Just A Form Of Music Lyrics

Just A Form Of Music lyrics

It is a real pleasure to be here with you this afternoon. I always count it a
priviledge whenever I have the opportunity to stand before a group of students
in an assembly such as this. You know, most of you are at the point in life
when you're making the decisions that are going to determine your philosophy
and your attitude toward life. It was in the early teenage years that
unfortunately I made some wrong decisions. I made the decision to turn my back
on everything that my church and my parents had tried to teach me. My idea was,
I'm going to live life like I want to live it and I don't care what anybody else
thinks or anybody else says. But it wasn't until I was nineteen that one evening
in a small church I came to the conclusion that if I was really going to get
what I wanted out of life I'd have to change that kind of an attitude. Today I
am not here to prove any one or any thing right or wrong, but I want to talk to
you about some ideas and attitudes that have been communicated through the means
of music. And I hope that together we can stop and think about some serious
issues that face you as the youth of America. It's possible I could walk out on
this stage today and deliver a speech mocking the flag or ridiculing some of the
leaders of our government and I suppose there are some of you who might not say
a word. Perhaps I could stand here and curse God or use profanity without
upsetting some of you, or maybe I could take my draft card out of my pocket,
stand here and defiantly tear it up in pieces, and I suppose there'd be some of
you who wouldn't say a thing. But there's one thing of which I am reasonably
certain--if I were to walk out here today and just dare to say one word against
The Beatles, Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin,
The Raiders, or The doors, some of you would want to come up here and tear me
limb from limb. The question I'd like to ask is this--I wonder would that
really be right, or perhaps would it illustrate that this thing called Rock and
Roll is more than just a form of music?