Willy Mason - Oxygen

Published Tuesday, March 01, 2005 by Abby | E-mail this post

“I want to be cooler than TV/ For all the kids that are wondering what they’re going to be/ We can be stronger than bombs/ If you’re singing along.”

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I wish I was this optimistic.

I wish I still thought things could be changed, that I had the power to do more than make tiny ripples in my own little corner of the world. I wish I could not only vocalize these dreams, but string them into something coherent and adorable. Something which sweeps your feet from under you with the simple purity of belief and blissful idealism: not just the sentiment, but the sweet strumming melody which binds that dream in a safe little bubble of joy.

And so Willy comes wandering along with his guitar, fuelled by our oft-ignored pangs of desire and dreams of a better life for us all. It’s the manifesto for hopeful musing everywhere, and thus entirely vulnerable to sneering dismissal. I mean, he couldn’t epitomize a youthfully naïve yearning better if he tried! And yes, I was tempted to laugh off the construction of utopia, but he overcame even my jaded cynicism. And that’s really saying something.

This is the musical equivalent of the ‘Can’t we all just get along?’, yet it’s the simplicity which gives it such power. The girl in angel wings, waving flowers as the riot police move in with tear gas and shielded eyes. You may ridicule the method or delivery, but surely you can’t find fault with the sentiment.

Because it’s easy to see that something here just isn’t right.