Saturday, July 12, 2008

Patti Smith 'Dazzles' her Lebanese audience with "Qana" ..about the children who died in an Israeli air strike..TWICE!

"...The celebrated 1970s rock icon turned political activist performed near the old Phoenician port at the opening of the Byblos music festival,...
"To all mothers and children who lost children, all unnecessarily in war, which seems to me in our time something we can make obsolete," Smith said before dazzling the audience with "Qana."
The song is pointedly political. It's about the children who died in an Israeli air strike on a Lebanese village during the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Here are some excerpts:
There's no one in the village, not a human nor a stone... Children are gone and a mother rocks herself to sleep. Let it come down, let her weep… Some stayed buried, others crawled free... Little bodies, tied head and feet, wrapped in plastic, laid out in the street… The new Middle East… The dead lay in strange shapes… Wine to blood, Oh Qana, the miracle is love.
At one point, Smith wore a kaffiyeh, a scarf with black and white patterns that has become a symbol of the Palestinian upheaval."

1 comment:

Leila Abu-Saba said...

I heard Patti Smith sing an a cappella ode to a mother in Somalia during her first public appearance after long hiatus, summer 1993, New York's Central Park. The song gave me chills.

I had NO IDEA she was doing this in Lebanon. Thank you for alerting me to this. What a gift.