I've admired Johnny Colla for a long time as the saxophonist/guitar player/singer/all-round important guy in Huey Lewis and the News. In addition to playing with the News he is also stretching out to leading his own band and doing his own material, which is quite good. One CD is out, and I can't wait for his next one so that I can have a recording of the great new songs he's done. They are the kind of songs that creep into your head and stay there. Which on the one hand is fine with me because they are good songs, but on the other hand is driving me up the wall because I haven't caught all the words and so I can't sing them. They simply rattle about my brain in a recursive loop.
What I hadn't necessarily realized about him in all the years that I've followed the News is the extent of his talent and intellect. Because the News play as a blended ensemble, it's hard to separate each person's contribution. With his solo work it's clear what he can do. Not only does his voice come through loud and clear, but his songs are well-crafted melodically and lyrically. The crafting of the words is what I find most interesting. I am poorly equipped to judge the relative technical merits of a musical piece, but I find that the finesse with which one can manipulate words tends to reveal a sophistication of thought behind them.
It's always nice to discover that someone you admired is so much more worth the admiration. And in the last few weeks as I've watched several solo perfomances and several performances with the News I feel like I've gotten to know him all over again and feel quite comfortable in calling myself an admirer. He also has written comments on his own web site, and hence the point of this post. Huey Lewis and the News as a band are apolitical, and that's fine. Music can play a role in uniting people, but it generally needs to be politically neutral to successfully pull it off. It doesn't mean, however, that the individuals behind it need to vacate any political consciousness of their own. So, like my blog here, Johnny used his web site as his soapbox to comment on the state of the world, particularly with regards to the Iraqi situation.
I'm mentioning it here because I agree completely with his position, and it's nice to see someone else express so eloquently many of the thoughts in my own head.
For posterity (I hope he doesn't mind - the link will probably break the next time he posts):
..."Do I feel any different now that we've 'won the war'? No. Like getting a bad tooth drilled, I'm glad the pain didn't last too long, and it feels great now that it's over. On the other hand, for a few of us the pain will last a lifetime. I think we just cooked up a big pot of something extremely unsavory. It's just begun to simmer and it won't be done for a long time (if ever!) and in the end it may not taste very good.
The anti-war, peace movement mindset my generation embraced forty years ago was a wonderful ideal, and still permeates our part of the world. Unfortunately back then we believed, naively, world peace would be within our grasp in short order, possibly in our lifetime. In our youthful exuberance of the sixties we wanted quick results. In some instances we even used violence to make our point! The fact of the matter is war and violence is an everyday, ingrained part of life in a large part of our world and within our own country. It is the everyday occurrences against women and children or the old and helpless, and moves out into the big-city battlefield of perceived enemies, real or imagined. It's a tragic human condition passed on from generation to generation. I think I've lived long enough now to know change in the world, that is, a serious shift in consciousness, is a very slow-turning screw. But I try and remind myself daily that peace, love and compassion starts or stops, lives or dies, every day in the home behind closed doors. Keep an eye out for the enemy within, and be patient."
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Edit 7/19/03: The link to his comment did change so I updated this post.