For Thanksgiving: Beethoven's Hymn, Plus Joni Mitchell & The Beatles

Rolling over for the master as we give thanks.

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books including “The Tunnels” “Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady” and “The Campaign of the Century” and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre” (up for an Emmy). You can still subscribe to this newsletter for free. Watch the trailer for his new film “The Atomic Bowl: Football at Ground Zero & The Forgotten Bomb.”

The year 2001 was kind of a milestone for me when, as the saying goes—the venerable dream for musical artists—I got to “play Carnegie Hall.” Well, kind of. Streaming at their site for two weeks was the film I co-produced for director Kerry Candaele a few years back, Following the Ninth, exploring the global/political influence of Beethoven’s final symphony, as part of Carnegie’s “Voices of Hope” series. The film has been shown in about 200 venues all over the world, but this seemed like “bringing it all back home.”

But first, my annual posting for today’s holiday of one of the greatest works of musical (or any) art, Beethoven’s “Heiliger Dankgesang” or “Hymn of Thanksgiving” (after he survived a grave illness), performed here by perhaps the finest string quartet in the world right now.

Now here is Bill Moyers’ tribute to our film as he introduced the lengthy trailer (included).

The film actually opens with punk/protest folkie Billy Bragg singing his new (English) lyrics for the Ninth’s "Ode to Joy.” Which he later performed not just for us but for the Queen.

I ended up co-authoring a book (Journeys With Beethoven with Candaele), plus here’s a few more musical tributes.

Here’s one of Joni Mitchell’s greatest songs back in the early 1970s, still the finest modern tribute to the artist.

Consider perhaps the greatest single piano piece anyone ever wrote, which may even include the first passage of “boogie-woogie” a century before its time? And I’ve now seen Uchida (among others) execute it live in concert.

Chuck Berry wrote it, and here the Beatles play it, and George sings it. Roll Over, my man, and tell Top 40 the news!