The new WikiLeaks dump: a billion words generated by SoS Henry Kissinger (+ bonus cables on the Russians needing more Joni Mitchell, CSNY, Neil Young, Don McLean, James Taylor, and Bob Dylan)

By Jack Brummet, International Intrigue Ed.

WikiLeaks has just released the the "Kissinger Cables," a collection of over 1.7 million pieces of diplomatic communications.  One billion words generated from 1973-76, when Henry Kissinger served as our Cold War Secretary of State/ Détente during the slow spinning down of the Soviet Union.  There is so much material here that you can find almost anything— like, say, the Russian thirst for soft rock. 

This new release is five times the size of Cablegate, the original WikiLeaks dump published incrementally from 2010-2011. I billion words is roughly the size of 125 novels (averaging 80,000 word per novel). 

I've only read a few of the articles, but one of the more interesting threads in the release is the Russian thirst for American "soft rock:"  

Search for "Joni Mitchell," for example, "and you'll find communications between the U.S. embassy in Moscow and the State Department, asking for more Mitchell and Don McLean in Russian lives — and to a lesser extent Neil Young — because, well, that's the Russians wanted in January 1975." -(From TheAtlanticWire.com).

Images from cables in the release:

Somehow, The Eagles and Jackson Brown did not make the list, although this cable seems to hint that they would be perfect Rock Ambassadors. 

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Amelia by Joni Mitchell from the Shadows and Light tour (with lyrics)

Amelia is one of Joni Mitchell's great songs. . .in my booklet. The imagistic lyrics are gorgeous. This is an "acoustic" version with her soloing on the electric guitar, in one of her alternate tunings. I like the studio, electric version (with Jaco Pastorius) best, but this is very nice.



Amelia


Music and lyrics by Joni Mitchell

I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
it was the strings of my guitar
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture-post-card-charms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Oh Amelia, it was just a false alarm

I wish that he was here tonight
It's so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia, it was just a false alarm

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms
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I haven't heard it yet, but I am happy to know that Joni Mitchell released a new album yesterday called Shine. I won't get to hear it for a couple of days, unless there is a CD store in Whistler, British Columbia.

Today, also, I believe Herbie Hancock released a tribute album to Joni. I'm looking forward to that one too.

As it turns out, the day of this record's release I am in her home state, about fifty miles from her house on Vancouver Island (where my daughter also lives). Like I said, I won't hear the record until I get back to stateside. I am not much of a digital music buyer. I have to hit the brick and mortar shop and have a CD to hold in my hands. Then, I just play a CD once...when I digitize it. Anyhow, here's to Joni. The advance on this album i that it's very good.


The tracks of Shine:

"One Week Last Summer"
"This Place"
"If I Had a Heart" "If I Had a Heart, I'd Cry" is a reaction to the state of the environment and what Mitchell called the current "holy war." In February 2007, The New York Times described the song as "one of the most haunting melodies she has ever written." Of the impetus that inspired her to write the song, Mitchell explained, "My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species. I can't cry about it. In a way I'm inoculated. I've suffered this pain for so long. …The West has packed the whole world on a runaway train. We are on the road to extincting ourselves as a species."
"Hana"
"Bad Dreams are Good" "Bad Dreams Are Good" was inspired by a comment Mitchell's grandson made at the age of three: "Bad dreams are good, in the great plan." In a March 2007 BBC2 radio interview with Amanda Ghost, the singer jokingly said she'd promised to "cut him in" on the song's profits.
"Big Yellow Taxi" In March 2007, The Guardian reported that Shine will feature a "new version" of Joni's 1970 environmentally-themed hit single.
"Night of the Iguana"
"Strong and Wrong"
"Shine" Toronto Globe and Mail described this song as "a lush lullaby for the soul."[
"If" This song, which will be the last on the album,[8] is based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling. The jazz-inflected piece features Herbie Hancock playing piano.
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