Different genres of music serve different purposes; this is not a profound take, but rather a simple truth. Pop music serves as sonic and physical entertainment, rock music as a release, and folk music as a cerebral experience that makes you stare reality in the face and shake it down for answers. Though they are rarely ever given in such a straightforward manner. That being so, here are three folk lyrics from the 1960s that still probably leave you asking yourself some awfully big questions.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Masters Of War” by Bob Dylan
“You fasten all the triggers / For the others to fire / Then you sit back and watch / When the death count gets higher”
In his earlier years, Bob Dylan always aimed to intellectually attack the higher powers that caused unethical politics and social events. One of the many songs he did so on was his 1963 single, “Masters Of War”. If taken at face value, the song can read as just another ideological protest song of the 1960s. However, Dylan seemingly asks listeners to partake in a deeper internal dialogue with this single, as Dylan is not merely alluding to war, but the people who support, perpetuate, and profit from it.
We aren’t here to give you the answers to the questions Dylan proposes in this song. Instead, we are just alerting you that this song entails a great deal of many daunting questions. In essence, Dylan is urging you to ask what kind of person it is that creates a war, benefits from it, and why they do so. Again, we don’t have the answers, but food for thought.
“Leaves That Are Green” by Simon & Garfunkel
“I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song / I’m twenty-two now, but I won’t be for long / Time hurries on / And the leaves that are green turn to brown”
The music of Simon & Garfunkel has a way of leaving one celebrating life and also detesting life. It is a nuanced balancing act, and is in full effect on their 1966 single, “Leaves That Are Green”. The song echoes a truthful yet fatalistic perspective about the inevitable passing of time and the loss of the romantic sentiments that, sometimes, go away with youth.
Of course, the latter half of that statement isn’t always true, and for an older person, the song may seemingly make them ask themselves if they have lost those sentiments. For a younger person, the question just might be how they prevent that from happening. In totality, the metaphysical subject matter of this song lends itself to many questions about arguably the most unanswerable topic—time.
“Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell
“I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now / From up and down and still somehow / It’s cloud illusions I recall / I really don’t know clouds at all”
Are the only “real” things we truly have in our lives our thoughts? We don’t know, but in Joni Mitchell’s iconic single “Both Sides Now”, the lyrics suggest that just might be the case. At its most finite point, the single is about how people’s perspectives ultimately change voluntarily or not. Thus, what is “reality” also changes.
Frankly, one could think themselves into philosophical paralysis with just this one song, as the combination of questions and answers inherently embedded in Mitchell’s lyrics is seemingly infinite. That fact alone will likely lead to a great deal of questions, but first, it seems Mitchell wants you to ask the following: What is the difference between illusions and realities?
Photo by Jack Robinson/Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.