I never got Peter, Paul, and Mary....

Too safe.

Especially after they destroyed their images with PBS fund-raising specials (but now at least vicariously, Leonard Cohen's done the same.)

Any, RIP Ms. Travers...some people said you shouldn't have been in favor of civil-rights or peace.

Their sound may have been commercial and safe, but early on their politics were somewhat risky for a group courting a mass audience. Like Mr. Yarrow and Mr. Stookey, Ms. Travers was outspoken in her support for the civil-rights and antiwar movements, in sharp contrast to clean-cut folk groups like the Kingston Trio, which avoided making political statements.

I mean...I mean...the author of the what later became "Seasons in the Sun."

made this:






Does that sound like the work of the author of the Terry Jacks' song?

I realize this is not very Buddhist and relevant to almost no one but...

Rod McKuen is guilty of poetry's - or at least pop music's- equivalent of war crimes...

He made this:



into this:



And if you compare the Nirvana version of this to Jacques Brel's, it says several political psychology theses about the state of the American mind.




And, to top it off, consider a commentary on this song in Slate, blissfully unaware of the complete difference in meaning and mood between Brel's version and Jack's version completes the picture.

There's so much I can't tell you about what I do...

It's a pity, because sometimes, like today, I just so see the future, but thanks to certain agreements I have, I can't say a peep about it here.

It's not quite a Cassandra complex...but...

How can you not love that mandolin-like instrument?

And an older version...



I think "armes" (arms) is better enunciated as "âme" or "soul."

Of course I'm Buddhist and all that, I just think it'd be more uh, authentic in an existentialist kind of way.

It'd change the meaning of the relevant sentence from "I again took up arms" to "I have retaken my soul."

More poetic. Especially given the circumstances.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XX VI

Still using this source...

Those skilled assume assume various personalities for the sake of benefiting others.

And...

When those who are born of the Buddha see that the world is no more than Mind itself, they will obtain a body of transformation, which has nothing to do with effect-producing works, but which is endowed with the powers, psychic faculties, and self-control.