Old Music

I'm going to write about something different today.
It's a music group that started in the 1960's called Peter, Paul, and Mary.

I first heard of their group in college. During our honors class, we had a lesson about music. And one of the songs they played was called "Blowin' in the Wind." I almost never get attached to a song unless I've heard it many times. There are only a handful of exceptions, but this is certainly one of them.
The loveliest line is this:
"How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand."
And, "How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man."

But there are also the powerful anti-war lines such as
"How many years must some people exist before they're allowed to be free."
And "How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died."

I tracked down that song and put it on my computer. After that, I didn't think any more about those singers for many years. At least not beyond that one song.
About three years ago, I was visiting my Portland family when my cousin put a CD in the car player. One song caught my attention. It's called "Where have all the Flowers Gone" (If you haven't heard it, go look that song up so I don't spoil the ending for you. It's lovely).


The song goes, "where have all the flowers gone? Young girls have picked them every one. When will they ever learn?"
And I rolled my eyes, thinking of people ripping out all the beautiful flowers until they've taken the beauty from the meadow (typical environmental studies student reaction).
The song continues:
Where have all the young girls gone? Gone for husbands every one.
Where have all the husbands gone? Gone for soldiers every one.
Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards, every one.

And I groan and think about how depressing this song had suddenly become. So when the final verse starts, "Where have all the graveyards gone?" I brace myself for the worst.

"Gone to flower every one."

I think my mind exploded. I went, "Whoooa, that was amaaazing!"

I kept listening to the CD, duly impressed.
Then all of a sudden "Blowin' in the Wind" comes up, and I realized that all of this music was by the same people who wrote that song I loved from college.
Some of the songs I'd heard elsewhere, like "If I had a Hammer," and even "This Land is Your Land." Though I don't know if they wrote all of them, or if they were singing their own versions.
The song "Lemon Tree" somehow seems to fit very deeply with Kvothe from "The Name of the Wind" book. I always think of that as his song now.
And then when I was watching through old family videos of when I was a video, I found a video of my cousins singing a beautiful version of the song called "Bamboo."

Their music has popped up all over the place. It's certainly gotten its hooks into me as well.