I'd like to teach the world to sing...

Does anyone else miss the days when songs actually meant something?  Not to sound like an "old timer" at 43, but I have to confess, I do occasionally pine for the days when I was a child and the music streaming from our radios and 8-track tape players (yeah, I remember those!) was a bit more cerebral and considerably less self-focused than a good part of what I hear on the airwaves of today.


Instead of "...I'm richer than you'll ever hope to be / I love me some drugs and money / I wanna **** that chick...", much of the music of the 70's went more along these lines (click the song titles for links to YouTube video of performances):

I'd like to build the world a home

and furnish it with love

Grow apple trees and honey bees

and snow white turtle doves

I'd like to teach the world to sing

in perfect harmony

I'd like to hold it in my arms

and keep it company

I'd like to see the world for once

all standing hand in hard

And hear them echo through the hills

for peace throughout the land

I'd like to teach the world to sing

in perfect harmony,

A song of peace that echoes on

and never goes away...

                               ("I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", © 1971, The Coca Cola Corporation)

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel *, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum *
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer
Put away that DDT * now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They paved paradiseAnd put up a parking lot

                                   ("Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, ©1970, Siquomb Publishing Company)

You could argue that "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", originally written and performed as part of a Coca Cola ad campaign or "Big Yellow Taxi", which lapses between concern for the environment and lost love (the titular "big yellow taxi" refers to a police car, which were yellow in Joni Mitchell's hometown of Toronto) are sappy and sentimental.  In fact, I might agree to an extent; but my point is more about the subject matter they address:  Jim Croche, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, John Lennon and a host of others certainly experienced the drug culture and free love that were a part of the 60's and 70's, but even with a penchant for experimentation and a free-wheeling spirituality that tried to synthesize transcendental meditation, Christianity, secular humanism and a variety of other beliefs, the net effect of much of their music was a cry for peace, a seeking after balance and human decency and mutual respect.  

My thoughts are filtered through the mind of a Christian believer, and I can't completely put that aside.  Certainly there was a good deal of music in my childhood that was experimental, some that was obscene--but for the most part, it feels in retrospect as if there was much less self-focus and self-promotion.  Croche sang about "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and advised us "You Don't Mess Around with Jim"--but most of his work wasn't about abusing women, amassing wealth and glorifying excess.  The 70's singers seem, if anything, to have had a note of apology about their own shortcomings--a sense of some level of personal humility--that's much more appealing to me than today's self-promoting, self-absorbed rappers and rockers.

If you're interested, let me add that I don't just like 70' music; in fact, I enjoy a wide range of current and "oldies" tunes, and I like a lot more than the so-called peace songs and ballads.  Creedence Clearwater Revival, Pink Floyd and Meatloaf, along with Waylon Jennings and Tanya Tucker, Lynryd Skynyrd and Charlie Daniels shaped my musical heritage.  I like rock, pop, country, soul--you name it.  I'm not much for rap, but I can appreciate some of it as artistic, though much of it feels far from artistic to me.  

I just long for the days when music encouraged us to love peace and harmony, not drugs and drink and sex.  Doesn't the world have enough violence and injustice and immorality already?  I can't say radio dictates what the world does but, like television news media, I believe it probably influences a lot of listeners, younger ones in particular.  Anyone have a song about peace?  How about a sappy love song or a hippie environmental tune?  I'm all ears!