'They've all come to look for America'

Posted 8/6/19

It was on Friday night. And Bert Sommer was playing and he was doing ‘America.’ As he was singing 'America,' a plane buzzed the field  and you could just hear it coming from a distance. *Sound effect of plane.*

And it took off into the night, and as it took off, his voice came out, the plane buzzed off. "They've all come to look for America." *Getting choked up.* I sat up, cause I was you know, doing some things at the time, but it had such an impact on me, I got up and looked around and I go, 'Sh, he just nailed it.'

We've all come to look for America. And we're finding a new one. I still get choked up it. It was just a pivotal moment and I had that on tape to go to tape recorder with me and recorded a lot of Friday. For Ravi Shankar starting at Sweetwater. Burt Sommer's 'America,' with the plane buzzing the field and his voice coming out, 'They've all come to look for America.' As the plane soared off into the night.

I gave the tape to a buddy of mine 10 years later, who promptly lost it. I told him, George, 'You can- don't lose this. It's the only one. I don't have a copy. It's not great. But this is what it was like really being there,'  and you could hear the noise and the confusion of people in the background, news teams off in the back talking about, 'Now this is from White Lake where the lines are endless.'

That tape's out there somewhere. Take care, bye bye. [This is a voicemail from Kurt Beck, whose other story “the familiar hitchhiker” is below.]

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'They've all come to look for America'

Posted

It was on Friday night. And Bert Sommer was playing and he was doing ‘America.’ As he was singing 'America,' a plane buzzed the field  and you could just hear it coming from a distance. *Sound effect of plane.*

And it took off into the night, and as it took off, his voice came out, the plane buzzed off. "They've all come to look for America." *Getting choked up.* I sat up, cause I was you know, doing some things at the time, but it had such an impact on me, I got up and looked around and I go, 'Sh, he just nailed it.'

We've all come to look for America. And we're finding a new one. I still get choked up it. It was just a pivotal moment and I had that on tape to go to tape recorder with me and recorded a lot of Friday. For Ravi Shankar starting at Sweetwater. Burt Sommer's 'America,' with the plane buzzing the field and his voice coming out, 'They've all come to look for America.' As the plane soared off into the night.

I gave the tape to a buddy of mine 10 years later, who promptly lost it. I told him, George, 'You can- don't lose this. It's the only one. I don't have a copy. It's not great. But this is what it was like really being there,'  and you could hear the noise and the confusion of people in the background, news teams off in the back talking about, 'Now this is from White Lake where the lines are endless.'

That tape's out there somewhere. Take care, bye bye. [This is a voicemail from Kurt Beck, whose other story “the familiar hitchhiker” is below.]

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