Welcome to From Insults to Respect.
“Blowin’ In The Wind.” “With God On Our Side.” “Masters Of War.” These are songs Bob Dylan has written and performed expressing deep emotions about the wisdom of going to war. As I began to reflect on these songs, to my mind came the pounding of war drums, the cries of vicious insults emanating from a deadly divide, images of fear, pride, disgrace, bombs exploding, and thousands screaming in horror.
And then I found myself pulling up on the internet Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour show, and clicking to hear his specific show on the theme of war. It’s available for free HERE.
The show provides a musical meditation on war, along with Bob’s comments and his reciting of little snippets of relevant philosophical thoughts and poetry.
For many, when the topic of war comes up, they see visions of glory. Bob’s show provides a far wider vision, incorporating thoughts and emotions we would be wise to incorporate into our considerations regarding the possibility of further escalations of violent conflict in the coming days. Here are some highlights from this show.
Highlights
The show begins with a series of brief audio clips of the sounds of a country at war–bombs going off as Marine helicopters are approaching a battle field, a news reporter describing the scene of burning tanks, the voice of President Lyndon Johnson committing an additional 20,000 troops to Viet Nam as that war was escalating, etc. Then we hear Bob introducing the show’s theme:
Back to Theme Time Radio Hour. As you know, we cover a lot of ground here, but this week the subject has a greater gravity than usual.
Plato once said, “Only the dead has seen the end of war,” and sadly it is as true today as it was then.
Edward Starr said, “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.” That’s not true. War is good for the economy, and for medical and scientific advancements. What it is not good for is people. Blood is spilled too often for too little. Bertrand Russell said, “War does not determine who is right, only who is left.” As General Patton once said, “The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his.”
Today we are going to examine battles and beaches, skirmishes and embroglios, we are going to let loose the dogs of war, pay tribute to Mars in Aries, shed a tear for the widows and orphans. We’re mustering cadets, for Theme Time Radio Hour is going to war!
With this, we hear the explosion of bombs. Then Bob tells us, “It’s going to get heavy in here, so while we can, why don’t we start off on a lighter note.”
He then introduces a rather lively, humorous song written by Johnny Mercer, titled, “The G. I. Jive” that makes fun of all of the abbreviations used in the military.
A little later, Bob plays a song by Roy Acuff, “Searching for a Soldier’s Grave.” It’s a real heartbreaker:
Somewhere here among these many soldiers
Of Americans who all died true and brave
That’s where I know I’ll find him resting
So I’m here I’m searching for his grave.You ask me stranger why I made this journey
Why I crossed three thousand miles of rolling waves.
Like many others my darling’s killed in action
That’s why I’m here I’m searching for his grave
Somewhere here among.When I come to this far where he’s sleeping
I know it will cause more heartaches inside
But I long to be by his side once more and tell him
Tell him that I love him and will until I die.
When I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray’s green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915 my country said: Son,
It’s time to stop rambling, there’s work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war.And the band played Waltzing Matilda.When the ship pulled away from the quay
And amid all the tears, flag waving and cheers
We sailed off for Gallipoli.It well I remember that terrible day
When our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell they call Suvla BayWe were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.Oh those that were living just tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
While around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
And when I awoke in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
I never knew there was worse things than dyingOh no more I’ll go Waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me.And the Band played Waltzing Matilda….
There’s quite a bit more tear soaked lyrics to this song, but you get the general idea.
At one point in the show, Bob shares a particular dislike about one aspect of wars:
Some say war is a game that men play using boys as the tools. Truth to tell, you don’t see many men in battle, but you see a lot of boys. Wars used to be fought by men and I think that fairer. Men are the ones waging the war, they ought go out and fight it.
Bob also has a heart that aches for the soldiers who come home from battle and need a helping hand, showing this by playing for us a song titled, “The Forgotten Soldier.” Here’s a few of its lines:
I’m just a poor ex-soldier that’s broken down and blue,
Fought out in the Great War for the old red, white, and blue.
I left my parents and my girl I loved,
To France did go.And fought out on the battlefield through hunger, sleet, and snow.
I saw my buddies dying, and some shellshocked and torn.
Although we never faltered at the battle of Amarne
And we were told when we left home we’d be heroes of the land,
So we came back and found no one would lend a helping hand.
About half way through the show, Bob tells us:
One staple of songs about war is the letter. Sometimes it’s the letter that the guy writes from the battlefield. Other times it’s from home. But the worse kind of letter of all to receive was one written by a military chaplain. It usually had a line in it, something like, “You would be delighted to know that your son died a hero.” It’s a nice sentiment, but I doubt it was really any solace.
Tom Waits recently wrote a song about a letter to a soldier. Here it is, “The Day After Tomorrow.”
Here’s a few of its touching lyrics.
I got your letter today
And I miss you all so much here
I can’t wait to see you all
And I’m counting the days here….I close my eyes every night
And I dream that I can hold youThey fill us full of lies,That everyone buys
‘Bout what it means to be a soldierI still don’t know howI’m supposed to feel
‘Bout all the blood that’s been spilled
Will God on His throne
Get me back home
On the day after tomorrow
You can’t deny
The other side
Don’t want to die
Any more than we do
What I’m trying to say,
Is don’t they pray
To the same God that we do?Tell me, how does God choose?
Whose prayers does he refuse?
Who turns the wheel?
And who throws the dice
On the day after tomorrow?
Peace to the world
I see a baby in a crib
Reaching up for Mama’s arms
Love is rising in their hearts, oh yeah.There is a man standing on the street
Shouting loud above the crowd
Saying amen to everyone around, oh yeah.I see a man who loved his land
Laying lifeless on the ground
He said the time is now
To bring peace to the world
Say yeah, yeah, yeah
Peace to the worldWe build a wall of stone
As high as the trees are tall
Higher then the mountains
Stronger then us all, oh yeahSome day that wall will crumble
Tumble and fall, the sun will shine
And bring peace to us all.
Conclusion
An American flag waving in the breeze along with stirring patriotic music; this can be a fitting end to a Hollywood movie, but before we go marching once again into war, there is far more to consider.
Bob’s show provides us a magnificent musical, literary march through many of the consequences of war too easily ignored. In the end, Bob has us turning our attention toward promoting peace.
In a recent post (see HERE) I describe five factors that have led to the human race dramatically decreasing its use of violence to settle conflicts. I then describe how a president can coordinate all five of these factors to bring about a more peaceful international situation. It is my deeply felt hope that countries, in coming years, will seek to elect leaders that have the wisdom to utilize these factors for the benefit of not just all of us, but for all of the children yet to come.
Some people will enjoy reading this blog by beginning with the first post and then moving forward to the next more recent one; then to the next one; and so on. This permits readers to catch up on some ideas that were presented earlier and to move through all of the ideas in a systematic fashion to develop their emotional intelligence. To begin at the very first post you can click HERE.
Concerned that your romantic partner’s respect for your kissing technique might not be all that you desire? Is it okay to offer a romantic kiss on a first date? Will your date think less of you if you accept a romantic kiss on the first date? A discussion of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour episode on kissing will enlighten us on these and other related topics.
Does she love me? I wanna know
How long do you think that I can wait
Moreover, if instead of lingering in your arms during the kiss, she or he ends it a little too quickly, well, that may be another signal that something is wrong. Given how popular the song was, spending 12 weeks on the country charts, clearly indicates it touched something pretty sensitive in the heart of many a listener.
Bob goes on from here to songs that bring up such topics as passionate kissing, kissing in the dark, french kissing, finding lipstick on your collar, catching your woman kissing your best friend, making up after an argument kissing, and the fact that you don’t have to be rich to enjoy a wonderful kiss. He eventually gets back to our “romantic kissing” topic, with the Everly Brothers song, “Till I Kissed You.” Here’s a few lines of its romantic lyrics:
Never felt like this until I kissed ya’
Well, Lawrence, kissing is an important part of a relationship. And it’s one of those things that you have to be relaxed to do. So the fact that you are getting anxious about it isn’t helping you one bit. However, I can give you a few tips. Armed with this knowledge you’ll feel a little more confident and be able to set things right. First of all, make sure your lips are moist. Run your tongue over your lips once before you kiss her. No one wants to kiss sandpaper. 
Stand close to your partner, you don’t want her to reach too far. Tilt your head slightly to one side. Close your eyes just before your lips meet. Just close them. Some people like to keep their eyes opened during a kiss, but until you understand your partner’s preference, better to play it safe and close your eyes. Open your lips slightly, not like you are about to swallow her whole head, just a little bit, and don’t hold your breath. Breath through your nose. Press your partner’s lips gently. Move your lips in a slow circular motion. Be gentle but firm. And finally, and I can’t stress this enough, have a pocketful of mints. There is no underestimating the fact of good breath. Good luck and happy kissing. I hope it won’t be long till you hear your girl say, “baby let me kiss ya just one more time.” 
That there is a pretty decent description of a decent kiss, but I would add one more suggestion for helping him. Why not encourage him to ask his girlfriend what she would like him to do differently when they kiss? For example, she might prefer to be held within his arms more firmly while they are kissing, or perhaps a little gentler approach would be more to her liking.
Jerry not only sees Margaret home, but opens the door for her, and then, well, they’ve been going steady for some time now, and there are some customs that are very enjoyable. But now Frank has a new problem, should he try on a first date to kiss his date. He sees her to her door, and thanks her for going out with him. No, he should not try to kiss her good night on a first date. But he does ask her for another date soon. 
I grew up in Brooklyn, and before I was married, and was dating back in the late 1960s and early 70s, when I asked a gal out, I did so because I had some romantic feelings for her. If, by the end of the evening, when we arrived back at her home, if I still felt romantic toward her, I would say I had a very pleasant time, and pause to see if she said something similar. If she did say something similar, I would very slowly and gently lean toward her, observing her reaction as I did so, and if I saw no sign of resistance, my eyes would close and our lips would join for a romantic kiss. If she seemed to get into it, I would feel a wonderful high sensation, not only during the kiss, but all the way home. I never had any sense of disrespect toward the gal for joining me in such a good night kiss.
He introduces the song by inviting us to “listen to one of the old masters, the fountainhead from which all music flows, Louis Armstrong, and a song that was the centerpiece for his live performances in the later period of his life. This is a version that he recorded in 19 and 51, ‘A Kiss to Build a Dream on.'”
Leave me one thing before we part
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today’s topic, friends.
Next, Bob tells us a little about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the lead singer of the song he is about to play, “Don’t Take Everybody to Be Your Friend.”
Moving right along, Bob tells us about Moon Mullican, a Texan. Bob surmises the guy must be a friendly fellow from the song he sings, “Make Friends.”
Next, Bob tells us about one of the wisest guys he ever got to know, Muhammad Ali, who once said, “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything at all.”
If you need a friend, here’s some things that makes a good friend: Good friends listen to each other. Good friends help each others solve problems. Friends are dependable. This one is very important, good friends never borrow money. 
Good friends never change the channel on your radio. Good friends will always tell you when you have food in your teeth. Good friends sometimes pay for dinner. And good friends sometimes let you have the last beer. And if you are doing all of those things, maybe you’ll have a friend, like Carol King sings about. Here’s Carol King. She’s going to brighten up even your darkest night. 
When you’re down and troubled,
You just call out my name
If the sky above you grows dark and full of clouds
Now, ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend
Tapestry, the Carol King album this song appears on, was the most popular of the early 1970s era, remaining on the charts for over 6 years. So, on that series of notes, I think we’ll begin to fade out for this week. I hope you enjoyed our little meditation on friends, and I hope you’ll join us again right here at From Insults to Respect.
In contrast, Director Martin Scorsese put out a statement saying he was “overjoyed” that Dylan was awarded the prize. He went on from here to say:
Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite and was one of the original (to quote from one Dylan song) “Masters of war/You that build the big bombs” — i.e. he not only was a major producer of modern cannon, but also was one of the first modern armament producers. In addition, a premature obituary of Nobel, calling him a “merchant of death,” presumably inspired Nobel to turn philanthropist by creating the prizes.
If he ends up landing on the other side, he’d end up in the mucky manure of folks who think that he would be disrespectful of a bunch of fine folks, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Albert Einstein. Such folks were as passionate as anyone with regards to promoting peaceful ways to work out human problems and yet chose to accept a Nobel Prize.
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today’s topic, addiction. When we see we have become addicted to something and find we are having difficulty breaking the habit, we may begin to lose some self respect. And sometimes our actions related to our addictions lead to others losing respect for us. So, it makes sense that we spend a little time giving this topic some thought.
Regular readers of this blog know that from time to time I like to enrich some ideas about a subject with some relevant thoughts that Bob Dylan has shared on his 
Today’s show is all about smoking. We’re not here to encourage it or to glorify it. You’re smart enough to look up all the facts. What we’re going to do over the next hour, is to give a looking and a listen to what happens when the tobacco plant collides with popular culture. As Oscar Wilde once said, “A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure; it is exquisite and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?” We’ll be examining tobacco in all of its forms, from plant, to ash, with stops at cigars, cigarette, snuff, and chewing tobacco. So sit back, smoke em if you got em, and enjoy the next 60 minutes as we blow a few musical smoke rings your way.
Now I’m a fellow with a heart of gold
One of the problems when you smoke is when you’re not smoking, you can have one of those nicotine fits. Here’s how nicotine fits work. Nicotine is physically addictive; it alters your brain functions. Every nerve in your brain’s nervous system has these very tiny neurotransmitters. Nicotine works on some of them, tricking your body that it needs more of these receptors. When you started smoking, your body started responding to the nicotine, and started growing these extra receptors. Over the years, your body has gotten used to these extra receptors, and needs the nicotine to feed them. When you stop smoking, your body thinks your body’s transmitters have been shut off. Your body seeks equilibrium. That’s what the craving for nicotine comes from. When you have a craving for nicotine, the only thing that will help you, is another cigarette. 
Your body does so, according to this theory, because at first the nicotine leads to your receptors firing more frequently than usual. This leads to feeling more alert, which some of us experience as rather pleasant. But your body recognizes that if you were to keep firing those receptors at the pace that occurs when you first started smoking, certain functions in your body will end up exhausted. Thus, your body starts to reduce the number of these receptors. In the scientific literature, this process is called “down regulation” or “tolerance.”
However, shortly after you pause from smoking even for a few minutes, you end up not having enough of these receptors to do what they were originally designed to do. It is this shortage of receptors that occurs when there is not enough nicotine in your system to keep your receptors firing at a rate that would typically occur if you were not addicted to the drug that leads to the uncomfortable, sluggish, stressful feelings that lead to a craving for the next cigarette. When you light up, you feel relief because now the reduced amount of receptors are sufficient to carry out your major life functions in a less distressed manner.
Theoretically, this same process is largely the reason why people become addicted to other substances, such as alcohol, caffeine, illegal drugs, and even the drugs that psychiatrists prescribe, such as the so called antianxiety drugs (anxiolytics), antidepressants, and ADHD stimulants such as Ritalin. They all have the potential of creating for addicted people the illusion that they are functioning better than they did before they started consuming the addictive drug.
Dim lights, thick smoke, and loud loud music
We’re going to start off with George Zimmerman and the Thrills doing “Ain’t Got No Money to Pay for this Drink.”
“Just give me a drink,” says Mr. Birnam with exquisite anguish.
Well you thought I’d be waitin’ up when you came home last night
Beer is, it’s not just a drink to me, it represents something, it reminds me of being in college and high school, and discovering getting drunk, and having a sixteen pack in the trunk of my friend, Tommy’s car, drinking it hot out of the can in a parking lot in Las Vegas. Something about beer equals good times to me. 
I love java, sweet and hot
Now when I get up in the morning
Well, there you have it, a little Bob Dylan meditation on the nature of addiction. As I listened to his shows, it came vividly clear to me that many people reach a point at which they decide that they want to get off the merry-go-round of their addiction. When this occurs, what is the best way to go about doing this?
From time to time, I like to enrich some ideas that I introduced in earlier posts with some relevant thoughts that Bob Dylan has shared on his 
Are the drugs used to treat ADHD as safe and effective as the pharmaceutical industry claim? Are many of the students now classified as having ADHD really more aptly construed as having an “attention priority difference?” Are many of those who are classified really just the youngest students in their class? Are there safer ways than drugs to deal with the challenges that are associated with the behavior patterns that lead to an ADHD classification? These are some of the questions that I addressed in my earlier posts. Let’s see what Bob has to say about this.
What a day for a daydream
Mr. Kramer is a professional photographer, who got a sweet deal when he was hired to follow Bob around for a little over a year to take pictures of him at home, going around different places, and before and during performances. Here’s a little of what he observed.
“he would grab at moments that were available, often writing in a small black looseleaf notebook, in which he probably wrote new material or kept ideas. He would interrupt something in order to glimpse a TV screen to see another performer. I’ve seen him use ten minutes working out melodies on a backstage piano while someone was out locating the key to his dressing room.” (p. 36)
“No matter how scatter-brained the type of a man’s successive fields of consciousness may be, if he really cares for a subject, he will return to it incessantly from his incessant wanderings, and first and last do more with it, and get more results from it, than another person whose attention may be more continuous during a given interval, but whose passion for the subject is of a more languid and less permanent sort.
In typical American classrooms, a subject is brought up by teachers at a given time and for a specific period of time. Those in the class who have the ability to switch their attention to what the teacher brings up at a given time and then stay focussed throughout the scheduled time, are often more highly valued by teachers then those students who are less skilled at this. Teachers often refer to the Special Education Department those children who are not following along in lockstep with their schedule and they urge parents to take these children to doctors to get prescriptions for drugs. Like Bob, I’m not comfortable with this.
“
Trying to get the kids off your hands by sticking them in front of a TV or computer game terminal may be a pretty enticing thing to do. If that doesn’t work, it is oh, so easy to just give them some pills.
When I say, “take the responsibility” I don’t mean to imply that parents should blame themselves. Blame suggests that parents should seek to punish themselves whenever their approach at discipline doesn’t work well. Punishing themselves in such situations only makes a challenging situation worse.
What I mean by taking responsibility is that we recognize within ourselves that we are dissatisfied with where things are at. We observe in a nonjudgmental manner how this goes along with some physical sensations in our body–perhaps a tightening in our chest, and tension around the forehead. Perhaps we might observe ourselves making some nasty comments about ourselves because of old habits. Although we observe these nasty comments, we don’t accept them as correct, just habitual statements learned oh, so many years ago. But as we observe all of this, from time to time we consider the attitude that these sensations that we are experiencing have the potential of spurring us to make some improvement in our own actions.
Today, we turn to Bob’s show that explores the theme of “laughter,” a topic that is related to insults and respect in a number of ways. For instance, some people throw insults at us in a playful way in the hopes of provoking laughter. If we learn to take it well, laugh along, and show we don’t take ourselves too seriously, this potentially can enhance our reputation. 
Then there are situations during which someone throws out an insult in the hopes of humiliating us, and it leads to derisive laughs from those who are listening. In such situations, if we can learn to keep our heads up high while making allowances for the level of maturity of the insulter, this too can potentially enhance our reputation.
The song deepens our understanding of both laughter and sadness because it reveals how some people think they might lose some respect if they appear, even to themselves, to be sad over the loss of a love. Better, they think, to appear to be laughing and joking about the whole mess. And yet, the song became a big hit in large part because in actuality most of us can deeply relate to someone who experiences at such times genuine sadness. Meanwhile, some may actually see through your pretense of taking the breakup so lightly. If they do, might this enhance or diminish the respect they have for you?
“A lot of people laugh and joke no matter how they feel inside. The tradition of the sad clown goes back to at least 1892 when the opera “Pagliacci” was first performed. The opera is about the saddest of clowns. Enrico Caruso’s recordings of the arias of “Pagliacci” were the first records to sell over one million copies.”
Next up, Bob plays us a little number by Clyde McPhatter, called “Everyone’s Laughing” that has a related theme. Let’s take a quick look at some of the lyrics:
The singer of the song just labels the laughers, “fair weather friends.” Perhaps it would show more insight if he realized that perhaps the laughers were laughing because they knew deep inside that this type of breakup either has happened to them, or may very well at some point in their lives happen to them. Thus, they laughed because they are relieved that they are not the only ones that have to go through such a heartbreaking experience. Some sympathy for the laughers would be a mark, for me, of a higher level of maturity than the simple name calling that appears in the song’s lyrics.
In an earlier post (“
However, as we think upon this a little more, it may suddenly occur to us that we do have some reasons to feel threatened. At this point our emotional center, having already been sensitized from the earlier threat perception, leads to our laughter quickly turning to sadness.
However, something about the joke might bring up a memory of something sad. Since the threat region of our brain has already become sensitized from the fear of not getting the joke, we may quickly fall into sadness.
Don’t mind the rain drops
The song is in a lively tempo, and is pretty cheery. Moments afterwards, however, Bob waxes philosophical with a quote from the Nobel Prize winning writer, Herman Hesse–“Seriousness is an accident of time. It consists in putting too high a value on time. Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.”
They have that warmth, they have that dynamic, that relationship; you love them, you want to hug them. I think comedians should never be better than the audience. I hate a comedian that comes out and he’s slick and he’s cool, and he’s got these one liners. It won’t resonate, it won’t mean anything to me. I want a comedian that gets their hands dirty. You know, I like someone to laugh at them. I love everything about them. They were just lovable geniuses.”
