Thursday Inspiration — Counterculture

Fandango

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to respond to this challenge by either using the prompt word “day,” or by means of the song “Legend of a Mind,” or by going with another song by the Moody Blues, or any other song that mentions a counterculture icon that you like, or you can go with anything else that you think fits.

I decided to go with another Moody Blues song today. This song is arguably a counterculture song, even though it doesn’t specifically name an individual counterculture icon. According to Moody Blues guitarist/vocalist Justin Hayward, who wrote this song, it reflected the thoughts of many young people who were questioning the war in Vietnam.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war?
'Cause when we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need
In a world of persecution
That is burning in its greed

Hayward said he was just expressing his frustration around the problems of what many at the time, including yours truly, felt to be an unjust war. This was something that really concerned the students and young adults who formed the band’s audience. They were concerned for their own future and how having to fight in that war, should they be drafted, would be a moral dilemma for them.

He was personally angry at what was happening. “After a decade of peace and love,” Hayward said, “it still seemed we hadn’t made a difference in 1970.”

Well, Justin, I hate to break it to you, but more than half a century later, we are still waiting for an answer to that question about hate and love and war in the world of persecution that is burning in its greed.

12 thoughts on “Thursday Inspiration — Counterculture”

  1. newepicauthor June 20, 2024 / 3:11 pm

    We will never get an answer about why people have to fight wars. Nothing ever gets settled because of war, as it just creates more hatred. War is only good for politicians and those people who manufacture weapons. The world that we live in is imperfect and there seems to be no hope of ever achieving peace. Nice response, Fandango.

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  5. Marleen June 21, 2024 / 1:50 am

    … [a] Dangerous Lie [in America dividing

    ordinary people as well as race and origin]

    It’s set up like a deck of cards
    They’re sending us to early graves for all the diamonds
    They’ll use a pair of clubs to beat the spades
    With poetry, I paint the pictures that hit
    More like the murals that fit
    Don’t turn away, get in front of it
    Brother, did ya forget ya name?
    Did ya lose it on the wall playing Tic-Tac-Toe?
    Yo, check the diagonal, three brothers gone, come on
    Doesn’t that make it three in a row?

    (Anger is a gift)

    Come on

    ……..

    Brother, did ya forget ya name?
    Did ya lose it on the wall playing Tic-Tac-Toe?
    Yo, check the diagonal, three million gone, come on
    ‘Cause you know they’re counting backwards to zero
    Environment, the environment exceeding
    On the level of our unconsciousness
    For example, what does the billboard say?
    “Come and play, come and play
    Forget about the movement”

    (Anger is a gift)

    Yeah
    ……
    Hey

    Freedom, yeah
    Freedom, yeah, right
    Freedom, yeah
    Freedom, yeah 
    Freedom, yeah, right
    Freedom, yeah 
    Freedom, yeah, right

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  7. leigha66 June 21, 2024 / 10:31 am

    Another group I would love to see in concert… brilliant choice!

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  8. Fandango June 21, 2024 / 10:51 am

    Thanks. I saw them in concert about 10-12 years ago. They looked like old men, but when I closed my eyes, their music and their voices were as good as ever.

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