Turn Turn Turn to California and The Byrds

This is the song "Turn Turn Turn" as performed by Los Angeles band The Byrds in 1965. I think the world needs songs like this again. Watching the news has become a stressful task, and I find myself wondering more and more, "Isn't there any positive news?"

This song reminds us that there's "a time for peace; I swear it's not too late." With the exception of the last line of the song, this song was otherwise adapted from the King James version of the Bible, Ecclasiastes 3:1. It is the only number one pop song I can think of that contained Bible verses in the lyrics. And what a hip musical interpretation at that! This song is still cool nearly 45 years later. Thank you to The Byrds, and also to the composer of this song, Pete Seeger, for doing such a beautiful job. And thank you to King Solomon, who some believe wrote this book in the Bible. It's awesome how lyrics which are extremely old from the past can still be applied to today.

There will be plenty more written in this blog about California in the future, but I wanted to start off with a California band. After all, where would hippie culture be without California?

The Byrds disbanded the year I was born, and by the time I started school, there were no hippies to be found anywhere anymore it seemed. I barely remember ever seeing any when I was little. I have small recollections of guys with pony tails, or vans that had murals painted on the side. I remember when I was about five years old, I saw a man with his hair back in a pony tail, with a bandana wrapped around the top of his head, and one loop earring on one ear. I was so intrigued by him; I thought he was a pirate.

By the time I was a teenager, I knew I had missed out on something big by being born too late. I loved the idea that so many people joined together simply because they wanted peace. Is it possible to have a movement like that again, this time without heroin and hard drugs getting involved? A time for peace... I swear it's not too late.