{"id":196486,"date":"2021-11-01T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=196486"},"modified":"2021-10-12T09:44:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T08:44:16","slug":"one-fine-day-david-byrne-performs-his-hymn-of-optimism-and-countercultural-anthem-of-resistance-and-resilience-with-the-brooklyn-youth-chorus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/11\/one-fine-day-david-byrne-performs-his-hymn-of-optimism-and-countercultural-anthem-of-resistance-and-resilience-with-the-brooklyn-youth-chorus\/","title":{"rendered":"One Fine Day: David Byrne Performs His Hymn of Optimism and Countercultural Anthem of Resistance and Resilience with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a>

from Rolling Stone<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI complete my tasks, one by one. I remove my masks, when I am done\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

In the spring of 2019, when David Byrne<\/strong> (b. May 14, 1952) took the stage at the third annual Universe in Verse<\/em><\/a> to read a science-inspired love poem to time and chance titled \u201cAchieving Perspective,\u201d I introduced him as one of the last standing idealists in our world \u2014 a countercultural force of lucid and luminous optimism, kindred to Walt Whitman, who wrote so passionately about optimism as a mighty force of resistance and a pillar of democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, Byrne took the stage at the National Sawdust<\/a> gala to celebrate their largehearted mission of using music as an instrument of change, as a movement toward a more beautiful and inclusive world. Accompanied by Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco and the transcendent harmonics of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus<\/a> \u2014 that bright young voice of the future \u2014 he performed a coruscating version of his song \u201cOne Fine Day,\u201d originally released in 2008 on Everything That Happens Will Happen Today<\/em>, co-written with Brian Eno, and reimagined a decade later on Byrne\u2019s Whitmanesque-spirited 2018 record turned Broadway musical<\/a> American Utopia<\/em> \u2014 one part of his wondrous multimedia project Reasons to Be Cheerful<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

With poetic lyrics that feel both staggeringly prescient (\u201cIn a small dark room \u2014 where I will wait \/ Face to face I find \u2014 I contemplate,\u201d \u201cI complete my tasks, one by one \/ I remove my masks, when I am done\u201d<\/em>) and of sweeping timelessness (\u201cIn these troubled times, I still can see \/ We can use the stars, to guide the way \/ It is not that far, the one fine day\u201d<\/em>), this buoyant hymn of optimism ripples against the current of our time as a mighty countercultural anthem of resistance and resilience, worthy of Whitman.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_x3tK5aJi9I<\/p>\n

ONE FINE DAY<\/strong>
\nwritten by David Byrne and Brian Eno<\/em><\/p>\n

Saw the wanderin\u2019 eye, inside my heart
\nShouts and battle cries, from every part
\nI can see those tears, every one is true
\nWhen the door appears, I\u2019ll go right through, oh
\nI stand in liquid light, like everyone<\/p>\n

I built my life with rhymes, to carry on
\nAnd it gives me hope, to see you there
\nThe things I used to know, that one fine<\/p>\n

One fine day<\/em><\/p>\n

In a small dark room, where I will wait
\nFace to face I find, I contemplate
\nEven though a man is made of clay
\nEverything can change that one fine \u2014<\/p>\n

One fine day<\/em><\/p>\n

Then before my eyes, is standing still
\nI beheld it there, a city on a hill
\nI complete my tasks, one by one
\nI remove my masks, when I am done<\/p>\n

Then a peace of mind fell over me \u2014
\nIn these troubled times, I still can see
\nWe can use the stars, to guide the way
\nIt is not that far, the one fine \u2014<\/p>\n

One fine day<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Complement with Jane Hirshfield\u2019s poem \u201cOptimism\u201d in a tender stop-motion animation<\/a> and astrophysicist and poet Rebecca Elson\u2019s spare, exquisite masterpiece \u201cAntidotes to Fear of Death,\u201d<\/a> then revisit U.S. Poet Laureate and Universe in Verse<\/em> alumna Tracy K. Smith performing her poem \u201cThe Everlasting Self\u201d<\/a> with an astonishing percussion ensemble at National Sawdust and join me in supporting their largehearted world-building through music<\/a>.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Brain Pickings is the brain child of Maria Popova, an interestingness hunter-gatherer and curious mind at large obsessed with combinatorial creativity who also writes for <\/em>Wired UK and<\/em> The Atlantic, among others, and is an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow. She has gotten occasional help from a handful of guest contributors<\/a>. Email: brainpicker@brainpickings.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 brainpickings.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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