Yeah, you're certainly right about the "attitude" thing. ;-) It was a crucial factor in the careers of Rock n' Rollers too...the wave of popularity that was considered the antithesis of the folk movement. Attitude was everything in Rock n' Roll. It played a big part in folk also, but a different kind of attitude there, of course.

Sometimes, you know, people are faking it and just posturing...but they don't themselves realize it. They get fooled by their own image, so to speak and by their need for acceptance and popularity. In fact, I think that happens a lot not just in musical performing but in politics and executive boardrooms as well. It happens when people date and socialize. There's a simply tremendous amount of posturing going on all the time, all with the intention of pleasing or impressing other people or getting them to do what you want, and it becomes largely unconscious behaviour for many of the people doing it.

Are they hypocrites, are they scared or are they just a bit lost?

Many of Dylan's songs dealt with those issues in a very keen way. He was an acute and acidic observer of the games people play...(while no doubt playing some games of his own).

I agree that people nowadays have phenomenal access to the music of the past and to other information. I wonder to what extent they are taking advantage of that.

One thing I've noticed about affluent cultures, as opposed to poorer cultures. When things are too easy to get, people lose interest. They don't try as hard. They get bored.

Maybe it's become too easy to find instant gratification now, and that is why people's attention span is dwindling. Give a kid 10,000 toys to play with and he ends up bored, stupefied, and uninterested. He loses motivation. He gets angry, and he doesn't know why. He can't find anything that satisfies. He becomes incapable of self-discipline and focused purpose. He sees no reason to strive.

That's what I see happening to people in the affluent cultures. They've been poisoned by excess.

I've see maturity and dignity and poise in young people in the poorer countries...like Cuba and Trinidad...and it was striking when I compared it to what's happening in my affluent society. I couldn't help but notice the difference. They had not grown up poisoned by excess. They had not been given 10,000 easy choices, and found themselves unable to decide on even one of them.

See, in the 60's you had to work a bit to get to hear certain music, cos like you say, it wasn't so easy to find it. That created a powerful motivation in the people who sought that music out. That made you treasure the records that you bought or that you borrowed, because the only way you could hear that music was to get one of those records.

Nothing tastes sweeter than something you had to work hard for and wait for before you got to taste it.