Back To The 1960s Down Memory Lane, Then Back To The Present! Series

BACK TO THE 1960s DOWN MEMORY LANE, THEN BACK TO THE PRESENT!

This article may be a trip down memory lane but in hindsight, it reflects the present. Some of us are still around to remember the lyrics presented here. Music usually reflects the atmosphere of the time, more so among the younger generations, each in their time.

The purpose of this post is not just a recollection of what the world fed on some 6 and 7 decades ago, but an endeavour to tap into what this was then, the pervading expression of human souls and reasoning.

[A]. MUSIC OF THE 1960s

Many of the songs of the 1960s especially in the folk song era, recognised the changes that were coming into the world. Many of the folk songs of that time focussed on the rather dismal things, the matters of despair and apprehension. That was the decade of the new disconnect as people began to feel a fracturing in society and bewilderment with the future, though people of the time did not understand the context, or where the world would end up in 60 years time.

In the 1950s and 60s movies were made that involved mutated creatures like monsters from the deep and “It came from the Sea”, and other (for that time) challenging aspects for people involving nuclear testing. Many movies looked at the destruction of the world from aliens and catastrophes in space. These movies were a poke at the nuclear development programs and bomb testing.

At the same time the contemporary songs were also on the dismal side, not positive and uplifting. That is just how it was back then. In that era, there was more of an opened door to preach the gospel and the positive message of the gospel resounded against the pessimistic view of the folk singers and the world. Billy Graham and others reigned in outreach preaching at that time.

We will explore that time for a little to see where it places us today. In the 1960s one of the greatest names in this folk movement and influence on people was Bob Dylan who wrote and sung. In 1964 he released one of his best known songs, “The Times They are a-changin” -

“Come gather ’round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you is worth savin’

Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone

FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’

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The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin’

And the first one now will later be last

FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’”

Bob Dylan understood his generation and knew that the fabric of society was being shaken and expressed it in the words, “The order is rapidly fadin’”. He had no idea where it was heading. If you study his lyrics here you will see he has no answer to the gloom he raises, apart from “Then you better start swimming,” . . . but swimming where? And to whom? And in what direction?

The 1960 was the decade of protest songs. There were protests against nuclear testing, war, politics, racial issues, poverty and injustice. The writers and singers were not wrong to take up these issues for the Old Testament prophets did the same, but there was one great difference.

The prophets knew the solution lay in God so they could speak what the Lord had given, “Thus says the Lord”. The writers of these protest songs raised the issues, quite valid ones perhaps, but never gave the answers, for the answers lie only in God, and they never ventured there.

Young people were questioning their existence. “What is life all about?” but their answers often were not found in the bible but in pop culture. Higher education was coming under the influence of rationalists and humanists and those people give no hope to any one. The release of these unanswered questions was found in the music of the time.

Bob Dylan spoke out and wrote well I think, but what was the solution he had to mankind’s ills? Look at this song – 1963 “Blowin in the Wind”

“How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly

Before they're forever banned?

THE ANSWER, MY FRIEND, IS BLOWIN' IN THE WIND

THE ANSWER IS BLOWIN' IN THE WIND.”

If ONLY the answer was blowing in the wind; then we could capture it and all our problems would go away! The solution is nebulous because it is fanciful. It is as meaningless as those who talk about “the great someone in the great somewhere out there”. It might as well be nowhere, as somewhere!