Department of English and American Studies English

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Katarína Belejová

Folk Lyrics in America in the 1960s: Opposition to the Middle Class Way of Life Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr.

2011

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Katarína Belejová

Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, doc. PhDr. Tomaš Pospišil, Dr., for his encouragement, patience and inspirational remarks.

Table of contents

Introduction ...... 6

1. Folk Song Theory ...... 8

1.1. Definition of the Term "Folk Song" ...... 8

1.2. Justification of the Term’s Choice ...... 10

1.3. Function of Folk Song in Society ...... 11

1.3.1. Historical Insight ...... 11

1.3.2. Sociology of Folk Song ...... 12

2. Cultural Background ...... 15

2.1. How Did It Begin? ...... 15

2.2. The 1960s Counterculture ...... 17

2.2.1. Common Feelings ...... 18

2.2.2. Importance of Culture and Arts ...... 19

2.2.3. Importance of Music ...... 21

3. Artistic Background: Influences and Inspirations ...... 22

3.1. The Beat Generation ...... 22

3.1.1. Literary Influence ...... 23

3.1.2. Attitudes ...... 26

3.2. Seeger-Guthrie Tradition ...... 28

3.2.1. Original Material and What It Brought ...... 28

4. Analyses ...... 30

4.1. Bob Dylan: "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" ...... 31

4.1.1. Formal Elements ...... 32

4.1.2. Apocalyptic Visions aka There's No Way out of Here ...... 33

4.2. Janis Joplin, Michael McClure, Bob Neuwirth: Mercedes Benz ...... 40

4.2.1. Formal Elements ...... 40

4.2.2. Goods as Gods, Gods as Goods ...... 41

4.3. Don McLean: American Pie ...... 44

4.3.1. Formal Elements ...... 45

4.3.2. Bitter-Sweet Taste of the American Pie ...... 45

Conclusion ...... 50

Appendices ...... 53

Works Cited ...... 61

English Summary ...... 65

Czech Summary ...... 66

Introduction

The era of the 1960s in American history is a time of turbulent changes on many levels of that days´ society. Many fundamental features of the hierarchy of values were redefined, the Vietnam War was being fought and various minorities such as Afro-

Americans, homosexuals and women were intensifying their fight for equal rights. The baby boom generation came to its youth and consequently the young part of age pyramid was of high percentage. Thus, the young were able to create a counterculture capable of expressing their views of the social and political situation and, even more importantly, capable of fighting for their vision of a just society caring more for individuals than for the machinery of the state. The youths of the 1960s had their specific goals to fight for. They did not want to live according to the middle-class ideal of their parents who were seemingly obsessed with gaining possessions rather than trying to work on their intellectual and emotional progress.

The rebellious young used various social channels to convey their protest to their parents and also to spread their message among themselves. They demonstrated their worldviews and attitudes by their clothing, by ways of literary expression, they even brought new artistic forms such as happening or performance to life, but it has to be said that one of the most powerful means of expressions for the 1960s young people was music. The importance of music could be demonstrated on the example of

Woodstock Music and Art Fair which was the biggest event organized by youth counterculture of the 1960s and music played a major role there. In the context of speakers of the generation, one should primarily focus the attention on folk singers and groups for it was them who used the themes of protest and discontent most often.

In this BA thesis, I focus on the folk song as a tool of youth social protest in the

1960s America and I examine the main literary tools used by folksingers to convey the feeling of the generation to the rest of Americans and also to reinforce the feeling of community. This will be mainly done by analysis of three folk lyrics ("Mercedes Benz" sung by Janis Joplin, "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleedin´)" by Bob Dylan and

"American Pie" by Don McLean) in terms of literary devices used as well as in terms of their content.

The first part of my thesis focuses on the theory of folk songs. Firstly, it gives a definition of what is meant by the term folk song in the thesis and how folk songs function in the society in general. The second part comments on the social problems of the chosen era - the 1960s - and describes the position of youth in the middle of a changing society. Afterwards, the focus is put on inspirations of folk artists in the

1960s, mainly on earlier folk movement and Beat Generation that influenced folkniks not only in the use of literary devices, but also in their opinion statements. The main part of the thesis consists of analyses of three representative lyrics built on the points suggested in the first three chapters. Moreover, the analyses point out the important literary devices that were used to appeal to a wide audience.

The conclusion sums up the first three parts and the analyses and on the basis of both of them it generalizes the main literary tools used to express discontent, rebellion and want of change in folk songs of the 1960s America.

1. Folk Song Theory

1.1. Definition of the Term "Folk Song"

When writing about the importance and nature of folk songs, one has to identify the meaning of the term folk song itself as this can carry multiple meanings. It could be treated in a sense of its musicological definition; that means as a song which uses only acoustic instruments (mainly guitars) for creation of musical background. It could be as well understood as a song that is a part of a specific period in musical history. Yet, these meanings are not of a great relevance for the purpose of the thesis.

In literature, there are various terms used to describe the type of song discussed in this thesis. For example, Serge Denisoff uses the term propaganda song. He says: "A propaganda song in the folk idiom may be conceived of as a song designed to communicate social, political, economic, ideological concepts, or a total ideology, to the listener (...)" (Denisoff, "Songs of Persuasion" 582).

Also the term "protest song" could be used as an equivalent to understanding of the "folk song" term in the thesis. Louise Haynes suggests that "protest music may be defined as songs whose lyrics convey a message which is opposed to a policy or course of action adopted by an authority or by society as an institution" (Haynes 1).

Of course, also the term folk song, as presented here, appears in the literature. It is used, for example, by John Landau, as he writes: "Rock, the music of the sixties, was a music of spontaneity. It was a folk music - it was listened to and made by the same group of people" (Landau qtd. in Redhead and Street 181).

In the context of the definitions mentioned above, a single definition explaining the context of the term’s meaning in this thesis could be proposed. A folk song as described here means a song created with a purpose of conveying a worldview, an opinion or a reflection of the time when it was written. The picture of society in its

lyrics is mostly critical and the song and its author are in opposition to official regime or majority view of the world. The author of the song functions as a speaker of a social movement and his audience identifies itself with his statement and thus, there is a feeling of unity between them.

1.2. Justification of the Term’s Choice

After having proposed the definition and introduced all the terms, it is undoubtedly important to explain why the term "folk" has been chosen above all the mentioned expressions. There are two main reasons to be stated. The first one is its historical background, as up to the 1960s, the age of "folk revivalism", all the attributes mentioned above were exclusive to songs that were truly folk in all its senses including the musicological and historical one. Denisoff suggests, that what was to become a folk

(protest) song in the 1960s is rooted deeply in the history of the music genre, as folk song was the most understandable to common people and thus could be used as a tool of social activity the most easily. (Denisoff, "The Proletarian Renaissance" 52)

The choice has been made also with regard to the Landau’s definition and is derived from the expression "folks" in the meaning of friends, community of people sharing the same worldview and opinions, as it could be claimed that loyalty between an interpret of a song and its audience are one of the most important aspects of the proposed understanding of the term.

The importance of this understanding lies in its ability to discuss songs of various music genres when using the term folk song. Consequently, in the context of folk song we are able to discuss for example Bob Dylan’s songs composed in his electronic period as well as his songs performed only with acoustic guitar. Moreover, it is possible to mention musicians as The Doors or Janis Joplin who could not be considered folk in its traditional sense but are inevitably mentioned in this thesis.

1.3. Function of Folk Song in a Society

1.3.1. Historical Insight

The tradition of the use of songs as a social tool expressing discontent and rebellion in society is deeply rooted in human history. It was, in a sense, used by armies to reinforce the feeling of brotherhood and work songs were sung by slaves on plantations, expressing their oppression. The history of folk song could be easily traced back to these musical forms and the evolution of socially relevant song could be meaningfully linked to a prehistoric musical expression. Yet, for the purpose of this thesis, it is sufficient to mention the most immediate roots of what evolved to folk song of the 1960s.

Serge Denisoff, one of the most respected sociologists dealing with the problematic of the social significance of songs, claims that "social movements have historically used song to put forth their belief systems and to gain internal unity"

(Denisoff, "The Proletarian Renaissance" 52). He connects its history mainly with left- wing oriented social movements using folk genre to be closer to their proletarian supporters inhabiting mainly rural areas for whom folk music was the most understandable and thus the most appealing genre. For common people, folk music was perceived as "people’s music" as opposed to the artificial forms of "bourgeoisie" music.

(Denisoff "The Proletarian Renaissance" 51-55)

However, folk music started to be used outside rural environments very soon.

This was closely connected to the "folk revivalism" and increasing "folk consciousness"

(the term referring to "an awareness of folk music which leads to its use in a foreign

(urban) environment as in the framework of social, economic or political action.

(Denisoff, "Folk Music and Generational Left" 428)) The process of folk song moving from the rural to urban areas took place mainly in the 1950s when the genre adopted the

character of spokesmen and under the influence of contact with media sphere and masscult and midcult it gradually started to use popular material.

Another aspect of the folk song transformation was its commercialization. As the time went on, more and more experimental features were diffusing into the genre.

This was the time when the term folk ceased to be related to the form and started to be related to songs’ content and purpose and gained its form involving Pete Seeger as well as Janis Joplin.

1.3.2. Sociology of Folk Song

As folk songs gained their importance and significance and also due to the rise of cultural studies focusing on popular culture, theoretical knowledge of folk songs evolved, as well. However, not much attention has been paid to the lyrics themselves.

Folk songs were studied in terms of their social significance and, moreover, they were mostly associated with revolutionary movements and, in the 1960s, with the rise of

American counterculture.

Denisoff, talking about protest songs, creates an entire system of its classification. He divides them into two subgroups: songs of persuasion that are composed to persuade people to join some organization or social movement and to reinforce the feeling of unity among its members; and rhetorical songs which he describes as "the one[s] written by a folk entrepreneur to identify and describe some social condition, but one[s] which offer[s] no explicit ideological or organizational solutions, such as affiliation with an action or movement" and, mostly, it is not connected to an officially existing movement or group. ("Songs of Persuasion" 584)

This thesis will focus mostly on the second type, the rhetorical song, because the first type of songs are mainly anonymously written and they are not exclusively tied

to a specific historical period, as they are usually re-used by more social movements in different eras and so they rather highlight the feeling of identity in the movement than describe and reflect an actual state of the society.

Denisoff further establishes 6 main goals that folk songs should achieve. They are:

1.) (...) support and sympathy for a social or political movement

2.) (...) (reinforcement of) the value structure of individuals who are active

supporters of the social movement or ideology

3. (...) cohesion, solidarity, and high morale in an organization or movement

supporting its world view

4.) (...) recruitment of individuals into joining a specific social movement

5.) (...) invocation of a solution to real or imagined social phenomena in terms of

action to achieve a desired goal

6.) (...) pointing to some problem or discontent in the society, usually in emotional

terms ("Songs of Persuasion" 582)

Simply said, the song needs to have an ambition to work as a social tool, its social importance does not arise by chance, the author writes it with an intention to achieve one of the goals mentioned above.

Another important aspect of the folk song is, as it has been briefly mentioned above, the relationship between an artist and his audience. It is important because to be able to appeal to people and to be trusted, the singer needs to have credibility. To explain it more explicitly, to become a speaker declaring discontent for a group of people, the singer inevitably has to be considered a part of the group. As Steve

Readhead and John Street claim, "the folk ideology works through a notion of a musician’s right to speak for a community or people" (178). They compare this feature

of the folk song’s function in society to democracy, as "musicians function like elected politicians; they represent their audience/constituency" (178). Practical examples of this principle are depicted in analyses of lyrics in Chapter 4.

2. Cultural Background

As it has been already stated in the introduction, the 1960s in America were a time of significant changes, time of progressive and liberal thinking, time of young people gaining their attitudes that were in sharp contrast with the worldviews of their parents and, above all, it was the time when the young generation gained its voice and a feeling of their own power, the feeling that they are the ones who have the ability to change things they did not like.

Plenty of things could be written about the political situation of the 1960s, but as the thesis focuses mainly on youth culture, it is probably more useful to draw close attention to the young people and the creation of counterculture. Consequently, this chapter deals mostly with the reasons of the rise of the counterculture and attempts to describe the features of the society that were despised the most by the young.

2.1. How Did It Begin?

It would be foolish to think that the rebelling young generation was exclusively a question of the 1960s, as the tendencies of discontent with the state of society and its heading were aroused as early as the 1950s. This was due to various reasons, some of which are important to be mentioned to be able to understand the counterculture of the

1960s.

Probably the most notable threats in the 1950s included the Cold War,

McCarthyism and the fear of communism that was implanted into American society.

Allen Ginsberg, one of the most important figures connecting the two decades commented on this:

I mean the whole cold war was in imposition of a vast mental barrier on

everybody, a vast antinatural psyche. A hardening, a shutting off of perception of

desire and tenderness that everybody knows and that is the very structure of...

the atom! Structure of the human body and organism. That desire built in.

Blocked. (Ginsberg, "The Art of Poetry")

Another factor raising a wave of discontent among the young hipsters of the

1950s was undoubtedly growing institutionalization and bureaucratization of the society’s structures and machineries. "It was a move towards a closed society, where all decisions would be secret, a bureaucratic disease. (...) It was a paralysis caused by the use of technological devices that invaded privacy, (forming) a new enemy" (Tytell 5).

In addition to the two issues mentioned above, in the context of the young rebelling Americans, technologization and growing materialism of American society should not be omitted. The 1950s were a time when the American household started to be filled with televisions, washing machines and various kinds of electronic kitchen appliances. Young families moved to the suburbs where the houses were often built according to the Levittown patterns in consequence of which many of them were similar to each other and the families living in them were heading towards uniformity.

To the oppositional young it seemed as if the highest goal of their parents was to have the right brand of car and television. The importance of materialism could be demonstrated by the fact that when Jack Kerouac defined the Beat Generation in an interview for Esquire, one of the points he made was that they were "free of Bourgeois-

Bohemian Materialism." (Kerouac qtd. in Chartres xxix)

After what has been already said, it could be claimed that the generation of the

1950s had a remarkable influence on the 1960s counterculture, as the features of the society they rebelled against were basically the same. Yet, it must be pointed out that they did not blindly copy old approaches and they managed to find their own ways of expression fitting the needs of their generation and they also enlarged the range of their

interests.

2.2. The 1960s Counterculture

In the 1960s, the first part of the post-WWII baby boom generation reached its teens and twenties, which meant that the young generation was significantly large in number. This young generation "was privileged and celebrated. In a sense, youth itself was identified as the embodiment and the potential realization of the American Dream."

(Grossberg 49) Yet, the American Dream seemed to be crushing in the hands of its nurturers. As Ondřej Hanák puts it,

There appear a lot of problems. Sputnik, a shame of U-2 and an unexpected thing

– the question of civil rights. It starts to be tiring for the world. In public, there is

an elegant posturing but inside America knows that it is neither strong, nor

perfect. The only thing waited for is someone to speak out. And there are more

someones. (Hanák 16; translation mine)

Following the 1950s philosophy of the literary movement of the Beat Generation and its sympathizers, the 1960s young generation formed a powerful counterculture speaking up its discontent with the state of American society.

In general, the theory of countercultures works with the terms like "the fragmentation or loss of status of a parent culture" (Ross 8). Theodor Roszak sees the reason of this loss in what he calls "technocracy" and he explains it as

the social form in which an industrial society reaches the peak of its

organizational integration. It is the ideal men usually have in mind when they

speak of modernizing, up-dating, rationalizing, planning. Drawing upon such

unquestionable imperatives as the demand for efficiency, for social security, for

ever higher levels of affluence and ever more impressive manifestations of

collective human power, the technocracy works knit together the anachronistic

gaps and fissures of the industrial society. (5)

Simply said, he perceives society as a machinery that has all its parts going by rules and in which everything is subordinate to collective welfare and profit. In such system, there is no place for individualism, personal needs and unique personal experience. Counterculture tries to reestablish the importance of an individual in the world heading to unification.

The counterculture, as it has been already pointed out, was strongly connected to the 1950s youth’s rebels and adopted their attitudes. Environmental issues, fight for the

Civil Rights, the question of feminism and gender and anti-war movement all became the objects of counterculture’s interest. In comparison with the 1950s, the young realized their political power and started to be politically involved. They created various organizations such as Youth International Party or Students for Democratic Society to promote their ends.

2.2.1. Common Feelings

To be able to analyze the expression of discontent and opposition, one should be at first able to articulate the main feelings that the young people in the 1960s had.

It could be stated that the main feeling of the 1960s was alienation. A perfect cultural symbol of this is the cult of James Dean which started in the 1950s but was still a strong embodiment of the common thoughts a decade later. Mainly thanks to his role in Rebel Without a Cause, he became a personification of a young man who got everything he needed from his parents except the only thing he really needed, real values. As Gitlin puts it, to the young, "the best the adult world had to offer was flimsy, phony, hypocritical" (31). The young were given material prospects, but had no real role

models to identify with.

Another problem with which they were dealing was a lack of space for their own individuality. Everything at the time when they were growing up was being unified.

This is where the technocracy discussed by Roszak was heading to. In the eyes of the young countercultural members, the middle class people seemed to be all living in identical houses, driving identical cars and watching identical televisions. The suburban parents wanted to look identically with the families in the TV commercials. Moreover, society started to employ "experts", as Roszak calls them, who deal not only with economic, political and cultural fields of society, but who "battening on the general social prestige of technical skill in the technocracy, assume authoritative influence over even the most seemingly personal aspects of life: sexual behavior, child rearing, mental health, recreation, etc." (Roszak 7) Under the pressure of all the mentioned factors, it is understandable that being pushed to uniformity so strongly, the young people started to feel and promote the need of individual identity.

Furthermore, the youth had to deal also with the strong feeling of uncertainty.

Undoubtedly, they were raised in a comfort that no generation before them experienced; yet, they lived in constant fear of the Cold War and use of nuclear weapons, as they witnessed for example the Cuban Missile Crisis. Later, they lived in the fear of being drafted into the Vietnam War they often did not even approve of. On one hand, they were provided with the luxury of the modern technological inventions that made their everyday lives much easier; on the other hand, they could not be certain of not standing face-to-face with a war the next day.

2.2.2. Importance of Culture and Arts

In the context of this thesis, it is important to realize that the counterculture was

not only a matter of opinions, attitudes and political movements. Its strength was supported by the fact that its members managed to create a whole cultural system - they created their own fine arts, literature, clothing code and, of course, music. The ex- members of the counterculture themselves claimed that "nothing influenced (...) the baby-boom generation as a whole as much as movies, music and comics did" (Gitlin 31) and, subsequently, the most appealing expression of their own thoughts can be found there, as well. In the introduction, I stated that the evidence of the power and importance of music at the time was The Woodstock Festival. Yet, it was not only a statement of the power of musical expression but it was also a perfect example of how all the aspects of the counterculture worked together. At first, it was supposed to be an apolitical meeting promoting peace and love, yet, the organizers soon came to the conclusion that the whole event is the best kind of demonstration of the goals the counterculture was promoting. As it has been said by Abbie Hoffman, political and social activist of the 1960s:

There was a revolutionary community that felt that music had grown out of its

bowels and that it was in conflict with mainstream society-with police, who were

working for mainstream society; with the war in Vietnam; with racism being

practiced by society. ... We wanted the festival to be seen in a context of what I

later termed 'the Woodstock Nation', to be seen in a context not removed from

politics. (Hoffman qtd. in Lang 94)

Michael Lang, one of the main organizers of the festival explained it similarly:

"(...) I wanted Woodstock to be a cultural event, not devoid of politics but a chance for a culture to stand on its own and simply be about itself. If Woodstock worked, that would be the strongest political statement possible" (97).

And this is a perfect example of how counterculture as a movement worked. It

employed alternative ways of expression and they wanted to change the society by living an alternative way of life.

2.2.3. Importance of Music

The early 1960s, as Dickstein claims, were the age of digital media and states that there was an era when literary critics claimed that "the most talented people went into film, or politics, or rock" (91). This approach is not relevant nowadays; nevertheless, it tells us a lot about the role of music at the time. However), the importance of music as a tool of social expression is not to be neglected. Daniel Levitin comments on this: "Music was present at almost every march and rally, in the background of nearly every organizational meeting. At the minimum, it's clear that people at the time thought music was helping" (Levitin 72). It could be argued that lyrics became one of the channels through which the opinions of mainly young generation were expressed and conveyed.

Moreover, as Dickstein further suggests, the 1960s novelists did not usually work with social themes very much. (92-93) Consequently, the lyrics can be perceived as a cultural element replacing this function of literature, to a certain extent.

3. Artistic Background: Influences and Inspirations

To be able to understand the 1960s lyrics, there is a need to put them not only into a social context, but also to put them into a broader cultural context, to perceive them in the continuum of the world of art and thus, to trace their origins. This can be achieved by understanding its basic influences. In this chapter, the Beat Generation and

Seeger-Guthrie tradition of folk song as the two most influential predecessors of the

1960s folk song are examined.

3.1. The Beat Generation

There can be absolutely no doubt that the Beat Generation members and their works were a great influence on the folk singers and songwriters. Some beatniks were even the authors of the lyrics (e.g. Michael McClure’s "Mercedes Benz" which is examined in the next chapter) and some songwriters proudly claimed that Beat writers were an important inspiration for them. Gitlin, when examining how Time magazine pictured Beats writes: "What Time thought appalling about Allen Ginsberg made him sound appealing to the young Robert Zimmerman (soon to be Dylan) in Hibbing,

Minnesota. The fourteen-year old Jim Morrison copied passages from On the Road into his notebook and imitated Dean Moriarty's laugh" (52).

However it was not only the bohemian image that made Beatniks so inspirational. As it has already been said, the 1950s rebellious philosophy became a founding stone of the 1960s counterculture and thus, Beatniks, as the most prominent embodiments of the thoughts, became its fathers. Dylan and other songwriters of the

1960s adopted their statements of discontent and their bohemian lifestyle; as well as they were inspired by and lately widely used formal techniques of the Beatniks.

3.1.1. Literary Influence

The members of the Beat Generation were known mostly for the rejection of traditional literary forms and academic style. They promoted mostly free associations, stream of consciousness and they treated writing as a visionary activity that needs to spring out from the most inner self. Jack Kerouac, in his "Belief and Technique of

Modern Prose" gives, among others, these essentials:

Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition. (...) Struggle to sketch

the flow that already exists intact in mind. Don’t think of words when you stop

but to see picture better. (...) Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual

American form. (...) Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from

under, crazier the better. (Kerouac 240)

These essentials inevitably lead to surreal and visual representations, which are easy to be found in, for example, Bob Dylan’s early works:

I can’t see my reflection in the waters,

I can’t speak the sounds that show no pain,

I can’t hear the echo of my footsteps,

Or can’t remember the sound of my own name. (Dylan, "Tomorrow Is a Long

Time" 10-13)

The Beat Generation authors also worked with rhetorical style. Their writings were mostly intended to be read aloud and were consequently adjusted to the author’s rhythm of speech and his breath capacity. They used colloquial and informal language and slang very often, as well. In folk songs this use of language is a common literary device, too. Thanks to that, the songwriters could more easily appeal to its audience, as they spoke to them in their language.

The Beat Generation authors also often used religious vocabulary and elements

in their poems and they tended to perceive everything as holy and sacred:

The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy!

The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand

and asshole holy!

Everything is holy! Everybody's holy! Everywhere is

holy! Everyday is an eternity! Everyman's an

angel! (Ginsberg, Howl 27),

screams Allen Ginsberg in his "Footnote to the Howl." And although the Beats referred mostly to eastern religions and in the 1960s songs mostly references to the

Bible and Christianity can be found, there is no doubt that lyricists adopted this tendency to use religious symbols and references from them. Lyrics such as "Mrs.

Robinson / Jesus loves you more than you will know" (Simon and Garfunkel, Mrs.

Robinson 1-2) or

Blessed are the one way ticket holders

on a one way street.

Blessed are the midnight riders

for in the shadow of God they sleep.

Blessed are the huddled hikers

staring out at falling rain,

wondering at the retribution

in their personal acquaintance with pain. (Joan Baez, Blessed Are 1-8) could be used as a proof for this.

Another common feature that can be found in Beat Poetry and the 1960s songs is use of particular cultural references. Both the Beatniks and the lyricists employed historical references and references to real people, events and goods, probably to make

their works more authentic.

Kines, balconies, Ah Tarzan-

And D W Griffith

the great American Director

Strolling down disgruntled

Hollywood Lane

- to toot Nebraska,

Indian Village New York,

Atlantis, Rome,

Peleus and Melisander,

and

swans of Balls (...) (Kerouac, 10th Chorus 13),

writes Kerouac in his Mexico City Blues. As an example of the folk song containing a lot of similar references, "America" written by Simon and Garfunkel could be named.

The last important literary device to be mentioned in the context of similarities and inspirations between the Beats and the lyricists is anaphoric repetition which seems to highlight the feeling of earnestness and insistence in both lyrics and poems. As examples, poem "I am Waiting" by Lawrence Ferlighetti could be stated:

I am waiting for my case to come up

and I am waiting

for rebirth of wonder

and I am waiting for someone

to really discover America

and wail

and I am waiting

for the discovery

of a new symbolic western frontier. (Ferlinghetti 101)

From the range of song lyrics, Bob Dylan´s "Rainy Day Woman # 12 & 35" could be given as an example with its repetition of the phrase "They´ll stone you when...".

3.1.2. Attitudes

The literary devices were not the only thing which was adopted by the folk lyricists from the Beat writers. They were also considerably(?significantly) inspired by their attitudes and life values. It has been already mentioned that the counterculture drew from the general discontent of the 1950s young generation, but there are two particular points from the Beats literary imagery that are worth to be mentioned in the context of the 1960s folk lyrics.

Firstly, it is the notion of Moloch introduced by Allen Ginsberg in his famous

"Howl":

Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the

crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of

sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment!

Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!

Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose

blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers

are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo!

Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb! (Ginsberg 21)

Ginsberg’s Moloch could be more or less understood in terms of Roszak΄s technocracy; yet it is somehow different. In Ginsberg’s description it acquires the form of a living

organism, scary and dangerous, destroying everything human-like. As it is stated by

Gitlin, "if the mind of Moloch, the false good was 'pure machinery', and its soul

'electricity and banks', then the right action was to unplug" (46). This is the vision that was later widely adopted by folksingers and the picture of a living machinery endangering humanity and the need to be free from it became one of the central themes in the 1960s folk songs, as it is shown later in the analysis.

The second important theme that was gained from the Beat writers was that of being on the road, more generally, the theme of a journey. For the Beats, the journey was one of the most important motives, as it symbolized freedom and it demonstrated that they were not chained to material possession and, consequently, able to spend part of their lifetimes moving from one place to another. Perfect example for this could be the best known Beat book of prose, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Gary Snyder described depiction of the journey’s essence as follows:

A regular job ties you down and leaves you no time. Better to live simply, be

poor, and have the time to wonder and write and dig (meaning to penetrate and

absorb and enjoy) what was going on in the world. On the Road describes

much of this life. (Snyder 519)

The depiction of wandering as a symbol of freedom and rejection of what the young people in the 1960s treated as artificial values appears in the folk lyrics very often, as well. This could be demonstrated on the lyrics such as "Me and Bobby

McGee" sung by Janis Joplin, Joan Baez’s "Hitchhiker’s Song" or Bob Dylan’s

"Highway 51".

All these parallels and similarities are important not only to point out the continuity of attitudes, but also to realize that the folk lyrics are part of American literary tradition and, thus, they can be analyzed in its context and terms.

3.2. Seeger-Guthrie Tradition

Contrarily to the literary influence of the Beat Generation, inspiration that the

1960s lyricists gained from a so called Seeger-Guthrie tradition was important mainly from the sociological point of view. However, it should not be neglected in explanation of the roots of the sixties folk songs.

Naturally, the history of folk song is rich and many individuals could be mentioned here. Yet, this line of songwriters was important for the evolution of the genre for two main reasons. Firstly, it drew its political orientation from it, as authors that could be listed as the part of Seeger-Guthrie tradition were, thanks to the already explained natural tie of folk music and left-wing political groups, closely connected with the Old Left, as the authors whose songs are analyzed in the next chapter were connected to The New Left. This continuum of interconnectedness of folk with left wing politics explains the thematic of the 1960s songs to a certain extent. Secondly, an important feature that was adopted from the Seeger-Guthrie tradition by later songwriters was a creation of original material and a transformation of the poetic persona.

3.2.1. Original Material and What it Brought

Until the emergence of the Seeger-Guthrie tradition, folk singers used mainly genuine folk material, which means that they scarcely wrote their own songs. The lyrics were thus anonymous and they mostly did not refer to particular historical events or problems. It was the songwriters as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger who started to compose their own songs reacting to their contemporary problems. Denisoff comments on this period like this: "Most of protest singers were eventually writing original material. The topical songwriters (...) were to be the prophets of protest" (Denisoff and

Lund 397). This is when the era of individual artists reacting to social problems began.

This transformation of songwriters' position brought about also transformations in lyrics writing. Collective 'we' of songs as "We Shall Overcome" evolved into individual statement of 'I' in "Masters of War" or "Mercedes Benz". "Rarely did the word 'we' enter their Dylans', Paxtons', Skys', Chandlers' lyrics. (...) More and more, the singular I predominated" (Denisoff and Lund, "The Folk Music Revival and the

Counter Culture" 397).

Thus, it could be argued that the use of a personal statement presented by an individual character or artist's alter ego widely employed by the 1960s songwriters instead of collective character or collective poetic persona is a device inherited from the

Seeger-Guthrie tradition. The importance of this transformation is pointed out in the analyses in the next chapter.

4. Analyses

This chapter contains three analyses of song lyrics - "Mercedes Benz" co-written by Michael McClure, Janis Joplin and Bob Neuwirth, Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm

Only Bleeding)" and "American Pie" written and performed by Don McLean.

The choice has been made primarily on the basis of criterion of songs' authorship. This criterion was established due to the importance of author's persona as a legitimate speaker with whom the audience and social group may be identified.

Consequently, some of the most outstanding figures of the period have been chosen, each of them representing different period of the 1960s; Bob Dylan standing for the early and mid-1960s, Janis Joplin for the second half of the decade and Don McLean representing the turn of the decades and balancing the period from a greater distance and less passionately than Dylan and Joplin (although there is only a year gap between the release of "Mercedes Benz" and "American Pie", they employ different views, as

McLean sees the era as already passed, whereas in Joplin's song it is still alive).

However, each of the artists wrote an immense number of songs and thus also the criterion of social-critical message had to established. Yet, still, there was a great number of songs fitting into the frame of "song of great social and political import" as

Janis Joplin entitled her Mercedes Benz (Joplin, "Mercedes Benz").

In the end, a condition of particular problems with which the songs should deal was brought up. Building upon the analysis of countercultural statements depicted in

Chapter 2, feeling of alienation, mistrust to established authorities and corruption of spiritual values were chosen as principal problems that should be pictured in the lyrics.

The analyses do not deal with the mentioned themes exclusively and they focus also on other features of social criticism depicted in the lyrics and they examine literary devices used in them, as well.

4.1. Bob Dylan: "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

"It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" was written in 1964 and released in 1965 on Dylan's album Bringing It All Back Home. Its lyrics are generally perceived as ones of the most difficult to understand and some even claim that:

"Trying to decipher whatever meaning may have lurked in most of Dylan's

lyrics was like panning for gold. Most of your hard work would be for nothing

and most of what you found would be useless sand and rocks, but every once in

a while you would find a twenty-four carat nugget" (Luft 108).

Although this quotation may seem slightly unprofessional, it illustrates the impression ordinary people had when listening to Dylan's lyrics. They probably could not analyze it word for word, yet it produced certain atmosphere and conveyed a feeling. Of course, literary scholars and musicologists are able to term this more precisely as surrealistic images, as I have already stated in preceding chapters. "It's Alright, Ma" itself was described as "a mixture of narration and preaching but both, perhaps continuing from the apocalyptic numbers, have a somewhat hallucinatory quality" (Mellers 134).

In context of Dylan's other songs, Mellers puts "It's Alright, Ma" into a group of

"apocalyptic songs", together with "A hard rain's a-gonna fall" or "When the ships comes in" (Mellers 132-133) and Marqusee describes it as "longer, more obscure, more complex than any of his previous works" (Marqusee 127).

The song's cultural appeal might be illustrated for example by its inclusion into the soundtrack of an important movie mapping the 1960s counterculture, Easy Rider.

The context in which the movie employs the song may also be understood as a part of its social interpretation, as it is used as a background just before the scene in which the two main characters - embodiments of countercultural values - are shot by anonymous truck-drivers just because their appearance is non-conformist.

4.1.1. Formal Elements

The song is structured into five triplets of five or six-line stanzas. The triplets are separated from each other by a three-line variable refrain in which only the last line that addresses the poetic persona's "Ma" is partly repetitive. The triplets might be seen as respective sections introducing various sub-themes and a corresponding refrain comments on the sub-themes and it mostly individualizes the content and offers "the narrator's attitude" (though, it should not be perceived as being present in the refrains exclusively).

The interconnectedness of stanzas in the triplets might be demonstrated also on the rhyme patterns Dylan uses in the song. These are quite complex, as all lines of the stanzas are rhymed, except for the last lines, which makes the stanzas recognizable from the others when listening to the song and, consequently, it facilitates the understanding and it enables listeners to grasp the lyrics more easily. The refrains are structured in the same way; the last lines are not rhymed with the rest of the refrain. Furthermore, the last lines of all three stanzas in one triplet and its refrain are rhymed. (For example, the pattern of the first stanza is AAAAAB CCCCB DDDDDB EEB) Building upon this rhyme pattern, the claim of interconnectedness between the stanzas might be justified not only on the level of content, but also on the level of structure. Moreover, together with the use of internal rhyme ("So don't fear if you hear foreign sound to your ear"

(Dylan 18-19)) , this pattern of using phonologically similar words at the end of lines of stanzas contributes to, and to a certain extent it probably substitutes for, coherence on the level of content, as the content is considerably fragmented.

Also alliteration should be mentioned when dealing with distinctive formal elements, as it is used widely in the song. Dylan himself commented on its use: "I've written some songs that I look at, and they just give me a sense of awe. Stuff like ´It's

Alright Ma´, just the alliteration in that blows me away" (qtd. in Sounes 169). As examples for these lines such as "that he not busy being born is busy dying" or "For them that must obey authority/that they do nor respect in any degree/who despise their jobs, their destinies (...)" (Dylan 63-65). The use of alliteration obviously functions as an enforcement of an inner cohesion of the stanzas.

In general, it could be concluded that the formal elements function primarily in two ways. Firstly, the rhyme pattern and the construction of the lyrics into triplets of stanzas divided by refrains indicate respective sub-themes and in a way substitute for typographical division, which consequently facilitates orientation in the lyrics when they are being only listened to. Secondly, the use of the rhyme pattern, internal rhymes and alliteration considerably contributes to the cohesion of the widely fragmentized content of the lyrics.

4.1.2. Apocalyptic Visions aka There's No Way out of Here

As it has been already briefly foreshadowed, the song could be generally perceived as an apocalyptic vision of the society, yet this vision as a whole consists of the depiction of various elements that create the atmosphere of doom, uncertainty and despair. Beside the themes mentioned as a condition for the choice of the analyzed songs (feeling of alienation, mistrust of established authorities, and values), there is a strong theme of a crippled mental life and false picture of reality, loss of position of religion, criticism of materialism and mass-media manipulation, call for individualism and a disillusioned commentary on the protest movement.

The fearful effect of all of these is multiplied by the position of the narrator, who is inactive and denies any possibility of change. The narrator's position is interpreted in the post modernistic context as "simply describing social structures and the limits of

reason while refraining from proposing reforms. Thus, one avoids the paradox of asserting any vision of progress while denying possibility as such" (Porter and Vernezze

75). The attitude of senselessness and downfall is stated in the very first stanza already:

Darkness at the break of noon

Shadows even the silver spoon

The handmade blade, the child's balloon

Eclipses both the sun and moon

To understand you know too soon

There is no sense in trying. (Dylan 1-6)

In this stanza, he establishes a motif of darkness which is employed throughout the whole song in various forms ("flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark" (Dylan 30)).

The darkness might also bring up a connotation of blindness, which is metaphorically also one of the major motifs used in the lyrics.

In the first triplet Dylan further continues with the depiction of violence, war and confusion. ("pointed threats" (7), "suicide remarks"(8), "he not busy being born is busy dying"(11), "find yourself at war"(13), "you feel to moan"(15), "and you'd be one more person crying"(16-17)) and it also establishes an important theme of "conformism and its results" (Porter and Vernezze 80): "you follow, found yourself at war" (Dylan 13),

"unlike before you discover that you'd be one more person crying" (Dylan 16-17).

It is concluded with the refrain which tells Ma not to fear, because the poetic persona is "only sighing" (Dylan 20). As it will be shown, the refrains function on one hand as a confirmation that "there is no sense in trying" (Dylan 6) phrase and therefore of passivity and hopelessness of the narrator and at the same time as a "fragile defiance"

(Marqusee 128), as the "only" might be meant ironically.

The next triplet deals mainly with ideologies, authorities and institutions and

pictures them as thoroughly corrupted and as tools by which an individual gets manipulated. Religion is shown as de-spiritualized and its authorities displaced by

"human gods" that "make everything from toy guns that spark to flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark"(28-30) and Dylan claims that "not much is really sacred"(32).

"The flesh-color Christ" stands as a particularly powerful symbol in this stanza, as it connects religion with a market system of which it became a part and also with a flesh which might stand as a contrast to spirit which is archetypally associated with Christ.

Then Dylan proceeds to attacking other authorities. After the depiction of the devaluation of Christ, supposedly the highest authority in spiritual world, in this stanza the focus is put on the president of the United States, the authority of a worldly sphere:

While preachers preach of evil fates

Teachers teach that knowledge waits

can lead to hundred dollar plates

Goodness hides behind its gates

But even the president of United States

Sometimes must have to stand naked. (33-39)

Porter and Vernezze interpret the stanza as a picture of "the institution of religion, education and politics that offer anything but confused and corrupt direction" (71).

Dylan himself concludes this triplet by a commentary in refrain that "It's only people's games that you got to dodge" (40) and in this way he points out that although the institutions are evil, it is still only people themselves who create them.

The third triplet focuses on a search of freedom and its obstacles such as manipulation by mass media sphere:

Advertising signs they con

you into thinking you're the one

You can do what's never been done

that can win what's never been won

Meantime life outside goes on

All around you. (Dylan 42-47)

Marqusee claims that in this stanza Dylan puts "what Marx called the commodity fetish

- and its ideological handmaiden in mass society, the advertising industry" (128) into the center of the society he pictures. Porter and Vernezze further see this as "a vivid expression of paths to freedom as traps" and they state that "though freedom is continually promised, one is trapped in its pursuit" (73). However, in the next stanza

Dylan seems to sketch out a possible solution of redemption and introduces the theme of individuality and a need for a self-realization and according to Porter and Vernezze he borrows Emerson's concept of self appearing only in solitude not in the sense of an exile, but in the sense of independence and thinking (84):

You lose yourself, you reappear

You suddenly find you got nothing to fear

Alone you stand with nobody hear

When a trembling distant voice, unclear

Startles your sleeping ears to hear... (48-52)

Nevertheless, this sparkle of positive atmosphere is turned out instantly, as the lyrics proceed in general apocalyptical mood of the song and although "the question in your nerves is lit"(54) you are immediately told that "there is no answer fit/to satisfy

(...)" (55) and this sense of confusion is even highlighted by the narrator's refrain claim, that he has got "nothing, Ma, to live up to" (62).

The following triplet moves from the depiction of the manipulators to the manipulated. Dylan pictures ordinary people as being discontent, frustrated and

oppressed, yet not able to stand up against this oppression, only passively accepting it:

For them that must obey authority

that they do not respect in any degree

who despise their jobs, their destinies

speak jealousy of them that are free. (63-66)

He further elaborates on the previously introduced concept of the exploitation of values and their transformation into salable goods and shows that the only important merit of the values is their market prize: "(They) cultivate their flowers to be / Nothing more than something they invest in" (67-68). Afterwards, Dylan proceeds with a description of attempts to express a disagreement with this state of society. However, in his apocalyptic mood, he does not seem to give it much credit and is skeptical about these movements. Marqusee suggests that Dylan tries to point out that "the movement that claims to challenge this society (...) merely enacts its rituals and feeds its power" and he explains it as follows: "The point is that those who comment on society are themselves the product of that society. Inauthenticity and life denial permeate our every gesture" (129). Moreover, as Vernezze and Porter claim, this skeptical view of the countercultural efforts may be rooted in the fact that although it promotes individuality, it builds its rhetoric, as every social movement does, on the principles of subordination to a common purpose and it demands an identification with common values (74).

In his questioning of authenticity and purpose of protest, Dylan seems to go as far as questioning his own legitimacy and legacy. He gets himself to a position of "the outspoken dissenter (who) expresses nothing but his own powerlessness" (Marqusee

129):

While he who sings his tongue on fire

gargles in the rat race choir

bent out of shape from society's pliers

cares not to come up any higher

but rather get you down in the hole

that he's in. (Dylan 75-80)

Yet, in the refrain he seems to apologize for this assault but at the same time he accentuates his own want of independence and individuality, which as Marqusee suggests is one of the most important elements in the song: "There is no escape from the corruption and emptiness of the public sphere - except in the autonomous individual consciousness." (129): "But I mean no harm nor put fault / On anyone that lives in a vault / But it's alright, Ma, if I can please him." (Dylan 81-83) The last triplet of stanzas generally follows the notion of independence and self-articulation. In its first stanza, he expresses this need by a "protest (against) a culture of intolerance" and by "the defense of the unconventional and unpopular against repression" (Porter and Vernezze 69). In this stanza, he also proceeds in his criticism of materialism and inauthenticity that arises from it. Once again, Dylan introduces us to "a society dominated by commodities, (in which) all public discourse has grown corrupt" and implies that "the power of money has rendered all social communication inauthentic" (Marqusee 129): "Money doesn't talk, it swears / Obscenity, who really cares / Propaganda, all is phony" (Dylan 87-89).

In the following stanza Dylan proceeds in criticism of demand for uniformity and blindness of people who follow these demands. In the context of the line "while them that defend what they cannot see" (90) arises a connection with Theodor Roszak´s notion of technocracy: the invisible mechanisms ruling over people that has been mentioned in one of the previous chapters.

The last stanza's promotion of individualism is the most powerful and the most direct, as the singer turns from outside to the inside and unlike the other stanzas this one

is written in the first person. The poetic persona is confronted with the society ("My eyes collide head-on with stuffed / graveyards, false gods" (96-97)). This confrontation is, as Marqusee claims, "entirely antagonistic - and unresolved" (130). Dylan metaphorically displays the oppression and lack of freedom of the individual and outlines vicious circle of search for it ("(I) walk upside-down inside handcuffs" (Dylan

99) and he expresses his despair ("I scuff at pettiness which plays so rough" (97-98)) and rage ("I kick my legs to crash it off/ say, okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?" (100-101)).

The last refrain is similarly an expression of his conflict with a society and

"concludes with proud but despairing declaration of his own subversiveness" (Marqusee

130): "And if my thought-dreams could be seen / They'd probably put my head in a guillotine / But it's alright, Ma, it's life and life only" (Dylan 102-105).

To point out the connection between the lyrics and the influences mentioned in

Chapter 3, one should certainly mention the notion of Ginsberg's Moloch, which is, in fact, embodiment of the society described by Dylan. Furthermore, the influence of

Kerouac's spontaneous writing is clearly observable here, as Dylan's lyrics use wild imagery and they are considerably fragmented. (Moreover, it is quite probable that the style is partly a result of Dylan's being high on some drugs, as this was a common method of writing and artistic production in general at the time.) Also the use of first- person narrator inspired probably by Seeger-Guthrie tradition singers should not be neglected.

4.2. Janis Joplin, Michael McClure, Bob Neuwirth: Mercedes Benz

The lyrics of "Mercedes Benz" were originally a poem written by a Beat poet

Michael McClure and they were transformed by Joplin and Bob Neuwirth, a folk songwriter, poet and visual artist, into song lyrics only later. The song was recorded in

1970 as one of the last Joplin's songs, as she died three days after the recording. As

Joplin herself claims at the beginning of the record, she "would like to do a song of a great social and political import". Unlike her other songs this one does not employ sub- theme and it only deals with social criticism. (Songs as for example "Me and Bobby

McGee", "Mary Jane", "Women Is Losers" etc. all deal with a theme of individualism, freedom or women emancipation, yet they still use a theme of a personal relationship of a poetic persona as a background.) The importance of its lyrics is highlighted also by a lack of musical instrumentation so that audience may focus on the message exclusively and is not distracted by music. Moreover, the a-capella presentation is strongly connected with the form of the song, as it will be shown.

4.2.1. Formal Elements

The "Mercedes Benz" lyrics are divided into four stanzas each having four lines.

The first and the last line of every stanza are identical and in every stanza there is incorporated the repetitive phrase: "Oh Lord, won't you buy me...". The repetition and a principle of addressing Lord similar to the one used in "Mercedes Benz" is used in many popular gospels and spirituals such as "Walk in the Light", "Happy Sunbeams" and "Oh, Happy Day". Thus, being constructed in this way, in a combination with the a- capella presentation, the song evokes gospel and spiritual song. Moreover, the principle of an identity of the first and the last element used in respective stanzas is used also on

the level of the whole song, as the first and the last stanza are the same. This is also a device that is common in the structure of the gospels and spirituals ("Amazing Grace",

"Oh, Freedom" and "We Shall Overcome"). The extensive use of repetitive devices is due to a linkup of the genres with the oral tradition, which is also important when looking at the "Mercedes Benz's" lyrics, as it does not use any markedly poetic expressions and it works mainly with common language (the Beat poetry influence is traceable here).

Gospel songs as well as spirituals and work songs are an important part of

American folk tradition and some basic connotations are associated with them. For the analysis of "Mercedes Benz" mainly the association with Christianity and religion will be important.

4.2.2. Goods as Gods, Gods as Goods

The main theme with which the lyrics work is the contrast of spiritual and material values. This is how the form enters an co-creates the message, as although using the form of a spiritual, gospel song or a prayer the singer asks Lord for material things such as Mercedes Benz, a color TV or "a night on the town" (Joplin 9). From the tension between the spiritual and the material two conclusions could be made. On the one hand, it deals with the materialism and this way the lyrics point out the loss of interest in spiritual values, relationships and humanity instead of which there came a cult of fashionable products and possessions. On the other hand, it reflects devaluation of Christianity and religion as a social institution and as the means of personal contemplation. The Lord is no longer a figure which one should look up to, who reinforces a sense of responsibility for one's acts, someone to whom one should answer for his or her sins or a figure that embodies certain spiritual values and who functions as

a communal conscience. He is transformed into somebody who should give people what they ask for. In the phrase "prove that you love me" (Joplin 10) the singer shows how little authority remained in the persona of Lord, who seems to be obliged to prove things to people.

He is apparently devoid of more than his authority, as he seems to lack also supernatural abilities. He is not asked to simply give the car and the TV but he is asked to buy it, so he is put on the same level with common people and becomes a part of a market system. In fact, he is dominated by it, as he is forced to conform to it and pay for goods. This contributes to the general picture of corruption of religion, disillusion and a loss of stable and seemingly unquestionable American values and its replacement by new gods of the nation, the consumer goods.

The products themselves should also be mentioned when analyzing the lyrics, as they represent significant cultural icons of the era. First and foremost, there is the

Mercedes-Benz car. In the 1950s and 1960s, cars were already an important part of everyday life. Because many families lived in the suburban parts of the cities, cars were essential means of connection with their works, schools and also city life. Moreover, the brand of a car was an aspect of prestige. John Alfred Heitman in his book The

Automobile and American Life suggests that there was a "love affair" between America and automobiles in the 1950s and early 1960s and although counterculture members tried to weaken the position of cars in everyday life through various ecological activities, strong affection of Americans towards their cars remained untouched (169-

170). The lyrics depict this relationship and the need for a prestigious brand of car by a plead for Lord to buy the poetic persona a Mercedes Benz, because "her friends all drive

Porsches" and she "must make amends" (Joplin 2).

In the next stanza, she prays for a color TV, which might be, again, interpreted

in terms of criticism of materialism, yet in the context of a reference to a popular TV show Dialing for Dollars, it gains also other connotations and it might be explained as an ironizing of mass-cultural and mass-media influence on the society. In the lyrics, there is stated that " Dialing for Dollars is trying to find" (Joplin 6) her1 and that she

"waits for delivery each day until three" (Joplin 7), which might be interpreted as a caricature of how manipulative these forces may be and how people get affected by them in creating stereotypes (for example on the basis of a TV schedule).

From what has already been said, it is observable that Janis Joplin in her

"Mercedes Benz" criticizes the middle-class way of life in the 1960s America mainly by means of mockery and irony. She presents it through a contrast between the formal elements connoting the traditional spiritual values and the theme focusing on the material ones. She also comments on conformism and mass-media manipulation. When all of these themes are put together, there arises a picture of corrupted and homogeneous society which is exactly what the counterculture tried to stand up against.

1 'Dialing for Dollars' was a TV show in which its host called a telephone number picked by chance. If the called person responded by a special password given at the beginning of the show, he or she won a certain amount of money. 43

4.3. Don McLean: American Pie

Don McLean's song American Pie was written at the end of the 1960s and it was released in 1971, which means towards the end of the era of significant countercultural activities. In comparison with the two preceding songs, this one has a different point of view, as it comments on the period retrospectively, the narrator looks back at it, remembers and metaphorically depicts various events of the decade and, as it will be shown later, through his memories he expresses a feeling of disillusionment and displacement.

In general, the song is perceived as "highly nuanced and sophisticated, containing multiple allusions and layers of meaning which challenge and heighten our understanding of rock´n´roll music and the possibility of self-reflection and self-critique in popular culture" (Baur 255). It is also often interpreted as "not only a remembrance of the passing of a brilliant 1950s tunesmith, but also a metaphorical exploration of changes in American music from 1955 until the early 1970s" (Cooper 86).

From the preceding quotations, it is understandable that the song works with numerous metaphors and allusions referring to the music of the late 1950s and the

1960s and is mostly interpreted in its own terms. However, for the purpose of this thesis, this point of view is irrelevant and I will consequently explain the references to songs, interprets and albums only when a wider cultural context is derivable from them.

Unlike the majority of interpretations, this analysis attempts to point out how the lyrics reflect and incorporate the countercultural ideas instead of focusing on the critique of the counterculture and depiction of its downfall, although these are undoubtedly present there, as well.

4.3.1. Formal Elements

"American Pie" consists of six stanzas divided by a repetitive refrain that remains unchanged throughout the song. Rhyme patterns in respective stanzas are irregular and the beginning is not rhymed at all. McLean thus enters the song as if he started telling a story or a fairytale: "A long, long time ago / I can still remember / how that music used to make me smile" (1-3) and only after this introduction he starts rhyming. This storytelling introduction is highlighted also by the way McLean interprets it - he half sings and half recites. This opening of the song foreshadows that the song will have a form of narration and poetic persona is established as a narrator.

Similarly to Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma", "American Pie" widely uses internal rhyme ("drove my Chevy to the levee" (10), "the moss grows fat on a rolling stone"

(43), "helter skelter in a summer swelter" (63), "to light the sacrificial rite"(94)), which could be considered as a compensation of an instability and irregularity of the general rhyme pattern.

As for the refrain, McLean uses it in two ways. Firstly, both the stanzas and the refrains close with a phrase "the day that music died" which increases the awareness of the end not only on the formal level but it also keeps reminding listeners of the main theme of the song - that of loss, ending and death. Secondly, there is a main refrain consisting of seven lines and dividing respective stanzas. It focuses on the theme of an ending, death and farewell as well and its repetitiveness serves the purpose of reinforcement of the main theme.

4.3.2. Bitter-sweet Taste of the American Pie

"American Pie" is claimed to be a partly autobiographical narrative about the changes in the music and society of the late 1950s and the 1960s. It is told from a

position of a man who was a part of the generation coming of age in this period and in the lyrics he deals with his traumas and disillusionments as an individual, yet he places them into a wider context of the generational feeling and, unlike Dylan, he perceives himself as a legitimate part of this generation ("there we were all in one place a generation lost in space" (83-84)). Moreover, he generalizes his story also by the use of symbols typical for the era. (Chevy, a pink carnation and a pickup truck) This interplay between the public and the personal might be found also in the title of the song itself.

"'American Pie' is a term of McLean's own invention, and so it denotes nothing in general. But it does call to mind notions of 'Miss America' and 'apple pie'" (Baur 560).

Consequently, it puts together the symbol of one of the best known public competitions with the symbol of home standing for privacy.

I have already outlined the connection between the lyrics and events on the field of (mainly) rock'n'roll music and it could be said that it has a similar function as references to cultural phenomena and the word play in the title. Nonetheless, references to various songs and interprets are often cryptic and there are a lot of analyses that build their interpretation of the song merely on decipherment of these allusions. Yet, as Baur claims,

there can be no doubt that one-to-one correspondence can be established

between specific lyrics in 'American Pie' and specific persons or happenings in

rock'n'roll history. However, it would be a mistake to conclude that the critical,

philosophical meaning of 'American Pie' is to be found primarily in such one-to-

one correspondences. (257)

Yet, foremost, there is a need to realize a general importance of music in the song as it is closely tied with a commentary on religion. In this song, just as in the preceding two ones, devaluation of religion is depicted, although in a slightly different

way. The "American Pie" lyrics contain multiple hints suggesting that "rock'n'roll music has become something of a substitute religion" (Baur 262). As an example the lines such as "Do you believe in rock'n'roll? / Can music save your mortal soul?" (McLean

24-25) could be mentioned. However, McLean mentions religion also in other connotations, mainly in the connection with questioning of the status of religion and the loss of feeling of its sincerity: "Do you have faith in God above / if the Bible tells you so?" (McLean 22-23). When trying to interpret these lines, one should notice that the faith is not a personal belief and opinion, but it is rather perceived as something that has to be dictated and prescribed. Moreover, lots of references to Satan are used in the lyrics, as McLean dedicates an entire part to the triumph of evil:

(...) cause fire is the devil's only friend.

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage

My hands were clenched in fists of rage.

No angel born in hell

could break that Satan's spell.

And as the flames climbed high into the night

to light the sacrificial rite,

I saw Satan laughing with delight. (98-105)

The first thing worth focusing on is the picture of the devil being "on the stage", and thus contradictions to the Christian values being performed publicly and accepted as suitable to be displayed. "No angel born in hell" might stand for advocates of belief and McLean might apply the same view of impossibility of change of the present state of society by the people nurtured by its ideals and values and consequently only mirroring it. Towards the end of the song, McLean gets more and more skeptical when he claims that "church bells all were broken" which could be seen as a symbolical

statement that religion lost its voice. He goes even further with lines that say: "The three men I admired most / the father, son and the Holy ghost / caught the last train for the coast" (123-125). Although the three figures are mostly interpreted as Buddy Holly (the folk singer whose death in the plane crash has been generally referred to as the day when music died) and his two companions, the primary meaning of the holy trinity as a symbol for Christianity cannot be ignored and their departure can be seen as an allegory of the disappearance of religion. Furthermore, when building upon the parallel of religion and music in the context of the loss of religion's importance, the refrain should be taken into consideration as well, as it focuses on the notion of "the day that music died", and thus, in terms of this interpretation, the day (age) when religion died.

Next major theme dealt with in the song is the feeling of alienation and disillusionment, one of the basic characteristics of the late countercultural generation

McLean belonged to. It is interesting to observe how McLean presents these feelings as communal and its expression is mostly connected with the collective "we". This could be demonstrated for example on the excerpts such as "for ten years we've been on our own" (42), "there we were all in one place / the generation lost in space / with no time left to start again"(83-85) and "we all got up to dance/ oh, but we never got a chance"

(71-72). In the last mentioned line, also the accusation of the society might be found, for it did not offer the opportunity of a full self-realization to its youth. Also the reference to "being lost in space" connotes the same awareness of two-sided reality of progress

(ability of man to fly into space and general increase of technological knowledge and opportunities arising from it), yet on the other hand, lack of values for nurturing of which the progress could be used. This bitterness might be traced also in the refrain of the song in which another interpretation of the term "Miss American pie" arises. It can be interpreted not only as a feature in which personal and public issues are tied together,

but as Baur suggests, it also "readily connotes a general sense of what is good, redeeming and beautiful in American culture" (260). By parting with it, McLean reinforces the overall sense of nostalgia.

Although "American Pie" might be seen as a mere critique of what became of the 1960s youth generation, it in fact adopts many of its views, attitudes and means of expression. This is due mainly to the semi-autobiographical construction of the narrator and his placement inside instead of outside the social group and generation. The interpretation focusing on critique of the mainstream society more than a critique of its opposition might be supported by the evidence given above, namely the notions of breakdown of traditional values represented by the devaluation of religion that lead to the feeling of instability, alienation and up-rootedness.

Conclusion

The main aim of this thesis was to present the 1960s lyrics as a mirror to the countercultural thinking and to point out how the 1960s songwriters rebelled against the mainstream (which at the time meant middle-class) way of life. The thesis also meant to focus on the way in which the lyricists conveyed the ideas of discontent to its audience and how they made their lyrics so appealing.

The first three chapters were devoted to the depiction of the general potential of the folk song genre as of a channel through which countercultural ideas may be expressed, to the depiction of the 1960s counterculture and to the influences on the

1960s songwriters.

Then, the three lyrics were analyzed in the context of what was said in the first three chapters. From the analyses, there arise following features by means of which songwriters appealed to their listeners: the use of narrative techniques and various forms of religious rhetoric, the construction of narrator and the use of cultural symbols familiar to the audience.

As for the use of religious rhetoric, their variety goes from a prayer and resemblance of a gospel song used it "Mercedes Benz" to the preaching technique used in Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma". It could be argued that these features are used because, similarly to the actual religious forms, the songs appeal to a community with shared values and worldview, and moreover, they reinforce the feeling of spirituality.

The narrative aspects used mainly in "American Pie" and "It's Alright, Ma" are probably employed because epic forms are generally more easily followable and understandable than the lyric ones and so they are more understandable to wider audience.

The choice of a narrator or poetic persona turned out to be a crucial element as

well. Its importance could be linked to the authority of the folk singer himself and a legacy of his or her right to undertake a position of a spokesperson, as he or she is often identified with the narrator. This is well observable in "American Pie" where the narrator is on one hand an individual with his own issues, but on the other hand he is aware of being a part of his generation and has numerous features common with its members, which enables the audience to identify with the song. Bob Dylan's narrator is constructed in an entirely different way, as he stands as an individual alone against everybody. Janis Joplin in her "Mercedes Benz" puts herself into the position of a mainstream society member and the irony of her statement is understandable mostly thanks to the knowledge of the singer herself. The irony, nevertheless, does not restrain the audience from identification with the narrator as its members were on the same side of cultural and social spectrum as Joplin and thus they could adopt the irony, as well.

What all the three songs have in common is reference to cultural symbols and icons. Besides standing as symbols of various social issues such as materialism

(Mercedes Benz) or home (apple pie), they function as an element that evokes to the audience the everyday reality in which they live and bring the lyrics speaking about high principles and values to real life.

On the level of content, the opposition to the mainstream lifestyle in the lyrics is expressed mainly by the criticism of materialism, manipulation, loss of authority of institutions and their devaluation and loss of status of religion and its corruption, commercialization and despiritualization.

When all these points derived from the analyses are taken into account, there can be absolutely no doubt that the 1960s singers and lyricists mirrored the values of countercultural movement of that time and thus represented an important part of the protest against the mainstream, middleclass way of life and that they did so not only by

means of the thematic focus but that they used also specific literary features to accomplish their task of expressing the countercultural view of life.

Appendices

Bob Dylan: It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Darkness at the break of noon Shadows even the silver spoon The handmade blade, the child’s balloon Eclipses both the sun and moon To understand you know too soon There is no sense in trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn Suicide remarks are torn From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn Plays wasted words, proves to warn That he not busy being born is busy dying

Temptation’s page flies out the door You follow, find yourself at war Watch waterfalls of pity roar You feel to moan but unlike before You discover that you’d just be one more Person crying

So don’t fear if you hear A foreign sound to your ear It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing

As some warn victory, some downfall Private reasons great or small Can be seen in the eyes of those that call To make all that should be killed to crawl While others say don’t hate nothing at all Except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark As human gods aim for their mark Make everything from toy guns that spark To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark It’s easy to see without looking too far That not much is really sacred

While preachers preach of evil fates Teachers teach that knowledge waits Can lead to hundred-dollar plates Goodness hides behind its gates But even the president of the United States Sometimes must have to stand naked

An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it

Advertising signs they con You into thinking you’re the one That can do what’s never been done That can win what’s never been won Meantime life outside goes on All around you

You lose yourself, you reappear You suddenly find you got nothing to fear Alone you stand with nobody near When a trembling distant voice, unclear Startles your sleeping ears to hear That somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit Yet you know there is no answer fit To satisfy, insure you not to quit To keep it in your mind and not forget That it is not he or she or them or it That you belong to

Although the masters make the rules For the wise men and the fools I got nothing, Ma, to live up to

For them that must obey authority That they do not respect in any degree Who despise their jobs, their destinies Speak jealously of them that are free Cultivate their flowers to be Nothing more than something they invest in

While some on principles baptized To strict party platform ties Social clubs in drag disguise Outsiders they can freely criticize Tell nothing except who to idolize And then say God bless him

While one who sings with his tongue on fire Gargles in the rat race choir Bent out of shape from society’s pliers Cares not to come up any higher But rather get you down in the hole That he’s in

But I mean no harm nor put fault On anyone that lives in a vault But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him

Old lady judges watch people in pairs Limited in sex, they dare To push fake morals, insult and stare While money doesn’t talk, it swears Obscenity, who really cares Propaganda, all is phony

While them that defend what they cannot see With a killer’s pride, security It blows the minds most bitterly For them that think death’s honesty Won’t fall upon them naturally Life sometimes must get lonely

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed Graveyards, false gods, I scuff At pettiness which plays so rough Walk upside-down inside handcuffs Kick my legs to crash it off Say okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen They’d probably put my head in a guillotine But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only

Janis Joplin: Mercedes Benz

[Spoken:] I'd like to do a song of great social and political import. It goes like this.

[Sung, a capella:] Oh Lord, won't'cha buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So Lord, won’t'cha buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Oh Lord, won’t'cha buy me a color TV? [Dialing For Dollars] is trying to find me. I wait for delivery each day until three, So oh Lord, won’t'cha buy me a color TV ?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town? I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down. Prove that you love me and buy the next round, Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?

Everybody! Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends, Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

[Spoken:] That’s it! [Janis laughs.]

Don McLean: American Pie

A long, long time ago... I can still remember How that music used to make me smile. And I knew if I had my chance That I could make those people dance And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But february made me shiver With every paper I’d deliver. Bad news on the doorstep; I couldn’t take one more step.

I can’t remember if I cried When I read about his widowed bride, But something touched me deep inside The day the music died.

So bye-bye, miss american pie. Drove my chevy to the levee, But the levee was dry. And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die. "this’ll be the day that I die."

Did you write the book of love, And do you have faith in God above, If the Bible tells you so? Do you believe in rock ’n roll, Can music save your mortal soul, And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you’re in love with him `cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym. You both kicked off your shoes. Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.

I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck With a pink carnation and a pickup truck, But I knew I was out of luck The day the music died.

I started singin’, "bye-bye, miss american pie." Drove my chevy to the levee, But the levee was dry. Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die. "this’ll be the day that I die."

Now for ten years we’ve been on our own And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone, But that’s not how it used to be. When the jester sang for the king and queen, In a coat he borrowed from james dean And a voice that came from you and me,

Oh, and while the king was looking down, The jester stole his thorny crown. The courtroom was adjourned; No verdict was returned. And while lenin read a book of marx, The quartet practiced in the park, And we sang dirges in the dark The day the music died.

We were singing, "bye-bye, miss american pie." Drove my chevy to the levee, But the levee was dry. Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die. "this’ll be the day that I die."

Helter skelter in a summer swelter. The birds flew off with a fallout shelter, Eight miles high and falling fast. It landed foul on the grass. The players tried for a forward pass, With the jester on the sidelines in a cast.

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume While the sergeants played a marching tune. We all got up to dance, Oh, but we never got the chance! `cause the players tried to take the field; The marching band refused to yield. Do you recall what was revealed The day the music died?

We started singing, "bye-bye, miss american pie." Drove my chevy to the levee, But the levee was dry. Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die. "this’ll be the day that I die."

Oh, and there we were all in one place,

A generation lost in space With no time left to start again. So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick! Jack flash sat on a candlestick Cause fire is the devil’s only friend.

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage My hands were clenched in fists of rage. No angel born in hell Could break that satan’s spell. And as the flames climbed high into the night To light the sacrificial rite, I saw satan laughing with delight The day the music died

He was singing, "bye-bye, miss american pie." Drove my chevy to the levee, But the levee was dry. Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die. "this’ll be the day that I die."

I met a girl who sang the blues And I asked her for some happy news, But she just smiled and turned away. I went down to the sacred store Where I’d heard the music years before, But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.

And in the streets: the children screamed, The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed. But not a word was spoken; The church bells all were broken. And the three men I admire most: The father, son, and the holy ghost, They caught the last train for the coast The day the music died.

And they were singing, "bye-bye, miss american pie." Drove my chevy to the levee, But the levee was dry. And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die. "this’ll be the day that I die."

They were singing, "bye-bye, miss american pie." Drove my chevy to the levee,

But the levee was dry. Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die."

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English Summary

The aim of my thesis is to point out how social criticism based on the ideas of the 1960s counterculture entered the lyrics of American folk lyricists of that time. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with the theory of folk songs and examines how and why they function as social channels through which the criticism of society may be conveyed. In the next chapter, I focus on the depiction of the cultural background, mainly on the characteristic of the 1960s counterculture and its attitudes.

The third chapter points out two basic influences by which the 1960s songwriters were inspired: the Seeger-Guthrie folk generation and the Beat Generation. In the last chapter, I analyze three lyrics: “It´s Alright, Ma (I´m Only Bleedin´) by Bob Dylan,

“Mercedes Benz” by Janis Joplin and “American Pie” by Don McLean. The analyses are based on the facts introduced in the first three chapters. In conclusion, I generalize the observations made in the fourth chapter, describe how the themes of opposition to the 1960s mainstream middleclass society was grasped and sum up literary devices used by the songwriters.

Czech Summary

Cílem mojí práce je poukázat na způsob, jakým se ve folkových textech

Amerických písničkářů tvořících v šedesátých letech dvacátého století odrážely myšlenky alternativní kultury jejich doby. Práce je členěna do čtyř kapitol. První kapitola se zabývá teorií folkových písní a zkoumá, jak a proč tyto plní funkci sdělovacího kanálu sociální kritiky. V další kapitole se soustředím na popis kulturního a společenského pozadí, a to především na charakteristiku alternativní kultury šedesátých let a jejích postojů. Třetí kapitola upozorňuje na dva důležité vlivy, kterými byli píničkáři inspirováni, na folkovou tradici generace Peta Seegra a Woodie Guthrieho a

Beat Generation. V poslední kapitole se věnuji rozboru třech písňových textů - “It´s

Alright, Ma (I´m Only Bleedin´)” Boba Dylana, “Mercedes Benz” Janis Joplinové a

“American Pie” Dona McLeana. Tyto analýzy jsou postaveny na faktech předestřených v prvních třech kapitolách. V závěru své práce výsledky výše zmíněných rozborů zobecňuji, popisuji, jakým způsobem byla témata nesouhlasu s americkou mainstreamovou kulturou středních tříd uchopena a sumarizuji literární prostředky, které textaři využívali.