I think that I only got myself confused with my last blog. Who needs spirals anymore when they all return to the beginning anyway? Trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff is a thankless and pointless task, especially from a Pure Land perspective of "no calculation" and things being "made to become so of themselves". Who is in charge here anyway?
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| No one? |
I was also thinking of mentors, but looking back in time it becomes difficult to sort the mentors from the mistakes. What was really happening in a world of "no calculation" where anyone or anything can be a "mentor" and where "every cut is the best"? Well, I'm waffling and rambling as usual.
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| Where will your next mentor come from? |
My mind has drifted to music.
When I was a lad the word "music" suggested only the tastes of my dear old mum and dad. It suggested the "Billy Cotton Bandshow", the "Black and White Minstrel Show" ( what price PC now? ) and the - for me - dreary crooning of the Perry Comos and Matt Monroes of our world. Nothing there at all. And a spin of the dial of my little transister radio revealed only talk, talk and more talk, and if even more unlucky, a snatch of Beethoven or Bach. Well, yes, I was a youthful philistine.
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| What can you say? Apart from "Times Change" |
I was far too young to catch the very first wave of "Rock Around the Clock", of Elvis and Buddy Holly. Once, about ten years old, on a family visit, a twenty-ish cousin put a record on the turntable and said :- "Listen to this". It was, I know now, Buddy Holly and "Peggy Sue". My cousin was enamoured, transported into another world. I was far too young. What was it all about? Not Billy Cotton or Perry Como, that was for sure.
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| Buddy Holly (before the music died) |
My next memories are of my bigger brother as he got "into it". Virtually the only "pop" on TV would be a track played between TV Shows, a small slot called Take Five; the music of a current single with some associated video. At one time my brother said "this is 'From Me To You', its by the same group that had 'Love Me Do'". The "same group"? Well, yes, "The Beatles".
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| The Beatles. Early days |
Then it all became real, for me and many others of my generation. Soon it was "She Loves You" ( yeah yeah yeah ooooooh ) Move over Billy Cotton, your days are over. Mum and dad, stand back. The times they are a'changing!
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Which brings me to Bob Dylan, a man who I first came to know as the "Blowing in the Wind" guy. Little did I know at the time that this was his folk interlude between his own first love, rock n roll and electric guitars. Alas, as a folk "hero" to many, he became for them a Judas, "betraying his roots" and all the rest of the drivel, when he "went electric". Dylan's answer to the accusation, made at the Manchester Trade Hall, was to cry "liar" at his accuser, then to turn and tell his band "play fucking loud".
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| Perhaps a better choice of words. Maybe not. |
Myself, I never felt betrayed, but Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" did capture my early ideals; anti-war, ban the bomb, love and peace and all the rest of the Sixties flower power. Does it all seem rather naive now? No, not really, why should it? We live and learn and sometimes we just might learn early.
"Love has no why" (Meister Eckhart)
I was very soon into "Blonde on Blonde", one of the first Double Albums. Dylan looked cool on the cover with his fuzzy hair, slighlty out of focus. Still my favorite album ever.
One memory is of the track "Visions of Johanna", which I regret to confess now, I found boring. When the album reached it I would jump up and move the stylus over the grooves to avoid it's dire droning monotony. Then once, listening with the lights out, reaching the track, I realised that the ambience of the moment would be lost if I turned on the lights and cut out Joanna's visions. The music continued. "H'm, not too bad really" I thought. From then on I always let it play. A great song! Thank heavens the lights were out!
"Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet?"
Very apt! And how about this from the Nobel Prize winner:-
"Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial.
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while."
Must stop now before I start rambling.......
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