I walked into a diner where I heard a juke-box playing;The tune was one of Dylan’s protest songs;As I listened to the lyrics, the years were rolled awayAnd I recalled the sixties rights and wrongs.

I remembered “Checkpoint Charlie” where the tanks opposed the Reds,I remembered “Spring in Prague” and then the “Fall”;Ho Chi Minh against the yanks; peaceniks renamed cranksBecause they would not heed their country’s call.

There were corpses in the Jordan; there was napalm in Viet Nam;There was Johnstone’s blanket bombing of the “Gooks”;There were spies and U2 missions; there was torture and perdition,And Chinese Red Guards brandishing red books.

We heeded Dylan’s warning, “Hard rains” would soon be falling,If times were not “a-changing” mighty soon.And Western youth protested that people need protectedFrom the holocaustic nuclear “High Noon”.

We had sit-ins; we had love-ins; we had happenings as well;We practised love and peace to all mankind;We had flower power and we’d hippies; we had gurus and we’d yippeesAnd believed that meditation trained the mind.

“Good Vibrations” filled the atmosphere with hope for all mankind.For youth had surely found a better way;Hope and optimism overcame the pessimism Of the older generation of the day.

Two generations later we’ve lost those good vibrations.We’re headed for the holocaust once more.And I hope and pray and listen for a man with modern visionWho’ll wear the prophet’s coat that Dylan wore.