Going For A Song: Early Days 9

For many, in the sixties, drugs certainly seemed to be at the centre of the search for a "new consciousness". As an observer
of what was unfolding around me, but not seeking my liberation in that way, I would say that over-all, with the "flower
power" movement coming into being, and an unprecedented questioning of a way of life that had gone before, that there was
a break through towards a "kinder and gentler" approach to living, that took the harsh edges off what had previously
pertained. In music, there was probably the biggest revolution of all, away from the sugary and frothy songs that went before, to music that was not as far removed from real life. A certain "boy from a tropical river not born ino an affluent society" sanguiness has helped me survive over the years, and it tells me that the way to a new consciousness, can never really be through a magic potion, but may come out of a crutchless journey into human inner space, and applying the lessons learnt through this, to life. I live with a sense that there are no short-cuts to nirvana, but that lightening strikes of illumination, like the one experienced by Saul on the road to Damascus, may be possible, although we should not hold our breaths waiting for them, as we keep journeying. Although I didn't engage in what seemed to be the statutory experimenting with substances all around me... my journey through the candle lit rooms of the folk scene... gave me a hope I didn't have playing in the cock-tail bars... exposed me to an over-all better quality of song than I had known, up to then... underlined
that songs should have, at least some of the time, some social content...introduced me to singing other than crooning, which
I needed badly... and prepared me for my journey as a song maker which I've been on, ever since that time of flowers and changes.......................Quester.