Your “position:, such as one can make it out, is absurd.

when i first arrived in washington i was still a bit naive still had faith in my convictions
then power’s aphrodisia cast its spell on me
now i’m flying high seeking out the lavish parties where the richest donors go cutting deals with them that we call quid pro quos

seeking constant reelection i come pandering for votes and money for my coffers and the blandishments of those who shape your point of view
i do declare there are times when i am so loathsome that even i’m depressed
then i take comfort in the knowledge that i’m just like all the rest

lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie all us politicians ever do is lie

then i’m laying out my strategy and practicing the lies i’ll tell back home so my constituents won’t realize i’m screwing them while wooing them to vote for me mmm mmm mmm mmm

in the senate sits a boxer preening endlessly as she undermines our freedom and interrupts a general condescendingly as she cries out
in her hubris and disdain call me senator i’ve worked too hard for you to call me maam and as for your profession i don’t give a damn

lie lie lie…

As a kid, I didn’t so much listen to S&G as hippie poetry as I listened to it as music. Heck, some of it actually was rendered as pure music via the wonders of “elevator music” modification. Now, maybe that made me a brainless lump of a child, but I maintain it’s possible to hear only what you’re listening for, for good or for ill.

And notably, I find myself listening to lyrics more these days, and tossing out some old favorites, and even some new ones, simply because of the lyrics. The music can still be great, but the lyrics break the piece.

…and yes, most of what I listen to is pure music, classical or modern orchestral, or the occasional foreign piece (opera taps into this, too, though I can’t stand vibrato). Maybe someday, when I learn Japanese, I’ll toss out even more songs for stupid lyrics. Or if I find out Vivaldi was a mentally deficient protocommunist, I’ll toss that music, too. *shrug*

When I was in Naval Supply School in San Diego in the Summer and Fall of 1967, went to a concert by the Lovin’ Spoonful where Simon and Garfunkel were the opening act.

“Richard Corey,” “The Boxer,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – great stuff at the time.

Nowadays – old and time-worn. Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge in 1975 – doesn’t fit.

Retire and drool, guys. Is what I’m doing.

Then, of course, I cannot separate the singer and his or her political views from their songs, especially when those singers have broken out of character, stepped up to the mike, and lectured all of us unwashed patrons–who have made them rich–about what uninformed boobs, and mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging troglodytes, racists, and haters we all are.

Then, of course, there is the propaganda aspect it all those songs, for everything is, ultimately, “propaganda,” in the sense that words and songs, poetry and plays, TV shows, movies and video games alter our “balance,” hold up examples of behavior, tell us what is to be valued and what to be shunned, push us in one direction or another.

Never underestimate the power of Songs.

Songs set the scene and establish a mood, ratify certain behaviors and emotions, and portray others as bad, they are the almost subliminal messages that form the background of our lives, and influence us in many ways, both overt and subtle. In the case of the pernicious 60’s, those songs had a very great deal to do with promoting the culture of sex, drugs and rock’n roll, with setting us on a new cultural course; a cultural atomic bomb whose fallout we are still suffering from today. The 60s massively changed attitudes and behaviors of many, many people for the worse, and twisted and poisoned a whole generation of young people–and many older ones as well–who have transmitted those attitudes, values and behaviors foreword, and many who were so powerfully and deeply changed by the 60s or their heirs are in positions of power today ,and calling the shots.

There are songs i love that i purposely avoid and wont put on my ipod or youtube favorited because they seem so wonderfully connected with the times i recall them from and i don’t want to dilute that. Upon hearing them, they can still conjure up feelings i held at the time and even give flashes of sights and smells from that time that my mind otherwise can’t seem to properly recall without it. I know, it’s a weird thing.

I don’t want to “own” these songs. I’m content just hearing them by chance maybe once or twice a year on the radio. It keeps their magic intact.