Sometimes, one can have a somewhat religious experience just by spending some moments marveling at the wondrous persons whose presence on this earth has provided a vehicle for such blessings to be conveyed to the rest of us. I’m thinking right now of those musicians and entertainers who have contributed so much sublime joy, with their talent on loan from God (to quote a phrase). What got me thinking in these terms was just a random encounter, on YouTube, with the clip below of Dean Martin and Louis Armstrong, performing a medley of great tunes. Nothing radical here; it’s just 100 megawatts of fun, with Dino doing his Satchmo impersonation right in front of Satchmo. Click here to go to YouTube or play below.

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Watching that led to this: Johnny Cash and Louis Armstrong performing Jimmie Rodgers’ Blue Yodel No. 9, on Johnny’s TV show in 1970 (less than a year before Armstrong’s death). The story behind it, as Cash explains, is that Louis Armstrong had played on Jimmie Rodgers’ original recording of the tune, back in 1930. Click here to go to YouTube or play below.

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You might find an audio file of the original session with Jimmie Rodgers and Louis Armstrong at this link.

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On another note, many Christian congregations this morning would have heard a reading from Romans, Chapter 8. That incorrigible Saul of Tarsus can be caught failing to restrain himself from making yet another Dylan reference, in verse 18: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

That of-course is lifted from Bob’s song In the Summertime, i.e. these lines:

Strangers, they meddled in our affairs,
Poverty and shame was theirs.
But all that sufferin’ was not to be compared
With the glory that is to be.

There’s an aptly ethereal amateur film clip on YouTube of Bob doing the song live at Earls Court in London, in 1981. Click here to go to YouTube or play below.

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