As I am writing this, it has been 47 years and a day or two since Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. He had just won the California Primary Election and seemed on his way to the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. I remember shortly before that night I was being a smart-aleck and said something to the effect of, “I think I’m like Bobby Kennedy. I mean, there are those who look at things the way they are and ask ‘why’; but I look at those things and ask ‘how come.’*
After Kennedy’s death, though, it no longer seemed clever or humorous to say such things. The murder happened only two months after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, and it rekindled memories of the assassination of John Kennedy (which I have previously remembered here.) Lyndon Johnson had dropped out of the race for president because of popular opposition to the Vietnam War; there were riots in Detroit and Baltimore and Paris and many other cities; universities were being shut down by student protests across the country. It just did not seem like a humorous time for most folks.
Several good songs were written to memorialize Bobby Kennedy and the things for which he stood – songs like Dion’s “Abraham, Martin and John” and John Stewart’s “Shoot All the Brave Horses.” However, I have decided to choose “Simple Song of Freedom” by Bobby Darin as the Song of the Week.**
The baby who would become Bobby Darin was born May 13, 1936, into the family of Polly and Sam Cassotto, and given the name Walden Robert Cassotto. Polly and Sam had a 17 year old daughter named Nina, who was still at home; but Sam, who was an associate of a New York organized crime boss, contracted pneumonia while in prison and died shortly before Bobby was born.
As a child, Bobby Darin suffered several bouts of rheumatic fever that left his heart in a very fragile condition. Doctors said he would be lucky to live until his 16th birthday, and that he would almost certainly die before age 25 – or 35 at the outside. The thought of having such a short lifetime before him spurred Bobby to try to achieve as much as possible in whatever time was available.
He began his career as a songwriter supplying material to other artists, but soon became a recording star in his own right. Even if he had done nothing else, we would still remember him for recordings like “Splish Splash,” “Dream Lover,” “Beyond the Sea,” and, of course, “Mack the Knife.”
He did more than sing, though. He became the owner of a successful music publishing company. He was a successful television performer and motion picture actor, earning an Academy Award nomination for his work in Captain Newman, M.D. He married movie star Sandra Dee. He had a very successful career performing in Las Vegas.
Polly Cassotto suffered a stroke and died in early 1959, but Bobby remained close to Nina. Over the next decade, his success continued but he suffered other personal losses, including the dissolution of his marriage to Sandra Dee in 1967. He became more serious and by 1968 was an ardent supporter of Bobby Kennedy’s campaign for the presidency.
Darin even thought seriously of pursuing national political office, himself. When Nina heard of those plans she became concerned that a high profile political campaign would lead to the exposure of anything that might be hidden in Bobby’s past, so she made a confession to him. Polly Cassotto was not his mother; she was his grandmother. Nina was really his mother, and she would not disclose the identity of his father.
Suddenly, Bobby felt that his whole life had been a lie. That disclosure, combined with Kennedy’s assassination affected him very profoundly. He dropped out of the public eye and moved into mobile home in the Big Sur, California area, where he spent many months, reading, chopping wood, digging his own septic system and thinking about those major questions that come with life on this planet.
When he emerged from his seclusion, Bobby had several new songs – songs that were different from the kind he had written and sung before. One of those was “Simple Song of Freedom.”
Bobby did manage to beat the odds given to him by his childhood doctors. He passed his 25th birthday as a major star. By age 35, he was still very active professionally, though he had gone through a heart valve replacement and was constantly bothered by cardiac problems.
In 1973, at the age of 37, Bobby had some dental work done. Because of his heart condition, he should have taken antibiotics before visiting the dentist, but he failed to do so and bacteria from his teeth caused a serious systemic infection that damaged one of his heart valves. His condition did not not heal and another surgery became necessary a few months later. Due to his weakened condition and his diseased heart, he did not survive that second surgery.
The following YouTube video is of a live performance by Bobby of “Simple Song of Freedom.” There are some seeming incongruities in this rendition. This is an overtly anti-war song with lyrics that even us old hippies can appreciate, but the performer is wearing a tuxedo and bow tie. The song was written at an emotional time in Darin’s life and is meant to evoke strong emotions from the listener, but the performance sometimes seems emotionless and “wooden.”
Nevertheless, it works. As the title says, this is a simple song, and it is a song for all people from all social classes and walks of life. There is no reason for the singer to shout or be dramatic. He has a simple statement to make and he is making it in the simple words of a simple man.
Simple Song of Freedom
By Bobby Darin
Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you’ve never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don’t want a war
Hey there, Mister Black Man can you hear me?
I won’t dig your diamonds or hunt your game
I just want to be, someone known to you as me
and I will bet my life you want the same
So come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you’ve never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don’t want a war
Seven hundred million are you listening?
Most of what you read is made of lies
But speaking one to one, ain’t it everybody’s sun
To wake to in the morning when we rise?
So come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you’ve never sung, never sung, before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don’t want a war
Brother Solzhenitsyn are you busy?
If not would you drop a friend a line?
Tell me if the man, who is plowing up your land
has got the war machine upon his mind
Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you’ve never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
That we, the people here, don’t want a war
Now no doubt some folks enjoy doin’ battle
Like presidents and ministers and kings
But let us build them shelves where they can fight it out among themselves
and leave the people be who love to sing
Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you’ve never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
That we the people here, don’t want a war
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
That we the people here, don’t want a war
© CARLIN AMERICA INC, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
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*A famous “quotation’ from Bobby Kennedy is, “There are those who look at things as they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not.” Actually, that statement by Kennedy was a paraphrase of a line spoken by the Serpent in George Bernard Shaw’s play, Back to Methuselah.
**This song is not really one of those that memorializes Kennedy. Bobby Darin did write such a song called “in Memoriam,” which you can listen to by clicking here.
great article! thank you.
do u know who he references in the term “mister black man”?
David, I apologize for ignoring your comment for so long. I didn’t notice that it had been waiting to be approved for several weeks.
I am pretty sure that Bobby Darin was not referring to any particular person when he says, “Hey Mister Black Man.” Rather, he is addressing all that portion of humanity that happens to have black skin. Many of those people are in Africa, and that verse mentions that we should not dig their diamonds or hunt their game. In other words, it is wrong for the western world to exploit Africa and its people.
I was born in 1943, 7 years after Bobby Darin. He lived about one mile south of me in the Brown Place area of the South Bronx, one of New York City’s toughest neighborhoods. We did not dare to go there because it was so rough. Bobby attended P.S. 37 junior high school, not a distinguished institution. Nevertheless he passed the very competitive test for entry into the Bronx H.S. of Science which has produced many brilliant graduates. Despite a lack of a formal music education, he was a natural who played piano, drums and vibes. Bobby could sing and play almost any style of music. He was a very bright and talented man who was born into very difficult circumstances. I do not know how he mastered big band singing. At the age of 24 he headlined at the Copa in New York City. Bobby had significant gifts which should be better remembered. I recall him fondly.
John, thank you for sharing these memories.
Memory Lane. Tim Hardin’s best-selling record as a performer was his rendition of Bobby Darin’s “Simple Song of Freedom.” Darin in turn had a 1966 hit with Hardin’s “If I were a Carpenter,” a great love song, and followed it up about a year later with another one of Hardin’s love songs, “The Lady Came from Baltimore.”
Hardin and his guitarist Mike Reid, who now plays for a band called “Tea Cup Gin”, were in the Boulder area in ’68. As I recall you were a neighbor of Hardin’s and the lady from Baltimore at that time. In Gold Hill? Or Nederland? I knew Mike Reid fairly well. It wasn’t the best of times for either one of them, even though Hardin was getting a lot of radio play time and had some commercial success. Both had drug problems picked up as vets of the early Viet Nam era, and Hardin died in 1980 of an overdose. I count him among the best and brightest of our generation who were lost to us because of that war. Hardin was recognized as one of the greatest songwriters of the era by peers like Bob Dylan.
I’ll stop here, because my recollections of Mike from that time would probably embarrass us both. He seems to be doing fine these days. I think your memory of Hardin might be in the same category.
One more thing – I do recall a story about Darin and Hardin from Mike Reid. He said when Hardin and Bobby Darin met some time during the time the song “If I were A Carpenter” was being recorded by Darin, Hardin was in a bad mood and gave Darin a really hard time, but that Darin took it all without a blink and never lost his own cool. A good reflection on Bobby Darin, for what it’s worth.