A Million Ways To Laugh
Rain had fallen all day. At dusk I had just turned on the ignition; the motor came to life along with the radio. In reverse, I slowly backed the few feet toward the road, half listening. The announcer said that the president was about to hold a press conference on the covid-19 crisis. By reflex I changed the channel to WXRT. Why listen to anyone who has shown himself to be a compulsive liar? Music makes more sense than trying to “ferret out” the truth beneath the lies.
This song was playing. Somehow in a lifetime of listening to rock, this was the first time to hear this tune. My spirit reversed by the lyric, and by the energy of creation present through the musicians instruments. Indeed, are we not the instruments when everything is in sync?
Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788–September 21, 1860), in Will and Representation had this to say about music:
Music is as immediate an objectification and copy of the whole will as the world itself is, indeed as the Ideas are, the multiplied phenomenon of which constitutes the world of individual things. Therefore music is by no means like the other arts, namely a copy of the Ideas, but a copy of the will itself, the objectivity of which are the Ideas. For this reason the effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.
Put plainly, music unlike all other art-forms expresses directly, in unmediated form the very power of creation. I have thought so many times. This song is one of those occasions, when something new, powerful, and beautiful was offered in the tune and lyric.
Join Together
by The Who
When you hear the sound a coming
Hear the drummer drumming
I want you to join together with the band
We don’t move in any ‘ticular direction
And we don’t make no collection
Won’t you to join together with the band?
Do you really think I care
What you eat or what you wear?
We want you to join together with the band
There’s a million ways to laugh
And every one’s a path
Come on and join together with the band
Everybody join (join together)
I want you to join (join together)
A-come on and (join together with the band)
We need you to (join together)
Come on and (join together)
Come on and (join together with the band)
You don’t have to play
You can follow or lead the way
I want you to join together with the band
We don’t know where we’re going
But the season’s right for knowing
I want you to join together with the band
It’s the singer not the song
That makes the music move along
I want you to join together with the band
This is the biggest band you’ll find
It’s as deep as it is wide
Come on and join together with the band
Hey-hey-hey-hey-hey (join together)
Well, everybody come on (join together)
Come on and join (join together with the band)
We need you to (join together)
Everybody, come on (join together)
Hey, hey, hey (join together with the band)
Join together with the band
Writer Pete Townshend
At songs conclusion the announcer commented that how cool it would be if the world ends in a great drum solo by Keith Moon. I agreed.
I understand the Dow Jones dropped two thousand points yesterday. Another end of the world?