Pure and Easy

Listen while you read:  https://youtu.be/mfFh0h1IF20

There once was a note
Pure and easy
Playin' so free, like a breath rippling by

As people assemble, civilization
Is trying to find a new way to die
But killing is really merely scene changer
All men are bored with other men's lies

Gas on the hillside, oil in the teacup
Watch all the chords of life lose their joy
Distortion becomes somehow pure in its wildness
The note that began all can also destroy

We all know success when we all find our own dreams
And our love is enough to knock down any walls
And the future's been seen as men try to realize
The simple secret of the note in us all

Today is the day the sound curdles mountains
Flowing and blowing each man in its wake
Destroying itself in the end with vibration
There's nothing on earth its challenge can take
Excepting one note . . .

There once was a note.  
Listen.

~  Pete Townshend (The Who)

"Pure and Easy" came up on my iTunes shuffle this morning.  I listened to it with an ear toward a blog post and thought it would make a good choice.  Later in the day, I heard the song on the car radio and decided that the Universe was strongly suggesting that I go for it.  So I listened.

I don't usually include so many of the lyrics in each song here on the page.  I select the ones that poke me, and I also know that you can find the rest yourselves through the magic of Google if you are interested.  But for this song, I could not resist.  Recorded in 1971 (and again in 1974), the song speaks to 2017 in ways that amaze me.  It's all in there:  politics, war, lies, energy, greed, environmental pollution, nuclear disaster, ambition, walls, fracking, explosions . . . Did I miss anything?  Oh, yes.  The simple secret of the note in us all.  Call it love.

I have always thought Pete Townshend a genius.  I spent nearly a decade of my life with a man who was arguably The Who's #1 fan.  So, yes, I traveled near and far many times to see them perform.  And I was thrilled to take two of my kids to a Who concert a decade ago, even though Townshend and Daltry were the only originals by that time.  So we saw half of The Who.  I can even lay claim to "teaching" Tommy and Quadrophenia back in the 70s in a "mini-course" that I designed called Rock Opera.  Ah, those were the days.

But I digress.

How will the world end?  Despotism?  War?  Nuclear disaster?  Destruction of the environment?  It seems that all are possible under the current administration.  But maybe, just maybe, love does trump hate.

"Pure and Easy" is a beauty of a song, lyrically and musically.  That it deals with some dark issues may be disturbing, but there is hope if one will only listen.  There is a note that resonates with harmony and consonance.  Is it the note in us all?  Time will tell.  Meanwhile, listen.