"Harry Truman," Chicago
In 1974, Richard Nixon had become the first U.S. President to resign his office under threat of impeachment and conviction for high crimes and misdemeanors stemming from the Watergate affair. His resignation - at the height of an oil shortage, economic stagnation, and runaway inflation - came within two years after the death of former President Harry Truman, who had become familiar with Nixon when he was a member of Congress and had also become one of Nixon's greatest detractors. President Truman had gained respect in the last two decades of his life as a former President for his plain speaking and bold leadership, qualities that went unappreciated in his time in office from 1945 to 1953. And it was in recognition of Truman's reputation as a great President that the band Chicago released in early 1975 "Harry Truman," a song asking the thirty-third President to come back and tell Americans how to save the land they loved.
Writeen and sung by Chicago leader and keyboardist Robert Lamm, "Harry Truman" is a song that draws parallels to Randy Newman's idiosyncratic arrangements and droll vocal style, a decision by Lamm and his bandmates deliberately meant to keep the song from becoming too political - there were still many people in mid-seventies America that still thought Nixon had gotten railroaded - but still get the band's message across. If Archie and Edith Buker thought they could use a man like Herbert Hoover in the White House again, the band Chicago made it clear that they needed am man like harry Truman again.
"Harry Truman" was released as a single in February 1975 and appeared on the 1975 studio album Chicago VIII. It reached number thirteen on the Billboard singles chart. This clip, my Music Video Of the Week, is a clip of Chicago presenting "Harry Truman" on Dick Clark's annual ABC New Year's Eve special - this one from December 31, 1974 going into January 1, 1975. I post it here to mark the anniversary of the birth of Harry Truman, who was born on this day (May 8) in 1884. Enjoy.
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