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Millennial choir cover of the iconic “Broken Wings”, John Lang, Richard Page, Steve George, all originally for: “Mr. Mister” (cover score embedded in the previous post)
From songfacts.com (an anthology of news features, not footnoted): “This classic pop song was inspired by a book the lyricist John Lang read called The Broken Wings, which was written by the Lebanese poet-philosopher Kahlil Gibran. The book, which was written in 1912, is a story of a love that is doomed by social convention.
“Its theme is echoed in this song: picking up the pieces of your life and moving on. There is a note of heartbreak, however, as the singer is asking the girl to spread her wings and fly away, hoping that love will bring her back. The line, “Take these broken wings and learn to fly” appears in The Beatles song “Blackbird.” Paul McCartney and John Lennon both drew from the work of Kahlil Gibran, as the first two lines of The Beatles “Julia” came from Gibran’s 1926 poem Sand And Foam: “Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you, Julia.” John Lang wrote this song with Mr. Mister frontman Richard Page and guitarist Steve George. According to Page, they were at his home in California when the three of them came up with the song in about 20 minutes and recorded it on Page’s tape machine. “This was the first single from Mr. Mister’s second album. Their record company, RCA, wanted to release an uptempo song first, but the band fought them on it and won out. Released ahead of the album, the song went to #1 US in December 1985, marking a breakthrough for the band, whose biggest hit from their first album was “Hunters of the Night,” which peaked at #57. xxx The follow-up single, “Kyrie,” also went to #1.”
“Early one Sunday morning, I came across a program called “Be Alive” on GMA News TV. At first glance, it seems to be a typical lifestyle show, with guests and medical experts discussing health conditions that went from poor to excellent, thanks to some alternative treatment or medicine. I deemed it a noble effort, seeing as more and more people are in need of safe and afforadble ways to treat various diseases, which range from the common to the rare.
“Just this week, I got to watch “Be Alive” again, and the product being discussed by the hosts caught my attention. The natural supplement, called Laminine, sounded vaguely familiar–and for good reason. Upon researching about “Be Alive” I discovered that each episode focuses only on this product, a questionable practice given the disclaimer flashed at the start of the program:
“ “Our television program is not here to sell a product or to offer medical advice but to show that there are natural ways to address our ailments through information and healthcare prevention… and to give hope to our televiewers watching Be Alive.”
“This practice is highly similar to the presence of “advertorials” in newspapers and magazines (discussed previously), in which a write-up or press release for a product, service, or another similar subject is disguised as a feature piece that serves to review the subject, when it really is more of a publicity ploy than a true analysis of its subject. Upon doing further research, I learned that the production of “Be Alive” is actually driven largely by the company that manufactures Laminine. Be that as it may, the production team has still not been entirely honest about its goals, seeing as it has made a claim that goes against what it actually does.
“Better that the people of “Be Alive” honestly acknowledge the show’s leanings towards the company–like a cooking show that prominently features the same ingredients each episode, or an entrepreneurship program that carries a specific organization’s name–than claim to be neutral while subtly ingraining themselves into the televiewers’ subconscious. Honesty, after all, is the most important feature of any promotional material.” Posted by 2012-12727
