Well, I didn't attend last night's inaugural concert on the Mall -- I don't like crowds, and besides, its cold here 'round DC.

But I did watch it on HBO.

Impressive show overall, and I didn't realize Pete Seeger was still alive. But...

Garth Brooks was one of the performers, and one of he songs he did was his wonderful anthem to progressive politics We Shall Be Free (link goes to the lyrics, not a download site -- MDB opposes music piracy.)

He performed an expurgated version, though! I thought I noticed he didn't include my personal favorite line, "when we're free to love anyone we choose", and my partner confirmed that he only sang one or two verses, and repeated the chorus several times.

Now, its definitely a politically loaded song, but I don't think there's anything in it the Obama team would disagree with (after all, it doesn't say "when we're free to marry anyone we choose"), and another performer indicated Obama picked he songs himself. (Though I'd daresay that means his staff picked them. He's got bigger things to worry about.)

I hope they didn't decide to edit the song to avoid controversy, but as many times as Brooks repeated the chorus, I don't think they edited it for length...

EDIT: I suspected this was true when I saw it, and this confirms it: the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington sang backup for My Country 'Tis of Thee.

Holy cow. The Gay Men's Chorus singing at an inaugural event. If that doesn't show how much things are different from eight years ago, I don't know what does.

Also, HBO cut this out, but here's Bishop Gene Robinson giving the invocation: