Showing posts with label Marrakesh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marrakesh. Show all posts

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Marrakesh Express

For some reason the song "Marrakesh Express" has been playing in my head all day.  This made me want to look up a live version on youtube.  I found one from BBC with Crosby and Nash playing acoustic guitar in all their long hair finery.  This led to me watching a beautiful video from Woodstock, with hippies riding horseback and building the stage.  Which led to a video of Neil Young's "Ohio".  Did you know he wrote the song to protest the killings at Kent State University?  I always just thought it was a beautiful song and didn't realize the meaning.  I guess I am still learning.

Every time I hear "Marrakesh Express" I think of a book I read several years ago, "The Drifters" by James Michener published in the early 1970's.  The book is about a group of young adults from very diverse backgrounds who meet in Spain during the late 1960's.  Hippies, war protest, draft dodging, travel, brutality by the man and vivid European/African scenery.  At one point they travel to Marrakesh, Morocco which brings me to the song.  I believe the book is on one of the top 100 books of all time list that I refer to when I need a good read.