Peacemaker - Loggins and Messina
There was a time in the lates sixties and early seventies when Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State for Presidents Richard Nixon and then Gerald Ford, was possibly the most important man in the world. There wasn't a hot spot on the globe that he hadn't stoked, a coup that he hadn't got his finger in, or a socialist government in South or Central America he hadn't destabilised or clandestinely overthrown.
In 1973 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the cease fire and peace in Vietnam, although two members of the Nobel committee resigned in process. For some he was a hero, for others a war criminal whose decisions cost hundreds of people their lives.
In 1971, after the break-up of Buffalo Springfield, Jim Messina began producing a solo album with singer songwriter Kenny Loggins and when the latter didn't have enough songs to fill two sides Jim pitched with some of his own and they formed a duo. Six years and six studio albums later they split, leaving behind a legacy of careful, thoughtful songs, the best of which were usually, but not always, those of Kenny Loggins.
I used to think this was about Kissinger, but I'm not sure now as Nixon allegedly told Kissinger he should have nothing to do with US foreign policy in Israel. But he was one of a kind. You don't ever want trust them, but somehow there they are, the wheeler dealers, suing for peace.
Loggins is a great songwriter, as he shows here, nailing the political negotiators as men and women who horse trade with people's lives to make deals on trade and power in the palaces of former kings, as he says, matching each other "lie to lie" . He's a rally soulful singer, and, despite the uptempo melody, he manages to impress on us the tension and gravity of his subject matter. There's also terrific base from Larry Sims behind the vocal that has the taut and sweaty feel of fraught moments on dark runways in the sticky, middle eastern nights of my childhood, the approaching flashing lights that meant the plane would be delayed for some last minute VIP who would be whisked in to the first class section and be let off first at the next destination. Great words, we can all sing along to the catchy tune. After all, even today, in our cosy, democratic Western world, we're all implicated.......
"Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go............
To be born in the fire of uncertain times to be torn by desire in vain courted, cornered, compromised It's an hour's flight but it takes all night to go from Cairo to the promised land and is it people's rights or just people's lives and can the line be drawn that thin? On another day another world away de-escalating in the halls of Versailles where white tie and tails Are the coats of mail for every glass that's raised another card is played until you leave them pacified and you go round and around and round and round around the world right back where we started and you go round and around and round and round around with words while half the world is starving Seeing lie to lie with the other side charming with a cheshire smile as your photograph become the golden calf and is the part you played worth the price we'll pay if you leave the string untied And you go round and around and round and round around the world right back where we started and you go round and around and round and round around with words while half the world is starving ....trains and planes and the midnight destination trying to make the best of a red-hot situation....."