Roboto

Pick an album at random and .... Kilroy Was Here? Okay, take a listen.

Recognizing the end of the Awakening - like other Turnings - can be tricky. How is 1983 anything like 1974 or 1968?  Because people are still trying to change the world, even if they are running out of the energy, really, to do so. All of those folks at Woodstock are starting to settle down, there aren't as many folks available for nuclear protests or outdoor music. Still, imagery can make its way directly into popular culture, as with The Day After or the Styx album Kilroy Was Here.

It tells the story of a future where the Majority for Musical Morality, led by Dr. Righteous,  has outlawed rock-n-roll. The titular Kilroy was a musician imprisoned as part of the crackdown. There are still believers out there, though, and he escapes in order to find one of them and, just maybe.... It's a smorgasbord of Awakening concerns and cliches: Cold War, Dr. Righteous, Heavy Metal, fears of corruption, censorship and control, associations with fascism, and - protestations notwithstanding - the Savior.  (Among the ironies is that Kilroy was an icon of the previous Crisis, a savior of sorts for the GIs.)

It's heavy-handed, not subtle at all, and even at the time the Moral Majority - another religious marker of the Awakening, itself - was starting to lose support. Similarly, the album was not as successful as previous Styx releases had been. Which might show exactly when it's clear the Awakening is starting to go away: When people are no longer willing to accept protest blindly, from the Left or the Right.

It's worth noting that another late-awakening (1979) album also invokes fascist imagery - although from the other direction.

And seeing Bono at Red Rocks can yield a certain similar unease.  Maybe Dr. Righteous was right.