This Friday’s song is Abraham, Martin and John by Dion. This song was written by Dick Holler right after the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in Los Angeles in June 1968. The song took off after Dion sang it on the Smothers Brothers show. That’s the version I picked to share.
In 1968, I was living in Saugus, Massachusetts. I was just finishing eighth grade and had started a job as a camp counselor at the local YMCA. It was the first presidential campaign I was old enough to follow and understand. I had been to a Bobby Kennedy rally in a shopping center in Farmingdale on Long Island a few years before that when he was running for the Senate. I really hoped he could end the war in Vietnam, move us past the hate and bring most Americans together. Sadly, an assassin’s bullet put an end to that hope.
Coming right after the assassination of Martin Luther King and in the midst of war, riots, social upheaval, and massive cultural change, the ballad reminds us how each of these men, however flawed, inspired us to put aside hate and come together as Americans to help make the world a better place for all.
Hope you enjoy it…