1) John Towner Willi… Read Full Bio ↴There are at least five artists with this name;
1) John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. With a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history, including those of the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, and the first three Harry Potter films. He has a very distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration. The classical music critic Marcus Paus argues that Williams' "satisfying way of embodying complex dissonances and avant-garde techniques within a larger tonal framework" makes him "one of the great composers of any century".
Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but three of his feature films. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, "The Mission" theme used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan's Island. Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops's principal conductor from 1980 to 1993, and is currently the orchestra's laureate conductor.
Williams has won 24 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With 51 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams's score to 1977's Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time. The soundtrack to Star Wars was additionally preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. Williams composed the score for eight of the top 20 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office (adjusted for inflation).
John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Floral Park, New York, to Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams, a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. Williams has said of his lineage, "My father was a Maine man—we were very close. My mother was from Boston. My father's parents ran a department store in Bangor, Maine, and my mother's father was a cabinetmaker. [...] People with those roots are not inclined to be lazy."
Williams married Barbara Ruick, an American actress and singer, in 1956. Together they had three children: Jennifer (b. 1956), Mark Towner Williams (b. 1958), and Joseph (b. 1960), who is the lead singer of Toto. The two remained married until her death in 1974. In 1980, Williams married Samantha Winslow, a photographer.
2) John Christopher Williams is a classical guitar player.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, on 24 April 1941, to an English father (Len Williams) and an Australian-Chinese mother, Williams was taught initially by his father. At the age of twelve he went to Italy to study under "The Maestro," Andrés Segovia. Later, he attended the Royal College of Music in London, studying piano because the school did not have a guitar department at the time. Upon graduation, he was offered the opportunity to create such a department. He seized the opportunity and ran it for the first two years. Williams has maintained links with the College (and with the Northern College in Manchester) ever since.
Williams is best known as a classical guitarist, but has explored many different musical traditions. He has collaborated with Julian Bream and Paco Peña and was a member of the fusion group Sky. He is also a composer and arranger.
Williams has commissioned guitar concertos from composers such as Stephen Dodgson, André Previn, Patrick Gowers, Richard Harvey, and Steve Gray. He has also worked with composers from his native Australia, including Phillip Houghton, Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards (composer), and Nigel Westlake, to produce guitar works that capture the spirit of his homeland.
He enjoyed a worldwide hit single with his recording of Cavatina by Stanley Myers, used as the theme tune to the Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter (1979). The piece had originally been written for piano, for another film ten years earlier, The Walking Stick (1970) but re-written for guitar and expanded by Myers at Williams' invitation. In 1973, Cleo Laine wrote lyrics and recorded the song "He Was Beautiful" accompanied by John Williams. A year later, it was a top-five UK hit single for Iris Williams (no relation).
At the invitation of producer Martin Lewis he created a highly acclaimed classical-rock fusion duet with celebrated rock guitarist Pete Townshend of Townshend's anthemic "Won't Get Fooled Again" for the 1979 Amnesty International benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball. The duet was featured on the resulting album and the film version of the show – bringing Williams to the broader attention of the rock audience.
The relationship with Lewis led to Williams' classical-rock fusion band Sky being invited to give the first-ever rock concert to be held at Westminster Abbey – a benefit concert for Amnesty that Lewis produced in February 1981.
He is visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Williams and his artist wife Kathy Panama reside in London and Australia.
3) John Williams
John Williams is internationally regarded as one of the foremost players of Irish music today. With five All-Ireland titles to his credit, John is the only American-born competitor ever to win first place in the "senior concertina" category. His additional talents on flute, button accordion, bodhran, and piano distinguish him as a much sought after multi-instrumentalist in the acoustic scene around the world.
Born and raised on the Southwest Side of Chicago, John spent his summers during college on the Southwest coast of Ireland in his father’s village of Doolin, Co. Clare. Like Chicago, Doolin became a major musical crossroads for John and countless other local and international musicians to meet and exchange music. Gigging every night in the pubs of Doolin and Lisdoonvarna soon led to performances in Galway, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Paris, Britanny, Zurich, and New York City (bio http://www.johnwilliamsmusic.com/bio.htm).
3) John Williams
A blues/jazz guitarist in Seattle, Washington, whose music is available at Magnatune.com (bio http://magnatune.com/artists/john_williams).
3) John Knowles Williams
An experimental/indie musician. Music is available at sweetnuthin.letsneverdie.net/Music/My_Recordings/ or www.myspace.com/JohnKWilliams.
This Land Is Your Land
John Williams Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
From [the] California to the [Staten] New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
[God blessed America for me.]
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
And saw above me that endless skyway,
And saw below me the golden valley, I said:
[God blessed America for me.]
I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
And all around me , a voice was sounding:
[God blessed America for me.]
Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn't say nothing
[God blessed America for me.]
When the sun come shining, then I was strolling
In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting:
[God blessed America for me.]
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
[God blessed America for me.]
The song "This Land Is Your Land" is a patriotic folk ballad that celebrates the beauty and diversity of the United States of America. The opening line of the chorus, "This land is your land, this land is my land," suggests that the song is about the unity of the American people regardless of their differences. The verses describe a journey across America, from California to New York and from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters. The singer walks along a "ribbon of highway" and observes the natural beauty of the country, expressing gratitude for God's blessings.
The refrain of "God blessed America for me" indicates a sense of pride in being an American and a belief that the country is special and deserving of divine favor. The final verse, however, introduces a note of social critique. The singer sees poor and hungry people gathered at a Relief Office, questioning whether God truly blessed America for everyone. This suggests that the song is not just a straightforward celebration of America but also a call to address the challenges and inequalities that exist within the country.
Line by Line Meaning
This land is your land, this land is my land
This piece of ground isn't exclusive to anyone, it belongs to all of us
From [the] California to the [Staten] New York Island
This particular part of the world stretches from one end of the continent to the other
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters
This land encompasses everything from majestic forests to abundant bodies of water that flow into the sea
[God blessed America for me.]
I believe that this great country has been blessed by the Almighty
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
While journeying down the path of life
And saw above me that endless skyway
I gazed up to take in the boundless beauty of the sky
And saw below me the golden valley, I said:
And below me, I beheld a stunning vista of valleys painted in gold, causing me to remark
[God blessed America for me.]
That this land has been blessed by the Almighty
I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
I wandered aimlessly, retracing my steps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
Until I found myself walking amidst the glistening sands of the desert, appearing to shimmer like diamonds
And all around me , a voice was sounding:
With a voice ringing in my ears that seemed to say
[God blessed America for me.]
This great land has been blessed by the Almighty
Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
I eventually encountered a tall and sturdy wall in my travels that made it difficult to proceed
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
A sign was posted that read: Do Not Enter; This Land Is Privately Owned
But on the back side it didn't say nothing
However, upon closer inspection of the other side, there was no additional wording to be found
[God blessed America for me.]
I still believe that this land has been blessed by the Almighty
When the sun come shining, then I was strolling
The next day when the sun began shining down, I was casually strolling along
In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;
I observed the fields of wheat gently swaying in the breeze, giving rise to plumes of dust that swirled around me
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting:
As the fog began to dissipate, I heard a voice chanting
[God blessed America for me.]
A belief that this great land has been blessed by the Almighty
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
On one occasion, during a brilliant, sunny morning, I found myself standing in the shadow of a large church spire
By the Relief Office I saw my people
As I approached a nearby Relief Office, I saw many members of my community in line and was struck by the realization that they were "my people" - fellow citizens of this great land
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
As I observed them standing in line, I was left to wonder if
[God blessed America for me.]
Despite the poverty and hunger in evidence, I maintained my belief that this land has been blessed by the Almighty
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Woody Guthrie
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind