An evening pause: From a 2011 concert, sung to pay tribute to Loretta Lynn. From left to right, Jennifer Nettles, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, and Wynonna and Naomi Judd.
An evening pause: This is long for an evening pause, but you can let it play in the background if you have other things to do. Recorded live January 2022 in Amsterdam.
An evening pause: The animation created to go with Troup’s jazzy version of this song is utter fantasy, imagining America as portrayed in culture, not reality. No matter. Sometimes the myth is better.
This also makes a nice pause to usher in the weekend.
An evening pause: Performed by Grayson Samuels, Bella Coppola, and Anna Rose Daugherty at Texas State University.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman, who decided to find a version of this for an evening pause after we watched the 1972 movie Cabaret one evening. The film and play portrayed bluntly the decadence of Germany before World War II, a decadence that led directly to Nazi rule. Watching it now is somewhat horrifying, as it now accurately portrays the dominate and decadent leftist culture of America today. I watched and wondered if we Americans will have the courage and sense of morality to fight back and stop the kind of evils such decadence always leads to.
This song however is simply lovely, and illustrates the larger strength of the musical itself.
An evening pause: The animation is by Steve Cutts. It seems perfect for today, income tax day. Note that I post it as someone who does not own a smart phone and empathizes entirely with the film’s main character.
An evening pause: This performance, from 1987, has some important historical background. As noted on the youtube page,
In November of 1987, Sonny Bono was running for mayor of Palm Springs and Cher was promoting her upcoming movie Moonstruck. The divorced couple went on Letterman together and were coaxed into playing ‘I Got You, Babe’ with Paul Shaffer and his band; they weren’t exactly the best of friends at this point, but both of them knew it would make for unforgettable television. Had YouTube existed back then, this would have gone insanely viral the next morning. It wound up being the final time they ever sang together, as Bono passed away in January 1998.