tip. Enough said. (should I seek permission to use really-mixed metaphors? Nah)

We started talking about freedom and Jim mentioned this song. I love hearing rando songs for the first time and discovering the word freedom or liberty in the lyrics. So it was with this protest song from 1982, of all years. The even more unlikely factoid is the artist - Peter, Paul, and Mary.

The song is called El Salvador. The title pretty much tells the story here. The Wiki page provides astonishment from the songwriter

Stookey wrote the song on Mother's Day, 1982, inspired by an article in a Roman Catholic magazine, and has said that the song was controversial even with the group's fans. In a 1997 interview with the Houston Chronicle, Stookey commented, "The most recent surprise we had was in the mid-to-late-'80s when we were singing a song called 'El Salvador'. The last line was, 'Don't you think it's time we leave El Salvador?' We actually got booed at our concerts, which was something we hadn't heard since the civil rights movement or the anti-war movement."

The Money Lyric

Just like Poland is protected by her Russian friends
The junta is assisted by Americans
And if sixty million dollars seems too much to spend in El Salvador

They say for half a billion they could do it right
Bomb all day and burn all night
Until there's not a living thing upright in El Salvador

And they'll continue training troops in the USA
And watch the nuns that got away
And teach the military bands to play: "South of the Border"

Killed the people to set them free
Who put this price on their liberty
Don't you think it's time to leave El Salvador?
Oh, oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh

What price do you put on freedom? On your personal liberty?

Ric

(still putting the bullshit here Jim)