I am a child of the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll say not only what is unexpected, but is
also taboo.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll challenge every convention and laugh.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t believe in
ceremony.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t believe in institutions.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t respect my elders unless they
deserve it.\u00c2\u00a0 The government is not to be trusted.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s on the inside is
more important than what’s on the outside.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t mind a nice ride, but I
wasn’t put on this planet to acquire things.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m here to expand my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m
here to interact with others in a real way, discussing our hopes and dreams,
analyzing behavior, art and politics.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m suspicious of anybody who’s an insider.
I wonder what they had to do to achieve such an exalted position.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only
who they had to blow, but what they had to give up, how much they had to
subjugate their personality.\u00c2\u00a0 How dishonest they had to be in order to appear a
winner.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been this way too long to change.\u00c2\u00a0 And, it’s too late.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d have to
start at the bottom.\u00c2\u00a0 Kiss all that butt to play the game the way they do, to
win.\u00c2\u00a0 And, I couldn’t do it anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d be like Alex in "A Clockwork Orange"
after he was fixed.\u00c2\u00a0 You know when he goes to commit violence and he doubles
up in pain.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what happens to me when I do something I don’t want to,
don’t believe in.\u00c2\u00a0 It cuts right to my core.\u00c2\u00a0 I love music not because it’s
popular, but because it makes a statement, from the HEART!<\/p>\n
All my values are now a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 To have the beliefs delineated above is to be
labeled a loser.\u00c2\u00a0 In a nation of winners.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel a party of one, while
everybody comes up with marketing plans to make millions, oftentimes wanting to
include me.\u00c2\u00a0 Think of all the outlets of exposure!\u00c2\u00a0 Think of all the MONEY!\u00c2\u00a0 Who I
am, what I stand for, what is important to me is irrelevant.<\/p>\n
It all comes down to education.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no education anymore in America.\u00c2\u00a0
Oh, I’m not just talking about underfunded schools.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m talking about the
educational AGENDA!\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you’ve got to learn the basics, how to read and write,
how to add and subtract, but in the sixties they used to teach you how to
THINK!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s even passe in colleges today.\u00c2\u00a0 Today universities are glorified
trade schools.\u00c2\u00a0 Parents want a return for their dollar.\u00c2\u00a0 Their progeny want to
insure a future where they can drive an SUV and go on vacation in the Caribbean.\u00c2\u00a0
Or Mexico.\u00c2\u00a0 Or Europe.\u00c2\u00a0 They want the flexibility that money can buy.\u00c2\u00a0 So
they can go to these exotic locations and get a tan, and shop.<\/p>\n
It’s all topsy-turvy.\u00c2\u00a0 In the sixties education was about expanding one’s
mind.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, if you don’t follow the curriculum, parents protest that their kids
are not being prepared for the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Make no mistake, these religious and
monetary zealots’ kids ARE NOT prepared.\u00c2\u00a0 They can earn a living, but they roam
the earth as automatons.\u00c2\u00a0 Robots.\u00c2\u00a0 Stepford people.\u00c2\u00a0 They just can’t think.\u00c2\u00a0
Make a decision for themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 That explains this ridiculous country of
ours.\u00c2\u00a0 Where facts don’t matter.\u00c2\u00a0 How can that BE???<\/p>\n
I went to a public high school.\u00c2\u00a0 But we listened to "Alice’s Restaurant".\u00c2\u00a0 We
read "Situation Ethics".\u00c2\u00a0 We studied Janis Ian’s "Society’s Child" and went
to see her perform at the New York State Theatre.\u00c2\u00a0 And we went to see the play
"MacBird" too, a skewering of the Johnson administration, on a SUNDAY NO
LESS!!\u00c2\u00a0 When today’s overscheduled kids are in church and then playing in soccer
tournaments.\u00c2\u00a0 What we did in the sixties as a matter of course would be seen as
REVOLUTIONARY today.\u00c2\u00a0 I guess it was.<\/p>\n
The Beatles were very talented.\u00c2\u00a0 But they were English.\u00c2\u00a0 They weren’t us.\u00c2\u00a0
Bob Dylan was us.\u00c2\u00a0 Growing up middle class and wanting out.\u00c2\u00a0 Wanting to LIVE
life, not be resigned to it.<\/p>\n
Tonight I went to CAA to see Marty Scorcese’s Bob Dylan documentary "No
Direction Home".\u00c2\u00a0 It was four hours long.\u00c2\u00a0 It was broken down into two parts.\u00c2\u00a0 The
second was linear, it wasn’t classic biopic, but it was close.\u00c2\u00a0 But the first
half…it was a revelation.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t about Dylan so much as CREATIVITY!\u00c2\u00a0
INSPIRATION!\u00c2\u00a0 What makes one turn from the well-worn path and follow one’s own
muse.\u00c2\u00a0 What is IT LIKE to be creative.<\/p>\n
Today creativity is repetition.\u00c2\u00a0 If it works once, just keep on doing it.\u00c2\u00a0
Just look at Hollywood, where they keep remaking "Batman".\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not what
being an artist is about.\u00c2\u00a0 Being an artist is about experimenting, and once
you’ve answered your questions asking NEW ONES!!<\/p>\n
"No Direction Home" should be shown in every school in America.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only
high school, but junior high.\u00c2\u00a0 When kids haven’t been formed yet.\u00c2\u00a0 When they can
still see there’s an alternative to sex, sports and money.<\/p>\n
But forty years later the sixties are too scary for society.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like they
never even existed.\u00c2\u00a0 "No Direction Home" would not only not be shown, it would
be BANNED!\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the Republicans want to REPEAL the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 Erase the
memory of Vietnam.\u00c2\u00a0 And isn’t it funny the debacle in Iraq is a REPEAT OF VIETNAM!<\/p>\n
Furthermore, those not diehards would probably turn the show off.\u00c2\u00a0 Because if
there aren’t explosions, if there’s not a clearly-defined plot, if there’s
not a three act arc, Americans won’t sit for it.\u00c2\u00a0 LITERALLY!<\/p>\n
I’m here to tell you watching "No Direction Home" is almost painful.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an
endurance test.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you can never relax.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re thinking all the time.\u00c2\u00a0
Remembering those days, wondering what you’ve done with your life, the
opportunities you’ve missed, the ones still OPEN to you.\u00c2\u00a0 Your brain is working
overtime.\u00c2\u00a0 And Americans are not prepared to work that hard.<\/p>\n
Oh, for the fan there are the revelations.\u00c2\u00a0 The color footage.\u00c2\u00a0 Who even knew
this stuff existed?<\/p>\n
And Mike Bloomfield rips off a few notes and your jaw drops.\u00c2\u00a0 You forget how
fucking good he was.<\/p>\n
And the fact that Dylan is both coherent and honest in the interviews.\u00c2\u00a0 After
obfuscating for DECADES!\u00c2\u00a0 You eat it up.<\/p>\n
But mostly you revel at the times.\u00c2\u00a0 What happened after World War II.\u00c2\u00a0 How
the cold war affected not only society, but art.\u00c2\u00a0 We used to practice for
nuclear attacks by getting under our schooldesks.\u00c2\u00a0 Pete Seeger was hauled in front
of the government, for being Un-American.\u00c2\u00a0 But, eventually a counter-culture
took hold.\u00c2\u00a0 Comprised of misfits and based on a ton of questions.\u00c2\u00a0 Why believe
in convention?\u00c2\u00a0 Why should you just play along, when you can SAY something and
impact lives.<\/p>\n
You watch Dylan’s evolution.\u00c2\u00a0 From second-rate piano player stealing records
in Minnesota to visiting Woody Guthrie to signing to Columbia Records.\u00c2\u00a0 And
the end result?\u00c2\u00a0 The system eats him.\u00c2\u00a0 If the system can eat someone as strong
as Bob Dylan what chance does the AVERAGE person have?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, the endless boos,
the cries of sellout, those lamenting the fact that he didn’t just stay where
he was, in the folk world, they GOT TO HIM!\u00c2\u00a0 But, watching it’s clear that Bob
Dylan never wanted to be that person, the one they wanted him to be.\u00c2\u00a0 It
would be artistic and emotional death.<\/p>\n
Used to be the entertainment business was small.\u00c2\u00a0 There weren’t as many
zeros.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a lot less attention paid.\u00c2\u00a0 You could develop and flourish
without the glare of the spotlight.<\/p>\n
But one basic tenet remains.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t keep the great down.\u00c2\u00a0 When one person
finds something phenomenal, he tells EVERYBODY about it.<\/p>\n
I’m telling you the SOUL of America is in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not so much about
gasoline prices and global warming as it is about emotions.\u00c2\u00a0 Our whole country
is stuffing its feelings down.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve been told again and again that you get
ahead by getting along.\u00c2\u00a0 That to be outside is to resign yourself to
marginality.\u00c2\u00a0 But, "No Direction Home" proves that you can only truly rule if you play
outside the game.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why all those acts doing endorsement deals, making
radio-friendly music, are LOST!\u00c2\u00a0 "Like A Rolling Stone" made it to number two
on the "Billboard" chart when nothing else on the radio sounded like it.\u00c2\u00a0
People responded to something DIFFERENT!\u00c2\u00a0 Something novel.<\/p>\n
Tell that to today’s entertainment companies.\u00c2\u00a0 And today’s acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’ll do
whatever it takes to sell a record.\u00c2\u00a0 Just watch Dylan at the endless press
conferences, answering endless inane questions.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this your desire?\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t
his.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why he gave it up.<\/p>\n
For a while anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knows how injured he truly was in that motorcycle
accident.\u00c2\u00a0 Couldn’t have been that bad.\u00c2\u00a0 He managed to cut the Basement Tapes,
and a bunch of albums. But he wanted a respite from the onslaught.\u00c2\u00a0 He wanted
to live, raise his kids, not feed the machine.<\/p>\n
In December 1978 I went to see the "Deer Hunter" in Westwood.\u00c2\u00a0 I barely slept
that night.\u00c2\u00a0 I was off-kilter.\u00c2\u00a0 This movie, this was us.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel the same way
tonight.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t want to talk to anybody after the screening, I couldn’t.\u00c2\u00a0
I was in my own mind.<\/p>\n
So, when "No Direction Home" hits PBS at the end of the month, make time,
watch it.\u00c2\u00a0 Make your kids watch it with you.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t take any phone calls.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t
get up and go to the bathroom.\u00c2\u00a0 Immerse yourself in the way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0
When music was a living, breathing thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Devoured by a public that was more
concerned with human rights and equality than adding to its portfolio.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am a child of the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll say not only what is unexpected, but is also taboo.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll challenge every convention and laugh.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t believe in ceremony.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t believe in institutions.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t respect my elders unless they deserve it.\u00c2\u00a0 The government is not to be trusted.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s on the inside is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-150","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}