Day #22 of the 30 Day Music Meme

[shadowkat]

Day #22 of the 30 Day Music Meme - a song that moves you forward.

This is my favorite Leonard Cohen song. It's not as well known as his other songs...and I didn't even know it existed until a few years ago.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[atpo_onm]

Usually have to ponder these, but not this time. Flat out classic, very first thing that came to mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDfAdHBtK_Q

"Meet the new boss..."

[beer_good_foamy]

Goddamn, I love that song. I've been repeatedly late to things because I happened to put that song on less than 8.31 minutes before I'm supposed to be somewhere.

[cjlasky7]

Great song. These guys sound interesting. Could you recommend some of their albums?

*rimshot*

I was going to do a full essay on this song in the "many meanings" category, but I chickened out. But since the song is here anyway, let me do a condensed version:

At first glance, the song is extremely cynical. The Woodstock nation has failed, and it's the same old bullshit dressed in new clothing.

But Townshend is really taking the more personal, spiritual view here. Any political or social movement goes through a cycle of discovery, vitality and decay, until something new pops up to replace it. It's the deeper, spiritual truths that you discover during that time that truly matter.

You see this in the other two of Townshend's major works. Tommy finds his higher truth, but his movement is corrupted by mass marketing and greed, and must inevitably fall. In Quadrophenia, Jimmy places his faith in the Mods, but is disillusioned when he finds their leader working as a bellboy at a posh seaside hotel. At the start of the album, Jimmy is at the seaside in Brighton, watching the waves roll in; at the end, he crashes his motorcycle on the rocks, rows out to sea on a boat and lets the rain wash over him ("Love Reign o'er Me"). The cycle brings him back around to a more elemental truth.

I could say a lot more here, but I might actually need to get something done today....