for UU Band of Writers, June 2, 2019
prompt/theme: I don't know
When Amy gave me the prompt "I don't know" for the June meeting, I knew I had to play this song, " What's Happening?! " by The Byrds, from their album Fifth Dimension, released in the Summer of 1966. The psychedelic summer.
David Crosby wrote and sings.
I don't know who you think you are
I don't know what you're doing here
I don't know what's goin' on here
I don't know how it's supposed to be
I... I don't have the vaguest notion of, whose it is, or what it's all for
I don't know, and I'm not cryin'
Laughing mostly, as you can see
A zen moment, or LSD trip, or mystic insight, realizing that the concepts with which we are programmed, and that we usually assume define our lives, can melt away when we wake up.
But since this is Band of Writers, I added what else I don't know.
I don't know----
why other people do what they do
why other people pick on me
why so many Americans insist on being ignorant
why other people don't know that you can't take it with you
I don't know---
what comes next
what's going on down under me (referring to another David Crosby line from De Ja Vu by Crosby Stills Nash and Young)
who or what created me
how did life arise
who or what set off the big bang
how many universes there are
just how far the holography goes
I don't know---
whether I make a difference, and for whom
how I will die
how I can do better, and be all I can be
how I can be sure to do the right things
how I can fulfill my fantasies and desires, and unfold all my gifts
I don't know---
how I can communicate
how I can get people to agree with me
how I can save life in this world
how I can change the world
how I can let go, always
how I can trust, always
how I can know and be the divine, more and more
how I can remember that I already know
Some comments on the song, at this you tube site
John McLean
5 years ago
this song blows my mind
Max Merry
2 years ago
Philoso-rock!?!? Crosby ponders the meaning of life and McGuinn responds with a series of astonishing guitar-breaks. As I grew older and broadened my musical horizons, I found that I was comparing this song to Charles Ives's The Unanswered Question, where a forlorn trumpet makes a similar request amid indifferent, swirling strings! Crosby's yearning for answers recurs in Laughing, from his first "solo" album.
Sands of time
2 years ago
A long time ago, but like yesterday.
Tony Downing
2 years ago
I used to play this more than Eight Miles High and that's saying something.
my 400+ all-time favorite rock songs
#167 What's Happening, #115 Eight Miles High and #225 De Ja Vu
Title Track 5D Fifth Dimension #66
Full album