This Week In The Dream Antilles

Today, September 9, should be a National Holiday. Your Bloguero is well aware that it isn’t. Not yet. And your Bloguero also knows that you, dear reader, don’t yet know why today should be a NH. Your Bloguero will explain. Eventually. Your Bloguero knows that some day justice will be served and today will be celebrated as a NH. After all, today is Otis Redding’s birthday. Had he not died at age 26 (in 1967) there is no question whatsoever that he would have been recognized as the absolute King of Soul Music. The pinnacle. The apex. The zenith. And that his birthday would, of course, have to be a NH. At least among people with ears and souls.

Why all this raving? You need to listen to Otis Redding. And if you listen to only one song all the way through, let it be this one. In your Bloguero’s judgment, this 1968 recording is among Otis Redding’s most remarkable recordings:



No, it doesn’t have an exciting video with it. That’s because it’s pre-MTV, pre-Youtube. It’s a 53 year old recording, though you won’t believe that if you listen to it.

One of the joys of being your Bloguero is playing songs as wonderful as this. In fact, playing it over and over again is rewarding, too. It becomes a kind of mental floss that caresses the heart while it sweeps out all of the contamination and toxicity of the past week. Cataloguing the past week’s bumper crop of awfulness is something your Bloguero will eschew. Suffice it to say that replacing all of that with this song is a step in the right direction, a step toward hope.

This Week In The Dream Antilles is usually a weekly digest. Sometimes, like now, it is not actually a digest of essays posted in the past week at The Dream Antilles. For that you have to visit The Dream Antilles. Please leave a comment so that your Bloguero will know that you stopped by. Your Bloguero likes to know you've visited.