Great Moments in Music

“Masters of War”- Bob Dylan

I rarely get very angry.  I can be passionate or even stubborn but I rarely get angry.  I come from the Star Wars school of thought where anger leads to the dark side and I don’t need any of that bad shit happening to me all at once.  But there are a few songs that can actually get me very riled up; angry even.  And this is one of them.

What I love most about this song is how well it holds up 40 years later.  There are few people who have the ability to step back and look at what is going on right in front of them.  You forget how small the educated population is in the country; how being a person of intelligence makes you a minority.  Most people would hear this song and either tag this as a “hippie-era movement song” or “just another Dylan song.”  I am not sure how many people would be able to listen this openly today and apply it to exactly what we are facing as a nation, and even as a society. 

From social injustice, to religion to civil rights, Dylan was an activist, but rarely got angry about it in song.  This was a rare instance where it all bottlenecked into a lyrical protest against what is seemingly an obvious truth within our society.   And yet, it fell on deaf ears.  And I fear it still does. 

It takes guts to look at the truth square in the eye.