Need some inspirational music? Are you down and out because student loans are due, the middle class is being beat up, major income inequality rules America, and Washington is full to the brim with corruption? Do you find it depressing that our future generations will have to deal with the aftermath of science denial because some asshats in Washington think global warming isn’t real? Are you just plain tired of feeling like your voice doesn’t matter?
Look no further and listen to no other because Bernie can belt one out for you, and yes, it’s the greatest thing you will EVER hear.
The Vermont alt-weekly Seven Days recently unearthed a folk album that was recorded by the Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in 1987. It’s amazing. Well, if you like that sort of thing, of course.
In 1987, while serving as Burlington’s mayor, Sanders recorded an album of folk classics for the defunct BurlingTown Recordings label. We found it in the archive search for “Bernie Beat,” the new digital guide to Sanders’ colorful political career that launched today on the Seven Days website. Find it at Berniebeat.com.
How the heck did this even happen??A Burlington-based musician and author, Todd Lockwood, randomly came up with the idea. He called Sanders’ office on a whim and left a message with the secretary. Lockwood was surprised when then Mayor Sanders called him back and said he was willing to record the album.?Sanders said “I have to admit to you this appeals to my ego.”
Everyone involved with the project was in for an even bigger surprise, however.
The plan was for Sanders to sing relatively straightforward renditions of a handful of them. And that apparently seemed like a good idea to everyone. Until Sanders stepped into the recording booth for the first time.
?As talented of a guy as he is, he has absolutely not one musical bone in his body, and that became painfully obvious from the get-go,? Lockwood said. ?This is a guy who couldn’t even tap his foot to music coming over the radio. No sense of melody. No sense of rhythm ? the rhythm part surprised me, because he has good rhythm when he’s delivering a speech in public.?
So they had to come up with a plan B. Lockwood decided to turn the event into a ?We Are The World”-style recording session: He called in a couple dozen Vermont musicians to serve as backup singers, while Bernie more or less read/preached the key lyrics with as much rhythm as he could muster.
The Daily Beast contacted Sen. Sanders office.
?We’ve been focusing on other things,? Jeff Frank, press secretary for Sen. Sanders, told The Daily Beast. ?We don’t have a statement on this besides that [the folk album] does exist.?
When asked if he had listened to the album, Frank responded with a terse and cheerful ?Oh, yeah.?
You can listen to Sen. Sanders’ rendition of This Land Is Your Land below!
#Bernie2016 #BerniesARockStar
