November 25, 2017 — A few months ago, in my daily use of YouTube as radio, I came across a concert performance of Ellie Goulding somewhere in the Middle East; I would guess Dubai, but my memory was of some much less commercial place. She barely moved and was covered. It was an odd version of Ellie. I can’t find the clip, but I remember thinking do these people know Ellie Goulding? How?
I’m taking a much-needed break from the news; however, whatever Firefox did in its last update gives me news suggestions when I open the Firefox browser. One of those captured my attention; the headline, something about a Saudi price in springtime. What was that going to be? Isn’t it always warm there? It’s in the Northern hemisphere so it’s literally fall, almost winter. Needing to satisfy my curiosity about the reference to spring, I read the article. Turns out, it wasn’t literal spring, but a figurative term for a time of new beginning.
There’s a new Saudi prince, the 32 year old heir apparent of the last king. Okay, don’t hold me to that; I didn’t read that part that closely. Funny thing though; the other day I was in a conversation with someone about why people of power, why dictators like the Korean kid can’t, for once, turn out to be benevolent, a force of good, not the epitome of the expression about absolute power corrupting. Someone in that conversation even said the obvious: what if Hitler had been good instead of a raving lunatic dead set on wiping out people from the planet? It’s an interesting question, and honestly, I thought of the Middle East as an example. They have gone backwards; the culture of present-day Saudi is the winter the article mentions. The article said in the 1950’s, people there went to concerts, did activities and visited public places where men and women mingled together. Post 1979, a year we hold as a special time in our music history, the country entered its winter, the article said, a time where women have no rights, where people’s music and entertainment is controlled, and I’m not even talking about politics or other such things. Strikingly, the article mentioned a conversation where a middle-aged man lamented about the year 1979, the year it all went backwards, longing for what was before, a time when people smiled.
Apparently the new prince is a reformist. And a music fan. He wants a springtime, a loosening of standards to allow things like concerts. Sure, it’s concerts for boys and men only, but hey, he’s allowing women to drive. That’s a start. Change, little by little. And until some religious nutcase takes him out, the Prince’s goal is for the springtime of 1978, of the earlier times when men and women could go check out a concert, perhaps even together.
I can’t imagine this. I do everything on my own, including play music. I see concerts, when I want, by myself. I own property. Drive. I’m educated. I wear what I want. I have colored hair. Blonde even. Okay strawberry blonde with brown roots, but it’s kinda blonde. In that world I am a literal heretic, someone who would be stoned in the streets, then wrapped in an American flag.
I saw news a few months ago, Trump going to a Toby Keith concert in Saudi Arabia, but it didn’t occur to me just exactly how revolutionary that news was. Apparently, this was the first public concert that country has had in the last two decades. Toby Keith. Do they know he sings about America? Do they know he has a song with the lyrics “I’ll put a boot up your ass”? And it’s about … well it’s about other of those types, but sorta similar; do they know that? Did they know that when they invited him to play?
Sure the footage of Toby Keith’s concert is far from what a regular concert looks like: men in robes and those red and white headpieces (forgive me, I’m not interested in looking up the proper name for those things), room everywhere, but in it Toby did sing about America, the backdrop featuring the U.S. flag, the statue of liberty. It just makes me wonder. What does this prince listen to? Toby Keith? American country music? I’m not sure if he knows this, but American country music pretty much made rock ‘n’ roll. Ask the likes of Elvis Presley, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant; the list is long. And country music is full of women. It’s full of lyrics about life, about love, about good times and bad. It’s designed to lay it all out there. That, in a country where not much of anything is laid out anywhere, seems like unlikely music to me. But wow, it really did happen! The Saudi prince obviously plays himself some American country music!
Sometime, especially with the headlines of late, I wonder whether the crazies will take over; I fear it. But maybe just maybe the opposite will happen. Maybe just maybe a prince, one of these people who run entire countries, will turn out to be benevolent, make real and lasting change that gets into the hearts and minds of people. Maybe just maybe people who are set on destruction can be influenced for good. Maybe just maybe habits of people will change. Maybe just maybe we’ll come together as a planet, as a people. Maybe just maybe music will heal the world. Little by little. That’s a nice thought on Thanksgiving weekend, I think.
Original article, not butchered by me: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/opinion/saudi-prince-mbs-arab-spring.html