Today marks the observation of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday in the United States. There are some brief but interesting thoughts from someone who knew him well — Richard John Neuhaus — at this link.

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As an oblique way of marking the day, Editor & Publisher magazine refers to Sam Cooke and A Change Is Gonna Come, and mentions Bob Dylan singing the song not too long ago at the Apollo Theater. The article says that this performance was once on YouTube but has since been removed. In fact, it’s there right now, at this link.

Greg Mitchell of E & P elaborates on Dylan’s performance thusly:

Now, before you laugh — Bob Dylan singing Sam Cooke at the Apollo??? — keep this in mind: Dylan inspired this song. Sam Cooke, before he died in 1964, said that Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” had humbled him. He felt embarrassed that a white boy had written that civil rights anthem, so he set his sights on penning his own — and easily topped it.

“Easily topped it”? I wonder why it seems necessary to put these songs in competition with one another? I can understand Cooke, as a songwriter, seeking to match another songwriter’s achievement back then, but I can’t so easily understand why a listener in 2007 would set the songs against one another in this way.

And of-course Blowin’ In the Wind is more than merely an anthem for civil rights. In the same way, A Change Is Gonna Come sounds as brilliant today as it did over forty years ago because it, too, is ultimately far more than merely an anthem for any specific political cause.

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On another topic, let me be the first to throw my support behind John Bolton for prez in ’08, based on his interview in the Sunday Times. I’m only joking a little. (By the way, who was the last president to sport a mustache? William H. Taft, I guess? He succeeded Teddy R., who must be the most famous mustache-wearing president. Could the American people elect a man with a mustache to be president in this day and age? And if not, why not? I’m happy to toss out these ideas for dissertations so that others can run with them.)

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