DESCRIPTION:
This beautiful Broadway style anti-war song was recorded in 1971 for his album "The Great Blind Degree." Though the lyrics sound like those that Havens would write, the words and music are by Jeffrey Kaufman who also arranged the music for the entire album. The unique illustration of Havens is on the back cover. He had been writing a book he titled "The Great Blind Degree" that was "soon to be published," but never was.

I'd like to add that portions of this song remind me of musical compositions written later on by Jonathan Larson for the Broadway show "Rent." Scenes and musical refrains from that show are lodged in my memory. I missed the stage production but was so taken by the movie, which retained the key members of the original cast with the exception and addition of Rosario Dawson, whose performance was inspired and unforgettable. As a variation of Puccini's famous opera, La Boheme, it has timeless appeal and begs to be seen more than once.