Maverick Philosopher

Saturday Night at the Oldies: Literary Allusions

Linda Ronstadt, 1967, Different Drum.  Cf. Henry David Thoreau: "“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Byrds, Turn, Turn, Turn, 1965.  Lyrics almost verbatim from the Book Of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8.  Pete Seeger did it first.

Bob Dylan, 1965, Highway 61 Revisited.  Genesis 22.

Fever Tree, The Sun Also Rises.  A great song  by a great but forgotten '60s psychedelic  band. The title alludes to Hemingway's 1926 novel and to Ecclesiastes 1: 1-5:

1The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 3What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun? 4One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but the earth stays for ever. 5The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to his place where he arose. 6

Jaynettes, 1963, Sally Go Round the Roses.  Based on the nursery rhyme Ring a Ring o' Roses (British)or "Ring Around the Rosie" (Stateside).

Inez and Charlie Foxx, 1963, Mockingbird.  An R & B version of the eponymous nursery rhyme.

Serendipity Singers, 1964, Don't Let the Rain Come Down.  Based on ther nursery rhyme, There Was a Crooked Man

Exercise for the reader.  Identify the Biblical references in the following Dylan songs: The Times They Are a'Changin', All Along the Watchtower, When the Ship Comes In, The Gates of Eden. 

A Philosopher's Notes on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3

This post continues my commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, the first installment of which is here. But a brief review is in order. The central theme of the book, you will recall, is the vanity and futility of all human endeavor including such pursuit of wisdom and understanding as the Preacher himself undertakes in the book in question. Surprisingly, this seems to extend even to God's rewarding of the righteous and punishing of the sinner. "This too is vanity and striving after wind." (2:26) Here are some questions that the book suggests:

A Philosopher's Notes on Ecclesiastes, Chapters 1-2

Herewith, a first installment of some chapter-by-chapter observations on the magnificent Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, with an attempt to lay bare some of the philosophical issues lurking below the surface of the text.

1. Chapter 1 sounds the central theme of the Book: Omnia vanitas, "All is vanity." What is the scope of 'all'? Presumably it does not include God, but it does include every human pursuit whether for pleasure, power, possessions, progeny, or any other finite good that mortals strive after. All is vanity and "striving after wind." (1:14) Even the striving for wisdom is a vain pursuit. (1:17-18)