Performing For Music Ed.
Legends of rock and blues music shook the White House on Saturday in a live concert promoting music education in public schools.
President Bill Clinton, leaving his saxophone behind, and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton played host to cable television channel VH1's Concert of the Century, which featured such artists as Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz and John Mellencamp.
The nonprofit VH1 Save the Music Foundation seeks to raise $100 million over 10 years to provide budget-battered U.S. public schools with musical instruments and to raise public awareness of the importance of music-making for U.S. youth.
Saturday's White House concert, co-sponsored by the National Education Association, was held to draw attention to the "Save the Music" campaign, which has raised $25 million in two years and created more than 350 music programs in 30 cities' schools.
"I don't think I would have become president if it had not been for school music," Mr. Clinton said. He noted that his music education started at the age of 9.
"I learned that music was more than scales and keys or how to make sure I was always in tune. Music taught me how to mix practice and patience with creativity. Music taught me how to be both an individual performer and a good member of the team."
A saxophone player in high school, Mr. Clinton enlivened the 1992 presidential campaign by donning sunglasses and playing the Elvis Presley hit Heartbreak Hotel on sax for the Arsenio Hall television show.
He said he didn't bring it to Saturday night's concert in deference to the professional musicians. "I respect them so much I left my saxophone up at the White House," he said.
"The most important lesson we've had is that what we've seen in stunning brilliance tonight should at least be a possibility in the lives and the minds of all of our children," Mr. Clinton told Saturday's concert-goers.
"The diversity of our music and musicians mirrors the diversity of our people and reminds us the greatest lesson we have always to teach and always to learn; that we are stronger when we are playing in harmony based on our common humanity," Mr. Clinton said.
 CBS |
| President Clinton was given a replica of B.B. King's "Lucille" guitar by VH1 president John Sykes. |
"All of us are here for the same goal: to pumusic back in our schools," Mrs. Clinton said.
Clapton, considered the greatest living rock guitarist, opened the two-hour concert, held in a large white pavilion on the South Lawn of the White House. The pulsing sounds vibrated the walls of the old mansion.
Hip-hop and soul fusion master Kravitz and Clapton joined in on Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower, a hit for Jimi Hendrix. Then Kravitz performed his signature song, I Want to Get Away.
Country crossover star Garth Brooks gained a standing ovation with a medley from past decades that ended with Don McLean's classic American Pie.
John Fogerty, of Credence Clearwater Revival fame, played The Midnight Special.
There were also performances by Latin music star Gloria Estefan, soul master Al Green, rocker Melissa Etheridge and blues legend King, who did The Thrill Is Gone with Clapton.
The crowd of about 800 invited guests swayed to the sounds.
Hollywood was well-represented: Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow, now brown-haired, was a concert presenter, as were actresses Angela Bassett and Sarah Jessica Parker and actor Robert De Niro.
©1999 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report