Hello All, I am glad to be back once again this week to share more with you. Last time I may have been a bit long winded with tones of resentment and bitterness that lead me to finding some peace, some contentment within these struggles. But like I have stated before in one way or another even being content is worry-some simply because it means you’ve settled, or it’s the end, you’ve peaked ,etc. So let me state that in most instances, I am never fully content. And it may have seemed like I am not grateful for the things I do have, which is also not the case. If you don’t know by you should be aware of how empowering gratitude is and how it will allow you to manifest the things that you hope to have come into your life (Thank you once again Robert Zink). So just remember “Gratitude is the Attitude” and you can quote me on that, like I just did.
One of the most anxiety inducing things for any writer is to come up with something to write about. Today I was all set in writing a completely different topic about something that happened awhile back and yes i’ll share it soon. However, I have yet again put it off because I feel that the story has yet to have an ending and, only I am to blame for that. But the events of this past 24 hours have given so much more to write about that it is hard to make a decision. But with one of these subjects being the passing of Rock n’ Roll Legend, David Crosby, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to even post anything except for a photo in the absence of this week’s entry and the promise that more would come soon when the time is right. The answer came to me as I knew it would as I was preparing to write this article by listening to some interviews David Crosby had done to equip myself to write this piece. Which I highly recommend by the way, since he was very insightful and pretty much always gives you the answer as if you already knew it but it was coming out of his mouth. Another words, what he was saying felt so attuned to the subject it was like you would have said these things to yourself if you knew what to say. One of which stated that “it’s not the time you have left, it’s what you do with that time.”
Before I go on, I do want to state that I don’t have extensive knowledge about the Man’s life or career having not been alive while he was up and coming with either of the groups, he was in the Byrds or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And I only remember pieces of an interview he did years ago on “the Dick Cavett show”, which was literally the day after Woodstock ended. I remembered part of what he said, but not how it came about. I will include the link to this below so you can see. It was like his entire persona both what he said and the tone of his voice (and of course how he looked) is a textbook example what a “Hippie” is supposed look, act and think like. Again, I will share a few links with you so you can see them for yourself. It’s always sad when anyone passes but especially a person that had so much depth, and how he articulated things even knowing that what he was saying wasn’t something most people would want to hear. Most people wouldn’t be able to get away with that(especially nowadays when in many case, anything someone disagrees with is labeled “misinformation”).
What I do remember is some of the songs from each of Crosby’s groups like “Turn, Turn, Turn”. One of the my strongest memories of this song was that it introduced me to the one of my favorite shows “the Wonder Years”, as it played at the very beginning of the first episode. But as I have mentioned in an entry years ago in There is a song for any occasion The lyrics are mostly taken from a verse in the Bible to help people understand that everything in life has it’s time, even death. I hope that the death of David Crosby does not mean the death of the rebellious spirit of his time and awareness. Unfortunately, I have already felt it happening. Take a look at what has been going on for the past few years. How many of you were questioning what we were asked to comply with? How many of us refused to be alienated or compromised? I have always had that mentality within me since I decided to become a musician, so all of this was very foreign to me(that and my extraordinary talent for smelling bullshit a mile away). And people were saying I was crazy, stupid or selfish because I was trying to get others to think. Now that things are starting to unravel many people are regretting going along with all this. Because the people enforcing these things had no one’s best interest in mind but their own. David Crosby was involved with the writing process of many other great songs. One song that comes to mind is “Ohio”, written about the shootings at Kent State University on May 4th 1970. David Crosby and Neil Young were looking at the pictures in LIFE magazine of what happened that day in Ohio & Young immediately got so moved that he wrote about it. David called the rest of the band and they flew out to record the song. It seems like they felt the need to get the message out to the people quickly. Almost as if they felt a responsibility to make people aware of what was going on in the world in hopes of making a change for the better. I’ve felt this same feeling after being shocked by what was going on in the place I call home. Maybe this is one of the things that is missing from lots of today’s music. That substance, that emotion that was brought out in words and music that was present in most of the songs of the era.
With the state of the world how it is today with everything being focused around our differences, we often forget how we are all the same. Each person is trying the live the best life they can. Which as we all know is not always easy. But I will leave you with one last Quote from David Crosby: “I think music is a lifting force, and I think these are really hard times, and people need the lift. I’m making music because music makes things better and it makes people happier. ”
Thank you all. For reading once again. Be well,
Nate,xoxo