You Have A Right To Your Opinion

My Father Urged Alan [lomax] Not To Repeat The Mistakes Of The European Folklorists Who, A Century Ago, Had Collected These Peasant Songs And Then Arranged Them For Part Choir And Accompanied Them On Piano, And Then Told The Young People Of Their Country, "don't Change A Note, This Is Our Sacred Heritage." Father Said, Whether It's A Fiddle Tune Or A Gospel Song, Learn It Right Off The Record From The People Who Grew Up With It. Don't Just Learn It From A Piece Of Paper.

We Will Never Know Everything. But I Think If We Can Learn Within The Next Few Decades To Face The Danger We All Are In, I Believe There Will Be Tens Of Millions, Maybe Hundreds Of Millions, Of Human Beings Working Wherever They Are To Do Something Good.

Well, It's One Of The Things That Will. Words Are Good, And Words Help Us Become The Leading Species On Earth To The Point Where We Are Now Ready To Wipe Ourselves Off The Earth. But I Think That All The Arts Are Needed, And Sports Too, And Cooking, Food, And All These Different Ways Of Communication. Smiles, Looking Into Eyes Directly, All These Different Means Of Communication Are Needed To Save This World. But Certainly A Great Melody

I Was 16 When I Came To New York. I Had Graduated To A Tenor Banjo In The School Jazz Band, And It Was Kind Of Boring - Just Chords, Chords, Chords. Then My Father Took Me To A Mountain Music And Dance Festival In Asheville, North Carolina, And There I Saw Relatively Uneducated People Playing Great Music By Ear.

And When One Person Taps Out A Beat, While Another Leads Into The Melody, Or When Three People Discover A Harmony They Never Knew Existed, Or A Crowd Joins In On A Chorus As Though To Raise The Ceiling A Few Feet Higher, Then They Also Know There Is Hope For The World.