One of the interesting things I learned from a fellow teacher at our faculty meeting on Monday was that Peter, Paul and Mary have no beat. This was the response of a young teacher, entrusted with molding the next generation, after we had listened to “Leaving on a Jet Plane”. Each week the fearless leaders play some music and have us guess who’s music it was. They call it “team building”. I call it a waste of time but since I was approached in the hall and asked for some favorite music I came up with Peter, Paul and Mary. On reflection I could have suggested the Platters and “Great Pretender”, Smokey Robinson doing “My Girl” or The Nutcracker Suite by a guy who has a name I can’t spell. P,P & M bubbled to the top.
It was amazing how much everyone got into the song. Where most of the time they sit like zombies during this segment of the faculty meeting, this week half of them were singing along. You can always tell what is good music by how many people sing along. Alas, I was informed that they had no beat.
That is the level of culture and intellect inhabiting your public schools. Next I expect to find out that they don’t have any melody or harmony either. If we also eliminate vocabulary words of more than one syllable we have the kind of music that the music critic must have liked.
Until then, on the downbeat...
homo unius libri
Does the "beatless" person dig rap? Beat is all that rap has, and that beat isn't even always consistent.
ReplyDeleteExactly my feelings. I would even take it further and address one of the false stereotypes in our culture. That is the delusion that all black people have rhythm. It just ain't so. I have watched kids "dance" and "play drums" for years and it is amazing how many have no clue to what a down beat is.
DeleteGrace and peace.