“Ballad of a Thin Man” (aka “Mr. Jones”) by Bob Dylan is/was the Peace Song of the Day for December 18th.
Augustus, The Duke of Peace, would like to dedicate this song to all those who judge before they listen.
Continue reading Can’t you see something is happening?: Peace Song for 12/18/2011 (catch-up)
Masters of War by Bob Dylan is the Peace Song of the Day for Saturday, September 10, 2011. When Duchess Susanna heard Duke Augustus playing this song this morning, she requested he post it as it the Peace Song of the Day because she had to leave to go bring music into the world. Duke Augustus find these to be some of Dylan’s most straight-forward lyrics, but there still seems to be room for disagreement. The song was released in the spring of 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Wikipedia claims that Nat Hentoff‘s liner notes frame the song as a protest against Cold War arms build-up.The liner note themselves seem to give the song a broader context:
“Masters of War” startles Dylan himself. “I’ve never really written anything like that before,” he recalls. “I don’t sing songs which hope people will die, but I couldn’t help it in this one. The song is a sort of striking out, a reaction to the last straw, a feeling of what can you do?” The rage (which is as much anguish as it is anger) is a away of catharsis, a way of getting temporary relief from the heavy feeling of impotence that affects many who cannot understand a civilization which juggles it’s own means for oblivion and calls that performance an act toward peace.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpMEq1vmgpI] Continue reading Masters of War: Peace Song of the Day 9/10/11
Duke Augustus writes: “Shelter from the Storm” by Bob Dylan is the Royal Peace Song of the Day for Saturday, August 27, 2011. Shelter and safety are on everyone’s mind as Hurricane Irene makes landfall on the East Coast. Yesterday, a Long Island, New York restaurateur told Duke Augustus that he received a telephone call from a friend in the Louisiana. The Louisianian had lived through Hurricane Katrina, and was concerned that his Long Island friend was prepared. The restaurateur assured his friend that his NY establishment was far in-land, and was windowless, but he appreciated the concern. For those in the path of Hurricane Irene, there is emergency information at the end of this post.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsyqQmnI0gc] Continue reading Shelter from the Storm: Peace Song for 8/27/2011