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Home::Music
In With The Good, Out With The Bad
Author : Dennis Walsh
We are here for a purpose. We are here to make a difference in
the world. The music in us is put there for a reason not just to
create personal wealth or make us feel good about ourselves. But
it can take a long time for some of us to find our purpose in
life. It's not a thing most people know from birth. It's
something we learn in time. One day, we just feel it - like a
"calling" - it hits us square in the nose; not like a boxer,
more like a scent of perfume.
Beautiful music makes a difference. Words of hope change lives.
A joyful experience heals the broken hearted. Music can inspire.
It can take us on a journey of discovery. We are all spiritual
beings. The person inside is hidden by masks. We don't often
reveal our true identity. While deep inside, the person we truly
are is screaming to get out, nature takes it's course. The
circle of life remains unbroken. But, the artist is different.
Music is the window to the soul. When a musician plays, he wears
his heart on his sleeve. Folk music became a full-blown craze.
Coffeehouses sprang up everywhere. The "mainstreaming" of folk
music actually led to the discovery of what was truly the real
and meaningful.
It was a generation of naivety perhaps but nevertheless it was a
generation that wanted to make the world better. Before the
Berkeley Free Speech Movement began, anti-communist hysteria had
pervaded the United States. George Orwell had written about
words like "freedom," "democracy," and "justice". Orwell said
"(They) have been abused so long that their original meanings
have been eviscerated ... Americans have been conditioned to
accept the word "democracy" as a synonym for freedom, and to
believe that democracy is unquestionably good."
Orwell was right about the use of meaningless words in politics.
The "American dream" had created a society devoted to the wealth
and the exploitation of the fellow creatures. Some people were
discovering that democracy is not freedom. Free speech was
stifled. French philosopher-novelists, Camus and Sartre, started
young people thinking about new ideals of
existentialism.Organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), at its peak in 1960, over 400 schools were
affiliated with NSA. In the '60s, NSA responded to a despotic
atmosphere that produced a radical militant protest mood on
campuses across America.
The Free Speech Movement was spreading. Berkeley was a training
ground for student protest. College kids began listening to
Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and electric blues. The NSA
supported Students Against The Draft, opposed the war in
Vietnam, and participated in civil rights struggles. For many
students, a cultural revolution began in 1964, during "Freedom
Summer" in Mississippi.
The sixties happened because they had to happen. The need for
change will never change. Student radicalism may one day rise
again. In with the good air, out with the bad ... not a bad
notion, not at all unrealistic.
Dennis Walsh progressofmusic@hotmail.com
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