Is Headless Heroes more Prescient in '06 than '71?

Sun_Fortune

we can never really know what that album sounded like in 1971, what with the faux-cultural revolution and vietnam happening. But it is definately not of its time. When people were marching for peace and love, MacDaniels showed us through song how it was already over in 1621. Will we ever listen to him????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Were people in 1971 listening to him??????

pickwick33

First off, I don't think McDaniels was alone in saying the things he was saying. That same year, we also got Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Sly & the Family Stone's There's A Riot Goin' On, and I think they were reaching the same conclusion. By 1971, a lot of shit was coming to a head anyway, and the peace-sign fervor of the past few years was wearing off.

Sun_Fortune

First off, I don't think McDaniels was alone in saying the things he was saying. That same year, we also got Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Sly & the Family Stone's There's A Riot Goin' On, and I think they were reaching the same conclusion. By 1971, a lot of shit was coming to a head anyway, and the peace-sign fervor of the past few years was wearing off.

Yeah I definately feel you on that. But if Im not wrong, I think Marvin's and Sly's albums were almost saying that what was happening was more or less a temporary wrong turn that could still be righted by the goodness of man. They are slightly more optimisstic in that they see picketing, rioting, raising conscousness as both a means to and a result of a changing point in human history. I think MacDaniels is unique in his fatalism, saying there is no dance that can undo the bomb, or the evils of human intellect. thus he says, humans are inherrently evil and not fit to be living on the planet. which i believe is a far more profound point. one that seems more and more prescient as we approach the destruction of our planet and thus human kind.

mandrew

sun, i agree. thanks for your thoughts