Metaphysics of the New Fade

In the Age of the
Artificial God Ellah,
all things are
chameleon.

It's the extent
to which you are
that determines
how you succeed.

Dylan became timeless
because he knew
what to change;
Bowie, Madonna,
these artists
changed everything
but their understanding
of music. They had
other interests,
and no true love,
made spectacles
not of their music
but of themselves.
They never went
to Newport.

John started changing
before he truly needed,
changed to fit
his audience
and maybe sometimes
his moods,
a reflection
of what he
needed to be,
until what he
became
was more
important
than the music,
so someone shot him.
All fashions must die
to live

in time.

What killed
the Protest Age
was the Protest Age.
People wonder why
Iraq is not another
Vietnam.
It's because Vietnam
was never Vietnam.
It was what it had
to be.
The Protest Age
screwed
the Protest Age.
Now we sit in wonder
at what we've done,
and don't know
what to make of it.

How about this?
In all things are
the beginnings
of all things.
When we started
fucking about
in the region of Ellah,
we started the whole
ball rolling,
and I'm talking
just last century.
Let the Greeks
worry about
the Greeks,
their Spartans
and their Athens.
We placed a displaced people
in someone else's home,
and stirred about
a cold war
that erupted
over oil.
Tell me what
America has done,
tell me what
Americans do,
tell me what the world is
when the world isn't
any different than it was
yesterday.

The New Fade abides,
it bides its time
like the chameleon,
attempting the colors
that will make everything
right.

Dylan used to makes songs,
now he makes music,
and now I couldn't tell
you what he sings.

I would like to find out.