Anyone knocking around Manhattan in those days knew people who perished, but for me it all comes back to the priest and the fireman.
Even 10 years later I can look offstage and imagine where each would be: Fr. Mychal Judge standing by the bar, impeccably coiffed, surrounded by friends; and Richie Muldowney FDNY, darting around the room bantering with all and sundry, crooked smile lighting up the joint.
Though both are frozen in time, they summon up the city as it used to be. For New York changed ineffably on 9/11 when the spirits of so many unique people departed. They’ve been replaced, of course; great cities do that. But it’s not quite the same, is it?
I often thought of Mychal as a mirror — he was so empathetic he seemed to reflect your own hopes and fears. I never knew anyone who helped so many people; he was always concerned, forever providing a shoulder.
I guess he came to see Black 47 to let off a little steam. I’m not even sure he liked our music — his own taste ran towards the more conventional — but the rhythms, juxtapositions and overall message fascinated him. And, anyway, he liked to be in the thick of the action.
Richie was hard-core Black 47. He knew all the words, the players, the other fans. He delighted in showing up unexpectedly at out-of-town gigs; the moment you saw him you knew it would be a good night. To think such an irrepressible spark was extinguished so early.
I remember jaywalking across Times Square the first September Saturday the band returned to Connolly’s. The “crossroads of the world” was so deserted in those immediate post-9/11 nights it felt like a scene from a cowboy movie where sagebrush is blowing down the street.
But cops, firemen, emergency workers, the mad, the innocent and those who just couldn’t stay at home needed somewhere to go — to let the pressure off — and that was the band’s function.
Those first gigs were searing. You couldn’t be certain who was missing, who had survived, who was on vacation, who just needed a break from it all. When a familiar face walked through the door the relief was palpable: someone else had made it.
The atmosphere, though on the surface subdued, was charged with an underlying manic energy, a need to commemorate, celebrate, to show that life was going on. That would be some small revenge on the bastards who had caused all the heartbreak.
And yet, what an opportunity was missed in those first weeks. The pit down on Rector Street had galvanized the country. We were all so united; we would have done anything asked of us.
Republican, Democrat, Independent, we all came together as Americans. We would have reduced our dependence on foreign oil, rejuvenated poor neighborhoods, taught classes in disadvantaged schools. You name it — nothing would have been too big or too small.
But no sacrifice was asked, much less demanded. Instead, 9/11 was used by cheap politicians to get re-elected; patriotism was swept aside by an unrelenting xenophobic nationalism that brooked no dissent. The U.S. was converted into a fortress and the lights were dimmed in the once shining city on the hill. Worst of all, our leaders sought to use the tragedy as an excuse to invade Iraq.
Look at us now: dysfunctional, walled off from each other and the rest of the world. That began when the national will for a positive response was squandered in the aftermath of 9/11.
Though he was finally hunted down, sometimes it seems as though Osama Bin Laden won, for we’ve become a fearful, partisan people, unsure of ourselves, uncertain of our future.
But then I think of Mychal and Richie. Their smiles beam across the years and I know that the current national malaise is just a patina that covers the soul of the country. It can be wiped away. It’s not permanent. We have greatness in us yet.
That’s the hard-earned lesson of 9/11. And will always be the message of the priest and the fireman.
Click for free mp3 downloads of “Mychal” and “Orphans of the Storm”, which are available through Sept. 30, 2011.
