Pat Metheny is arguably the greatest Jazz Guitarist of our generation. He married Jazz, Rock, Latin Rhythms and other World Elements to form one of the most successful and acclaimed groups in the 70’s and 80’s. He took us out of the American Song book, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, into a more pastel and complex harmonic palette. Rick describes it as “Beautiful”
Rick Beato had an epic interview with Pat a couple of years back. Deep man! A thinker, a philosopher and master of working “the thing” It was Pat’s invocation of “the thing” that hit me hard. He gets it. He’s working with this cosmic stuff and allows the music to form from it.
Pat just released his version of America the Beautiful. Sorry, it’s not Ray Charles. It’s not Jimmy Hendrixs “Star Spangled Banner” or the great Jaco Pastorius “America the Beautiful”
It’s a short musical essay on the state of America in musical form. A deep commentary.
I almost wish they didn’t put any graphic on the youtube channel. I listened to it 1/2 dozen times on Amazon before I saw the graphic they choose. https://youtu.be/ji169FH_0fo?si=J5DGxrs2ddsAdQHw
Graphics and video’s can interfere with your experience of the music. Since it was Pat that likely approved the graphic than ok. Because the music and the graphic work together.
It’s not the patriotic version that’s going to make you turn on those John Phillip Sousa disks and march your way to the county fair. It’s definitely not Trump’s favorite “God Bless the USA” to stir that patriotic spirit in your heart. I’m tired of the pomp and circumstance, the good ole country boy singing about our nostalgia. Our collective utopian dream.
To the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas
From sea to shining sea
From Detroit down to Houston
And New York to L.A
Well, there’s pride in every American heart
Get off it dude. I’m not feeling it. This is theater. The masses enjoy theater. The reality is starkly different than the Norman Rockwell Painting EVERY President promises to deliver.
Pats’ brief rendition is a deep social commentary done on the state of America. The state of culture. Maybe, the state of humanity. Something is off.
After America the Beautiful, he segues into a Chilean protest song that originally was a piano composition in 36 variations by a Chilean composer and then turned into a protest song. The People United Will Never Be Defeated
