Musings on Great Songs —and on early Quakers’ Rejection of Music-Art

Musings, while spending hours in the new year listening to music, (instead of focusing only on opposing-lamenting current immoral, false political-social claims and actions).

1 What is the difference between spiritual songs versus ones that harm and even are destructive?
2 Songs that are sung by empty rote versus songs that fill us with Light?
3 How do we tell the difference?
4 What are some of the best songs of the last 60 years?

In no particular order:

Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel

“Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence…”

The first time I heard this powerful reflection on the superficial nature of most human speaking--the woeful lack of deep communication-communion among us, I was driving through the night in a white wonder of a snowstorm down Van Dorn Avenue in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1966. Huge flakes of snow were silently hitting the wind shield, and Simon was talking to the darkness...

‘And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Paul Simon
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

This verse is almost bizarre! Because, usually, written words in subways, etc. are obscene, superficial, or shallow false slogans...
How is this graffiti at at all prophetic compared to the superficial miscomunication of humans?
"Sounds" has amazing powerful poetry with an expert rhyme scheme (because it isn’t sing-songy nor does it draw attention to itself like most such couplet rhyming does). --

Colored People by DC Talk
...
“Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir
I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin (shade of melanin)
I tip my hat to the colorful arrangement
'Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin

We've gotta come together (come together)
And thank the Maker of us all

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

One, one, one, one
Two, two, two, two...

A piece of canvas is only the beginning for
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope

We've gotta come together (come together)
Aren't we all human after all?

We're colored people and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure, oh yeah

Well, just a day in the shoes of a colorblind man
Should make it easy for you to see
That these diverse tones do more than cover our bones
As a part of our anatomy

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

We're colored people, and they call us the human race
(Oh, colored people)
We're colored people and we all gotta share this space
(Yeah, we've got to come together somehow)

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted world
(Red and yellow, black and white)
We're colored people, every man, woman, boy, and girl
(Colored people, colored people, colored people, colored people, yeah)

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Toby Mckeehan / George C. Cocchini
Colored People lyrics © Achtober Songs

A transcendent morally real wonder of truth. Opposed to white supremacy and to BLMer WOKE-false narrative against all whites, the nuclear family, and police. INSTEAD of white "colored' racism or Black-victimhood, celebrate the wonder of the HUMAN RACE--in all its variations--so COLORFUL! --

A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten-thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children..."
Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music

That startling lament against nuclear weapons and other forms of mass slaughter by Dylan is fairly easy to understand despite some of the very strange images. However, many of the best modern song lyrics are far more difficult to ascertain as to what their central meaning is.

While I like to write complex, imaged esoteric lyrics and listen to those difficult sorts of lyrics, many ambiguous literary lyrics often open up many possible contradictory meanings, even though they draw one deep into the lyrics’ allusions, archetypes and symbols.

Too many listeners will end up with wrong meanings--often immoral and destructive ones.

Consider the very famous rock song "(Don't Fear) the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult:

All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are

Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man

La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la

Valentine is done
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (like Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (redefine happiness)
Another 40, 000 coming everyday (we can be like they are)

Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man...

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Donald Roeser
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

When I first studied the lyrics, “Don’t Fear…” appeared to be a pro-suicide rock lament. But some commentators have stated, they don’t think that is true.
While the song is a lament it is affirming that life should be accepted, not fearing everyone’s eventual deaths.

Even the author of the lyrics, Buck Dharma, stated,
"I felt that I had just achieved some kind of resonance with the psychology of people when I came up with that, I was actually kind of appalled when I first realized that some people were seeing it as an advertisement for suicide or something that was not my intention at all. It is, like, not to be afraid of [death] (as opposed to actively bring it about). It's basically a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners."
— Buck Dharma, lead singer
Lien, James (November 6, 1995). "Buck Dharma interview". College Music Journal. New York City: CMJ. And on Wikipedia.

And there is the infamous rock ballad by the heavy metal band Led Zeppelin:

Stairway to Heaven

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven

When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for

Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to Heaven

There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I look to the West
And my spirit is crying for leaving

In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason

And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on...

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Anthony Plant
© Succubus Music Ltd., Sons Of Einion Publishing, Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.

This very unusual rock song with many religious symbols and images including biblical ones. It is unique and amazing, unlike any other music in the last 60 years..

But there have been contradictory commentaries written about the lyrics, some saying it is an anti-spiritual song, others disagreeing.
What do you think?


3. For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield

There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

What a field day for the heat (Ooh ooh ooh)
A thousand people in the street (Ooh ooh ooh)
Singing songs and they carrying signs (Ooh ooh ooh)
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side" (Ooh ooh ooh)

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?...

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Stephen Stills
© Cotillion Music Inc., Springalo Toones, Ten East Music, Richie Furay Music

What a distinctive seminal creative song! One's like "For What..." come once or twice in a generation. Its haunting lyrics somehow defined the protest movement.
In the fall of 1966, we used to go down to Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. As college students, we didn’t have money for concerts, but we hung out at coffee shops and philosophized and chatted, spoke against the Vietnam War and for civil rights and of our favorite music groups.

The song appeared shortly after the Sunset Curfew Riot, which we somehow missed. Maybe we Long Beach State students no longer hitchhiked or drove down to Hollywood because of the new 10 PM curfew.

How ironic--but very 60's contradictory--that allegedly nonviolent=promoting teens would riot!


Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) by Alan Jackson

One of the very best poetic laments against war ever written.


Chimes of Freedom (Dylan) by The Byrds

It’s a lyric extoling human rights, justice, kindness, but the tragedy of how often goodness and the truth lose out to intolerance and persecution.


Monday Morning Church (Brent Baxter and Erin Enderlin) by Alan Jackson

Deeply sorrowful dirge with an incredible chorused metaphor. Sung by one of my favorite country ballad singers.

What If I Stumble by DC Talk

Very spiritual song of conscience and care; deeply spiritual, moral, and emotional-- without being formally religious

Desperado by the Eagles

Another example of lucid ballad poetry set to music; in this case the brief story of a Wild West gunman who is being
counseled by the singer through playing card imagery that love is the best choice, not killing and money.

The Gates of Eden by Bob Dylan

60’s folk song filled with surrealistic images and metaphors of protest.

Woodstock (Join Mitchell) by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Paean to the most famous rock concert of all time.
Though the famous event led to countless immoral, unjust, and destructive future actions. How tragic for a concert whose music was fabulous, creative, often morally positive.

Gods of Men by Randy Stonehill

Spiritual satire against the finite idols that too many of us humans ‘worship’ instead of the Good, the True, the Just.

The Universal Soldier (Buffy St. Marie) by Donovan

An anti-war song that covers human history. While not excusing militarist leaders, the lyrics instead focus on how each of us as individual humans are responsible for war.

8 Miles High by The Byrds
The instrumentation in this rocker is amazing, though, correctly or not, many have claimed it is about drugs.

See My Life by Seals and Croft
Philosophical, reflective early song from these two Bahai's.

Somebody Must Be Praying for Me (Frank Vinci, Bob Mould, Kris Bergsnes) by Tim McGraw

A very meaningful spiritual song of how sometimes problems and loss of dreams if considered from a spiritual point can open up other possibilities including love.


Cats in the Cradle by Sandy Gaston and Harry Chapin

Poem and song filled with allusions and metaphoric images which warns the severe and tragic consequences of a father who is too busy succeeding in his career for his family.

Old Man's Rubble (Brown Bannister) by Amy Grant

Probably the best ever song of the danger of living contrary to what one sincerely believes.

Celebrate this Heartbeat by Randy Stonehill

Everything I Own by Bread

Written and sung for his father who died tragically young.

--

Since I am a poet/wannbe-songwriter, artist, and lover of music, (of all kinds except rap and opera), it was difficult (and still is) for me to understand the thinking of early Quakers.

And here's a quote
from one early Friend, an outstanding musician before abandoning his career in music to become a Quaker:
Early Friend Solomon Eccles:
From A Musick Lector
"a QUAKER (so called) being formerly of that Art, doth give his Judgment and Sentence against it; but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God."
Written by SOLOMON ECCLES, 1667

"So I see, that Musick pleases well that which is for destruction, and grieves that which God doth highly esteem and honour; Isa. 42.21.
--
Modern Friend Jon Watts:
“Solomon Eccles rejected his upper-class, baroque music profession, and took all of his instruments and manuscripts and burned them in a public demonstration of leveling. The early Friends were rejecting the social class system, which they deemed unjust and ungodly. How could I possibly hear about that and not write a song about it?"

Friends threw out anything that was formulaic. The idea was experiential—to have your own experience of the Spirit, to have the Living Spirit speak through you. If you’re going to be baptized, let the Spirit baptize you. If you’re going to take communion, take it because the Spirit is leading you to, not because it’s just a thing you do every Sunday.

If you’re going to sing, don’t let someone else write it for you. Sing it! So Quakers were the first jazz musicians, always improvising. The Spirit was their muse.

So when I’m playing a song I try to listen to the Spirit the same way one does in a meeting for worship when preparing to give vocal ministry. I wait until I’m quaking to write a song down. I wait until a song is streaming out of me, until it’s not me anymore. It’s as if I’m watching the song get written.”

Jon Watts, Quaker Musician, songwriter, and movement leader
from an interview in the Friends Journal, May, 2013
http://www.friendsjournal.org/bum-rush-the-internet/

And from A Musick Lector by Solomon Eccles:

"To obey the Lord, is better than to give all my goods to the poor, and my body to be burned; yet to let thee know the Truth of this thing; when I came to be convinced of this everlasting truth, I saw my Calling would not stand before it; I went, but not in the Counsel of the Lord, and sold most of my instruments;

"howbeit that would not cover me, for the Lord met with me; and as I was learning to sew, for I had formerly some insight of a Tailors Trade, but I was too high to bow to it, till the Truth came, and that is of power to make the strong man bow, and I sitting alone, with my mind turned in, the Voice of the Lord said, Go thy way, and buy those Instruments again thou lately soldest, and carry them and the rest thou hast in thy house to Tower Hill, and burn them there, as a Testimony against that Calling."

"So I obeyed the Lord, and bought them again, and carried them, and all I had in my house, to Tower Hill, and burnt them there, according to the uprightness of my heart before the Lord; which Books and Instruments did amount to more than four and twenty pound; and I had great peace. Glory be to God for ever. Amen."

"That Heaven will be shaken, and thy Song will be turned into howling; for such Musick and Singing was never set up of God, but of men; and it takes with that part in man that serves not God aright, but is for wrath and judgement, Heb. 12.26. 1 Cor. 2.24."

"But what effects hath Musick brought forth, that men so highly esteem it? What fruit did Nebuchadnezzars Musick bring forth in his day, was it not to murder? But the three servants of the Lord would not bow to his Image at the sound of his Pipes and his Fiddles, though others did.

"And how did Musick and Dancing take the heart of the foolish King Herod, by means whereof he committed murder, and caused John Baptists's Head to be cut off, who was a blessed man, approved of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and was greater than the prophets; and because he reproved him for having his Brothers Wife, rankor lay in the heart of the Damsels Mother, and when the Fidlers did strike up, and the Wench began to dance, his affectionate love began to be enflamed to the Girle, that he killed the Lords servant in coole blood. O ye Fidlers and Dancing- Masters, let this President break you off from your filthy practice;"

"Why do you dance without the Ark? Where is your Ark? What President have you in Scripture for your Dancing? You set up the Devils Kingdom by your proud Calling: You set their Bodies in postures to enflame and take with the lustful Nature in men, and with proud Apparrel, and Spots on their Faces. Woe to the Crown of Pride."

"What account will ye give to the Lord, ye Dancing- masters, from whence came ye, where is your Ark? David danced before the Ark. O repent ye shameless men, will you not blush at your doings? If my Calling was unlawful, much more is yours; O do not provoke the Lord any more; haste, haste, and leave off your practice before it leave you, for what thank will it be to you then, when you shall break off sinning because you can sin no more?"
--Quaker Heritage Press
http://www.qhpress.org/index.html

BUT, why can't good music be creatively planned?

Why must songs always be only, allegedly, spontaneous from the Divine?
Surely, the Light has also given humans the amazing ability to think rationally, morally, mathematically, scientifically...
To create not only via inspiration but through carefully engaged creativity.
This negation of the arts, especially music shows how lopsided the early Friends were when trying to get rid of hypocrisy, formalism without reality, and destructive
influences.

But early Quakers didn’t get rid of business, medicine, science, new technology,

No, on the contrary, Quakers excelled in the sciences and in business, neither any more holy or spiritual than music or any other art.
In fact, business probably is far more an occasion to err, even to destroy than music ever has been.

Do you have a suggestion of a song to add to Great Music?

Quaker rock to rock;-).

In Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Children's choir from Ukraine sings for world peace.

Instead of White Supremacy, CRT, intolerance, divisiveness, hatred---Choose Reconciliation and Beauty like Daybreak in Alabama by Hughes

Daybreak in Alabama

When I get to be a colored composer
I'm gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew
I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I'm gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
Touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a colored composer
And write about daybreak
In Alabama.


Langston Hughes, "Daybreak in Alabama" from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Copyright © 2002 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.

Seals and Crofts' "Intone...": Older Age Hope

A very powerful, inspiring song by Seals and Crofts.

Caution note: I've never been a part of the Baha'i religion, don't take kindly toward any literature or song lyrics that call humans "servants-slaves" or speak of ultimate reality as "lord." So many of the latter represent that which is worst about religion and ideology.

HOWEVER, some aspects of the more liberal parts of the Baha'i faith do represent ethics, justice, and inspiration at their best.

AND, most of the lyrics of "Intone" by Seals and Crofts are very powerful, describing many of the tragic aspects of our lives when we humans get older. Many studies have shown that the most lonely and saddest humans are the elderly.

The irony of when I first heard "Intone," listening to a new album by a new group that one of my buddies had just bought, I was only 24, in good health, and renting a nice apartment in Huntington Beach, California only a few miles to the beach.

But I could imagine and empathize with the individual suffering in the song--of the tragedies and losses of which the singers were relating. The song enthralled and uplifted me spiritually even though back then in 1971, I had few worries, and only the angst typical of young adults.

Besides the intense, lush instrumentation, I felt deeply the words of loss partially because at the time my mom was devastated by the early death of her father, the failing health of her elderly mother, and she was still grieving too vivid memories of her little brother who had gotten killed, run over by a car years before. As years passed, and my mom got older, she agonized even more over her little brother's death.

This song speaks so deeply and powerfully to all of that.

Yes, "Intone" posits holy writing from religion as a hope.

I don't think religions offer real hope. But some writings in religions do inspire. With a little revising, one can listen to this hopeful song, emphasizing what to do when encountering tragedy. (Hopefully, Seals and Crofts won't mind. I wonder where they are and whether or not they are living this song now in their old age.)

>>when everything is wrong...your friends are gone

Intone my [beloved], the verses of [the Light]. Intone my beloved, the verses of the Light
Let me hear you sing, let your voices ring
>>throughout cities of men's hearts...

Don't despair. Don't negate. Don't, for hope's sake, have a pity party (that you probably do deserve).

Instead, look to the wise words of great inspiration.

Seek hope, even when hope is missing.


In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox

Heartfelt Romantic Wedding Song - "Better Today" by Coffey Anderson

Part #5: The Intellectual Beauty of the Cosmos and Physical Reality

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me."
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason

Currently, I am reading A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design by the Nobel-winning physicist, Frank Wilczek, and am also about half way through physicist Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe.

From physicist Frank Wilczek's new book on the nature of the cosmos:
“Thus far our meditation on quantum reality has revealed that the world of everyday matter, when properly understood, embodies concepts of extraordinary beauty. Indeed, ordinary matter is built up from atoms that are, in a rich and precise sense, tiny musical instruments."

"In their interplay with light, they realize a mathematical Music of the Spheres that surpasses the visions of Pythagoras, Plato, and Kepler."

"In molecules and ordered materials, those atomic instruments play together as harmonious ensembles and synchronized orchestras.”

"...ideal beauty…feature color, geometry, and symmetry. Consider, in particular the magnificent plate HH. Here the local geometry of the ambient surfaces and the local patterns of their color change as our gaze surveys them."

"It is a vibrant embodiment of anamorphy and anachromy-the very themes that our unveiling of Nature's deep design finds embodied at Nature's core."

"Does the world embody beautiful ideas? There is our answer, before our eyes: Yes."

"The world does not, in its deep design, embody all forms of beauty, nor the ones that people without special study, or very unusual taste, find most appealing."

"But the world does, in its deep design, embody some forms of beauty that have been highly prized for their own sake, and have been intuitively associated with the divine.”
― Frank Wilczek, A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design

"Beauty is a vague concept. But so, to begin with, were concepts like "force" and "energy." Through dialogue with Nature, scientists learned to refine the meaning of "force" and "energy," to bring their use into line with important aspects of reality."

"So too, by studying the Artisan's handiwork, we evolve refined concepts of "symmetry," and ultimately of "beauty"-
concepts that reflect important aspects of reality,
while remaining true to the spirit of their use in common language.”

"Concepts live outside of time and, because All Things Are Number, liberate us from it.”
― Frank Wilczek, A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design

“When religion talks about our aspirations and our sense of morality, I do not believe that science can contradict it. However, when religion contradicts science on matters of fact, religion must yield.”

“In short: the space of color information is infinite-dimensional, but we perceive, as color, only a three-dimensional surface, onto which those infinite dimensions project.”

“Two obsessions are the hallmarks of Nature's artistic style:
Symmetry- a love of harmony, balance, and proportion
Economy- satisfaction in producing an abundance of effects from very limited means”

“Dynamical beauty transcends specific objects and phenomena, and invites us to imagine the expanse of possibilities. For example, the sizes and shapes of actual planetary orbits are not simple."

"They are neither the (compounded) circles of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Nicolaus Copernicus, nor even the more nearly accurate ellipses of Kepler, but rather curves that must be calculated numerically, as functions of time, evolving in complicated ways that depend on the positions and masses of the Sun and the other planets."

"There is great beauty and simplicity here, but it is only fully evident when we understand the deep design."

"The appearance of particular objects does not exhaust the beauty of the laws.”

“With this, in a powerful sense, our Question has been answered. The world, insofar as we speak of the world of Chemistry, biology, astrophysics, engineering, and everyday life, does embody beautiful ideas."

"The Core, which governs those domains, is profoundly rooted in concepts of symmetry and geometry, as we have seen. And it works its will, in quantum theory, through music-like rules. Symmetry really does determine structure."

"A pure and perfect Music of the Spheres really does animate the soul of reality. Plato and Pythagoras: We salute you!”
― Frank Wilczek, A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design

“For us, the great conclusion is this: all the colors can be obtained from any one of them, by motion, or, as we say, by making Galilean transformations."

"Because Galilean transformations are symmetries of the laws of Nature, any color is fully equivalent to any other. They all emerge as different views of the same thing, seen from different but equally valid perspectives.”

“Yet it is beautiful to discover that there's another chapter to the story, where we discover deep unity beneath, and supporting, the diversity of appearance. All colors are one thing, seen in different states of motion."

"That is science's brilliantly poetic answer to Keats's complaint that science "unweaves a rainbow.”

“Yet many creative spirits have found inspiration in the idea that the Creator might be, among other things, an artist whose aesthetic motivations we can appreciate and share-or even, in daring speculation, that the Creator is primarily a creative artist."

"Such spirits have engaged our Question, in varied and evolving forms, across many centuries."

"Thus inspired, they have produced deep philosophy, great science, compelling literature, and striking imagery."

"Some have produced works that combine several, or all, of those features. These works are a vein of gold running back through our civilization.”
―Frank Wilczek, A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design

“The legendary Danish physicist Niels Bohr distinguished two kinds of truths. An ordinary truth is a statement whose opposite is a falsehood. A profound truth is a statement whose opposite is also a profound truth.”

“The entity we perceive as empty space is a multilayered, multicolored superconductor. What an amazing, astonishing, beautiful, breathtaking concept. Extraordinary, too.”
― Frank Wilczek, The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces
--

And other scientists on the beauty of the cosmos and our study of it:

“I have a friend who's an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. Then he says "I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing..."

"First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is ... I can appreciate the beauty of a flower."

"At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty."

I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes."

"The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms?"

"Why is it aesthetic?"

"All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower.”
-Richard Feyman
--

“I would suggest that science is, at least in my part, informed worship.”
―Carl Sagan, The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
--

"My views are near those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly. I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding..."

"In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views.
I am not an Atheist."

"A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms — it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man."

"I have not found a better expression than 'religious' for the trust in the rational nature of reality that is, at least to a certain extent, accessible to human reason."

"I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe."

"We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books."

"It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects."

"That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God."

"We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations."

"Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect. Certain it is that a conviction, akin to religious feeling, of the rationality and intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a higher order....
bound up with a deep feeling, in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God."

"If I were not a Jew I would be a Quaker."
-Albert Einstein

In the Light of Science, of the Intellectual Beauty of the Cosmos,

Daniel Wilcox

Part #4: The Beauty of Music and Song

There are millions of examples of the transforming beauty of music stretched over thousands of years and many cultures.

Where does one even begin?



Give a contemporary wonder?

Maybe go back to classical gems...

But, I've decided to first post a powerful early 70's sacred rocker which has come back to my consciousness, again and again over the years musing to me in crises, enlightening, encouraging:
"Old Man's Rubble" by the famous songwriter and repeated Grammy winner, Elliot B. Bannister.

The instrumentation, pacing, tempo, vocal, lyrics, and depth of spiritual reflection makes this rock song, not only memorable, but important for truth, and a powerful example of utter beauty and glory of song.




Old Man's Rubble

by Elliot B. Bannister
(sung by Amy Grant and band)

Bio: Elliot B. Bannister is a well known sacrd song writer, audio engineer, and leader in the music industry. He's won many music awards including 14 Grammy Awards, and is in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Old Man's Rubble

Are you living in an old man's rubble
Are you listenin' to the father of lies

Are you walking' with unnecessary burdens
Are you trying to take them upon yourself
If you are then you're living in bondage
And you know that's bad for your spiritual health

And are you trying to live by your emotions
Are you puttin' your faith in what you feel and see
Then you're living just to satisfy your passions
And you better be careful, 'cause you're being deceived

Are you living in an old man's rubble
Are you listenin' to the father of lies
If you are then you're headed for trouble
If you listen too long, you'll eventually die

Are you living in an old man's rubble
Are you listenin' to the father of lies
If you are then you're headed for trouble
If you listen too long, you'll eventually die

Are you puzzled by the way that you're behavin'
Do you wonder why you do the things you do
And are you troubled by your lack of resistance
Do you fell that something's got a hold on you

Well, deep within' you there's a spiritual battle
There's a voice of the darkness and the voice of the light
And just by listening you've made a decision
'Cause the voice you hear is gonna' win the fight

Are you living in an old man's rubble
Are you listenin' to the father of lies
If you are then you're headed for trouble
If you listen too long, you'll eventually die

If you're living as a new creation
If you're listening to the Father of light
Then you're living in a mighty fortress
And you're gonna' be clothed in power and might

But are you living in an old man's rubble
Are you listenin' to the father of lies
If you are then you're headed for trouble
If you listen too long, you'll eventually die

If you're living as a new creation
If you're listening to the Father of light
Then you're living in a mighty fortress
And you're gonna' be clothed in power and might

But are you living in an old man's rubble
Are you listenin' to the father of lies
If you are then you're headed for trouble
If you listen too long, you'll eventually die

But if you're living as a new creation
If you're listening to the Father of light
Then you're living in a mighty fortress
And you're gonna' be clothed in power and might

Written by Elliott B. Bannister • Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

--

And from the classical past, a few strums of Johann Sebastian Bach:

https://youtu.be/WGpl1Utbqzw

Thankfully, very few still look at music as "vain" and destructive as did some early Friends such as Solomon Eccles, a former musician:
"Few if any of his works are extant since, when he became a Quaker, he burned all his books and compositions so as to distance himself from church music.

Believing music to be a sinful vanity, he initially sold the compositions and his instruments, before taking them back and burning them to prevent the purchaser falling into sin...and wrote the anti-music tract: "A Musick-Lector" (1667)
Wikipedia

How tragic.

My own encounter with music has been drastically the opposite!

My deepest encounter with music happened during worship at a Friends Meeting of Pacific Yearly Meeting years ago. I am still blessed by that transcendent experience--the most powerful spiritual experience I ever had at a Friends Meeting. At the time I was in deep despair, not shared with the members, yet a Friend stood up and began to sing extemporaneously a song whose spiritual lyrics brought healing to my inner self. (This wonder of music happened at Central Coast Friends Meeting, San Luis Obispo, California.)

I am so thankful for not only the beauty of music, but how this art often ministers Light and healing to those in need.


In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Lyric Journey of 240 Years of Seeking

"America" by Simon and Garfunkel

Let us be lovers,
We'll marry...
And walk.. off
To look for America.
"Kathy", I said,
As we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh,
Michigan seems like a dream to me now.

It took me four days
To hitch-hike from Saginaw.
"I've come to look for America"...

So I looked at the scenery,
She read her magazine;
And the moon rose over an open field.
"Kathy, I'm lost", I said...

Counting the cars
On the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come
To look for America,
All come to look for America,
All come to look for America.

-

"Money" by Pink Floyd, from Dark Side of the Moon

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and you're O.K.
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream...

Money, get back
...
Money, it's a hit
I'm in the hi-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet...

-

Yeah, yeah,
Alright,
Alright.

I'm a wheeler, a dealer, the man who's in control,
Don't talk about my feelings, don't talk abut my soul,
Well, you know my time is money, so I've got no time to spend,
But when you got some business, won't you come on by again.

I'm the winner and I made it to the top,
And I took it all, just like I planned,
I'm the man who holds the high card in his hand.

I'm an owner, a loaner, a master at the game,
And I've got that golden Midas touch; people know my name,
There were times I held the low cards, baby, well, I knew they weren't enough,
So I just kept my poker face and won it on the bluff.
...
I'm the man who holds the high card in his hand.

Hey, hey,
I'm the winner,
Hey yeah,

"The Winner" by Randy Stonehill
-

"Richard Corey" By S.& G.

They say that Richard Cory owns one half of this whole town,
With political connections to spread his wealth around.
Born into society, a banker's only child,
He had everything a man could want: power, grace, and style.

But I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm living
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be
Richard Cory.

The papers print his picture almost everywhere he goes:
Richard Cory at the opera, Richard Cory at a show.
And the rumor of his parties and the orgies on his yacht!
Oh, he surely must be happy with everything he's got.

But I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm living
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be
Richard Cory.

He freely gave to charity, he had the common touch,
And they were grateful for his patronage and thanked him very much,
So my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read:
"Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head."

-

There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look - what's going down?

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking' their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look - what's going down?

What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly saying, "hooray for our side"

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look - what's going down?

"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield

-

The laws to abide
And the land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

The Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
...
With guns on their hands
And God on their side.

The First World War, boys
It came and it went
The reason for fighting
I never did get
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.
...
[More wars have come]
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons...
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

"With God on Our Side" by Bob Dylan

-

Oh, you rush to and fro to attain
Though you dwell upon the shore of history
The voice you should have heard in is the letter of the word
Come with me, dear friends, and you'll see

See my life, as it was yesterday
See my life, as it was today
Take my hand and I will show you
Within the moment lies the mystery

Oh, you seek here and yon in your quest
And arrive at the hour of regret
Come fly without distress to the shelter of the nest
Close your eyes, your ears, and forget

Forget life, as it was yesterday
Forget life, as it was today
Take my hand and I will show you
Within the moment lies the mystery

"See My Life" by Seals and Croft

--

I used to dream of being famous
Well, my name would be a household word
...
Now it strikes me as a little absurd

I used to dream of being Don Juan
Of having all these pretty girls on my mind
It made shambles of my mind, so I found myself a wife
Who's a lover and a friend of mine

As the world, keeps turning 'round
You either learn to bend with the wind or it knocks you down
Turn your back on the gods of men
...

I used to dream of being a rich man
Yeah, I swore I'd have it all someday
Once you chase it you will find that it isn't worth a dime
Until you're free enough to give it away

And I used to dream of chasing vengeance
All my enemies would crawl and sweat
Well my happiness was drained from reliving all the pain
Now I'm learning to forgive and forget
...

Turn your back on the gods of men
And the Lord, who is true, will give life back to you again

"The Gods of Men" by Randy Stonehill

-

If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning,
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land,
I'd hammer out danger,
I'd hammer out a warning,
I'd hammer out love between,
My brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.

If I had a bell,
I'd ring it in the morning,
I'd ring it in the evening,
All over this land,
I'd ring out danger,
I'd ring out a warning,
I'd ring out love between,
My brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
...

Well, I've got a hammer
and I've got a bell
and I've got a song to sing
all over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my
brothers and my sisters
all over this land

"If I Had a Hammer" by Peter, Paul, and Mary


If we follow the versed lyrics of songs from the 1600's to today, we hear what a lyrical, but tragic, often absurd journey we humans traverse.

May we heed the call and the warning, the failing and the rising of these musicians.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Friendly Musings about Some of the Best Songs

Or (in the tradition of those long-winded controversial "Or" titles of the 1600's)
it's time to take a brief break from dealing with so many world tragedies including the tragic terror in San Bernadino/Redlands. And at the end of this list, will be a reflection concerning the early Quaker rejection of music and the arts versus modern Quakers' love of music.

What is the difference between spiritual songs versus ones that harm and destroy? Songs that are sung by empty rote versus songs that fill us with Light? How do we tell the difference?

Musings of the Last 60 years--
(in no certain order)

1. Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel
The first time I heard this powerful reflection, I was driving through the night in a white wonder of a snowstorm down Van Dorn Avenue in Lincoln, Nebraska. Huge flakes of snow were hitting the wind shield, and S&G were talking to the darkness…

2. Stairway to Heaven by Lead Zeppelin
Am not much of a heavy metal fan, but this very unusual rock song is unique and amazing. Also, there have been various commentaries written about the lyrics, some saying it is an anti-spiritual song, others disagreeing. What do you think?

3. For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield
This is one of those seminal creative songs that come once or twice in a generation. Its haunting lyrics somehow define the protest movement. In the fall of 1966, we used to go down to Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. As college students, we didn’t have money for concerts, but we hung out at coffee shops and philosophized talked, of opposition to the Vietnam War, and of our favorite music groups. The song appeared shortly after the Sunset Curfew Riot, which we somehow missed. Maybe we no longer went there because of the new 10 PM curfew.

4. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult
Actually when I analyzed the lyrics, this appeared to be a pro-suicide lament rather than an anti-death song of protest. But ever since it appeared in the famous science fiction miniseries classic, The Stand by Stephen King, its poetic, allusionary lyrics have been unforgettable.

5. Yesterday (McCartney) by the Beatles
Probably the best melancholy love ballad of the 60’s. Released in September of 1965

6. Mr. Tambourine Man (Dylan) by The Byrds
First heard this great rock song when walking into the college café at the University of Nebraska in the June of 1965. A longhaired graduate student told me that it wasn’t the Byrds’ song but had been written by a young man named Bob Dylan. Thus began a long following of the bard of rock. There are questions of the lyrics being praise of a drug dealer who alerts his customers by playing his tambourine but Dylan has always denied that it is a drug song.

7. Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)
One of the very best poetic laments against war ever written.

8. Monday Morning Church (Brent Baxter and Erin Enderlin) by Alan Jackson
Deeply sorrowful dirge with an incredible chorused metaphor. Sung by one of my favorite country ballad singers.

9. What If I Stumble by DCTalk
Very spiritual song of conscience and care; spiritual without being formally religious

10. Desperado by the EaglesAnother example of lucid ballad poetry set to music; in this case the brief story of a Wild West gunman who is being counseled by the singer through playing card imagery that love is the best choice, not killing and money.

11. The Gates of Eden by Bob Dylan
60’s folk song filled with surrealistic images and metaphors of protest.

12. Woodstock (Join Mitchell) by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Paean to the most famous rock concert of all time.

13. I Am a Rock by Simon and Garfunkel
Another poetic inner reflection from the harmonic duo.

14. Gods of Men by Randy Stonehill
Spiritual satire against the finite idols that too many humans ‘worship.’

15. The Universal Soldier (Buffy St. Marie) by Donovan
An anti-war song that covers human history. While not excusing militarist leaders, the lyrics instead focuses on how each of us as individual humans are responsible for war.

16. 8 Miles High by The Byrds
The instrumentation in this rocker is amazing.

17. Chimes of Freedom (Dylan) by The Byrds
Another Dylan song which done by the Byrds comes out harmonious. It’s a lyric praising human rights, justice, but the tragedy of how often goodness and the truth lose out to intolerance and persecution.

18. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands/ Stuck in Mobile by Dylan
Used to listen to this ballad (enjoying the power of Dylan’s words, and trying to figure out its hidden meanings) every night in the fall of 1966.

19. Birthday of My Thoughts by Seals and Croft

20. See My Life by Seals and Croft
Philosophical, reflective early song from these two Bahai's

21. All I Really Want to Do (Dylan) by Cher
Unusual serious love song with an almost Ogden-Nash strikingly strange rhymes.

22. Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire
Most famous protest song

23. You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma by David Frizzell & Shelly West and Blake Shelton & Miranda Lambert
What does this romantic song of longing love say to the tragedy of Blake and Miranda's recent divorce?

24. Somebody Must Be Praying for Me (Frank Vinci, Bob Mould, Kris Bergsnes) by Tim McGraw
A very meaningful spiritual song of how sometimes problems and loss of dreams open up other possibilities including love.

25. Cats in the Cradle by Sandy Gaston and Harry Chapin
Poem and song filled with allusions and metaphoric images which warns the severe and tragic consequences of a father who is too busy succeeding in his career for his family

26. Daniel by Elton John
Another relationship song of emotional dept

27. Revolution by The Beatles
Anti-revolution song against the extremists who do wrong to bring about their version of utopia.

28. Old Man's Rubble (Brown Bannister) by Amy Grant
Probably the best ever song of the danger of living contrary to what one sincerely believes.

29. The One by Elton John

30. Celebrate this Heartbeat by Randy Stonehill

31. Positively Fourth Street/Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan
Negative song against a former love that somehow comes out positive.

Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan
First long play rock song that won air time and became famous.

32. Sunshine of Your Love by Cream

33. Let's Try and Get Together by The YoungBloods

34. Hey Jude (McCartney) by The Beatles

35. Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves by Cher
Yes, this has a bit of pop, but the variation in the instrumentation and voice has stayed with me for years. A really powerful rock song.

36. Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf
Not good lyrics but the song has such instrumental power and drive

37. Me and Bobby McGee (Fred Foster and Kris Kristofferson) by Kris Kristofferson

38. You're So Vain by Carly Simon
Very negative song about an egotistical sexist guy, but the lyrics and Simon's voice turn the dirt into gold!)

39. Nights in White Satin by The Moody Blues

40. For Annie by Petra
Cry for those who give up and commit suicide. And what we can do.

41. Kicks (Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) by Paul Revere and the Raiders

42. Why Don't You Look Into Jesus by Larry Norman
Jesus movement rocker

43. Without Love You Are Nothing by Larry Norman

44. I Wish We'd All Been Ready by Larry Norman

45. Everything I Own by Bread

46. In Da Gadda Da Vidda (Ingle) by Iron Butterfly
First heard this classic even before it was recorded. Listened to it one day in Panhandle Park in San Francisco, after I had hitched up there to live in Haight Asbury, January 1967.

47. In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans
Really haunting science-fiction/ apocalyptic song with unusual scoring. Very unusual. Can’t think of any other s-f rock song except for Rocket Man by Elton John.

48. You're in My Heart and my Soul by Rod Stewart

49. For Your Love (Graham Gouldman) by The Yardbirds

50. Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones
So many of the Rolling Stones songs represent the immoral and the self-centered, but this ballad doesn't and is a wonder.

51. Wipeout (Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller, and Ron Wilson) by the Astronauts

52. Proud Mary by Creedance Clearwater Revival

53. Rocket Man (Bernie Taupin) by Elton John
Inspired by a short story in The Illustrated Man novel by Ray Bradbury.

54. I Hold On (Dierks Bently and Brett James) by Dierks Bentley

55.Telluride (Bret James) by Tim McGraw

56. Riser (Dierks Bentley, Travis Meadows and Steve Moakler) by Dierks Bentley

57 Cry Out to Jesus by Third Day

58. Live Like You Were Dying (Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman) by Tim McGraw

57. Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
One of the best duets in rock/country history. Really emphasizes true love, despite breakup and sleeping with others. The latter and drug/alcohol abuse in the lyrics are troubling. Strongly demonstrates the contrast between how many men perceive themselves differently from women.

58. The Cowboy in Me (Jeffrey Steele, Al Anderson and Craig Wiseman) By Tim McGraw

59. 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago
Big band sound (not usually my cup of java) but the instrumentation in this melodious crooner has stayed in my mind for 45 years, while other songs (ones which I originally liked much better) have faded away, some leaving only the name of the title!

60. The Star Spangled Banner, American Anthem by Jimi Hendrix
Need I say more?! Tragic how drugs ended this great guitarist’s life all too young, only 27.

61. I Don’t Dance by Lee Bryce
New romantic married love ballad

62. I Pledge My Head to Heaven by Keith Green

62. (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart) by The Monkees
Too bad the Monkees’ best songs weren’t written by them. Similar to the country star, Tim McGraw, they popularized great lyrics of others giving them an English rocker sound. According to Wikipedia, “at their peak in 1967 the band outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined”!

63. I’m a Believer (Neil Diamond) by The Monkees

64. Bus Stop (Hyme and Graham Gouldman) by The Hollies

65. Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones (I, of course, don't agree with the lyrics, but I think it is their best rocker.)

66. Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran)

67. Building Block by Noel Paul Stookey

68. Somebody to Love (Darby Slick) by Jefferson Airplane

69. White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane

70. Help Me, Rhonda by The Beach Boys (One of my very favorites though I know it is not a great song; but it brings back a flood of 60's feelings:-)

71. Horse with No Name by America

72. Galveston (Jimmy Webb) by Glen Campbell

73. Jesus Commands Us to Go by Keith Green

74. American Pie by Don McLean

75. Album Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
Probably best and most creative concept album. Though not songs to sing a long to.

76. Drinking Class (Josh Kear, Dvid Fraiser, Ed Hill) by Lee Bryce
The sort of a song that has great music and a fine vocal, but destructive lyrics. Why do so many country songs emphasize and fixate on getting drunk? Tragic in real life, sometimes in song. When I listen to the song, tapping my way, on long drives, I change the word to the "thinking class":-)

77. Soldier Boy by the Shirelles (I know this is bubble gum, but hey, I like the song and the memories; at least I didn't add "Johnny Angel" by Shelly Fabares; I liked that, too, but now it seems childish as I listen to the song in my head; the lyrics seem silly and stupid. I haven't heard the song in at least 20 or 30 years! Amazing how the mind sometimes calls up these old files just like hypertext on the Web.)

78. Brightest and Best by John Fischer

79. Cherish by The Association

80. Summer in the City by The Lovin’ Spoonful

--

Since I am a poet/wannbe-songwriter, artist, and lover of music, (of all kinds except rap and opera)--

First, a few comments about Friends and their rejection of music in the 1600’s:
To those early Quakers who rejected music and the other arts, a modern liberal Friend, Jon Watts, explains why they were in error. Watts is an accomplished musician and Quaker movement advocate.

Early Friend Solomon Eccles:
From A Musick Lector
"a QUAKER (so called) being formerly of that Art, doth give his Judgment and Sentence against it; but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God."
Written by SOLOMON ECCLES, 1667

"So I see, that Musick pleases well that which is for destruction, and grieves that which God doth highly esteem and honour; Isa. 42.21.
--

Modern Friend Jon Watts:
“Solomon Eccles rejected his upper-class, baroque music profession, and took all of his instruments and manuscripts and burned them in a public demonstration of leveling. The early Friends were rejecting the social class system, which they deemed unjust and ungodly. How could I possibly hear about that and not write a song about it?"

Early Friends threw out anything that was formulaic. The idea was experiential—to have your own experience of the Spirit, to have the Living Spirit speak through you. If you’re going to be baptized, let the Spirit baptize you. If you’re going to take communion, take it because the Spirit is leading you to, not because it’s just a thing you do every Sunday.

If you’re going to sing, don’t let someone else write it for you. Sing it! So Quakers were the first jazz musicians, always improvising. The Spirit was their muse.

So when I’m playing a song I try to listen to the Spirit the same way one does in a meeting for worship when preparing to give vocal ministry. I wait until I’m quaking to write a song down. I wait until a song is streaming out of me, until it’s not me anymore. It’s as if I’m watching the song get written.”

Jon Watts, Quaker Musician, songwriter, and movement leader
from an interview in the Friends Journal, May, 2013
http://www.friendsjournal.org/bum-rush-the-internet/

More quotes from A Musick Lector by Solomon Eccles:

"To obey the Lord, is better than to give all my goods to the poor, and my body to be burned; yet to let thee know the Truth of this thing; when I came to be convinced of this everlasting truth, I saw my Calling would not stand before it; I went, but not in the Counsel of the Lord, and sold most of my instruments;

"howbeit that would not cover me, for the Lord met with me; and as I was learning to sew, for I had formerly some insight of a Tailors Trade, but I was too high to bow to it, till the Truth came, and that is of power to make the strong man bow, and I sitting alone, with my mind turned in, the Voice of the Lord said, Go thy way, and buy those Instruments again thou lately soldest, and carry them and the rest thou hast in thy house to Tower Hill, and burn them there, as a Testimony against that Calling."

"So I obeyed the Lord, and bought them again, and carried them, and all I had in my house, to Tower Hill, and burnt them there, according to the uprightness of my heart before the Lord; which Books and Instruments did amount to more than four and twenty pound; and I had great peace. Glory be to God for ever. Amen."

"That Heaven will be shaken, and thy Song will be turned into howling; for such Musick and Singing was never set up of God, but of men; and it takes with that part in man that serves not God aright, but is for wrath and judgement, Heb. 12.26. 1 Cor. 2.24."

"But what effects hath Musick brought forth, that men so highly esteem it? What fruit did Nebuchadnezzars Musick bring forth in his day, was it not to murder? But the three servants of the Lord would not bow to his Image at the sound of his Pipes and his Fiddles, though others did.

"And how did Musick and Dancing take the heart of the foolish King Herod, by means whereof he committed murder, and caused John Baptists's Head to be cut off, who was a blessed man, approved of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and was greater than the prophets; and because he reproved him for having his Brothers Wife, rankor lay in the heart of the Damsels Mother, and when the Fidlers did strike up, and the Wench began to dance, his affectionate love began to be enflamed to the Girle, that he killed the Lords servant in coole blood. O ye Fidlers and Dancing- Masters, let this President break you off from your filthy practice;"

"Why do you dance without the Ark? Where is your Ark? What President have you in Scripture for your Danceing? You set up the Devils Kingdom by your proud Calling: You set their Bodies in postures to enflame and take with the lustful Nature in men, and with proud Apparrel, and Spots on their Faces. Woe to the Crown of Pride."

"What account will ye give to the Lord, ye Dancing- masters, from whence came ye, where is your Ark? David danced before the Ark. O repent ye shamless men, will you not blush at your doings? If my Calling was unlawful, much more is yours; O do not provoke the Lord any more; haste, haste, and leave off your practice before it leave you, for what thank will it be to you then, when you shall break off sinning because you can sin no more?"
Quaker Heritage Press

http://www.qhpress.org/index.html

BUT, why may not good music be creatively planned?

Why must songs always be only, allegedly, direct from the Divine?

This negation of the arts, especially music shows how lopsided the early Friends were when trying to get rid of hypocrisy, formalism without reality, and destructive influences.

Did those early spiritual revolutionaries also get rid of medicine, science, technology, etc.?

No, on the contrary, Quakers excelled in the sciences and in business, neither any more holy or spiritual than music or any other art. In fact, business probably is far more an occasion to err, even to destroy than music ever has been.

Do you have a suggestion of a song to add to Greatest Hits?

Quake to rock;-).


In Light,

Daniel Wilcox