Boomers, we were once the "new children" that Tim Buckley wrote and sang about
His second album "Goodbye and Hello", released in 1967, was both epic and brilliant, and still to this day only dated in spots, and that only because in some of his songs, in particular the title cut, he wrote in the spirit of that time. That cut was not my favorite song on the album, that one might be "No Man Can Find The War". but it got the most air play at the time, and it was considered sort of an anthem. Here is verse three from from "Goodbye and Hello", followed by verse six and chorus six (it's a long song with a lot of lyrics, I posted a link to all of them below these):
"The king and the queen in their castle of billboards
Sleepwalk down the hallways dragging behind
All their possessions and transient treasures
As they go to worship the electronic shrine
On which is playing the late, late commercial
In that hollowest house of the opulent blind
And I wave goodbye to Mammon
And smile hello to a stream
O the new children buy, I am young
All the world for a song, I will live
Without a dime, I am strong
To which they belong, I can give
Nobody owns, you the strange
Anything, anywhere, seed of day
Everyone's grown, feel the change
Up so big they can share, know the way
Know the way, know the way...
...The antique people are fading out slowly
Like newspapers flaming in mind suicide
Godless and sexless, directionless loons
Their sham sandcastles dissolve in the tide
They put on their deathmasks and compromise daily
The new children will live for the elders have died."
https://genius.com/Tim-buckley-goodbye-and-hello-lyrics
I turned 18 in 1967, and thought I was one of those "new children" then. Though Buckley's old "elders" may have died, there are always elders, and now in Tim Buckley's way of looking at it, I am one of those. Between 1967 and now, two or three generations of newer "new children" have come of age. When they view the world they inherited they still find many "elders" standing in the way of realizing their visions of peace and justice, equity and joy. Now I find myself hoping that current "new children" remain defiantly unrealistic. I root for millions of "new children" who believe that everything that must be changed, can be changed.
When I was 18, 19, and 20, I did realize that the majority of people, even those of my own generation, could not yet conceive of a future akin to the world that Tim Buckley waxed poetic about. But I thought that could be changed within a decade, or two at most. I thought we were riding a wave of tsunami proportions, that ultimately could not be resisted. Change was coming, I believed, positive change that would not, could not be reversed.
When I was 18 I believed racism was rooted in (fellow) whites of older generations, that youth were turning the page on racism, and that we would largely vanquish it when our own generation assumed the leading role in society. I held similar fantasies about war and poverty. I was naive as hell. I don't regret it. It fed the courage of my convictions through many a long battle for social justice and a better world.
Fascism is on the rise in America, hate crimes are cresting, Europe is potentially facing the largest invasion of one nation by another since WWII, but such challenges are not unique to our time. America once was headed by a progression of slave owning Presidents, oligarchs ruled America throughout our gilded age, and America fought two World Wars. Today I am older and wiser than I was in 1967, but I still revere the idealism that I had when I was 18, and I pray that the failures of my own generation don't dampen the spirit of those to whom the torch is passed today.
P.S. I found a documentary about Tim Buckley on YouTube that includes clips from live performances of 13 of his songs (among other things.) It's called "My Fleeting House", which is another great song of his, parts of which are in the film. Portions of "No Man Can Find The War" begin at the 14.13 point
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