...And Your Mouth Is Working Overtime
A playlist about discourse and the nearly lost art of conversation....
On Twitter, a therapist says that it’s “normal” to still be feeling aftershocks from the dismaying Tuesday night brawl/throwdown disguised as a Presidential debate.
Not so sure. Nothing about hearing an over-excited “leader” creating meaning-free verbal chaos with snide jabs and ceaseless interruptions is “normal.” No matter where on the political spectrum you align yourself, you know, instinctively, that the challenges currently faced by our country demand more reasonable discourse. A willingness to listen. A fundamental openness to the views of others.
Ever since the debate, the opening line of a Chicago song has been running through my head: “Are you optimistic ‘bout the way that things are going?”
It was a reasonable question back in 1972, with Vietnam dragging on and the Nixon administration’s Watergate scandal ramping up. Avoiding specific references to current events, “Dialogue Parts I and II” instead centers on a conversational exchange between people who hold conflicting views. Guitarist and singer Terry Kath is the worried one, expressing concern about starvation, repression and other societal trend lines. He asks bassist and singer Peter Cetera if these things trouble him. The beatific response: “Well, I try to mind my business that is no business at all.”
The volley goes on, with Kath expressing gratitude for the discussion – extra points for civility! – followed by Cetera sharing his bliss secret: “If you had my outlook, your feelings would be numb – you’d always think that everything was fine.”
That’s part I. Part II features the members of Chicago joining forces to sing a series of resolute phrases as “We can change the world now,” “We can save the children,” “We can make it happen.”
The voices do not sound like they’re crawling out from under the wreckage of dismaying current events. They are resolute. United. Sharing a sense of idealism. Alive to the idea that as dire as the moment may seem, changing the circumstances in structural ways is actually possible. Attainable. A shared responsibility. Something to believe in – and work towards.
Listening to this alert, sophisticated music offers a startling measure of how much things have changed in the intervening decades: We’ve gone from “We can make it happen” to whatever “Stand back and stand by” even means.
Are you optimistic ‘bout the way that things are going? There was one answer back then. And there’s another one now.
Here’s a brief playlist inspired by Chicago’s song, on the fast-vanishing art of conversation….
Mose Allison: Your Mind Is On Vacation (1976)
Chicago: Dialogue Pt 1 &2 (1972)
Harry Nilsson: Everybody’s Talkin’ (1968)
Herman’s Hermits: There’s a Kind of Hush (1967)
Elvis Costello & The Imposters: What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding? (1979)
Norah Jones: Peace (2016)
Listen on Spotify via this link (no endorsement given or intended):
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