Jerry, You're quite right about the perception of universality. You see, I think “Jam on Gerry's Rocks” is universal; it's one of my favorite songs. Sure the events themselves aren't universal but I enjoy being informed about the life of a shanty boy. I like “The Little Brown Bulls” as well. The universality is in the motivation of the characters and the parallels in our own working lives. I also enjoy hearing “Little Joe the Wrangler” get squashed to a pulp. These songs inform us about the world and about life itself. How much more universal can it get? But when a song only informs us about the personal life of the singer and hasn't been expanded beyond that, or tells us more than we really wanted to know, many in the audience are put off. Intimacy with emotions and intimacy with events can be nice but unlooked for intimacy with the performer himself may be crossing a line.

I've always loved Pete Seeger's concerts because he can single-handedly bring an audience of thousands right along with him. He can take the audience out of itself and introduce joy, sorrow, anger and a feeling of community between sophisticated urban people who normally wouldn't give each other the time of day. Part of that is just because he is Pete but part of it is his choice of songs and the way they are written. I don't mean everyone should be a Pete Seeger—we only need one (but we'll always need one)—but the universality of his material and his presentation is what captivates his audience.

A good song tells me something about myself. It may be something I already knew or even something I didn't want to know, but a song that only tells me about the singer is, in my opinion, poorly written. “Louie Louie” is certainly universal but it isn't really a song, it's dance music and dance is always universal.

      - Mark