The Repression and Harassment of Rock and Folk Music During the Long Sixties Daniel A
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University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 1-11-2013 “Must Be the Season of the Witch”: The Repression and Harassment of Rock and Folk Music during the Long Sixties Daniel A. Simmons University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Simmons, Daniel A., "“Must Be the Season of the Witch”: The Repression and Harassment of Rock and Folk Music during the Long Sixties" (2013). Doctoral Dissertations. 19. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/19 “Must Be the Season of the Witch”: The Repression and Harassment of Rock and Folk Music during the Long Sixties Daniel Andrew Simmons, Ph.D. University of Connecticut, 2013 Between the mid-1960s and early-1970s, the genres of folk and rock music were often culturally subversive forces that, at times, supported such countercultural mores as illegal drug use, obscenity, and a hedonistic sexuality which offended some governmental agencies and law enforcement authorities in the United States. Although the countercultural subversion frequently attributed to such music was neither the same as nor necessarily inclusive with revolutionary, leftist political ideologies and movements, such music commonly provided the soundtrack and inspiration for various counter- hegemonic political groups as the antiwar movement, the Youth International Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Weather Underground (all of which challenged government authorities which they condemned as imperialist, racist, and oppressive). Consequently, a variety of officials, including FBI agents, the U.S. Military, and local law enforcement officers, including municipal narcotics and vice squads, instituted various forms of repression or harassment against certain musical performers, promoters, or concertgoers. Frequently working as independent actors or bureaus, these political officials and law enforcement agents imposed varying degrees of repression or harassment upon musicians, depending on the degree to which they felt threatened. Targeted by such acts, musicians sometimes witnessed a deleterious effect on their emotional state, careers, and even the general direction of the music industry. Others, however, seemed little affected Daniel Andrew Simmons – University of Connecticut, 2013 by police harassment or political repression, suggesting that the thought of dealing with law enforcement authorities did not completely deter all musicians from writing, recording, or performing whatever they wished. “Must Be the Season of the Witch”: The Repression and Harassment of Rock and Folk Music during the Long Sixties Daniel A. Simmons B.A., Stonehill College, 2000 M.A., University of Connecticut, 2002 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut 2013 Copyright by Daniel Andrew Simmons 2013 i APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation “Must Be the Season of the Witch”: The Repression and Harassment of Rock and Folk Music during the Long Sixties Presented by Daniel Andrew Simmons, B.A., M.A. Major Advisor____________________________________________________________ Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar Associate Advisor_________________________________________________________ Peter C. Baldwin Associate Advisor_________________________________________________________ Micki McElya University of Connecticut 2013 ii Acknowledgements It is possible that the origins of this project date back to approximately 1983, when my five-year-old self picked up my father’s copy of the Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention album, Freak Out! The purple-tinted cover “turned me on” to the idea that sixties rock was weird, fun, and therefore worthy of my wonder and exploration. Besides that Frank Zappa album, many others have helped me towards the completion of this project. All of my professors from my undergraduate years at Stonehill College (especially Shane Maddock) and my graduate career at the University of Connecticut provided important inspiration and direction to my growth as a reader, researcher, and writer. I extend special thanks to all of them, including: Ann Charters, Bruce Stave, Robert Asher, and Nina Dayton. My initial research with FBI files came during an independent study under Nancy Shoemaker. A note of even deeper gratitude goes to my dissertation committee members, Peter Baldwin and Micki McElya, who both helped me to better define my terminology and clarify my arguments. Thank you also to my dissertation readers, Shirley Roe and Brendan Kane, the latter of whom provided especially useful insight and guidance, and even let me borrow his Lenny Bruce box set. Most supportive to me in this endeavor was my primary advisor, Jeffrey Ogbar, who chose to accept me as the first advisee whose graduate school career (both Master’s and Ph.D.) he would guide from start to finish. For making me a better reader, thinker, scholar, historian, and person, I am most deeply and thoroughly appreciative of his guidance. If my academic work does nothing else, I hope it serves to honor his attention towards me. iii As a historian of the 1960s, I am especially blessed to have had close access to the archival collections of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, here at the University of Connecticut. Thank you to all of the Dodd curators and staff. I am truly grateful for my experience as both a researcher and a former intern who fondly remembers his time processing portions of the Samuel and Ann Charters Archives of Blues and Vernacular African American Musical Culture. I must also extend gratitude to the employees of the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the Woody Guthrie Archives (which at the time of my visit was located in Manhattan), and the Boston Public Library. Colleagues in the University of Connecticut History Department who read or commented on portions of this dissertation include: Patrick Blythe, Dominic DeBrincat, Alea Henle, Catherine Page, and Robb Haberman. Patrick, Robb, and Jessica Linker were especially important, as they encouraged me to continue proceeding with this project to the point of its completion. As fellow scholars and friends, they persuaded me to believe that I could and would attain success. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Joseph and Beverly; to my spouse, Rhiannon; and most of all, to my two-year-old daughter, Eleanor. I hope that Eleanor inherits my love of Sixties music and the questioning of authority which it invoked. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1 An Examination of Folk and Rock Music as Subversive and/or 18 Counter-Hegemonic Forms during the 1960 and Early 1970s Chapter 2 How Revolutionaries and Political Activists Used Folk and Rock in 84 Support of Their Ideological Beliefs Chapter 3 The Harassment and Repression of Rock and Folk Music 136 Chapter 4 How Harassment and Repression Affected the Careers and Lives 210 of Certain Musicians Conclusion and Afterword 251 Bibliography 258 v Introduction: Between the mid-1960s and early-1970s, the genres of folk and rock music were often culturally subversive forces that, at times, supported such countercultural mores as illegal drug use, obscenity, and a hedonistic sexuality which upset some governmental agencies and law enforcement authorities enough to elicit policing. Although the countercultural subversion frequently attributed to such music was neither the same as nor necessarily inclusive with revolutionary, leftist political ideologies and movements, such music commonly provided the soundtrack and inspiration for various counter- hegemonic political groups as the antiwar movement, the Youth International Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Weather Underground (all of which challenged government authorities which they condemned as imperialist, racist, and oppressive). Consequently, a variety of officials, including FBI agents, the U.S. Military, and local law enforcement officers, including municipal narcotics and vice squads, instituted various forms of repression or harassment against certain musical performers, promoters, and concertgoers. Frequently working as independent actors or bureaus, these political officials and law enforcement agents imposed varying degrees of repression or harassment upon musicians, depending on the degree to which they felt threatened. Targeted by such acts, musicians sometimes witnessed a deleterious effect on their emotional state, careers, and even the general direction of the music industry. Others, however, seemed very little affected by the more frequent police harassment or the less common repression, suggesting that the thought of dealing with law enforcement authorities did not completely deter all musicians from writing, recording, performing, or promoting whatever they wished. 1 I. This Study’s Relation with Published Literature: The title of this dissertation, “Must Be the Season of the Witch,” refers to lyrical imagery in the British Folk Rock singer Donovan Leitch’s 1966 song “Season of the Witch.”1 For Donovan, as the blogger Virginia Cannon has recently argued, “Season of the Witch” was an auditory prognostication, as the song’s release predated by several months the singer’s arrest in Britain for marijuana possession.2 Even though Donovan was arrested in London (by authorities unconnected to those in the U.S.), many countercultural participants (such as drug users) or political activists