Déjà Vu ~ Times: August 2023

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Back to the (Music) Future, Please? (as in Bee Gees, et al.)

In this time of dire need for blistering, truth-laden, protest songs, like those of Oliver Anthony, Tom MacDonald, John Rich, Tyson James, Buddy Brown, to name a few, there is also a dire need to add counter-point to the protest.

Remember the soul music of the '50s, '60s, & '70s — those decades of the Bee Gees, the Supremes, the Righteous Brothers, Roberta Flack, Carole King, Johnny Mathis, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Jackson Five, Tom Jones, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin; the list goes on and on¹? Is the musicality — the soul-stirring melodies — of those decades worth perpetuating when soul was the medium regardless of race or gender? when most of us openly admired and respected each artists' talents and gifts without prejudice? when voice and melody lifted the soul from the stresses of so many of our days?

Where in 2023 can we find such melodious soul? I ask because I see Gens Y (Millennials) and Z rediscovering melodious soul and wishing it or something like it was, or had been, a part of their teens and twenties. To make a “heavenly” case on point, here are first reactions to the Bee Gees “(Nobody Gets) Too Much Heaven”:

▪ Songwriter reacts to Bee Gees - Too Much Heaven (THIS GOT ME IN SHOCK!)²

▪ First Ever Hearing Bee Gees - Too Much Heaven (Reaction!!)³

▪ First Time Hearing Bee Gees - Too Much Heaven Reaction⁴

▪ First Time Watching BeeGees - Too Much Heaven (reaction)⁵

▪ Bee Gees Too Much Heaven Reaction⁶

▪ FIRST TIME HEARING Bee Gees - Too Much Heaven (Official Music Video) REACTION They Spoke To My Soul⁷

▪ First Time Hearing Bee Gees - Too Much Heaven REACTION⁸

From these seven reaction videos (and there are thousands), we witness the power of music to lift souls and transcend boundaries of every kind; and so I ask: Will there be a future for old or new soul artists that transcend the years and heal the manufactured divides engineered by tyrannical forces? Or are the catalogues of soul music targeted for buy-up and then deep-sixing from the plebeian masses because real soul music has too much universal appeal; too many unifying vibes; too much longing, healing, hope, and truth-telling? Soul music creates “too much heaven” when hellish things are being done; and they know it.

So, please, artists of melodious soul: DO NOT sell your soul music to devouring corps.⁹ In these days of war on freedom, culture, sociality, and truth, soul music might prove the unchained melody¹⁰ that leads us out of and beyond the tyranny and faux-topia of The Great Reset Deception.

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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_soul_musicians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_music
2. (Not An Industry Artist | July 16, 2022 | Time 7:44 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgsTcwanbZ0 (Note his comments at the end.)
3. (Polo Reacts | Feb 25, 2023 | Time: 11:41 min) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4iBjiIWT8o
4. (Mugnify Reacts | Feb 22, 2023 | Time 10:34) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMEVFJqo8_Q&t=29s
5. (JayShara | Dec 23, 2022 | Time 9:44 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJT9o-tz7Dw
6. (J.Fro90 | Jan 26, 2023 | Time 12:13 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjiHEPtXWno
7. (Dub Zer0 | Apr 17, 2021 | Time 8:33 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su7gI0m90KQ
8. (Ashley Reacts | July 22, 2023 | Time 14:07) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhQg31DMzx8&t=29s
9. ▪ "Buying and Selling music Catalogues": https://musicandmoney.com/node/212
▪ Music catalogs are fetching huge deals. Are they overvalued? https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-01-15/music-catalogs-deals-bruce-springsteen-john-legend-bob-dylan-songwriters-streaming
▪ Here’s a running list of artists who have sold some or all of their song catalogues to a new breed of company. (Updated as required) https://www.ajournalofmusicalthings.com/heres-a-running-list-of-artists-who-have-sold-some-or-all-of-their-song-catalogues-to-a-new-breed-of-company/
▪ And speaking of the song-buying company, Hipgnosis: https://moc-n-dox.blogspot.com/2021/04/how-to-inspire-conspiracy-theory.html
10. Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody [Live - Best Quality] (1965) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYj2hex99gY

Revolving Accounts

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us." (OT:Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)

"Dwell in the past and you'll lose an eye. Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes." (Old Russian Proverb)

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Over time, this blog will contain:
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Sketch-Stories
Poems

Déjà Vu ~ Times blog © 2008 - 2020 by SMSmith (unless otherwise noted). Some Rights Reserved. See Creative Commons License at the end of this column/page. NOTE: all quotes from others are subject to the terms of their copyrights and do not fall under my CC licensing.

Déjà Vu ~ Times blog was established April 24, 2008 while the author was living in southern Utah.

My World / Transworld View

(Subject to change over time: experience/learning/ evidence)

▪ Life is a three-act drama with pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal stages.
▪ The second act boils us down toward test one:^[1] the test of power.
▪ Abusers of power lose it in Act Three when justice and equity take the bench.
▪ Tipping points happen—over time and a fulcrum.
▪ Motes and beams are everywhere.[2]
▪ Folly is a shadow of every ism, including capitalism.
▪ Money talks louder than morals—all the way to the tipping point.
▪ The direction you are facing, matters.[3]
▪ Extremism in the defense of liberty is extremism.[4]
▪ When the blind follow the blind, it is time to blow the whistle.[5]
▪ Opposites attract the same lobbyists.
▪ Solon of Athens espoused, “Nothing in excess;” laissez-faire capitalists pursue “Everything in excess” (except the costs of gross profit).
▪ “Simplify” displayed on the counter-top of a new 21,000 sq. ft. home does not compute.
▪ High fructose corn syrup is not the staff of life. Unfortunately, sweets can twirl your teeth.
▪ Revolving doors between government and business do not admit sufficient fresh air.
▪ The common good doesn’t seem to be very common.
▪ N. American football is a testosterone pageant in tights.[6]
▪ Exploitation is a delusion of grandeur. Stewardship is a grander conclusion.
▪ The excesses of major religions occur when members fail their espoused values. The excesses of ideological tyrannies occur when tyrants act upon theirs.[7]
▪ Praise is best deflected toward God.
▪ Too many who say, “I do, I do,” don’t.
▪ Electronic media has become the Roman Coliseum of the 21st Century.
▪ The First Law of Attraction[8]: the Devil is more obsessed with persons striving to do and be good than with persons who are not.
▪ The trans-rational[9] is beyond most of us, so if it’s “turtles all the way down,”[10] maybe it is “revelation all the way up.”[11]
▪ Egoism accounts for 80% of human problems. The remaining 27% lies with rhetoric and propaganda.

In the near words of Groucho Marx, “These are my [views]; if you don’t like them, I have others.”

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[1] New Testament: Matt. 4:2-4—The first temptation presented to Jesus, to misuse His power to satisfy self-interest/-will/-gratification.
[2] Ref: Matthew 7:3-5
[3] Old Testament: Jer. 32:33
[4] A Barry Goldwater phrase “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” A phrase applauded by some of the GOP. (Suggestion: reverse liberty and justice to see if it sounds more palatable, or is the latter half merely castor-oil for the first?)
[5] Ref: Matthew 15:14
[6] Observation of a friend, MS, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
[7] Ref: Ravi Zacharias
[8] Ref: Adam & Eve; Biblical Job; Jesus in the Wilderness; CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, etc., etc., etc.
[9] Ref: Flatland by Edwin Abbott. In summary, circles, squares and other flatlanders can’t get a fix on spheres and cubes; can’t quite reason themselves into the properties of those in 3-D space. Enlightenment of things beyond (i.e., trans-) Flatland takes condescension from those above & beyond. Any parallels here in 3-D?
[10] Google this phrase if you have not heard of it. It’s just one way of saying we don’t have a rational explanation for some things.
[11] Conditional on the will of the Revelator and the willingness/ ability of the revelatee to receive.

About SMS

A few 6-to-7-Word Memoirs:
▪ Hope for the world comes and goes.
▪ Loves to read more than eat.
▪ Loves to think more than eat.
▪ Eats too much while reading and thinking.
▪ Always running out of time and daylight.
▪ Finds extremes too far from the center.
▪ Troubled by the world’s failure of memory.
▪ Has a tendency to counsel God.
▪ Learned gratitude before it was too late.
▪ Apparently hasn't learned enough gratitude yet.

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No Comments Rationale

1) Time & more needful priorities;
2) Problems observed with many open-comment blogs as so bluntly expressed at http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/comment-policy/ ;

3) People are free to post divergent or convergent views on their own blogs;
4) Learning from comments here would be preferable, but— (see 1, 2, & 3).

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Sunday, August 20, 2023

Back to the (Music) Future, Please? (as in Bee Gees, et al.)

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