OLD HIPPIE GETS A CLUE...

I gotta admit that I always liked Neil Young' music. But Neil has finally admitted what the rest of us know. Music can't change the world. Now, music is a big part of all of our lives for sure.

It has always interested me that I can remember the words to songs I learned when I was 4 years old, but can't remember what I ate for breakfast this morning. Music is powerful for sure. And over the history of mankind, musicians have tried to influence people with their songs.

It does work, but only on an individual basis. I know that I came to Jesus while hearing a choir sing "The Old Rugged Cross." I had a lump in my throat the size of Texas. I could barely breathe, and knew I had to get down there to get fully introduced to the Savior. I was just a little kid, but I swear I could have hurt adults if they had gotten in my way.

But that is another story. Neil Young has finally admitted that music can't change the world. And he is right. When I read this article, I thought back on how different songs have impacted my life (for good, or ill). I (let me get my word book...) surmised that those songs changed my world, but not "the world."

You can read the whole article here.

A few quotes from the article:

Canadian folk rock legend Neil Young said he has lost all hope that music can change the world, as he presented a documentary about his 2006 anti-war concert tour at the Berlin film festival on Friday.

"I know that the time when music could change the world is past. I really doubt that a single song can make a difference. It is a reality," Young told reporters.

"I don't think the tour had any impact on voters."

And:

Young said he deliberately included interviews with unimpressed critics and soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan in the documentary of his band's "Freedom of Speech" reunion tour, which earned them both praise and death threats.

"Otherwise I thought it would just feel like a bunch of old hippies. And nobody would care. I would not, I would have left," said Young, who directs his films under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey.

As I thought through all of this I realized that the song, "The Old Rugged Cross" didn't change my life. The real cross did. The song just put a punctuation mark on what the real cross was about.

Maybe Neil understands now. You've got to have a righteous cause to sing about. Music in general, and a song in particular only resonates if the person hearing it already has a sense in their soul that you are right (or wrong). If what you sing about doesn't strike a chord in the heart of folks...well, it falls on deaf hearts.

If Neil failed to convince people through music that the wars are wrong...well...