A special song dedicated to Danny Pearl from Peter Himmelman

 By Peter Himmelman

"For five years I've found myself thinking about Danny. The words fixated, or obsessed come to mind, but they aren't quite right. It’s more like a profound empathy I suppose; a sense of a kinship unrequited. I accorded Danny a sort of heroic status and l looked to him as the penultimate follower of one's muse. I thought about how bereft I felt, never having had Daniel Pearl as a friend.

A week or so ago, a man named William Pesek wrote a column for Bloomberg.com which had been forwarded to me by a friend. The article was about Musharraf and how Danny was right all along about his despotic tendencies. About four paragraphs in though, I read something that left me thunderstruck. William Pesek had written that he and Danny had bonded over an appreciation of my music. A simple thing perhaps, but for me it was a revelation. The fact that there was indeed some connection between Danny and me had been confirmed. I literally found myself weeping as re-read that paragraph.

I wrote to Mr. Pesek straight away and he told me that in fact, they were both huge fans and that he and Danny had once even visited me backstage in Washington DC.

I emailed Judea Pearl and only days later got a chance to visit him and his wife Ruth. What I felt from them both was something intense and rare. The love and respect between the two of them made the most profound impact on me. I knew that I desired to thank them in some small measure for sharing their boundless spirits with me and so the next day I wrote and recorded this song about Danny."

Isn't It Golden Now

danny would you like a pen
do you want your notebook
or do you work from memory now
is there anything you need

do you have a chair
some coffee and a bright light
a place where you can write
...some photos of your family

isn't it golden now
isn't it sacred and rare
to confirm what you've always known
to uphold what you sensed was there

isn't it golden now
your breathless and childlike view
you were right all along
only love was ever true

danny you were a man
most certainly a grown up
you've seen our deepest shame
felt our endless joy

now you have to wait
be patient for the slow ones
we will come around
you know we'll come around

isn't it golden now
isn't it sacred and rare
to confirm what you've always known
to uphold what you sensed was there

isn't it golden now
your breathless and childlike view
you were right all along
only love was ever true...