stella
12-18-2004, 04:51 AM
In light of Christmas, I have a question regarding what is possibly the only Christmas song that Simon & Garfunkel released on their many albums. In "7 o'clock News/Silent Night", Simon & Garfunkel sang Silent Night while a male radio news anchor broadcast the 7 o'clock evening news in the background. I have pasted the radio news broadcast below. When I first heard the song, I naturally thought that the actual news broadcast was on a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day of a particular year. But further research indicates that the date was not during Christmas. The part that gives away the date of the actual broadcast is when the anchor says that comedian Lenny Bruce died that day in Los Angeles of a drug overdose.
Research on the internet shows that the news broadcast was on August 3, 1966 - the day Lenny Bruce died. That is during the middle of the summer and nowhere near Christmas as the Silent Night song would imply! I must admit I was quite disappointed to find out that the news broadcast was not related to Christmas.
Does anyone know why Simon & Garfunkel chose to superimpose that particular news broadcast with Silent Night?
Also, I wonder if that male news broadcaster was ever revealed - his name, his station, etc. I wonder if Simon & Garfunkel gave him credit for using his broadcast. On the album, I don't think it identifies who that anchor was.
=======The 7 o'clock radio news on August 3, 1966=======
This is the early evening edition of the news.
The recent fight in the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill. Brought traditional enemies together but it left the defenders of the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters.
President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing but it had no chance from the start and everyone in Congress knew it. A compromise was painfully worked out in the House Judiciary Committee.
In Los Angeles today comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdoes of narcotics. Bruce was 42 years old.
Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday into the Chicago suburb of Cicero. Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held. King, now in Atlanta, Georgia, plans to return to Chicago Tuesday.
In Chicago Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment. The nurses were found stabbed an strangled in their Chicago apartment.
In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American activities continued its probe into anti-Vietnam war protests. Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans.
Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Viet nam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war. In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.
That's the 7 o'clock edition of the news,
Goodnight.
=======================================
Research on the internet shows that the news broadcast was on August 3, 1966 - the day Lenny Bruce died. That is during the middle of the summer and nowhere near Christmas as the Silent Night song would imply! I must admit I was quite disappointed to find out that the news broadcast was not related to Christmas.
Does anyone know why Simon & Garfunkel chose to superimpose that particular news broadcast with Silent Night?
Also, I wonder if that male news broadcaster was ever revealed - his name, his station, etc. I wonder if Simon & Garfunkel gave him credit for using his broadcast. On the album, I don't think it identifies who that anchor was.
=======The 7 o'clock radio news on August 3, 1966=======
This is the early evening edition of the news.
The recent fight in the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill. Brought traditional enemies together but it left the defenders of the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters.
President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing but it had no chance from the start and everyone in Congress knew it. A compromise was painfully worked out in the House Judiciary Committee.
In Los Angeles today comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdoes of narcotics. Bruce was 42 years old.
Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday into the Chicago suburb of Cicero. Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held. King, now in Atlanta, Georgia, plans to return to Chicago Tuesday.
In Chicago Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment. The nurses were found stabbed an strangled in their Chicago apartment.
In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American activities continued its probe into anti-Vietnam war protests. Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans.
Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Viet nam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war. In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.
That's the 7 o'clock edition of the news,
Goodnight.
=======================================