DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21216#0071
The young "kids" have grown out of the innocence of the Woodstock era (the
"garden" which Joni Mitchell in her song "Woodstock" says people are trying to
get back to). Baez wants to leave the sixties behind and get on with the enor-
mous tasks ahead necessary to avoid global annihilation. She quotes Gandhi's
phrase, which her mentor Ira Sandperl refers to in his book^4 Little Kinder:
"A seeker after truth" Gandhi insisted "has to be as tender as a lotus and
as hard as granite". And of course he meant simultaneously. (Sandperl, 1974
p. 21).
Baez is describing these young people as she would like to have them, as seekers
after truth, and nonviolent "warriors of the sun". She is, in effect, giving them a
description of what they might become andalready inpart are. She says of them:
They want something; they want to believe in something. And we're trying
to figure out what we can give them - something maybe where their lives can
have a meaning and make a difference. (Interview for S.F. Chronicle by C.
Ahlgren, June '81).
The typology, especially in it's triadic form, is not the essence of the song but
rather the contrasting of hoplessness and hope, and the reiteration of hope in
the chorus. The song is for young "western kids" who are faced with a crisis,
according to Baez, of having to find out:
Who are they [the powers that be], do they care about us? That's life or death
but it isn't that immediate [as the crisis refugees face]. It puts them in the
position of trying to figure out their worth, their power, whether they're
just gonna blow out on drugs or whether they're gonna do something about
it. (ibid)
a) drugs versus no drugs
The question then is: will the young opt out for the desensitizing hedonism
depicted in verse two of her song or will they choose the risky venture of fight-
ing nonviolently against the powers that be to make a better world? Baez has no
illusions that her third verse actually refers to a majority of the young people
today. She calls them "the minority" (in a televised interview with Sandy Hill
on Good Morning America, ABC, Jan 28, '81). But the chorus takes what might
happen and puts it in the present. The choice having been made on the side of
hope. It is as an act of encouragement for those wavering between action and
despair, and not as an analytical typology of the young, that the song has its
meaning. It is more a reflection of what Baez wishes for young people than a
dispassionate account of a Status quo. The first verse consists mostly of referen-
ces to musicians populär in the sixties (Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Doors,
66
"garden" which Joni Mitchell in her song "Woodstock" says people are trying to
get back to). Baez wants to leave the sixties behind and get on with the enor-
mous tasks ahead necessary to avoid global annihilation. She quotes Gandhi's
phrase, which her mentor Ira Sandperl refers to in his book^4 Little Kinder:
"A seeker after truth" Gandhi insisted "has to be as tender as a lotus and
as hard as granite". And of course he meant simultaneously. (Sandperl, 1974
p. 21).
Baez is describing these young people as she would like to have them, as seekers
after truth, and nonviolent "warriors of the sun". She is, in effect, giving them a
description of what they might become andalready inpart are. She says of them:
They want something; they want to believe in something. And we're trying
to figure out what we can give them - something maybe where their lives can
have a meaning and make a difference. (Interview for S.F. Chronicle by C.
Ahlgren, June '81).
The typology, especially in it's triadic form, is not the essence of the song but
rather the contrasting of hoplessness and hope, and the reiteration of hope in
the chorus. The song is for young "western kids" who are faced with a crisis,
according to Baez, of having to find out:
Who are they [the powers that be], do they care about us? That's life or death
but it isn't that immediate [as the crisis refugees face]. It puts them in the
position of trying to figure out their worth, their power, whether they're
just gonna blow out on drugs or whether they're gonna do something about
it. (ibid)
a) drugs versus no drugs
The question then is: will the young opt out for the desensitizing hedonism
depicted in verse two of her song or will they choose the risky venture of fight-
ing nonviolently against the powers that be to make a better world? Baez has no
illusions that her third verse actually refers to a majority of the young people
today. She calls them "the minority" (in a televised interview with Sandy Hill
on Good Morning America, ABC, Jan 28, '81). But the chorus takes what might
happen and puts it in the present. The choice having been made on the side of
hope. It is as an act of encouragement for those wavering between action and
despair, and not as an analytical typology of the young, that the song has its
meaning. It is more a reflection of what Baez wishes for young people than a
dispassionate account of a Status quo. The first verse consists mostly of referen-
ces to musicians populär in the sixties (Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Doors,
66