I saw on Saturday that Graham Nash of the Hollies and Crosby, Stills and Nash has finally been recognised for his charitable work and lifetime contribution to music. Well done Graham and richly deserved.
Surely one of the most genuine people in an industry hardly noted for such qualities, Graham has been performing and writing music now for nigh on 50 years. Of all the absolutely beautiful music he has blessed us with, one song in particular stands out over the rest.
It is the song which proved to be the catalyst for his exit from the Hollies to California in 1969; Teach your children. The Hollies didn't want to perform this sort of music so Graham departed to find somebody who did. So a big thank you to the Hollies who inadvertently gave the world Crosby, Stills and Nash with their soaring melodies and lyrics to stir the soul.
Forty years after the song was first released, we have just endured an election in which the "Broken Society" became a popular theme. I'm not sure that our society is broken, but I do think it is badly in need of getting to know itself again. Graham's lyrics in Teach your children would be a great starting point:
You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.
Counter Melody To Above Verse:
Can you hear and do you care and
Cant you see we must be free to
Teach your children what you believe in.
Make a world that we can live in.
Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
How prescient is the lyric "Must have a code that you can live by"? Whether we are atheist, religious or agnostic, we all need a basic code to guide us in our lives. This code is equally as important for the teenager starting out as it is for the 65 year old coming up for retirement.
In a world obsessed with image, marketing and popularity, the lyric"And so become yourself" is the most simple, appropriate advice in the book for everybody.
But the most clever aspect of this wonderful song is that while it is solidly based on the truth of love, it begins by imploring the parents to teach their children well but finishes by reminding us all that actually the parents don't have all the answers and the children can help us just as much as we can help them. So true.
Had more people just heard and thought about these lyrics forty years ago, I'm damn sure we would not have half the problems currently facing us.
When our beautiful daughter Thea died at the tender age of just fifteen months, this song played at her funeral service. I couldn't bring Thea back but I could share this song with as many people as possible who make a difference in my life. If only one person left the funeral with these words in their consciousness, then there is hope for the future.
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