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Advertising Executive Uses Music To Mark 9/11 Anniversary

MYFOXNY.COM – For decades, Harry Spero helped bring songwriters’ words to lilfe as an executive at Midland International Records. After the terror attacks of 9/11, he used his inner voice to spread  his own sounds of ‘rebirth.’ MyFoxNY.com spoke with Spero– now president of Spero Media with clients such as the NY Mets, NY Jets and various Broadway musicals– about the songs he’s written to honor the victims of 9/11. 1. What inspired you to write the songs for the “September Project?” On the first morning of the new world, Sept 12, 2001, I awoke with these words in my mind: “There’s this enormous gaping hole where the Twin Towers once stood, like someone punched out the nation’s two front teeth.” And I thought, “Hmm, do I get out of bed and try to pot this one, plant it, provide it with sun and water and try to nurture it into a real song, or should I continue to lie in bed and ruminate over the facts and rumors that captured our hearts and minds yesterday?” I chose the former and picked up my guitar and notebook, and within half an hour, I had completed three verses and a chorus of a song that titled itself, “Everything Changed.” As with most of the 1,000 songs I’ve written in the past 40-plus years, upon a quick review I felt that it was completely finished, as is. A dotted “i,” a crossed “t” — but aside from that, this was a living, breathing song.     2. What’s the inspiration behind the song “Union Square?” One of the epicenters of the outpouring of emotion and grieving was Union Square. My wife Norine, my daughter Harper and I walked through this small gathering point off of 14th Street, bordered by Park Avenue and Broadway, and came face to face with a living memorial: candles, photographs, soft singing, hundreds of people mourning those who had died or were lost. Upon entering Union Square, I wrote down these words: “Photographs of those from doomed towers and downed planes adorn a mile of wire fences, in a brilliant macramé.” I went back home, grabbed my guitar and wrote verses describing what I saw, and the song “Union Square” was created in less than a half hour. 3. What inspired you to write “Let Freedom Ring?” “Let Freedom Ring,” was inspired by our optimism as a community and a country. The song describes putting our lives back together through our love of our family and friends, and how no matter what tragedy might confront us, with our strength and positive thinking we would always bounce back and persevere.  

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