Posted on 08/26/2012 7:53:22 AM PDT by TonyfromOz
With the passing of Neil Armstrong, arguably one of the most celebrated of all the Astronauts, and with a name nearly everyone recognises, we are all of us saddened at the passing of a gentle and unassuming man, who always said that he was just doing his job. In 1971, one of the most well known Australian Country singers, Reg Lindsay, released a song dedicated to Neil Armstrong. The song, written by John Stewart from The Kingston Trio, was a huge hit here in Australia, crossing over into the mainstream Popular Music Charts and making it into the Top Ten, spending just on four Months in the National Australian Top 40. I have the clip from You Tube, and some text at the link.
Neil Armstrong was a great hero. A modest man with boundless courage. He will be missed, but never forgotten. His accomplishments will stand forever.
I don’t think this song can be considered positive toward MR. Armstrong or the space program. It’s more a protest against them.
That was very good. Thanks.
See Gil Scott-Heron.
I agree. Being a musician, I always hear the music first. I've played guitar since I was nine and I'm sixty one now. Lyrics, most usually, come second.
FMCDH(BITS)
Neil Armstrong will always be remembered, and honored, as the first man to stand on the moon, but I want to tell you about another place where he once stood. I have been to Jerusalem many times, and I always visit the temple mountain where the beautiful Dome of Rock stands today. But 2,000 years ago, in the days of Jesus, the Jews’ temple stood there on the mountain. The first temple, built by Solomon about 1000 BC had been destroyed, and then in the years just before Jesus’ birth Herod the Great had rebuilt the second temple. But the temple mountain was not large enough for the beautiful temple that Herod built, so Herod had enlarged the temple mountain by building a massive retaining wall around Mt. Moriah. On the south, he built broad steps that were the main entrance to the temple in Jesus’ day. Herod’s temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, just as Jesus had foretold. But the massive wall around the temple mount and the broad steps were not destroyed. Beginning in 1968 Professor Benjamin Mazar excavated the south wall of the temple mountain, and he uncovered those broad steps that people had used to enter the temple in New Testament times. And that brings us back to Neil Armstrong. He is a devout believer and in the spring of 1988 he visited Jerusalem and stood on those steps. He asked his guide, “Do you mean to tell me that Jesus stood on these steps?” The guide answered, “Of course. Jesus was a Jew and went to the temple many times. And these steps were the main entrance to the temple. Of course Jesus stood on these steps.” Neil Armstrong was quiet for a few moments, then said, “It means more to me to stand on these steps than to stand on the moon.” When we visit the Holy Land and walk where Jesus walked, we are brought face-to-face with him and we leave with a richer deeper faith.
It's definitely a tribute to Armstrong, but the references to poverty, pollution and war are similar to those in other songs from the period such as In the Ghetto and Ball of Confusion.
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