Redux - Ep. 18 - Forty Years

Redoing this one because it's the forty year anniversary of the recording of the song Forty Years.  A quick note from Joe Jackson's website - where, incidentally, you can't listen to his music any more. (You could when I first published this podcast episode, and I wanted to include the notes that were here before, but that particular one isn't true any more. Or at least, not right now.) http://joejackson.com/release?page=release&album_id=36852 "I want to clear up two myths about this record which still crop up all the time.  Myth 1:  During the live recording of the album, the audience was forbidden to applaud. Fact: There was plenty of applause. We were just playing a lot of unfamiliar material, and recording it for an album, so the audience were asked to hold it until they were sure a song was finished. They understood this and there was no problem. Myth 2:  It's a double album with a side missing. Fact: This was my first album to be released on CD, where the running time was not an issue. I was having a hard time deciding what to leave out for the LP, though, and I suggested making a 3-sided one, and selling it for the price of a regular album. Much to my surprise, the record company said yes. So rather than a side missing, you got an extra side. Critics, of course, hadn't had to pay for it."   And as long as I'm mentioning John Brown below, I'll note my personal belief that he saw the Carrington Event  (really, he couldn't have misssed it) but also that he may have seen the red sky as a good omen for the raid on Harper's Ferry.  In any case, Forty Years was recorded 40 years ago, in January 1986. That turned out to be a notable year, in particular with the Chernobyl nuclear incident which was one of the turning points that led to the end of the Soviet Union. The song mentions Berlin, D.C., and "where I come from" (England/United Kingdom), but not Moscow.  The Soviet Union would be gone 7 years after the song was recorded.    --------------   Starting from a 1986 song about how attitudes had changed in the time since World War II, a look at the passage of time, and how it affects the way people think about history.   You can listen to Big World on Joe Jackson's site - "Forty Years" is track 9: http://joejackson.com/music&album_id=36852 Information about the album, including recording date (January 1986) and release date (March 1986) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_World    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_v._John_Brown Charlestown, Va. 2nd December, 1859. I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860 Evidently in the mid-19th century, it was not common for candidates to campaign.  They sent out activists but mostly stayed home themselves, with Stephen Douglas being the one breaking tradition in 1860. https://millercenter.org/president/lincoln/campaigns-and-elections https://www.sethkaller.com/item/1583-23646-Lincoln-Tops-the-Field-in-1860-Presidential-Election-Currier-&-Ives This essay from Locke is dated 1690…so nearly fifty years after Gallileo's death, 60 after his trial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_Concerning_Human_Understanding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei I had to look up how long Elizabeth and Victoria reigned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria