'Darling, here in my heart'
Seeing Bruce's We Shall Overcome on the Haiti telethon, what came to mind was something Jim Musselman had said at the fall's symposium.
As head of Appleseed Recordings, a tiny label with social justice goals, Musselman had prompted Springsteen's folk recordings in the 1990s, including We Shall Overcome. While many of the recordings eventually turned into the Seeger Sessions, the We Shall Overcome cut became a public-facing Sept. 11 song and, as I noted in the fall, a privately wild rights battle. But just as interesting to me was another controversy Musselman explained, about Springsteen's word choice in the song.
Years later, Musselman remembered the concern "darling" stirred. The chorus traditionally went, "Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe we shall overcome some day." Springsteen changed the first line to "Darling, here in my heart." The switch was small in print but huge in meaning.
One of the greatest collective songs of the 20th century had become personal. A civil rights touchstone had become applicable to individual cares and assumed greater and lesser social range. A song that lived in America might now live in your bedroom. Was such a shift decent?
If you don't believe in the power of word choice, you can ignore this blog post. Best I could tell in listening to Musselman, this debate and discussion ensued at the label levels, not in the public. A Google News search found nothing. So, if you don't care, you're in good company.
But I'm going to credit the word choice for the song appearing Friday night and, judging by my feeds, moving many people, myself included. I'm sure, since the line's shift, "Darling, here in my heart" has crossed minds for reasons lower than social change or rescue. Fair enough.
You can pre-order the Hope for Haiti Now telethon music on iTunes.










