not to sound self-serving, but the title came from the song. [inaudible] it is interesting. we were talking in the lounge before, and he mentioned the good times. we said, it is interesting, there is a web site translating what they think one of the lines in particular was. he said, why spend a lot of time trying to figure out the song. i figured out that it had to rhyme with surviving. hanging in the end -- in and jiving.

others say hanging in the chow line. that doesn't rhyme. that's it! tavis: after all these years, he just figured it out. >> what do these two white folk from berlin know from this kind of experience? >> white folk from brooklyn know a lot about this. for jewish white folks. >> we can't find it. tavis: he is from chicago. >> that was him.

tavis: speaking a sin, you are writing stuff all these years? it is 2007? you decide you want to sing? >> holly gave a concert in new york. a fellow from germany, he came to me and said, may i talk to you? i love the way you sing. i would like to make an album with you. i said, you don't want to do that. he was from germany and i said,

i don't know how commercial it is for you. he'd kept asking me for three years and finally i said, ok. he flew us to berlin and he had an orchestra. he brought in these pieces have some wonderful people from here. and chris mcbride, a fantastic pace player. he said, we don't have a good rhythm section in germany. they had a wonderful piano player there. and we made this cd. what i feel wonderful about is that i hear from jazz musicians all over the country, they tell me how much they enjoy it.

tavis: i think it is great to take you up on this offer. >> we have the best new artist about it. i am going to make another one. >> a small jazz trio. >> how do that to view stay on? i know you are a tennis player, are you still hitting every day? >> have their ages put together, not quite. >> it is great, the camaraderie, and they won't give you a bad call. tavis: speaking of seeing your

own stuff, how did it feel to have this project come out? we talked about last night, it has been your views -- and barbra streisand has been your views. the entire project of nothing but your staff. >> it had to be. >> looking at the cd in your head, eyes of the thrill any time i looked at it. we were doing something at the motion picture academy. we were talking to quincy and barbara about music, and in the course of the panel conversation, she said, my next

project is going to be all of their songs. she hadn't told us yet. >> how is that for a surprise? >> to have this great artist, the only one of the greatest, tavis: you get asked questions about some writers for the virus, what do you find yourself saying to them? >> in similar answer to the question. the one of the reading. listening in the studying, the great songs came before you.

why they last, why they still touch people or amuse people were excited people who or what ever songs can do. what is it about a song that is 30 years old hat still speaks to people? and sometimes can say something better than any essay or any speech, anythingople to causes,f love songs, i think you have to know the literature before you write a novel. there are novels the came before, and it should be the literature. i think aspiring songwriters had better know what came before them. the voice of a don't rewrite

what has been written already. for, if the ceiling challenges. i know why he has is exploring the musical area. what they are doing. i think that the hip-hop generation has really opened up again, what the next wave of creative writing -- tavis: take that, mikey. marilyn bergman gives a thumbs- up to a hip-hop. i think it is new for a lot of people. >> talk about love of words and experimentation with sound. i don't know of anything else

being written in popular music. >> i think that there are two books have been written recently. he is the best there is. in the creative process, in the riding, even though he is about the theater, he and his message, they are so wonderfully instructive. so important for young songwriters. for any writer. ahead look where it comes from. ahoy it is the new and the old testament. >> it is true, and she is right

about hot music. the thing that we have to get back to haunt of the mentioned it, is morality. melody is not where we should have its. in is gone, for the most part. and we have to have that back. >> whenever i am in town anywhere ha, ha i will run past everybody else to get to them because i can't wait to give the mug and tell them how much i appreciate them. it is not just your gift, it is rare to meet people who are still so in touch with humanity and a zoo that such humility. i just don't know a bunch of people that have been nominated for all the academy awards and

won them, and who are firmly ensconced in the american songbook, but your humanity in your humility is so profound. how you told on to an industry like yours were you achieve just about everything? >> hi don't know. i dunno really. the talk about times, he said something about times. can we talk about that? i am frightened. there is an election coming up. i have to talk about this. tavis: go ahead. >> he election comes up in five months. i think that i have a long

life, the most important election of my life. i am afraid of what can happen at of the voices of hate and drowned out the voices of everything that we of been talking about, of humanity, of literacy, of society. everything we care about. i am terrified. i think people who don't read to forgo the three eating. where do they get their news from? if it utterly read it brought specter of what is out there? >> they tell you what you want to hear.

>> then echo chamr. it reinforces what ever about stuff there is. reenforced. i don't know how we move off of this place that we seem to be stuck on. i think it consumes me more than anything else. >> i love the fact that artists at their best and lyrics that airbus capt. to our humanity. that is why i love what you do and other great writers do. i can say it is beautifully as you said it, but sometimes it takes a song to speak to us in ways where speech or some other presentation will not. >> but don't you feel that we are on a kind of a shaky place

right now? tavis: i will go further than that. my dear friend and i have written a but. we have written a book together hold of the rich, and the rest of us. i kept making this point everywhere. i got called by the u.s. said the other day, specifically the senate finance committee. they have decided hold hearings on poverty in america. they were calling me to ask if i would be available to come back to washington and testify. but i am on the phone now with the leading ranking democrat committee person at the republican committee person have their of asking me what i would say. in to your question, i was saying that more than just being a little scared, how we are on

the prestigous of losing our democracy. the poverty threatens our democracy. poverty and by extension, illiteracy and other issues you have raised, and is divided between the rich and the four is not just a scary thing, it is threatening to our democracy, it is a matter of national security. the what this country is up against is not outside terrorist threat as much as we are of internal rot. the lack of quality education, the lack of jobs in the minimum wage. this is a national security threats and poverty and these issues are no longer color coded the. i am not just scared, where is no empire in the history of the world that did not falter or fail. who don't want to of knowledge that. but every empire has its day and

we don't want to wrestle with how dangerously close we are to the edge because it scares us have even think about that. >> at the that the supreme court decision. >> a lot of money. it is both. >> i think the supreme court decision that said corporations are people? i don't know how a corporation that writes a song. tavis: if they did, i don't want to hear it. >> i am terrified, and by a set every day and people who, if they don't find their way into the senate, i know that it

doesn't mean anything. they are talking about lives and money. it has nothing to do with democracy. >> we will close the show on this note. tavis: when we get terrified and frightened and anxious, there is nothing like a good burden and son to bring you back to center. at the very of the east, remind you about what really matters in life. i am honored to have you on this program. the light was all mine. the latest project from him where he is seeing the best of their stuff. and if the tribune, and the project is called, what matters most. again, i love you both and i'm glad you finally made it here.

>> glad to have you. you can download our application from the applications door. as always, keep the faith. >> what in the world is that? you have got to keep up the image. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with shaun coleman on her new memoir, diamond and the rough. see you then. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with

your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> pbs. >> be more. >> pbs.