Pat Metheny – America the Beautiful / The People United Will Never Be Defeated

What an amazing treat to wake up to a surprise release from Pat Metheny.

Today, you can hear and see a visualizer for Pat Metheny’s medley of “America the Beautiful / The People United Will Never Be Defeated.”

“America the Beautiful” is one of America’s best-known patriotic hymns, associated with ideals rather than government or politics. But I didn’t know about the other song.

“The People United Will Never Be Defeated” (El pueblo unido jamás será vencido) is the famous Chilean protest anthem written by Sergio Ortega in 1973. It became an international symbol of democracy, solidarity, and resistance to authoritarianism.

Putting them together isn’t random. And it’s not the first time he’s spoken about the state of his home country while not being overt. In a 2020 DownBeat interview around the time of his From This Place recording, he said “I’ve been using this analogy: The diamonds that exist in the world were formed by dirt and all kinds of funk, right? But we don’t remember the dirt and the funk—we only remember the diamond. And in this case, ‘dirt’ is the operative word. There’s a lot of dirt [in the culture] right now … but one of the great things about being a musician is that we’re trading in a currency that’s actually true.”

Take a listen and look at the evocative imagery used for “America the Beautiful / The People United Will Never Be Defeated” :