One of the greatest of the songs written in tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. is this inspired composition from folk singer Patty Griffin. "Up To The Mountain" has enjoyed a surge in popularity following it's performance by Kelly Clarkson and Jeff Beck on "Idol Gives Back" in 2007. It has since been covered by many artists including Susan Boyle and Crystal Bowersox. Though Griffin began performing the song around 2005, it was first recorded by the late Solomon Burke in 2006 and included on the album "Nashville". Griffin's version appeared on the 2007 album "Children Running Through". The Clarkson version doesn't seem to be commercially available anymore, though I know it once was.
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WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW (ABRAHAM, MARTIN & JOHN)/TOM CLAY (1971) Most Christmas music collectors explore the music of other holidays to some extent or other. Halloween is a very popular choice. Valentine's Day scores big, too. April Fool's Day, Groundhog Day, Baseball season.... I've even seen some with fairly extensive Arbor Day collections. In the last few years, I've taken an interest in music relevant to Martin Luther King Day. MLK Day, I believe, is one of our most important, yet also one of our most maligned holidays. Last year, I compiled a fairly extensive list which I posted at FaLaLaLaLa.com (more context and links provided at Imwan). One of my absolute favorites from the list is this largely forgotten Top Ten hit from 1971 by Tom Clay. And, in view of the weekend's events, it seems particularly poignant. Clay was a much traveled disc jockey back in the days when rock and roll was first reaching American radio. His career took him from Buffalo to Cincinnati to Detroit to L.A. to NYC and back round again. He worked for such great stations as CKLW and WCBS-FM. Clay was one of many caught up in the payola scandals of the late 50s, which were, in reality, anti-rock and roll campaigns; the practice was legal when they did it and the laws against it were applied retrospectively to any popular disc jockey who aired rock music. Clay always wanted to make a difference, somehow--to contribute more than "patter" between the platters. It was while Clay was working at Ontario's CKLW that President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. A few months after the tragedy, Clay found a poem that had been written about the events of that weekend by Candy Greer, a girl from a Detroit suburb. Clay read "Six White Horses" (not the Johnny Cash song) on the air one day and, by the following day, the station had been deluged with phone calls requesting a record of the reading. The station issued the single and proceeds were donated to charity. SIX WHITE HORSES/TOM CLAY (1964) The 60s unfolded violently. After leaving WCBS-FM (New York) in 1969, Clay found himself working an inconsequential part-time gig at KGBS in Los Angeles. Clay's air time was virtually nil, there, but he began producing montages of music, sound clips and news actualities to stand out (and to "say something"). These montages, which would often run up to 20 minutes, became somewhat legendary. I stumbled upon a web site a few years back that had one hosted (don't remember where it was, now, if it's still there). How many more survive, I couldn't say. But one of Clay's montages struck a nerve with Americans still reeling from the Viet Nam War and the killings of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. The single of "What The World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin And John" was released on Motown subsidiary MoWest in 1971, selling over 4 million copies and climbing to #8 on Billboard's Hot 100 charts. Clay maintained he never received any royalties for the record and was owed over $300,000. Clay released an entire album on MoWest, which sold respectably enough. But the follow-up single failed to sell. In the 80s, Clay was mostly doing voice-over work and, once again moved by an assassination (John Lennon), decided to put his free time to good use. Clay put together a montage reflecting the headlines of the day, entitled "Time For A Change" (after a clip from Lennon in the mix). Clay shopped his new montage for years--constantly updating it--but found no takers from the record labels who all said it wouldn't sell. In 1991, Clay released "Time For A Change" directly to radio stations in the US and Canada, but it remains unissued on CD. Tom Clay died of cancer on November 22, 1995--32 years to the day after the death of President Kennedy. TIME FOR A CHANGE/TOM CLAY (1991) Neither "Six White Horses" nor "Time For A Change" is commercially available, so far as I can determine. "What The World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin And John" (as well as some other material from the MoWest album) is available as part of the The Complete Motown Singles series. Also available is Clay's sign off "That's All"--a 1960 single he recorded on the Big Top label. Special thanks to Refried Vinyl, as much of the info here is drawn from that blog.
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