Comments on: Behind The Song: “Abraham, Martin and John”

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 01:55:19 +0000

Nice piece David. For more on this song, check out HistoryAccess.com, go to the Table of Contents and click on “Abraham, Martin and John.”

By: Bob P.

Bob P. — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:51:40 +0000

For what it’s worth (another good ’60s song), I have been learning this song for the past couple of hours – after all these years – and it is so difficult just because of it’s emotional impact. The deaths of the Kennedy’s (no they weren’t perfect men, nor were Dr. King or Lincoln) and King took the sap right out of this nation and lingers as a prominent sore in America’s history. Whether you wish to believe in conspiracies or not, there is great evidence that these men were murdered indeed because of their beliefs and the threat those beliefs posed to the powers that be. But beyond the relevance of those ugly political realities, the song is an anthem for more than one generation of Americans who saw their greatest aspirations for themselves and their country seemingly dying before their very eyes.
It is a song for the ages, and for those who were alive in 68 and old enough to vaguely understand, it will always be a powerful and emotional reminder of the hope of a generation that somehow seemed to have lost all of its leaders of hope.

By: cabdriver

cabdriver — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:17:38 +0000

Jan. 31, 2010

I was in the thrift store just the other day, they always have a pretty good oldies channel on the PA. And the radio played “Abraham, Martin, and John”.

I was a teenager when the song was a hit. It has to have been at least 20 years since I’d last heard it.

Granted, I’m an incorrigible romantic. But I’d swear, by the third verse there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. There were a lot of people in the place. Mostly Mexicans and Asians, for what it’s worth. It got pretty quiet.

Nothing there but the song. After all these years.

You know, it’s one of those lyrics that’s so simple and direct, such an idealization, that it’s easy to dismiss it as sappy. But I dunno, maybe it’s the delivery…it still knocks me over, just like it did when I was a junior high school kid in the 1960s, with a feathered cap, and a wooden sword.