Back in January, George Clooney organized Hope For Haiti Now, a powerful telethon aimed at raising money for the impoverished country so devastated by the recent earthquake.
In order to do my small part in keeping this tragedy from being forgotten — and also to play some good music — this week I’ll highlight my five favorite performances from that night. And if you’d like to donate, the link above is still active.
First up is Sting (who, incidentally, looks great for a 75-year-old). He played ‘Driven to Tears,’ a socially conscious track from The Police’s Zenyatta Mondatta album. Sting has a great ensemble behind him, including a cellist and a small horn section, and they deliver a fabulous, jazzy version of the song.
The lyrics of this song are a bit obvious for my taste, an issue I have with several of Sting’s political tracks, but there’s no arguing with the music. And it was definitely a good pick for this event,… with lines like this one resonating far more when juxtaposed with the horrific scenes in Haiti: “Seems that when some innocents die all we can offer them is a page in some magazine.”
What does it have to do with me?
What is my reaction, what should it be?
Confronted by this latest atrocity
Driven to tears
Hide my face in my hands, shame wells in my throat
My comfortable existence is reduced to a shallow meaningless party
Seems that when some innocents die
All we can offer them is a page in some magazine
Too many cameras and not enough food
‘Cos this is what we’ve seen
Driven to tears
Protest is futile, nothing seems to get through
What’s to become of our world, who knows what to do
Driven to tears
Meet Me In Montauk 
This was the highlight of the night for me. By a mile. That voice… I’d like to hear him sing “Blah, Blah, Blah” – I bet he’d find a way to make it relevant and meaningful.
While these lyrics may be (are?) too literal, it’s hard to argue with a songwriter voicing for so many the questions, “What does it have to do with me? What is my reaction? What should it be?” When posed by someone like Sting, who always seems to know “it” has something to do with him and that his reaction should be passionate involvement, the questions are especially pointed. Today’s front page story is how foreign donors want some say in how Haiti will recover. If I was donating 100 million dollars, I’d want some say, too. Hell, I’d like to be certain that the nominal amount we have already donated is being used in a responsible way, since “nothing seems to get through.”
Sometimes it’s appropriate, and even more effective, to be a bit too obvious. The fact that Sting’s song is “too obvious,” yet wasn’t written for Haiti demonstrates that it is enigmatic enough to work for any tragic situation of the moment. Perhaps that’s all it has to be.
This is a great idea for a theme week.
love the Sting–obvious or not—the man’s voice is always captivating, and the music always rich.