Experts of Destruction

 Song 558: This week on the playlist you’ll find Masters of War by Bob Dylan, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I started becoming a Dylan fan soon after Peter, Paul and Mary brought Blowin' in the Wind to everyone's attention. Over the following years, I kept seeing Bob's name on songs I really liked, such as Mr. Tambourine Man (Song 326) and It Ain't Me Babe, but I didn't get to hear his own voice until I arrived at Northwestern U. in September of 1969. On my first day at the dormitory, I met a fellow student named Smiley who played a BD 33 for me, and I initially didn't care for the sound of his voice, judging its quality as the reason that he had succeeded much more as a writer than a singer. Over the next year, though, I became a major fan, thanks in part to a roommate who would spin his first greatest hits LP quite a bit. At a certain point in that stretch, I added the Freewheelin' disc to my collection, and it soon became a favorite, making me appreciate Mr. Zimmerman even more. This cut graces that album, and before long, I had rated it as one of the best antiwar songs of all time, and possibly THE BEST. That being the case, I decided to add it to the list now because today, 4/4/21, marks the 17th year commemoration of the death of Casey Sheehan in Iraq. I learned of his demise in July of 2005 when his mother Cindy shared the story on a podcast, and included a poem written about Casey by her daughter Carly. Hearing this moving story and poem inspired me to finish an antiwar song I had started, which became Song for Casey. I posted that Elder Statesman track on SoundCloud today, and you can hear it by clicking on the title. I offer my sympathy to Cindy, Carly, and the rest of their family, for their loss, and I'd say that all the money the Masters of War made from their Iraq destruction clearly will never buy back their souls.