The other day I was listening to the deep tracks channel on Sirius/XM satellite radio.   A number 2 hit song on the charts by Marc Bolan (aka T-Rex) called Children of the Revolution was playing.   The announcer introduced the song as for “The children of the revolution – may they live on forever”

Who are they?

The song is about teen rebellion.  I am guessing the announcer is referring to living on forever as a metaphoric concept, as humans don’t live forever in reality.

Is this a call for anarchy.  That is to say constant revolution is needed to revitalize and possibly this is a valid and beneficial ongoing practice.  Revolution is the meaning of life.

Too Deep?

Even I recognize this thought process is stretching a point; However, rebelling against the norm as you grow up, challenging the status-quo does have merit.

Given the deep tracks audience probably includes a few aging baby boomers, I can only surmise reverence by the announcer to the children of the revolution is mostly nostalgic.

In a way this is too bad as the drive for change during that exciting time of upheaval (the decades of 1960 and 1970) led to renewal and improvement in the human condition that continues to this day.  It really deserves much more than just nostalgic consideration.

Marc Bolan did not survive the revolution

Marc died in a car accident in London while driving his purple mini home from a drinking club.  He was not wearing his seat belt.  Perhaps this was gesture of rebellion.

For those of you not fully familiar with the works of the rock band called T-Rex (really a solo vehicle for Bolan) his biggest hit in North America was officially called “Get it On”.  The song was also known as “Bang a Gong (Get it On)” and really was just a simple entreaty to have fun.