Willie Nelson

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Willie Nelson: An Epic Life arrives as a must have book for everyone with an interest in Willie Nelson or the Willie Nelson life style. Willie Nelson exemplifies a legendary way of life too often obscured by myth and innuendo.

Willie Nelson as portrayed in Willie Nelson: An Epic Life leads a life in the music industry through the most turbulent decades of its history. Willie Nelson participated in Country Music’s invasion of Pop.

Willie Nelson: An Epic Life shows Willie Nelson in the center of introducing Jazz and Rock’N’Roll influences upon Country Music. This is the part of Willie Nelson’s life that I wish Willie Nelson: An Epic Life explored in greater depth.

The shear volume of details about Willie Nelson is as to be expected in a nearly 500 page book about his life. Willie Nelson: An Epic Life tells us of many of the ups and downs in the life of Willie Nelson.

While many of the general circumstances of Willie Nelson’s life seem to be widely known, Willie Nelson: An Epic Life fills in many of the gaps. However, I cannot help but feel that there are still many stories left unpublished if not untold.

Be that as it may, it seems to me that if someone were to write about the music of Willie Nelson in an equally comprehensive manner then we would have something much more than a celebrity biography.

Sure, Willie Nelson leads a life full of titillating adventures, a truly amazing life, and Willie Nelson: An Epic Life represents it in a seamless narrative. For this reason alone Willie Nelson: An Epic Life is well worth its price.

I suppose I just didn’t get my questions answered.

To the best of my knowledge no one has comprehensively examined and explained the phrasing and timing Willie Nelson uses when he sings and why some other musicians consider it a challenge to perform his songs the way he does.

I wanted to know more about the details of the musical influences on Willie Nelson and how they are evident in his music.

I wanted to finish the book with a greater understanding of how Willie Nelson stands with the other greats of American music.

The deceptively simple Country Music songs betray Willie Nelson’s long study of music and his intimate knowledge of his musical roots and its impact on his performance style. Willie Nelson plays with this full knowledge without letting it get in the way of the music.

I wanted to know more about how Willie Nelson does it and gain a greater understanding of how Willie Nelson experiences music.

Without a doubt the influence of Willie Nelson on American music has been profound, continues to evolve and presents us with a living treasure to be appreciated in a plethora of subtle nuances. It’s nice to get his wives’, children’s and friends’ names and histories figured out but unraveling Willie Nelson’s complex musicality would be an entertaining accomplishment.

Unfortunately I lack the musical background to do the work of Willie Nelson justice. But some writer out there must have a comprehensive appreciation of both music history and the work of Willie Nelson.

I hope to see that book too.

Willie Nelson: An Epic Life is a pleasure to read with a wide appeal to many. Everyone will learn something about Willie Nelson that they didn’t know before. I recommend it to all.

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Mark Twain wrote “The War Prayer” in 1904 but it went unpublished until November 1916, six years after his death. This was his response to the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902.

I feel obligated to point out that Mark Twain was a satirist. Sometimes people misunderstand satire and mistake it for the actual thing itself.

The point of satire is to hold up the object of scorn and expose its dark underbelly to ridicule.

The difficulty with “The War Prayer” seems to be the lack of caricature or other exaggeration that would have made the indictment of war unavoidably obvious. In todays world blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war are a matter of course.

Generally people tend to do whatever they wish in pretended ignorance of the possibility of unconsidered, ignored or unintended consequences.

It doesn’t stop there.

People then go ahead and ascribe the authorship of their desires to a higher power and the victims of the aftermath become demonized as targets of a higher power’s wrath.

The twisted logic goes on and on.

A security state reduces our liberty and freedom, not protect it. There is no freedom in slavery. There is no strength in ignorance. There is no peace in war.

Our government as parroted in mainstream media “Newspeak” would have you believe otherwise. The predictions George Orwell made in his book “Nineteen Eighty-Four” just seem to have arrived a generation late.

Once again literature thought to be exaggerated to the point of satire today seems routine.

George Orwell didn’t foresee depleted uranium weapons. He never imagined that our body fluids would be subject to scrutiny nor that our personal genetic code become the basis of criminal convictions.

The same can be said of “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley and “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. Books written to shock and warn, intended to rings bells and raise flags of warning, went unheeded by too many. Today reality itself causes those dire predictions to pale in comparison.

So if you are shocked by “The War Prayer” then that is a good thing. It was meant to be shocking. But do not miss the satire.

“The War Prayer” is from the very rare collector’s DVD “Peace” by Willie Nelson, Family and Friends.

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Willie Nelson sings “Whatever Happened To Peace On Earth” from the very rare collector’s DVD “Peace” by Willie Nelson, Family and Friends.

Previously Liz wrote about this song in connection with it’s release to benefit the National Veterans Foundation. See the link in the sidebar.

This version of “Whatever Happened To Peace On Earth” supports a video.

If we can take as a premise that no system or culture based upon the unrestrained exploitation of nonrenewable resources can ever be sustainable.

This is just plain sense.

The never ending quest for new sources to replace depleted resources creates conflicts with traditional communities that do not wish to give up or sell the resources on which their communities are based.

Usually traditional communities must be destroyed before their land can be ravaged for resources such as gold, oil or hydroelectric power.

In either case, any way of life based upon the accelerating consumption of nonrenewable resources demands widespread violence.

Violence appears everywhere to perpetuate a life style that must inevitably end.

This violence has been rationalized when necessary but more often it is ignored. Silent permission is favored over any requirement to furnish an excuse. Uncounted millions of indigenous people and their traditional communities have been sacrificed upon the altars of production.

Any threat to this production, any resistance to the exploitation of resources and the destruction of traditional communities of indigenous people is met with unrelenting ruthless violence. This is called justice, the spreading of democracy and the manifest destiny of our culture.

If a halt is not put to culture, to this system of violence and exploitation, then civilization as we have come to know it will relentlessly grind on needlessly creating pain and suffering while degrading the planet until the system collapses.

Peace On Earth would halt this process.

The longer the destruction goes on the worse things will get for those living through it and those who will come after us.

We depend upon the natural world.

We depend upon the aid and good intentions of our neighbors.

We destroy the natural world and alienate our neighbors at our peril.

Perhaps those who survive the collapse will have learned their lesson and live together in peace with each other and their environment. Sooner or later, the human race will need to live in balance with the rest of the world.

Sooner would be better that later.

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Matt Hubbard, Willie’s grandson-in-law, sent this sweet video of Zack, Willie Nelson’s great-grandson singing “A Peaceful Solution.”

Matt writes, “…the video was put together by Willie’s nephew Trevor Nelson and features Zack’s schoolmates as well as a performance with Willie at the Backyard in Austin, TX this month.

“Trevor shot the the Backyard video while Zack’s mother and Willie’s granddaughter Rebecca Thomas shot the school video. I formatted the video for youtube and uploaded it.”

Right away you can see why Willie Nelson advocates a peaceful revolution. Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren would encourage any rational loving person to seek a peaceful resolution.

Or so one would think.

It becomes difficult for me to imagine the type of person who would wish to hand future generations little more than a load of grief. Puzzling questions haunt me concerning the powers at work to curse children, the children’s children and the children’s children’s children.

War, non-renewable resource exploitation, animal abuse, attacks on the way of life represented by family farms and similar ills are not natural. These are human inventions designed to help greedy psychotic people achieve their perverted desires.

We have allowed such people to become our leaders. Election after election we have been content to select from candidates who offer no real choice at all.

We have allowed such people to become our role models. Those who flaunt their affluence conspicuously and lead decadence lives of wanton dissipation gain our attention, dazzle us with their extravagances and fan our jealously.

Scientists warn us of the consequences of global warming and over dependence on petrochemicals. Yet we are urged to continue our wasteful ways and asked to contribute to yet another battle, this one against inevitable necessary change.

The same sick twisted logic pervades all intentional violent acts whether they be against people, animals or our environment. A great danger lies in acquiring and using this reactionary violent logic of retribution in response.

There must be another way.

The schoolchildren in the video sing lyrics for “A Peaceful Solution” we heard earlier in the version by Rattlesnake Annie and Amy Nelson.

“With Love we can win it.”

Make no mistake, a destructive process led us here and those who engineered it now goad us on. If We The People of the United States of America yield to this temptation we seal the fate of all children alive today and countless others of future generations.

A well known but untried process, a process urged upon us by the greatest spiritual leaders in history, a process implementing peace and love, will turn our world around.

Maybe if we hear enough children sing it then we will finally get the message.

* * * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

by Rebecca Thomas and Zack

We are so blessed. I asked Zack what he would like to say about the song, his reply

“this is my favorite song by my great-grandpa, and I really love to sing it.”

So there we go!!!!

We are so excited and this is only the beginning.

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Amy Nelson sent us this video she made of her Dad, Willie Nelson, singing “A Peaceful Solution.”

One thing I noticed about the video was the view of the audience listening to Willie. Thousands of people hear Willie sing “A Peaceful Solution” at the end of his shows.

Have you been in one of those audiences?

Have you felt the energy behind the message?

Doesn’t it feel great?

Liz and I were discussing the power of the individual to effect meaningful change with Willie when he stood up and gestured around him in a circle.

“What can each of us do but extend peace into the small area that we can personally influence?” Willie asked.

We will find this power becoming more important every day. As the sick social structures weaken and fall away each of us will find more opportunities to stand up and influence others in our immediate circle.

News on global food supplies, resource depletion, energy stocks, fuel stocks, increased population and global resource demands spiraling out of sight provides all the indicators required to let us know profound changes have become inevitable.

Where are you going to turn?

Hope you are not depending upon the same people who did not make it to the aid of New Orleans after Katrina.

You will find your best alliances to be with family, friends and neighbors. The term popping up to describe this phenomenon is called Relocalization.

Relocalization speaks of renewed grass-roots efforts to reestablish local sufficiency in a renewable and socially responsible manner. You can hear these groups talk about the Post-Carbon era with thoughtful consideration.

Another group you may hear about is APPLE - Alliance for a Post Petroleum Local Economy.

Local family farms will become the energy and food centers for human culture as they had been for thousands of years before the commercial industrialization of the agribusiness conglomerates.

Shipping in things that can be grown locally will become economically unpractical. If you have noticed the rising prices in the grocery stores then you realize the truth in this.

Global climate change is real.

The Arctic will be ice free in just a few more years. This will trigger gigantic and massive crop failures all over the world, low land flooding, sea level rises and a huge number of global refugees. Increased hurricane severity, drought and flooding is already happening.

All of these issues and more become exaggerated in the context of conflict, violence and war.

We need peace to solve our common problems.

More and more you will find yourself turning to those around you, perhaps at a Willie Nelson concert, and see those around you with new eyes. The people standing around you are your only security not corrupt bureaucracies.

To get along with people we will all need to learn and practice peace in all aspects of life.

We must live in peace with the Earth and the plants and animals no less than with our fellow human beings.

Be ready for the change. Be the change. Bring peace.

* * * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

To my extended family at WNPRI,

I had never dreamed that over 160 artists would record their own versions and videos of ‘A Peaceful Solution‘ within a year’s time. How could we have imagined such a powerful response?

I can’t speak for Dad. He might have planned it all along. ; ) What a beautiful story that we get to watch unfold, day by day. It’s a reminder of how unimaginably great things are possible with every seed of hope, and every dream is filled with infinite possibility.

Thanks to everyone who has participated. Thanks to Jay and Liz for their vision that has created this wonderful online atmosphere, and continually putting your best energy into WNPRI. It shows.

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