Music, Memory and Meaning

From rock music to new life in Christ:

I had an interesting experience last night. At the best of times, I am a fitful sleeper – that is, when I do finally fall off to sleep. So in the middle of the night I awoke with part of an old 60s rock song in my head for some reason. I knew it was a Jethro Tull song, and the main phrase that whirled around in my mind was about ‘looking to the sun’.

So when I arose this morning, I did a quick google search. Yes, it appeared right away: “Look into the Sun”. It comes from their 1969 album Stand Up. If you are an old hippy like I am, you will remember the song and the album. You can have a listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_N51GePbY8

It is a quite beautiful song in many ways, and not one of their harder rock tunes. Indeed, if one thinks of Jethro Tull and all their memorable songs from the late 60s and early 70s, probably the main songs that immediately spring to mind for most folks would include these:

Aqualung
Cross-Eyed Mary
Living in the Past
My God
A New Day Yesterday
Teacher
Thick as a Brick
We Used to Know

I quite liked Jethro Tull back then, but my hardcore drug, rock music and hippy lifestyle came to an abrupt end when I became a Christian in mid-1971. But before that time, I was fully into the rock scene, and I knew quite a lot about all the various groups. I remember once, perhaps in 1971, that a fellow hippy asked me about the Jethro Tull guitarist.

I replied by saying that Mick Abrahams was their original lead guitarist but left in 1968 and formed Blodwyn Pig. He was replaced by Martin Barre in ’68. The stoned-out hippy was impressed by my musical knowledge – at least my rock music knowledge.

Music, community and purpose

I had seen most of the major rock groups in concert back then, but not Jethro Tull. But getting back to this 1969 song, it is found on various websites. The YouTube version that I landed on had almost 3000 likes and almost a half million views. And there were 384 comments under it, many from other old hippies.

And it is the content of those comments that I want to dwell on here. In those comments, so many older folks were relishing being reminded of and listening to that song. Many shared their memories of it. Many waxed lyrical about what a moving song it was for them, what a great album that was, what a fantastic group they were, and what heady times those were back then. Here are just a few those comments:

– I sang this sad song my first evening in Vietnam, 1971.

– Lump in my throat, tear in my eye, the genius of Jethro Tull.

-My dad used to love this song, I used to play the album when it was first released and when this track played I could tell he was listening intently although he never admitted to liking it. He’s long gone now but whenever I hear this track I can still see him sat in his chair, he would pause and stop reading his paper then start again when the song finished, without saying a word.

– This does something to my heart. Joy and sadness all at the same time. Very beautiful.

– I hear this and the emotion just bubbles up. I came back from Viet Nam in ’71 and must have listened to this album a thousand times. I saw them at the Forum in Inglewood Ca. in ’72 or ’73 and they played this.

– The music of this time was coming from a spiritual place now music has gone back to vanity and materialism.

– Think that I was a 15 year old girl, living in The Netherlands when this album was released. Wow, what a revelation, never ever could forget it. Went with me during my life’s experiences. Love all kind of music, have a broad taste but this album will always be important. Being a granny now of 65, I feel blessed to growing up when so many great bands and so much great music came out.

– We have a bond.

– Each time I listen to this I am transported to driving my 1972 Volkswagen from Minnesota to California by way of Mississippi, as I traversed the country as an Air Force Airman. still brings tears to my eyes.

– This whole album is amazingly good! Gives me great memories of times long went by…

That is a whole lotta nostalgia going on in those comments. And to be honest, I was a bit moved reading them. Listening to the song once again not only brought back many memories of the music scene back then, but of the whole counterculture that surrounded it. The comments, and the memories of this song, speak to a sort of community where people were bonded together.

Of course as I have said so often, the utopianism and romanticism of the Woodstock era was simply not sustainable. That is because it was built on sinking sand, and not the solid rock of Jesus Christ (see Matthew 7:24-27). We hippies might have had many good aspirations, eg., lots of love and peace. But we lacked the right foundation to make it happen.

And as I have written before, many of us were on a journey, looking for answers. Drugs and music united so many of us. And something like Woodstock (held on August 15 to 18 of ‘69) became almost a holy experience. We thought it was bringing heaven to earth. Of course it did not, as the Altamont concert in California a few months later (December 6) clearly proved. See this piece for example: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2014/11/07/the-rolling-stones-the-end-of-the-hippy-dream-and-my-story/

Those were heavy-duty days back then, but they had to come to an end. The simple truth is this: as long as sin and selfishness reign supreme, no amount of rock music, “free” sex, bags full of dope, and good vibes will cure what really ails us. The sin question must be dealt with, and the only solution for this is to look at the Incarnation.

God’s Son took on human form and came to show us the Father. And he did not just tell us what we needed – he actually did something about it, dying on the cross in our place so that we can have the chance to be reconciled with God.

By taking the punishment we deserved upon himself, he made it possible for us to have REAL peace and love. Not the counterfeits of the world, but genuine divine peace and love. We get peace with God through Christ, and we have the love of God poured into our hearts.

Another old hippy who got saved back then did sing about this very thing. See Keith Green’s “You Put This Love in My Heart”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wtZmkLmIPU

He was born in the same year that I was, and became a Christ-follower in the mid-70s. He too looked back on his old life and saw that without Christ it was ultimately just a dead end-street. Like me and so many other stoned-out hippies, he finally found what he was really looking for.

In fact, he finally discovered that “There Is a Redeemer”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cen-Jt4IPo

Yes, I still enjoy listening to Jethro Tull and many of the other groups from back in my wild youth. But I thank God that my time in the counterculture was not the last thing I experienced. That secular revolution was immediately followed by the Jesus Revolution.

So many of us saw the light back then. It is my prayer that all those who read this will also come to the light of Christ. As Jesus said in John 8;12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Why not seek him now if you have not already done so?

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