This is kind of a corny post, but I want to keep it light, and why not be corny? I’m probably cringe-posting every day anyway! Ha.

The Hollies video is corny, yes, but it was important in 1964. The urban legend going on around the song was that there was a fire in a housing project and a little boy ran out carrying his little brother. The fireman said “Here, let me take him, he must be heavy”, to which the little boy replied. . ..

I just found out that this wasn’t the true version, but it makes my point even further. That’s how I heard the tale, and it’s important because of the setting. When I was a kid, housing projects were known as “ghettos” or “the projects” and they were full of what White middle Americans thought of as scary Brown people. “Brother” was also a word Black men used among themselves. So the urban legend served the purpose of humanising “the other”.

The 1960s and 70s were full of those kinds of social engineering memes and media. The mid- to late-70s saw a slew of sit-coms that directly addressed really hot topics mostly surrounding race and gender equality. It was an example of a sort-of symbiotic social-engineering: The topics were relevant and we were entertained by them, but we were also being taught about the experience of others unlike ourselves, their world-views and problems. It was revolutionary, again in a way that is impossible to describe today. We take so much of our progress for granted. Let me put it this way: When I was born, humans of different “colours” were not allowed to drink out of the same water fountains. I still find that hard to imagine, and though I was too young to understand, I was there! I was alive then.

So that’s the past. Kraftwerk is the future, and has been the future for, gosh, 40+ years now? Wow, that’s sobering. Look up some of their old 70s videos. Incredible stuff. That’s the audio version, but to really understand why I included it here, watch the video. It’s beautiful. WARNING: FLASHING LIGHTS. Not for the photosensitive.