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2006 " (has surely come)" : rural populist imagery in roots , 1967-1973 Christopher Lee Witte

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Recommended Citation Witte, Christopher Lee, ""King Harvest (has surely come)" : rural populist imagery in music, 1967-1973" (2006). Master's Theses. 1347. https://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses/1347

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT

"KING HARVEST (HAS SURELY COME)": RURAL POPULIST IMAGERY IN

ROOTS ROCK MUSIC, 1967-1973

CHRISTOPHER LEE WITTE

CANDIDATE FOR DEGREE OF ARTS IN HISTORY

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND

MAY2006

PROFESSOR C. KENZER

The Americanroots rock musical genre of the late 1960's and early 1970's too oftenhas been overlooked in the historical discussion of popular culture of the period. This study, through an examination of the works of fivepopular musical groups- , , The , , and Creedence

ClearwaterRevival - focuseson how this music tied into a continued American mythology tradition of populism. Through an approach that corresponds with

Richard Slotkin's views on the creation of Americanmyth , and a focuson the lyrical content of the and their presentation of nature, the open road,

American heroes and anti-heroes, and death and destruction, this thesis examines how these songs utilized populist philosophies foundin earlier American folkand music andadapted them as a means to explain and rationalize their place in the post-modem American society. APPROVAL PAGE

I certifythat I haveread this thesis and findthat, in scope andquality, it satisfiesthe requirements forthe degree of Master of Arts.

Professor RobertC. Kenzer, Thesis Advisor "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)": Rural Populist Imageryin Roots Rock Music, 1967-1973

By Christopher Lee Witte B.A., The College of New Jersey,2004

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Richmond in Candidacy forthe Degree of MASTERS OF ARTS m History

May,2006 Richmond, Virginia ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A special thanks must go out to my graduate thesis advisor Dr. Robert

Kenzer, whose support and guidance was essential to the completion of this thesis, as well as Dr. Matthew Basso, Dr. Tong Lam, and Dr. Joan Bak. Their knowledge and support aided not only the completion of my thesis, but thegrowth in my historical knowledge duringmy time at the University of Richmond. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family- Charlesand ShirleyWitte, Chip

Witte, Scott Witte, Richard and StephanieW. Nietupski, and Leon and Doris

Heulitt - fortheir love, guidance, and encouragement during my graduate school tenure and the completion of this thesis.

Christopher L. Witte

Fall 2005

.. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION: Rural Folk and Blues as Authentic Inspiration 1

CHAPTER 1: "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)": Nature and Rural 10 Landscapes as Idyllic America

CHAPTER 2: JohnWesley Harding, Casey Jones, and The Working Man: 43 Heroic Portraitsin Roots Rock

CHAPTER 3: Death and Destruction: GraveyardTrains, 61 Floods, and Visions of the Apocalypse

CONCLUSION: "Come Join Uncle John'sBand," as Roots Rock 74 Legacy Continues

BIBLIOGRAPHY 78

iii Introduction: Rural Folk and Blues as Authentic Inspiration

"Gone are thedays ... " so began The Grateful Dead "Brown-Eyed

Woman," a relatively obscure gem offtheir classic live , '72. This highly nostalgic song servedto romanticizea mythical American past and nature, created a heroic portraitof its protagonist - a normal, ruralbootlegger - and included themes of death and destruction,as it attempted to tell a mythic storyof those days that have long since gone.

The typeof mythicstorytelling that the artists of this late 1960's and early

1970's countryor roots rock bands explored, according to culturalhistorian

Richard Slotkin, formpart of an American historicalprocess whereby "mythic storyis increasingly conventional and abstracted" until it becomes a "deeply encoded ... set of symbols."These symbols combine together to create an effectof distilling complex historical eventsand phenomena into a "single image or phrase," such as Americanunderstandings of"the Frontier,"or the "the Alamo." It is

Slotkin's interpretationof the frontierin American society that I will apply to my discussion of this popularmusical genre.1

Much of the musical genusof this countryor roots rock movement can be foundin the ruralroots of Americanculture and society. Whetherthey were derived fromslave spirituals, southern segregationera blues, or the populist­ socialist underpinningsof averageAmericans as they attempted to maintain and

1 Richard Slotkin, GunfighterNation: TheMyth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (Norman: Oklahoma UniversityPress, 1992), 5-6. 2 glorifywhat Slotkin termsthe "agrarian imagery of Jeffersonianism,"these musical patternshave deep historical roots among rural American existence.2

The singers of this music, fromthe folkblues of Leadbelly (1888-1949) to the folk-cowboyballads of (1912-1967), Slotkin asserts,were symbolic of this investmentof meaningand significanceattributed to these musical formst hat were "hithertoreserved for the products of Broadway and Tin Pan

Alley." Over time the works and style of these famed singer- would be

"imitated, elaborated and eventuallyre-commercialized by professional performers"both within the New Leftsocialist movement of the early twentieth century and by the rural-basedromanticism of thefolk, blues and rock-based performersof the second half. 3

The political agenda of this new "Left-Turnerism", Slotkin claims, was to emphasize landscape, frontier,and the American West in general as "cultural sources ... of an indigenous Americanradical tradition" that sought to romanticize events such as ''the WhiskeyRebellion, Jeffersonianagrarianism, John Brown abolition," and craftfolk legends out of historically-nebulous characters such as

Billy the Kid and .4

The music of this period,the music that so influencedBob Dylan and the members of The Band, The Grateful Dead, The Byrds, and Creedence Clearwater

Revival, focusedits lyricalenergies on advocating a "populist style"of democracy, praised the "political wisdom of the common people," and possessed pointed hostility towards those in corruptiblepositions of power typifiedby "Big Business"

2 Slotkin, GunfighterNation, 22. 3 Slotkin, GunfighterNation, 281. · 4 Slotkin, GunfighterNation, 282-3. 3 which Slotkin examines in his discussion of the mythology of the frontierin

American history.5

The perceived purityand authenticity of such music had powerfuleffects on the musical maturity of these aspiring musicians. In the late 1950's and early '60's beforeThe Beatles and other bands revolutionized what popular music could be,

David Hajdu believes that popularrock and roll "had not merely stagnated,but regressed"to the point where the lived in old folkand blues songs the likes of

Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and thesongs foundon HarrySmith's Anthologyof

American were seen as remarkable celebrations of "the ruraland the natural, the untrained, the unspoiled - the pure. "6 Whena young Bob Dylan heard

Leadbelly forthe firsttime, his immediate reaction was ''This is the thing, this is the thing."7 The authenticity, both real and perceived, of these musical formsw as veryattractive to aspiring musicians, and heavily influencedtheir cultural and musical understandings and framesof reference.

This renewed emphasis on what W. J. Rorabaughterm s "distinctly retrogressive" folkmusic andthe subsequent folk communitiesthat arose in many late 1950's/early 1960's college towns andcities, especially in ,

emphasized the experience of hearing and teaching these songs over the commercialized aspects of the currentpopular music scene. 8 The songs that these

artist encountered while immersing themselves in these folkcommunities would

5 Slotkin, GunfighterNation, 282-3. 6 David Hajdu, Positively Fourth Street: TheLives and Times ofJ oan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina (NewYork: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001), 68, 73-4. 7 , : TheLife and Music ofBob Dylan (NewYork: Beech Tree Books, 1986), 56. 8 W. J. Rorabaugh, Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties (New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2002), 183. 4 prove formativeas the songs would serve as inspiration to their development. In tum these artists would cover their favoritetraditional folkand blues songs and

"assimilate and combine" elements of such songs together in order to create their own distinct musical sounds rather than "simply reproduce"these folkexperiences.

9 This process in tumcreated new powerfulmusical and communal experiences.

Heading back to the song "Brown-EyedWoman," on we see what days are gone in the eyes of the band, as the days "when the ox falldown" and "when the ladies say please" formed part of their nostalgic past as presented throughthe lifeof

Jack Jones. With connections to America's past fromProhibition to the Stock

Marketcrash and Great Depression, the song's focuswas on such bygone days as when Jack and his father"made whiskey .... [that] burnedlike hell" and "cut hick'ryto firethe still." At the song's conclusion his mother "Delilah Jones went to meet her God" and his father,"the old man's getting on." There was a sense that the world presented in this song, the one Jack Jones grew up in, was on its way out,

10 and these highly-nostalgic days would soon be gone forever.

This song, beautifulin its own right, is important to this thesis' discussion as it contained all the key elements foundin the so-called country or "rootsrock" genret hat arosein the late 1960's and continued on into the 1970's. This musical genrecan be classifiedby its focuson Americanaissues, employing nostalgic and romanticlanguage, and its usage of blues and folkelements, oftenin acoustic arrangementsthat added a timeless quality to their works. Five key artists of this

9 Hajdu, Positively Fourth Street, 119. 10 and , "Brown-Eyed Woman," Europe '72, 1972 & 2001 Warner Bros. Records, Inc.; David Dodd, "The Annotated "Brown-Eyed Women," TheAnnotated GratefulDead , found at: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/brown.html, May 20, 2005. 5 time period, Creedence ClearwaterRevival, Bob Dylan, TheByrds, The Grateful

Dead, and TheBand, all fallcomfortably in this group and incorporatedthe key elements of romanticizing nature and the open road of Americanlandscape, craftingdistinctive heroes, and exploring the themes of death and destruction in the music they recorded andreleased during this period.

The roots of this country or rootsrock music came fromold folkand blues elements fromthe early twentieth century. Artists such as Woody Guthrie,

Leadbelly, Skip James, , and the timeless region-tinged selections offHarry Smith's Anthologyof American FolkMusic all can and should be seen as direct precursors to this musical movement that sought to create both a mood and song textures that evoked the timeless and spiritual quality of these original works.

These artists' quests forthe authenticityof the music they heard fromthese sources in their own music was, according to folklore theoristRegina Bendix, a "peculiar long, at once modem and anti-modem." Much of the music created by these bands as they soughtthis authenticity can be described, as Barry Shank points out, as being both "modem and anti-modem" as it was definedand shaped by historical, personal, and social experience,but not confined by them. I I In fact, much of

Americanpopular music, as a cultural artifact,should be seen as a "historyof illusions and masks" where artists conjureup images and feelingsof places that maynever havee xisted, and where racial identity is blurred, as many white artists,

11 BarryShank, '"That Wild MercurySound': Bob Dylan and the Illusion of American Culture," boundary 2.2 9.1 (2002), 98. 6 including thosediscussed here, findb eauty and truth in black culture and consciously play and sing like black artists. 12

The search forthis authenticity harkened back to the folkmovement of the

1960s of which Bob Dylanwas a key player. These songs and performers acted, according to BarryShank, as "conduit[ s] between a tradition andan audience" as they were focusedon performingsongs that were supposedly not created, but were sung as key artifactsof a true Americaand American culture. Woody Guthrie,one of Bob Dylan's foremost folkheroes, went against that grain by writing hundreds of his own tunes that would have a powerfuleffect on Dylan as he grew into his own as a . WhenD ylan himself began writingand recording his own work - playing these folksongs with (as he admitted) a ''rock and rollattitude" - his popularity and influenceover both the youth and musical community grew exponenti. a11 y. 13

The sense of importance of authenticity in folkm usic perhaps explains why

Bob Dylan's entrance in electric rock 'n' roll in 1965 was received so poorly by many of his fans, as this transformation was seen as moving away fromthe timeless aspect of heartless folk and protest music to the more disposable formof popular music as represented by rock 'n' roll. A piece in Melody Makerfrom 1966 shows how this transformation hurt some long-time fans, some who would even shout at him during that "Woody Guthrie ouldw have turned in his grave." 14 Of course, the fact that Woody Guthriew as not yet dead servesto furtherthis point, as

12 Shank, "That Wild Mercury Sound," 98. 13 Shank, ''That Wild Mercury Sound," 106-8; Rorabaugh, Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties, 191. 14 "Dylan View on Toe iB g Boo," June 4, 1966, 13; Uncut Magazine. Legends# 1: Dylan. Volume 1 Issue 1, 28. 7 to the mind of the folkfan Dylan was a touchstone to a music that was both historical and timeless. In this fan'smind Woody Guthrie simply could not have been alive because Bob Dylan was his touchstone to a younger generation.

The rise of this country or roots rockcomes afterDylan's electric, existentialist phase and his endless touring to audiences who oftenbooed him.

Backed by musicians who would later form TheBand and serving as a musical inspiration for TheByrds who rode to fameon electric versions of Dylan's earlier acoustic-drivensongs, this new rock star Dylan fadedo ut aftera fewyears and retreated to , New York. There he ran through songs that served as an inspiration for TheBand's debut album and later surfacedon TheBasement Tapes, and acted as a precursor to his 1967 album, John WesleyHarding. That same year

The GratefulDead recorded their debut album of electrifiedversions of old blues and folksongs, while Creedence CleanvaterRevival, led by singer/songwriter John

Fogerty, continued to hone their bayou-based rootsy blues-rock that would appear on their 1968 debut album and gain them enormous popularity.

It is these fivepopular music artists on which this thesis focuses its attention. Slotkin's sense of the frontiermythology and the effectthat populist thinkinghad on myth-making,narrative, and ways of definingAmerican-ness can clearly be seen in his study of the westernand populist motifsof popular fiction and film. This thesis seeks to utilize his ideological frameworkand apply it to popular music of the late 1960' s and early 1970's.

Much of the literature that exists concerning the musical landscape of this time periodis too lightweight historically to be considered as satisfactorily 8

covering the historical implications of the music. Even the best work on the music

of this genre, ' The Old, Weird Republic, has its shortcomings. First

off, Marcusfocuses almost exclusively on Bob Dylan andthe music he created

with The Bandin his famed 1967 Basement Tapes. Not only does this exclusivity

hamperits overall effectiveness, but Marcus' schizophrenicwriting style, which jumps haphazardlyfrom thoughtto thought,hampers its overall effectiveness. Of

course, as a rock critic andnot anhistorian, Marcus should not be blamed for

creating a work of original thought and scholarship that mightpossess some

shortcomings as a historicalnarrative. Other worksmore historical in nature, such

as RichieUnterberger's casts too wide a net to analyze the

historical and cultural implications of popular American rootsrock music.

Works that focuson the 1960's and popularculture te nd to underplay and

understudythe works of these artists. Even David Farberand BethBailey's The

Columbia Guide to America in the , onlytouches on the surface of thisrich musical genre. They only devote one shortparagraph to the "richly imagined

vignettesof Americanmyth, historyand people" that characterizedthese groups'

musical work, andeven thoughthese have "held up better than ...

," they continue to garner less attentionand praise.15 In the popular

consciousness of contemporaryAmerica, much of the music created by these bands

has slipped fromconsciousness or relegated to one or twosongs that arerepeated

on classic rockradio stations. Even the2005 MartinScorsese-directed PBS

15 David Farberd an BethBail ey, The Columbia Guide to America in the 1960s (New York: Columbia University Press,2001), 292. 9 documentary,No Direction Home, focusingon Bob Dylan, only covered his life until 1966, as if his contribution to American music ended that year.

Througha detailed focuson thesefive groups and their music, with an added emphasis on their lyrics, this thesis attempts to create a meaningfultie between Slotkin' s study of American myth-making and story creation with a key areaof popular culture - music - that he did not focuson. Thethesis itself is separated into three key chapters - the firstreveals how nature and landscape are presented in these songs andhow they viewed moderntwentieth centuryAmerica with idealized notions of a ruralpast. The second discusses their presentations of heroes and anti-heroes as musical expressions of populist sentiment. The third demonstrateshow these songs incorporatedimages of death and destructionto tie into a folk and blues tradition and reinforcea populist connection. Finally, a short conclusion wraps up the importance of these artistsand their songs and presents how thismusical tradition is still being utilized to express populist sentiment today. CHAPTER 1:

"KingHarvest (Has Surely Come)":

Nature and Rural Landscapes as IdyllicAmerica

Americanpopular culture and mythology form keya linkto the nature and

landscapeof America,particularly to its southernand regions. Fields of

grain,idyllic rivers,open desertvistas and snow-capped mountains hold a special

place in the minds andhearts of manyAmericans. Andthese feelings towards

naturehave been explored in Americanpopular music fromthe rise of blues and

folkmusic. Its appearancein thesongs of the so-called country or roots rock

movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's representsjust another linkin this

long chain of Americanpopulist sentiment. This populist sentiment,a ccording to

Richard Slotkin, servedto mythologizenature and landscapeas symbolicindicators of the trueAmerican spirit whether througha focuson ''westernfolklore" or

"Jeffersonianagrarianism," and the creation andr einterpretationof the ruralidyllic natureof the''myth of the South."16 Theracial connotations of this romanticization of the ruralSouth deserve mention, but should not be overexaggerated - none of theseartists were offering the positio n that theactual rural South of the past, characterizedby slavery,en compassed a more ideal life. These songs served more to tie thesecontemporary white artistswith past formsof social resistance. If

AfricanAmericans of thelate 1960's were becoming more militant in theirdesire for "Black Power" andnationalism, andintercity rioting protested the shortcomings and failures of Americans ociety andLyndon Johnson's "Great Society," these

16 Slotkin, GunfighterNation, 280-1.

10 11 songs sought to find solace in quieter formsof lifeand protest. In the minds of such artists,if the city had got you down, you simply had to go to the country where there was a greater sense of community and an obviously greater connection to all things natural. 17 Of course one could make the claim that these artists idealized the past and ruralexistence while oversimplifyingand ignoring much of the racial intolerance and tension that was present in these areas. Therefore, in a

veryre al sense the musicians offered a view of an America rural past that seemed

much more pure and tolerant than current society. As youthfull isteners took these songs to heart, this oversimplificationof rural America began to take on a lifeof its

own so that the myth of past American ruralutopia was created. Thus, the sense of

the commune as an ideal way of lifewas born.

Some of the key symbols presented in this representation (or

simplification) of nature and landscape were the freedomthat open spaces offered

and the romanticized notion of going back to nature as a purer existence that was common in the counterculture youth movements of that era. By the end of the '60s

this youth movement and mentality had coalesced aroundrock 'n' rollmusical

formsas symbolicof what culturalhistorian George Lipsitz termsa "group of

values inimical to the traditional concernsof the middle class."18

Many of the images foundin these songs were in the same vein as filmsand

novels of the westerngenre which, according to historian Jane Tompkins, sought to

"fulfilla longing fora differentkind of existence" both separate and distinct from

17 Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold,African America ns: A Concise History (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2004), 435-445. 18 George Lipsitz, TimePassages: CollectiveMemory and American Popular Culture (Minneapolis: Universityof MinnesotaPress, 1990), 128. 12 modem America. These songs shared much in common with these westernworks studied by Tompkins, as they were often"antimodem, antiurban, and antitechnological" in nature and seemed to recall a nineteenth century existence in

19 which man was more fullytied to the natural world. This sense of a simpler existence permeates throughout many of the songs of this roots rock music scene.

For , the principle songwriter of the band Creedence

ClearwaterRevival, this sense of nature as a redeemer fromthe trappings of modem lifeis apparent in the content of his lyrics. His main lyrical preoccupations were with the freedomof the open road, along with both a fascinationand tendency to romanticize the nature of the AmericanSouth. These pursuits formedthe bedrock of Creedence Clearwater Revival'smusic.

A discussion of such songs such as "Bornon the Bayou," "Green River,"

"," and their cover of Leadbelly's "" help illustrate the point. In these songs Fogerty reconceptualized himself as a Southernerlonging to

get back to his roots. In actuality, theent ire band was fromCalifornia, and the

South served as a romantic touchstone as both the place that gave birth to the R'n'B and blues music they emulated, andas an adventurous landscape brought to lifeby 20 both cinematic and literary representations as a lifeof bayous and riverboats.

In "Bornon the Bayou" Fogerty longed to be "back on the bayou/Rolling

with some Cajun Queen," a place where he could runthrough the "backwood, bare" on the most Americanof holidays, the Fourth of July. Fogerty created the

19 Jane Tompkins, West of Everything: The Inner Life ofes W terns (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1992), 93. 20 , "Bayou CountryAlbum Notes," Creedence ClearwaterRev ival Box Set, 2001 Fantasy, Inc., 52. 13 impression that wherever he headed throughouthis life, the bayou still calledhim back as he could "still hearmy old hound dog barking," to the point that he wished he were a "fast freight train"heading South.21 Similarly, "Green River" romanticized childhood attachmentsto both place and nature. Once again there was a sense throughout the song of a longing to get back to ''where cool water flows." This toreturn nature was offered up as almost a formof spiritual healing as it opened up Fogerty to "Let me remember things I love." The song brought to mind idyllic naturalimages of walking along riverbeds, ''barefoot girls ," and fishing on a lazyd ay. Once again, Fogertyused animal imagery to describe thepull of thisregion on his heart, as this time whenever he

22 thought ofthe Gr een River, he could "hear the bullfrog calling me."

Theso ng "ProudMary," released as a single in 1968 and included on their

1969 Bayou Countryalbum , garnered both critical and public acclaim as even an

23 artist as esteemed as Bob Dylan declared it his "favoriterecord of the year." The popularsin gle continued on in Creedence's love affair with Southern life and landscape, in this case life on the river. The song's narratorsang of the joys of

"rolling on the river'' while not losing "one minuteof sleeping"worrying aboutthe nine to five modem existence that he had leftbehind in thecity. Not only is the natural life on the riverpre sented as idyllic, but also, according to Fogerty, so were

21 JohnFo gerty,''Bo rn on theBayou," BayouCountry, Fantasy , Inc., 1969 & 2001. 22 JohnF ogerty, "Green River," Green River, Fantasy, Inc., 1969 & 2001. 23 Joel Selvin, "Bayou CountryAlbum Notes," Creedence CleanvaterRevival Box Set, 4 2001 Fantasy, Inc., 5 · 14 the people who inhabited this region. If you were in need of anythingon the river,

there was no need to worrybecause "People on the river arehappy to give. "24

Even the band's version of Leadbelly's folkblues classic "Cotton Fields"

reinforced a positive image of the South and Southernnature , even if the lyricsand tone of the original belied such a romantic portrait. Their take on the song was that

of a joyfulromp, completely bereftof any melancholyor unease concerninglife

amongst the cotton fields. Thesong's joyous tone even contradicted Leadbelly's

lyrics, which contained a sense of unease and a tenuous existence forthose poor

souls who were tied to the land and relied on cotton forsurvival. Creedence's take

on the lines "Whenthem cotton balls get rotten/You can't pick very much cotton/

In them old cotton fieldsback home" was conveyed in such a manner as to be consistent with their other self-penned portraitsof Southernlife. Their version

presented this lifestylein a positive light, whereas Leadbelly's portrait was more

poignantand realistic in terms of the AfricanAmerican experience. Southern

AfricanAmeri cans like Leadbelly, who were bornin the segregated South and

subjectto racism, inequality, and the lingering presence of slavery as typifiedby

the "Jim Crow" laws, would not be able to revel in the experience of "Cotton

Fields" the same way as the four, young, white musicians fromCalifornia. 25

WhereasLea dbelly sang about actual experience, Creedenceseemed to be

about a place in their minds. As previously mentioned, herein lies the problemof

authenticity, as a groupof white musicians cancover songs of black Southernblues

and folkmu sicians, and oftentimes achieve much greaterpopularity, but some

24 John Fogerty, "Proud Mary," Bayou Country. 25 Darlene Clark Hine, African Americans: A ConciseHistory, 240. 15

sense of the truenature ofthe inspiration of the music is lost. In Creedence 's literal

whitewash of the song, the pain, trials, and tribulations ofthe black voice and

26 experiencewere replaced by the idyllic longings ofwhite musicians.

Thiscase of white musicians covering and recontextualizing the cultural

works of AfricanAmericans was, of course, nothing new. Dating back to the mid

nineteenth century,white musicianshave incorporatedaspects of black culture

through musical forms,language used, and even, via blackfaceminstrelsy, race.

This incorporationof black cultureinto white society via musical entertainment, while distanced fromthe overt racial aspects of black faceperformances, can be seen in the way white rock 'n' roll, blues, and folksingers perform. Therefore, everytime one hears Creedence's version of "Cotton Fields," TheBand's version

of the sugar plantation lament "Ain't No More Cane," or Bob Dylan singing the

lines "no more driver's lash forme," as ifhe himself were once a slave, or other

white musicians aping the language, diction, and pain of the black experience,

Lott believes one can see the "presence ofblackface's unconsciousreturn." 27 Of

course since the roots ofblackface are based on "racial contacts and tensions endemic to the North and the frontier,"and tended to detail romantic"fantasies

about the Old South," examples of this long-time tradition must be viewed with a

skeptical eye. Therefore, Creedence 's version ofLeadbelly, done to tie in with the perceived authenticity of the original and its lyrics, was stripped of that authenticity

as the song fellback into the trap ofcrafting more fantasiesabout the Old South

26 Huddie Ledbetter, "Cotton Fields," Tro-Folkways Music Publ.-BML This version is foundon Willy and ThePoor Boys, 1969 & 2001 Fantasy, Inc. 27 Eric Lott, "Love & Theft":Blacliface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1993), 5, 7, 38; ''Many ThousandGone," Traditional arrangedby Bob Dylan, TheBootleg Series Volumes 1-3, Entertainment, Inc., 1991. 16 that in time would coalesce in the mind oflisteners as truthfulrepresentations of past ruralexistence.

Bob Dylan's lyricalfocus on nature and landscape was similar to many

Creedencesongs, but remained, characteristically, harder to interpret. While

Fogertywore his emotions and feelingson his sleeve, Bob Dylan always seemed to play muchcloser to his vest. He surely had some attachment to anidealized vision of nature, whether it be out West or down South, but his lyricsneve r really rose to the levels of outrightromanticism of a locale on par with CreedenceClearwater

Revival. His workseemed to offerparadoxes to the listener, whether it be using a location as a setting fora love affair,showing the feelingsof being tied to the land and, of course, the threat of nature and God to one's lifeand livelihood while out amongst the trees and fields.

Dylan's "," released in 1967 on his

Harding album, used landscape as a symbol of a love relationship. Whilewalking along this particularcove, the song's voice sees his girl "comin' my way"and immediately feelshappy andrefreshed. Likewise, on covers from his notorious

1970 SelfPortrait album, Dylan utilized pop songs that use natural imagery to convey feelingsof human emotions concerning relationships. 28 Whilethese songs,

"Blue Moon" and " (The Pale Moonlight)" were lightweight tunes compared to most of his catalog, they neverthelesshelped demonstrate an important point - the way one feelsabout their lifeand love affectshow they feel

28 Obviously displeased with the quality of this album upon its release, rock critic Greil Marcus famously opened up his RollingStone review with the question, "Whatis this shit?" This review in its entirety can be foundin Benjamin Hedin, ed., Studio A: TheBob DylanReader (New York: W W Norton & Company, 2004), 79. 17

love, walking and view their positions in nature. Therefore,songs about finding and along the cove, or "lay[ing] there by thejunipers," were portrayedas idyllic romantic, while the lonesome singer of "Blue Moon" foundno joy in his

29 surroundings, and, in fact,saw the moon as sad as he was.

Other times, however, Dylan used nature in a much differentcontext. The nature presented in such songs as "" and"Crash on the

Levee (Down in the Flood)" was one of forebodingand unease, which will be discussed in furtherdetail later in this thesis. On songs such as "You Ain't Going

Nowhere" Dylan portrayeda human tie with nature that was not a happy and symbiotic relationshipby any means. The song also tied in with the larger

Americanpopulation shifta wayfr om ruralfarms to more urbancommunities as by

30 1900, the "center of American lifeshift[ ed] from farmto city." Sounding very much like a lonely person stuck on an isolated farmeager to get away but forcedto stayand handle his responsibilities, Dylan sang"Clouds so swift/Rain won't lift/

Gate won't close/ Railings froze/Get your mind offwintertime/ You ain't going nowhere." Facing this desire to leave with being compelled to stay, Dylan advised the lonesome farmer, "Strap yourself witha tree withroots/You ain't going nowhere." The song was not without its optimism, however; as it shiftedinto the chorus,Dylan sings "Ooh-wee, rideme high/Tomorrow's the day my brides a­ gonna come/ Ooh-wee we gonna ride/ Down in theeasy chair." There was a

29 Bob Dylan, "DownAlong the Cove," , Sony Music Entertainment Inc., 1967; L Hart and R. Rodgers, "Blue Moon"; A. F. Beddoe, "Cooper Kettle (ThePale Moonlight)," SelfPortrait, CBS Records, Inc., 1970. 30 James L. Roark, Michael P. Johnson,Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, and Susan M. Hartmann, The American Promise: A History theof , Second Edition, Vol. II of II (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2002), 835. 18 definitesense presented by the singer that once his bride comes, and the loneliness subsides, lifeon the farm will be much more palatable and perhaps even idyllic.31

The Byrds covered Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere" as the firstsong on their 1968 album Sweetheartof the Rodeo, their firstsustained forayinto . Like most Byrds'versions of Dylan songs, it was a much more polished sounding piece that possessed a more countrysound as it rode along on a foundationof beautifulharmonies and peddle steel playing. The selection and placement of this song, as well as another Dylan composition, "Nothing Was

Delivered," which ended the album,served to bookend analbum steeped in old time country and Americana with moderncompositions that would ensure a hip legitimacy. While releasing a country-inflectedalbum in 1968 that had Woody

Guthrie and songs would not have immediately sparked the interest of their target audience, including on the album two covers of unheard of (at that point) Dylan songs would do the trick. The Dylan tunes were a way to tie the present to the past and vice versa, as TheByrds tried to bring their fansalong with them into countryrock territory. In this case, Dylan was their bridge to both the past and the future.

In termsof using nature as a key symbol in their music, TheByrds followed much the same path as the other groupsdiscussed in this genre, namely that of romanticism and nostalgic longing. "HickoryWind," also foundon , fitfirmly in this mold. A song of nostalgia forsinger '

Southernhomeland, "" was verymuch an escapist fantasywhere he

31 Bob Dylan, "You Ain't Going Nowhere," TheBasement Tapes, CBS Records, Inc., 1975. 19 could retreat to when lifebecomes too "lonesome." Much like Fogerty's "Green

River" and "Bornon the Bayou" there were attachments that literally called him back to this locale, in this case, the "tall pines" of South Carolina kept "calling me home." An interesting aspect ofthis song, however, was Parsons' admission that he liked to "pretend/ that I'm getting the fellof HickoryWind" as opposed to actually traveling back to South Carolina. This leads to the question as whether this place still existed outside of the singer's own mind.32

Another interesting southern-themedcomposition was that of"Drug Store

TruckDrivin' Man" off their 1969 Dr. Byrds & Mr. HydeLP. This song is noteworthyas it simultaneously praised the music fromthe South while criticizing some of the conservative and racist attitudes foundin the region. The named target of their attack was Southerndisc jockey Ralph Emerywho had continually criticizedthe band on his show on Radio WSM. In Byrds'historian Johnny

Rogan's view, the song as a whole worked as a "brilliant satire on Nashville's conservative attitude towards rock musicians.33 Lines describing the served to display a disconnect between the rock bands who played and enjoyed music fromth is region, and those fromthe South who wereinvolved with the music scene and "sure don't like the young folks"and were "the head of the Ku

Klux Klan." This song, placed the onus on those in the South, like the Deejay,who

"sure does thinkdifferent fromthe records he plays," and as the songwriters were ardent fans of the music formsof the region and listen to such radio shows, "why

32 Gram Parsons, "Hickory Wind," Sweetheartof the Rodeo, Sony Music Entertainment,

Inc. ' 1968 & 1997. 33 , "Song Notes," Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, Sony Music Entertainment,I nc., 1997, 8. 20 he don't like me I can'tunderstand." This verysame sentiment could be foundin the band's cover of the song "Tulsa County" where they lamented the factthat "My nights have been lonely/ Since I've been in Tulsa County." So while the band used nature as a source of inspiration and romanticizedlocations in much of their music, there was still the sense that such locations, whether in the South or the Midwest, were verylonesome places for'hippy' musicians like themselves, as they were hated by people like their "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man"for reasons beyond their control. 34

From the very beginning of their recording career, The GratefulDead utilized past songs and musical formsas a springboard to new American musical heights. Even on their eponymous debut released in 1967, a year oftenover simplifiedas "The Summer of Love," they included new and exciting takes on old folk, blues and songs to create a sound that was decidedly of the times, but simultaneously steeped in the past. Therefore,when they released country rock albums a fewyears later, it was not surprisingthat their music had the resonance of being timeless. Combine this tie to the past with theinclusion of a full-time lyricist that was equally influencedby thelikes of Bob Dylan and all things Americana, and The GratefulDead created songs that spoke to an imaged, mythical, American past and proved to be exceedingly popular.

Workingman'sDead, released in June of 1970 and hitting number twenty­ seven on the album charts while garneringthe reader's choice for album of the year, was full of songs that romanticized America and its landscape

34 Roger McGuinnand Gram Parsons, "Drug Store TruckDrivin' Man," Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, Sony Music Entertainment, Inc., 1969 & 1997, and Pamela Polland, "Tulsa County," The Balladof , Sony Music Entertainment, Inc., 1969 & 1997. 21

35 through strippeddown acoustic songs. The of these songs

presented them as almost timeless constructions that have emanated from America

andAmerican experiences. This was seen from thevery first song on thealbum, as

"Uncle John's Band" spun a tale of a good time band playing by the riversideand

even to nature itself as it played ''to thetide." With allusions to American history

fromthe Revolution (''Their motto is don't tread on me") to "buck dancers" and

religious imagery(" He's come to take his children home"), the song compressed a

vast love affairwith all things Americana and the romantic nature of the riverside

36 gathering in a mannerof minutes.

"Dire Wolf," another song offthe Workingman's Deadalbum, detailed the trials and tribulationsof a common man trying to makehis way in the wilderness:

in this case, the mythologized folk-song locale Fennario. ThisFennario, as

Grateful Dead scholarDavid Dodd points out, rather than a real location, was "a rural, wooded, marshy region ofthe imagination."37 Drivenby decidedly country­

flavoredpedal part, the song presented a much different outlook on nature. Gone was the idyllic good time of theband playing by andto the riverside.

In its place was thevoice of a simple man trying to claw out a meager existence in the ''backwash ofFennario." As he details his encounter with the Dire Wolf,"six hundredpounds ofsin" the song's voice gives the creaturehuman-like characteristics as ifhe held such a strongconnection to nature thatwhen a wolf is at his door he invites him inside andthe twoplay a game of cards. Even the song's

35 Steve Silberman, "Album Notes," Workingman'sDe ad, Warner Bros. Records,Inc., 1970 & 2001, 4. 36 JerryGarcia and RobertHunter, "Uncle John'sBand," Workingman'sDead. 37 David Dodd, "TheAnnotated Dire Wolf," GratefulDe ad Annotated Lyrics,found at: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/adgl/direwolf.html,June 7, 2005. 22 chorus, with the memorable "Don't murder me," directed at the wolf and repeated ad nauseam, servedto reinforcethis natural connection. Of course, in the end, his appeals fellon deaf ears as the "Dire Wolf collects its due while the boys sing toundthe fire." 38 There was a sense that these men were themselves craftinga song connected to thetale of the Dire Wolf and thatthe storywill itself be immortalized and mythologized through folksongs and stories in much the same way as a Casey Jones or Pretty Boy Floyd, both of whom will be discussed later in this thesis.

So as the unnamed voice of the song met his fate aftertrying to reason with the irrepressibleforces of nature as represented by the wolf, what does the song reveal about modernman's relationship with nature? Another Grateful Deadsong serves to answer this question. "Easy Wind" focusedon the disconnect between man and natureas the "easy wind cross[ es] the bayou today" but the "river keep

39 atalkin' / But you never head a word it say." The inability to understand the languageof the river spoke to a larger sense that the band obviously held, mainly that the greaterpopulation of modernAmerica was no longer in tune with nature and could no longer understand the ebb andflow of the river in the naturalworld nor escape tryingto reason and rationalize their way out of death and destruction fromthe irrationalforces of nature.

American Beauty, also released in 1970, fellin much the same vein as

Workingman'sDead in termsof American imagery and country rock music stylings and was just as well received. The album's cover, which displayed a

38 JerryGarcia and Robert Hunter, "Dire Wolf," Workingman's Dead. 39 JerryGarcia and Robert Hunter, "Easy Wind," Workingman'sDead. 23 brightred rose in a wooded center with the title circling it, was one of simplistic beauty. In fact,as rock critic Andy Zwerlingpointed out, the "American Beauty" of the cover could also have been read as "AmericanReality." The contemporary critic'ssummation was that "If more of the American reality were this album, we'd havea lot more to be thankfulfor." 40 "Sugar " tied romantic love with romanticized nature to such an extent that the love fora member of the opposite sex and nature became nearly inseparable. The singer's love came"skimming through rays of violet/ she can wade in a drop of dew" and together they could "discover the wonders of nature/ Rollingin the rushes down by the riverside." The connection drawn between sex and natural beauty was fairlyobvious in this context.41

"Ripple" shared this same view of nature as a thing of beauty, as it presented a small fountain"that was not made by the hands of man" as possessing the essence oflifeand spiritualrenewal. The song also detailed a sense of communal happiness and well being as those whose cup is empty at the fountaincan "reach out your hand" while if your cup is full, "may it be again."42 Even "Brokedown

Palace," a song about leaving anunhappy place in search of spiritual and physical renewal, shared this romantic imagery concerningnature and natural beauty. The lonesome wanderer in search of his beloved home "listen[ed] to the river sing sweet songs/ to rock my soul" as he rested down by the riverside. He even pondered

40 Andy Zwerling, "Album Review GratefulDead American Beauty,"Rolling Stone 73, foundat: http://rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/10904/ J une 7, 2005. 41 and Robert Hunter, "," American Beauty,Warner B ros. Records, Inc., 1970 & 2001. 42 Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, "Ripple," AmericanBeauty. 24

"planting a weeping willow/ On the bank's green edge" that will "grow grow grow"as long as the river will "roll roll roll.',43

· The Band, partners, contemporaries, and students of Bob Dylan's lyrical and musical sty lings, also, not surprisingly,employed many of the same literary devices in their songs. By combining so many influencesthat rock critic Greil

Marcus saw their music as "dense as it was elusive," The Band created a sound that was new but offeredto the listener the chance to "recognize yourself' in the music

44 and lyrics. The group, made up of fourCanadians and one Southerner,had played their way ''up and down the spine" ofAmerica for over a decade and had fallen in love with the country as the place fromwhere the best music came and as a symbol of"limitless" success and opportunity.45 Their 1969 single "Up on

Cripple Creek" employed the same nature/love relationship common in the music of this genre. It was in this one location, "straight down the Mississippi to the Gulf ofMexico," where the relationship took hold ofthe singer. Anytime the song's voice was tired oflifeon the road, or of the other women in his life,he could retreat to his hideaway where " she sends me/ IfI spring a leak she mends me."46 Another Band composition, "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," gave a more fully-realized pictureof rural lifein yet another highly romanticized song about farmlife and unionism that could have been written and performed in the later halfof the nineteenth century. The chorus focused on the beauty offarm

43 Jeny Garcia and Robert Hunter, "Brokedown Palace," American Beauty. 44 Greil Marcus, MysteryTrain: Images ofAmerica inRock 'n 'RollMusic (NewYork: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1975 and 1982), 54. 5 4 Greil Marcus, , 51. ,, , Inc., 1969 46 Jaime , "Up on Cripple Creek, TheBand, &2000. 25 life: "Cornin the fields/Listen to the rice when the wind blows 'cross the water/

King Harvest has surely come," while the verses told of the more tryingaspects of such an existence fromeveryday troublesto having to deal withbankers and bosses, who always seemed to threatenthis Jeffersonianview of Americanlife.

This threat to the self-sufficientfarmer had long been a concernof American populist popular culture characterizedby the likes of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath which, not coincidentally, included a focuson folksongs and music as a means to bring people together, and TheBand's work was no exception.47

Other songs by TheBand spoke furtherto this sense ofnature and a rural existence as being more pure than that ofa more modem urbanlife. Whether The

Band advocated fallingout of capitalistic society, "We don't need no big car/ Don't eat no caviar/ When we come to rest/We take to the nest/ You know where we are," or mocked an existence where rurallife was seen as oppositional, "Did you ever milk a cow?/ I had the chance one day but I was all dressed up forSunday," their sympathieswere clearly with a more natural way oflife.48

On the other hand, however, TheBand also utilized allusions to place and nature that evoked feelingsof sadness, loneliness, andbitterness. There was no sense oflove of the Southernway oflifeand landscape in "" where they sing " .. .I'd rather be burnedin Canada than to freezehere in the South/

Pulling that eternalplough." Nor can the lyricsof "WhisperingPines," which detailed the wanderingsof a lonesome, desperate man througha lonely, desolate landscape, offerany sense of love fornature. The connection to nature was still

47 Jaime Robbie Robertson, "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," TheBand. 48 Jaime Robbie Robertson. "Time to Kill," StageFright, Capitol Records, Inc., 1970 & 2000; "We Can Talk," Music FromBig Pink, Capitol Records, Inc., 1968 & 2000. 26 present however, as the landscape in the song was as lonely as the singer. The musicians in these bands all displayed some connection with nature, whether it be positive or negative, longing or foreboding,and love and hate, and sometimes it was one or the other on differentsongs on the same album. 49 Thiscoupled with

Levon Helm's (drummer/singerand the lone Americanin TheBand') admission to

Time Magazine in 1970 that music was, forhim, a ''way to get offthat stinking tractor, out of that 1 OS-degreeheat" it becomes clearthat while these songs were portraying a more natural existence as ideal, it was more a state of mind than anythingcorporeal. 50

A second key aspect of nature foundth roughout this genre of music was the sense of the open road and the freedomassociated with the ability to move along it throughthe mythical Americanlandscape. This sense was expressed via lyrics that discussed travel on foot, horseback, and, in with a long tradition of

Americanfolk balladry, the railroad. Each musical act employed this open road symbolof freedomin their music in one way or another throughoutthis time period.

Creedence ClearwaterRevival's songs oftenemployed this open roadmotif as a way to escape the perceived problems of modem existence or as a way out of a lifethat had become painfulin one specificlocation. "Porterville"on their 1968 debut album offeredup such a tale, centeringon a young man who, afterhaving dealt with a rough childhood in his home of Porterville,hit the road forgood and

49 RichardM anuel, "We Can Talk"; Richard Manueland Jaime Robbie Robertson, "Whispering Pines," TheBand; Music From . 50 "The Band: The New Sound of CountryR ock," Time Magazine, January 12, 1970, 42-6. 27

triedto never look back. WhenFogerty sings "Been anawful long time since I've

been home/But you won't catch me going back down there alone," the audience

immediately sympathizesand roots forthis character as he heads out to prove

himself. Likewise, "Proud Mary"offered up the freedomof life onthe Mississippi

riverboatsas ideal in contrastwith the moderncity life, of which the singer has yet

to ever see the "good side."51

"Commotion" took this criticismof modem lifeone step further,as Fogerty

bemoaned city traffic, the senseless harriedpace of life,and the overall lack of

communication of our age of technology. In comparison, Fogerty romanticized a

drifter'slife in "Cross-Tie Walker" as the travelermade sure he "never do sit

down" and loved the fact thathe "ain't tied down" so that he could have the

absolute freedom to walk along ''where the freighttrains nm."52 ""

foundFogert y leaving behind the "Commotion" of modernexistence by moving

along this open road. Decrying the mortgageson his "home," "car,""life," and

other modernhassles like "Highways in the back yard"and (with considerable

foresight)"Actors in theWhite Ho use," the singer offeredup as a solution an

3 escape: "Move/ Down the road I go. "5

As a traveling musician, Fogerty certainly saw a connection between his

desire to keep on the move with the financialnecessities that required him to be on

the road forlong periods at a time. His 1970 song ''Travelin' Band" glorified such

an existence. Fogertyexpressed his desire to "Wanna move" with the simple joys

51 JohnFogerty, "Porterville";and John Fogerty, "Proud Mary," CreedenceClearwater Revival, Fantasy, Inc., 1968 & 2001; Bayou Country. 52 John Fogerty, "Cross-Tie Walker," Green River, Fantasy, Inc., 1969 & 2001. 53 JohnF ogerty,"Ramble Tamble," Cosmo's Factory, Fantasy, Inc., 1970 & 2001. 28 oflifeon the road: "Playing in a Travelin' Band. Yeah!/ Well I'm flying 'cross the land, tryingto get a hand/ Playing in a Travelin' Band." Couple this freedomof movement with the ability to excite crowdsto thepoint that they "had to call the

State Militia" at the last show, and this song set up the modem rock outfitas quasi­ cowboys and desperadoes. Thisportrait of the lifeof a band on the road,with the ability to move in, create a scene, and then move on out again, fellvery much in line with mythologized Americanheroes of the West. 54

Of course, Fogerty did not completely eschew any sense ofloneliness or desperation while being on the road. "Lodi," a song about a traveling musician stuck in a go nowhere town, can attest to this fact. Detailing how "things got bad, and things got worse," Fogerty longed forthe chance to "catch the next train back to where I live," and be freeof Lodi forever. Ifbeing in a "Travelin' Band" was a dream forFogerty, begin stuck in "Lodi" was his nightmare.55

In "," another hit single (it went to number fouron the chartsin April 1970), and theprototypical Creedence open roadsong , Fogerty advocated traveling on the open road until one got to a point "Wherethe neons tum to wood."56 The sense ofpe ace of a returnto nature will, in Fogerty's view, affect everyone forthe better as they are given the chance to take a deep breath and now have the serenity to "ponder perpetualmotion,/ [or] Fix your mind on a crystal day," and there is "Always time forgood conversation,/ There's an ear forwhat you say." So as Fogertyhurries around the bend "just as fastas my feetcan fly,"

54 JohnFogerty , "Travelin' Band," Cosmo's Factory,Fanta sy, Inc., 1970 & 2001. 55 JohnFo gerty, "Lodi," Green River. 56 , "Cosmo'sFa ctoryAl bum Notes," Creedence Clearwater Revival Box Set, 63. 29 he feels no remorse in leaving the "sinking ship"of modem society far behind hi m. S7

However, while the open road had a strong pull on Fogerty and shaped much of his music and lyricaloutlook on life, there was still a tension present reminiscent of the larger issues foundthroughout American popular culture dealing with nature and the open road. This tension arose between the desire to have the freedomto move at will andelude the "bedrock[s] of... human experience,"and the longing to have a good woman, a comfortablehome, and a happy family.58

This tension can be foundquite oftenin Fogerty'smusic and served as a foilto keep his wandering spirit in check. Songs such as "Long As I Can See the Light,"

"Sailor's Lament," and"Lookin' Out My Back Door" spoke to this sense of not wanting to leave a place where comfort,security, and a loved-one existed.

"Lookin' Out My Back Door," released in 1970 as the group's fifthand final number two hit single, offeredup a tale of a troubadour who finallyarrived home aftera long time on the road. He sits down to revel in the simple pleasures of his frontporch and singing while his imagination runswild and he can push offall his

59 troubles back onto another day. "Long As I Can See the Light" offered up a reverse portraitof that of"Lookin' Out My Back Door." Sung through the point of view of a man who is about to set offon a long journey"cause I feelI've got to move" and "drifta while," due to ''that old trav'lin' bone" that "won't leave me alone," he hopes his love will place "a candle in the window" to show she wants

57 John Fogerty, "Up Around theBend," Cosmo's Factory. 58 Tompkins, West of Everything, 82. 59 RobertChristgau, "Cosmo 's FactoryAlbum Notes," Creedence ClearwaterRevival Box Set, 63. 30 him back. As long as the restless traveler can "see the light" he will make his way back to his beloved. And finally,"Sailor's Lament," the second song offth e group's 1970 album Pendulum, was placed firmlyin the tradition of nautical folk tunes as it focusedon the love/haterelationship between a sailor and the sea. His reluctance to head back out can be foundin its chorus as Fogerty sings of the

60 "Shame, it's a shame" of a lifeconstantly away at sea.

Bob Dylan similarly utilized the open road as a symbol of freedom. Like the best music of this type, Dylan's ruminations on nature, the open road, and

American character all seemed out of"some odd displacement of art and time" as his music seems both "transparentand inexplicable" so thatmuch of his music

61 fromthis eracould "carry the date 1932 and ... be as convincing" as that of 1967.

His "Goin' to Acapulco" displayed this sense of going offto a better place where he's "going to have some fun." And although"going on the run" and traveling on the open road might tum out to be tough, the song's voice is definitelynot complaining as it is obvious that to this restless spirit, the journeyis worthwhile.

Likewise, songs like "Tiny Montgomery"and "Yea! Heavy and A Bottle of

Bread," while fulloflyrics that border on nonsense, contained allusions to the glories of lifeon the open road. "Tiny" told the story of a man who lefthis hometown as a nobody, grown successful, and now wishes to let everyone"do wn in Old Frisco" know how well offhe is. Likewise, in "Yea! Heavy," Dylan sang of catching a bus and heading to Wichita to fishfor trout. On other works, Dylan

60 John Fogerty,"Lookin' Out My Back Door;" "Long As I Can See the Light;" and "Sailor's Lament," Cosmo's Factory; Pendulum,Fantasy Inc., 1970 & 2001. 61 Greil Marcus, TheOld, Weird America: The World Bobof Dylan'sBasement Tapes (New York: Picador, 1997), xix,xx. 31 wonders why "if dogs run free/then why can't we?" as well as romanticizing the lifeand death of the legendary outlaw as he laments "Billy they don't

62 like you to be so free."

However, like that of Creedence ClearwaterRevival, Dylan's music also contains a sense of this tension between staying and going. Songs such as "Lo and

Behold!," "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," and most of his album speak to this tension as to whether the tremendous desire to go will overcome the equally strong ties to stay in one location. "Lo and Behold!" centers on the railroad escapades of a common manas he journeysthrough the countryside enduringslight afterslight in differentlocations until he arrivesback on the train to shout "Get me out of here, my dear man!" until, at the end of the song, the narrator

63 decides he will be "Goin' back to Pittsburgh." Rock critic Greil Marcus feelsthe strong pull of centuries of American cultural influencein such a song as the travails that our unnamed protagonist endures "makes a story as shapely and complete as one of Hawthorne'sTwice Told Tales of humiliation and withdrawal" or "as

64 casually doomstruckas one of Melville's fablesof embarkment. ... " On the other hand, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," released on 1969's Nashville

Skyline, eschewed takingthat tripas he throws both his ticket and suitcase out of the window and opts to stay with his love. Not wanting to think any more of leaving her behind, he decides that if there is "a poor boy on the street/Let him have my seat." There is no sense of regret expressed in not taking the journeyin

2 6 Bob Dylan, "Goin' To Acapulco," "Tiny Montgomery," "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread"; "If Dogs Run Free"; "Billy," TheBasement Tapes; New Morning, CBS Records, Inc., 1970; and & Billythe Kid, CBS Records, Inc., 1973. 63 Bob Dylan, "Lo and Behold!," . 4 6 Marcus, The Old, WeirdAmerica, 46-7. 32

65 this song. Finally, Dylan's 1970 New Morningalbum conveyed that love and family was more importantthan being on the open road and having the freedomto move at any given whim. Faced with being "the mouthpiece, spokesman, or even conscience of a generation," Dylan having had enough with "whatever the counterculturewas," and decided that outside of his newly-expanding family,

66 ''nothing held any real interest forme. " As a testament to this sentiment, the New

Morningalbu m romanticized family and small town lifeto such an extent that the decidedly un-hip prospects of getting married,havin g children, and living a quiet normallife are presented as "that must be what it's all about."67

Not surprisingly, TheByrds also displayed considerable talents at employing the open road as a key symbol of masculine freedom. Their cover of"I

Am APilgrim " coupled this wanderer of theAmerican landscape with religious overtonesas the singer admitted, "I am a pilgrimand a stranger traveling through this lonesome land" looking fora religious touchstone thelikes of the river of

Jordan.68 Likewise, ''The ,"the title song of the 1969 film, portrayed an idealized masculine wanderer who was not tied to anything andwas simply out and about rejoicing in his freedomto wander throughout the land. With its key lyricswritten by, but not credited to Bob Dylan, TheByrds led by Roger

McGuinn'sheartfelt vocal comparedthis man to the unending flowof a natural

65 Bob Dylan, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," , CBS Records, Inc., 1969. 66 BobDylan, Chronicles: Volume One (NewYork: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 114-5, 120. 67 Bob Dylan, "Sign on theWindow," New Morning. 68 Traditional arrangedBy Roger McGuinn and ,"I Am A Pilgrim," Sweetheartof the Rodeo. 33

69 river. ''The river flows/It flowsto the sea/ Wherever that river goes/ That's where I want to be." The lines "All he wanted was to be free/And that's the way it turnedout to be," took on added significancewhen in the context of the ending of the filmEasy Rider as the two symbols ofthis unbridled freedomwere destroyed by ignorant rednecks who lack the heroic character ofthe eastern-bound,California motorcycle . 70

Like the other bands mentioned, TheByrds focuson the open roadalso contained its fairshare of contradiction as forevery song such as "The Ballad of

Easy Rider" which seemed to extol this lifestyle,they performed songs such as

"Fido" and "Jack Tarrthe Sailor'' which do not look on being constantlyon the move as an idealized symbol of ultimate freedom. "Fido" told the story of a lonesome traveler on the road stuckin some hotel "feelinglonesome/ Sitting by the phone/ Wide awake, staying up late/ Wishing I was home." As the song's protagonist is caught up in his misery, a lone dog wanders into his room and spends thenight there, creating a sense oflonging in his heart to be able to live such a sedentary lifeas "Dogs have it made/ Laying around in the shade."71 "Jack Tarrthe

Sailor," a traditional English folksea shanty reworked by Roger McGuinnduring his tenure at Chicago's Old Town School of Music, was a simple tale of a poor sailor who hated his professionas he lamented, "A man must be blind/ To make up his mind/ To go to sea once more."72

69 According to TheByrds officialhistorian, Dylan disliked the movie, particularly its ending, so much that he requested he be given no credit forthe film's theme. Johnny Rogan, · "Song Notes," TheBalla d ofEa syRid er, 7. 70 Roger McGuinn, ''The Ballad of Easy Rider," TheBallad of Easy Rider. 71 , "Fido," The Balladof Easy Rider. 72 Traditional arrangedby Roger McGuinn, "Jack Tarrthe Sailor;" Johnny Rogan, "Song Notes," The Ballad ofEasy Ride r, 8. 34

Grateful Dead lyricsalso were fullof such imagery. The call to come join

"Uncle John's Band" in one of the band's signature songs was not simply a call to followthe band throughoutthe country(although many would surely do that throughout theband's career), but to fallout of modernsociety and join in with the idealized natural, freesociety presented in the song. Partromanticization of nature and its beauty and part mythologization of America,its folkheroes, and its supposed glorious past history,t his song expressed much of what themusic of The

Grateful Dead was all about. Similarly, songs such as "," which tells the storyof a man on the run fromthe law, and "Truckin' ," a song glorifying the travels of the band, served to present lifeon the open road as a thing of both beauty and nobility. In "Friendof the Devil," once thesong's hero was out and about in the westernAmerican landscape, he met up with the devil, a decidedly

Americanizedversion, which helped him out by loaning him "twenty bills." Of course, this Americandevil, so eager to help, a la Stephen Vincent Benet's The

Devil and Daniel Webster and blues great RobertJohnson, would soon come back to reclaim his prize. And sure enough later on in the song he returnsto take back the money owed him and ''vanished in the air."73 This song, set almost exclusively in the Californiancountryside and centered on a character of tenuous moral fiber, will be discussed in furtherdetail later in this thesis in the context of heroesand anti-heroes of this musical genre.

Like Creedence 's "Traveling Band," ''Truckin'" served to set up the band as modem practitioners of the absolutely freeand roving lifestyleextolled in many of

73 JerryGarcia, JohnDawson, and Robert Hunter, "Friend of the Devil," AmericanBeauty. 35 their songs. The song admitted the duality of a lifecharacterized by such a transient lifestyleas when ''You'resick of hanging around ... you'd like to travel" and when you are "tired of travel, you want to settle down" are consistently at odds with each other. These lines, however, showed no sense that the band, much like the roving characters foundin the lyricsof their songs, ever really wanted to stop with theirnomadic existence. The song's chorus emphasized this point, as no one desired to give up being on the road and miss out on the " it's been." 74

TheDead's 1971 live version of"Me & My Uncle," written by John

Phillips ( of TheMamas and The Papas ), fiteasily into this category of masculine freedomand lifeon the open road. Set in a mythic American past, the song detailed two riders on horseback as they crossedfrom Colorado into Texas and interacted with a group of cowboys at a barroom. While the song's narrator tended to the horses, his uncle got involved in a wild card game that quickly descended into violence once cheating was claimed. In the scuffle and ensuing shootout, the two made offwith the 's gold and hightailed it offdown to

Mexico. And, as the song ended, the song's narratorlisted his set ofloves:

Now I loved those cowboys, I loved their gold/I love my uncle, God rest his souV Taughtme good, Lord, taught me all I know/ Taught me so well, I grabbed that gold/ And I lefthis dead ass thereby the side of the road. This song served to romanticize not only the transient lifestyle,but the unfeeling,extreme masculinity characterized by the remorseless killing of other

74 Jerry Garcia, , Bob Weir and RobertHunter, ''Truckin'," American Beauty. 36 men, including in this case a family member, as the ideal state formen. The song's narrator, another interesting subject to be represented as the 'hero' of the song, rationalized his actions by stating, "I'm as honest as a Denver man can be," as if the location and landscape of the AmericanWest lefthim with no choice but to act in this way. 75 In this song the relationship between landscape and masculinity was reciprocal, as living in a harsh, unflinching terrainwill craftman that were harsh and unflinching as they traversed the countryside and become harsher, less sentimental, andmore masculine.

Their cover of 's "Me & Bobby McGee" offt heir 1971

GratefulDead live album spoke to this sametransient lifestyle, albeit in a much softerand more romantic fashion. Detailing a romantic relationship blossoming while hitchhiking across the country, this tune painted a picture of the roadthat played up both the positive and negative aspects of being out there on America's open road. For, while the time spent together with Bobby McGee was near bliss as they "shared the secrets of the road," and the inevitable parting of ways had left the song's narratorwilling to ''trade all of my tomorrowsfor one single yesterday," there was never a sense that he was going to give up his freedomand mobility to stay with her in one location as he "let her slip away." In so choosing his freedomover any romantic attachments, the singer feels confidentto utterone of thesong's most memorable lines, that "freedom'sjust another word fornothing leftto lose," as those that are leftwandering on the road with this freedomare oftendown and out and looking fora better tomorrowand existence, even if it was never to be found. Aninteresting comparisonto be made is betweenthis

75 John Phillips, ''Me & My Uncle,'•' GratefulDead, WarnerBros. Records, Inc., 1971. 37 version, or Kristofferson'soriginal with the one made famous by JanisJoplin in which the sex role have been reversed andBobby McGee was portrayedas a male. Thetone of thesong is roughlythe same, but the sense oflonesome masculinityand freedomof movementhas been replaced by a more feminist quality.76

Another Grateful Deadcover, of a traditional folksong made famous by

Woody Guthrie, "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad," echoed these verysame sentiments. Thesong's lyricsfocused on a lonesome wanderer in his unending search forhis own typeof utopia where ''the weather suits my clothes,"and "the water taste like wine."77 In the Dead's live recording of thiswork, it is paired with Buddy Holly's ''Not Fade Away," so that the two segueseamlessly into one another. A phenomenon of many Dead live performances,this tying together of different songs fromdifferent eras, served to unite all the music together into one package that was not confined to time periodor subjectmatter. Likewise, their coupling of their own "''with thetraditional "I Know You

Rider,"also served to combine the astp withthe present and mix it together to create something bothrecognizable and new, historical and current.

Both"I Know You Rider" and"Ramble On Rose" offtheir live Europe

'72 album spoke to theirview of thepow er and beauty of theopen road. "I Know

You Rider"utilized the railroad, a traditionin American folkmusic, as symbolic of a freedomto move when andwhere one pleased. Whenthe singer admitted that "I wish I was a headlight on a northboundtrain" it tied into a whole historyof

76 KrisKristofferson, "Me & Bobby McGee," GratefulDead. 77 Traditional arrangedby GratefulDead, "Goin' Down theRoad Feeling Bad," Grateful Dead. 38

Americanexpansionism and the utter freedomof movement available to restless souls thanks to the advent and popularityof railroad technology, as well as tying into the subculture ofboth and drifterswhose way oflifeis definedby riding the rails. "Ramble On Rose" combined a restless spiritreminiscent ofthe best American folksongs; "Ramble on baby/ And settle down easy," with jumbled word play that utilized historical,mythological and literal allusions and bringsto mind some ofthe best of Bob Dylan's mid 1960's absurdist songscapes. 78

A notable exception to this spirit ofblissful wandering across the

Americancountryside was theirsong "Tennessee Jed." Focusing on the exploits ofthe title character as he wandered acrossthe country, the song portrayed the country as a place that offeredall typesof dangers and hardships to this innocent drifter. In the course ofthe song poor Jed is repeatedly subject to being physically beaten, frequentlyarrested, and eternallypoor as he struggledto get

"back to Tennessee." Jed's freedomto wander was so threatening to these characters in the song that ifhe did not make it home soon, he's ''bound to wind up dead." Someone even kicks Jed's faithfuldog as the poor drifterendured the hardships ofAmericans not ready to accept Jed and his lifestyle.

From the verybeginning of their recording career, TheBand employed the open road as symbolic of freedomin very much the same manner as the previous bands. These songs were complex works, filledwith biblical references, and sly, ofteno paque lyricsthat tended to make the listener try and decipher exactly what

78 Traditional arranged by Grateful Dead, "I Know You Rider," Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, "Ramble on Rose," Europe '72. 39 they were truly about, thatagain tended to be largelyreminiscent of Bob Dylan's ownapproach to songwriting. "TheW eight," offtheir 1968 debut album and perhaps theirmost well known song, fitcomfortably in thisniche. Detailing life on the road throughout an Americapopul ated by the weird characters so often foundin a Dylan composition, ""mixed biblical references,("Pulled into Nazareth,") with road weariness, "feeling 'bout a half past dead," to paint a pictureof Americanon the road. Interactions ranged fromcharacters such as

"CrazyChester" to the mysteriouslyunexplained "Fanny," in a chorus that didn't seem to makemuch sense but resonatedjust the sameas a road anthem: "Takea load offFanny, take a load forfree;/ Take a load offFanny/ And you can put the load righton me." As part of the soundtrack to the movie Easy Rider, this song fitperfect ly as a musical meditation as the main characters traveledo n motorcycles throughthe greatAmerican countryside. Likewise, anotherBand composition, "CaledoniaMission," echoed thesame sentiments as the lyrics painted a pictureof a quick escape("We'll be gone in time"), from"a mission down in Modock, Arkansas."79

Another perfectBand portrayalof theopen road was theopening track to their timeless 1969 TheBand album. Thesong, "AcrossThe Great Divide," presented a timeless conflictbe tween a man who wanted to hitthe open roadand his love who was in favorof staying put in their more sedentaryand less reckless existence. Thisargument centered on the man as he triedto encourage his lady to

·both drop thegun she was brandishing to makeher case, and "grab thathat and

79 JaimeRobbie Robertson, "TheWeight," "Caledonia Mission," . 40

take that ride" across the Great Divide and head west. As the song unfolded,he

continually tried to convince her to leave "this one horse town" forthe greener

pasturesover the horizon. The tension between the two served as symbolic of the

traditionally-accepted stereotypes that the man will want to pull up and leave fora

chance of a better future, while the woman will want to stayin a place where she

has roots and was more comfortablewith family, friends, and her position in

society. The promise of such better times has surely taken hold on the song's

narrator, as well as the excitement of the journey, andhis finalappeals to his

significantother seemed to push the argument in his favor, as heading over the

Great Divide will not only servethe two of them better ("You'll feedyour man

chicken every Sunday"), but also their futuregenerations as they will be able to

"bring your children down to the riverside." This song was completely caught up

in the mythical past America that so fascinatedthe group, especially principle

songwriter Robbie Robertson, and bore little resemblance to the 1960's

contemporary society where the women's rightsmovement was attempting to

80 redefinethe roles of women in Americansociety.

Other Band songs also focusedheavily on lifeon the road. "Just Another

Whistle Stop," similar to TheDead 's "Tennessee Jed," painted a picture of a journeythroug h the countrythat was not entirely pleasantas the song's

protagonist was subject to many painfulinteractions with people all the while

wishing to just go home. However, a majorityof their songs depicted lifeon this

open road in a much more positive light, as "WhenYou Awake", with the lines

so Jaime Robbie Robertson, "Across TheGreat Divide," TheBand; Rob Bowman, "Album Notes," Music From Big Pink,11-4. 41

" ... [he] showed me the forkin the road./You can take to the leftor go straight to the right" utilized the road as a metaphor fora man's ability to choose his own destiny and head where he pleases. Likewise, "Rockin' Chair" portrayed an elderly formersailor who once spent "my whole lifeat sea" and now found himself confinedto his rocking chair longing to havethe strength to travel and be

"home again down in Old Virginny." Stuck in his "big Rockin' Chair" that

"won't go nowhere" he longed forboth his younger days and the freedomto go wherever the wind would take him, and stripped of his freedom, he believed that all "the days that remain ain't worth a dime."81

These songs soughtto convey a sense of the beauty of nature and utilized the populist notions of a meaningfulconnection with the land in order to present an America that existed only in their minds and their music. The America in these songs, like the one presented in westerntales and movies, was one of open roads, masculine men, and the constant tension present when one possessed the desire to be free and finda good woman, that sharedlittle in common with the real Americaof the 1960s and '70s. However, this music possessed powerful lyricsand a timeless quality that gave each verse and chorus added meaning as expressing powerfultruths concerningboth American lifeand human nature that resonated with their young listeners as they struggledto makesense of their own place in the postmodernworld. Likewise,while the 1960's might be viewed in retrospect as a periodof increased women's rightsand a breakdown of the traditional mores involving gender and sex, the politics of the counterculture and

81 Richard Manuel and Jaime Robbie Robertson,"," Jaime Robbie Robertson, "Rockin' Chair," The Band. 42 the views of these artists never lived up to these lofty expectations. Therefore, songs that present a lifeof happiness and camaraderie on the road as oppositional to having a meaningfulrelationship with a good woman lost none of their potency. To the many of the young men that formedthese groups or bought in to the youth culture, sexual liberation simply meant more opportunities to have sex with multiple partners while still controlling the cultural and "sexual agenda for most of this movement's existence." 82

82 Peter Braunstein and Michael William Doyle, eds., Imagine Nation: TheAmerican Countercultureo f the 1960s & '70s (NewYork: Routledge, 2002), 113-6. CHAPTER 2:

John Wesley Harding, Casey Jones, and The WorkingMan:

Heroic Portraits in Roots Rock

As we haveseen, the songs fromthis era all have a distinctive tie to the

Americanlandscape and nature, fromthe bayous of the Southto the trailsand

open roads ofthe Wild West that have always been a key partof American

popular culture. In addition to thisromantic view of Americaand its natural

world, these songs also paint picturesof Americanheroes andanti-heroes very

much in the same vein as other distinctly Americanworks of popular culturefrom

westernsto folkand b lues songs. 83 Theroots of such songs can be foundin

"outlaw stories" of both fictionand folklore where "social bandit" as symbolicof

the populist workingclasses ''uncoversand attacksthe dark side of modem capitalism." Folk social banditheroes such as Jesse James, PrettyBoy Floyd,

JohnWesl ey Hardin, andthe literaryT om Joad of Steinbeck's The Grapes of

Wrath (forwhom Woody Guthriewr ote a ballad), all fallinto this category.

Thesepopul ar heroes, presented in both song and literature as modernized

American versions of the mythologizedRobin Hood are, according to Richard

Slotkin, key components of the ideology that arose out oflowerclass, rural

culturein the faceof such perceivedmachinations of the dangerous"advanced

capitalism" of powerful corporations. 84 Not only is it importantto view how the music of the so-called youthcou nterculture utilized such Americanpop ular

83 Marcus, Old, Weird America, 12-3, 21-6; Slotkin, GunfighterNation, 281-4, 286-303, 569-612. 84 Slotkin, Nation, 126-8.

43 44 culture landmarksand keystones, but also how they were retextualized and reimagined in a modem setting. If, as H. BruceFranklin maintains "the Vietnam

War shattered many of the traditional narrativescentral to formerlyprevailing visions of the United States and its history,"so that the realities of modem

"warfare... threatenedto undermine or even replace... romantic figures"of violence andwarfare common in American mythology, these songs consciously soughtto create threads to that past. If Vietnam caused a sense of disenchantment with the realities of the American experience, these songs - populated by lone figureswho practiced frontierjustice and were forcedto choose between a lifeon the road andthe comfortsof home-sought to crafta new American consciousness that transcended their current political and cultural climate. 85

Creedence Clearwater Revival's main focuson the hero theme was to present the working class elements of society as positively as possible.

Throughout the band's recording career it sought to glorifythe workingman and his lifestyleas someone that was more heroic and purely American than those that

were wealthy or in positions of power in modem Americansociety. Right from

their firstalbum, 1968's Creedence Clearwater Revival, the band tackled this

issue with songs such as the previously discussed "Porterville," and "The

Working Man," both of which dealt with the lifeand times of members of the

lower rungs of America's social pyramid. In "Porterville"the lament of a young

man trying to overcome a town's view of him as nothing more than the poor

offspringof a ne'er-do-well, fitin perfectly with Fogerty's salute to the unending

85 H. Bruce Franklin, Vietnamand Other American Fantasies (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000), 4-6. 45 struggles depictedin "TheWorking Man." By employingboth a fiercely impressive blues shout andthe firstperson perspective in this song, Fogerty soughtto relate himself, andhis own humble beginnings,with that of thepoor workers: "I was bornon a Sunday/ By Thursday I had me a job" and "I ain't never been in trouble/ Iain't got the time." "Gloomy," also on their debut album, decried theelements of society that"count your money" and leave you feelingill at ease. Overall, a decidedly anti-wealth andeven a quasi-anti-capitalism position was takenby the band that they would continue to explore on subsequent albums.86

"Penthouse Pauper"continued along in this vein as Fogertysang of being

''the Penthouse Pauper,baby/ I got nothing to my name," whilelisting all the thingshe would like to do with themo ney available to a wealthy man. Thesong nevertakes on anoverly sad or tragictone, forwhile it could be viewed as tragic for a manof limited means to live out hisdreams only in his mind, Fogerty painted the Penthouse Pauper as nothingdangerous or pathetic, but as a relatable dreamer who foundc omfortin the factthat he had the freedomto dreamin such a way, for"I can be most anything/ 'Causewhen you got nothing it's all the same.,, 87

Perhapsthe most strikingexample of Creedence's glorificationof

America'spoor and working classes as symbolicof anidealized trueAmerica was their I 969 album Willy and thePoorboys. Whetherit be the good time street comer band of "Down on theComer, " that encourages you to "bringa nickel"

86 JohnFogerty, "The WorkingMan," "Gloomy," Creedence ClearwaterRevival. 87 John Fogerty, "PenthousePauper," Bayou Country. 46 and "tap your feet," to the simplemindedhillbilly farmerwho discovered a UFO in "," the reinterpretationsof old folkand blues songs as

"Cotton Fields" and "The Midnight Special," and the political-minded messages of"," and "Don't Look Now (It Ain't You or Me)," all served to

88 offerup loving portraits of this typeof Americana. In Creedence's idealized

American worldthe heroes and good citizens were ruralresidents who were

anything but aristocratic and urbane.

"Fortunate Son," the B-side of the immensely popular "Down on the

Comer" single, servedto decry the currentpolitical climate, while not being

exclusively relevant to that particular time period and war effort,that seemed to be sending offthe poorer classes of society offto Vietnam and leaving the

89 favoritesons of America at home, safeand sound. Fogerty,obviously angered

by the situation, and himself a former draftee,aimed his sharpestpolitical

criticisms forthose in positions of power andaffluence and their sons and

90 daughters who were "bornsilver spoon in hand." An anthem forthe poor with

its chorusof "It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no Fortunate Son," served to separate

this class and the band themselves fromthe likes of the "Senator's son" draped in

"red, white and blue," those sons and daughters of privilege who "inheritstar

spangled eyes," and all other such privileged offspringwho "don't help

themselves" and do nothing to earnthe status they occupy. In this context, those

who had grown up in wealth without earningany of it were seen as antithetical to

88 John Fogerty, "Down on theComer," Willyand the Poor Boys. 89 Ben Fong-Torres, "Creedence ClearwaterRevival: An AmericanBand," Creedence ClearwaterRevival Box Set, 8. 90 Ed Ward, "WillyAnd ThePoorboys Album Notes," Creedence ClearwaterRevival Box Set, 61. 47 the trueAmerican stature of the workingclasses to whom Creedencerelated.

Therefore, these sons and daughters of the social elite were presented as modem enemies to their idealized American heroic models, the working classes who struggledto survivea nd were shipped offby the thousands to fighta war in

Vietnamso a "Senator;s son" won't have to.91

"Don't Look Now (It Ain't You or Me)," on the other hand, servedto separate Fogerty and the rest of the band, and most of America, fromhis view of the trueAmerican heroes. The song, built around a series of questions the likes of

"Who'11 take a leaf and grow it to a tree?" and "Who will work the fieldwith his hands?" and the answer "Don't look now, it ain't you or me," served as an indictment of those who looked past the daily struggles and oft-unappreciated importanceof such individuals. WhileFogerty himself might have related to and held these people up as his own vision as trulyheroic Americans,he was careful not to overdo any connection he might have feltas a voice for the downtrodden and actuallybeing downtrodden himsel£ It is of course a fineline that Fogerty triedto toe as he chastised the rest of America: "Don't look now, someone's done your starvin'/ Don't look now, someone's done your prayin' too." In his eyes, the people that do these much needed tasks to ensure basic human survival were much more heroic and worthy of praise than either "you or me. "92

Bob Dylan's view of the American hero can be seen as more or less in the same light as that of Creedence 's vision. However, his songs offeredmore complexity to the discussion and depiction of heroes whether they are roving

91 John Fogerty, "Fortunate Son," Willy andthe Poor Boys. 2 9 John Fogerty, "Don't Look Now (It Ain't You or Me)," . 48 westerndesperadoes or downtrodden poor drifters. Opening the 1967 classic albumof the samename, "John Wesley Harding" is a straightforwardfolk song detailing and glorifyingthe exploits oflegendaryoutlaw hero John Wesley

Hardin, who, during the later part of the nineteenth century, was known to be one ofthe most notorious outlaws and killers in all of America. Famouslyquoted that he ''never killed a man that didn't need killing," Hardin actually killed at least one black man andeleven Union soldiers during his lifetime. He was, in truth, hardly a romantic figure. However, Hardin the romantic folkhero, the same as Dylan's

Harding (with the 'G' added), was an ideal romantic populist hero for nineteenth century ruralAmericans. 93 In his song Dylan set him up as a "friendto the poor'' who was "never knownto hurtan honest man" even though he always ''traveled with a gun in everyhand." 94

"Drifter's Escape" :fromthe same album told the story ofa poor man pleading formercy while an unfairand, in his eyes, "cursed jury," eagerly awaited the opportunityto throw the book at him. The drifterof the song served as a symbol ofboth the United States legal system's dubious fairtreatment of the lower classes as it strove to maintain the status quo, and personal prejudices of those who had immediately seen the worstin him and judged him guilty of any and all such crimes. As he stood to hear his fate, the poor drifter"still do[ es] not knowwhat it is that I've done wrong"and can no longer bear to wait pondering his fate,as ''the trial was bad enough, but this is ten times worse." Luckily forthe drifter, and corresponding with Dylan'sview ofright and wrong in society, a

93 "John Wesley Hardin," Found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hard in, June 29, 2005. 94 Bob Dylan, "John Wesley Harding," John WesleyHarding. 49 decidedly Old TestamentGod made his presence feltby which the drifter could

95 make his escape.

Likewise, "I Am a Lonesome " placed Dylan in the firstperson context of one of the most downtrodden and disliked members of modem

American society. In his sympathetic portrayalof a man eternallydown on his

luck, Dylan's lyrics described a man without "familyor friend"who came faceto

facewith his fateas he realized he would soon "pass on." In the end, Dylan

presented the hobo as a normalman worthyof sympathy and not the scorn that

was traditionally heaped upon those of his ilk. With a finalwarning via the voice

of the suffering and lonesome hobo, Dylan cautioned, "And hold your judgment

foryourselt7 Lest you wind up on this road." Also, his "I Pity the Poor

Immigrant" sought sympathy fora man, who alone and scared in this country,

''uses all his power to do evil" and is a pariah of American society. Dylan's view

was that since "in the end [he] is always leftso alone' and both "hates his life"

and "fearshis death," the person forwhom hate was so easy to come by must be

pitied instead as one strove to understand his condition.96

His "," released as a single in 1969, and set over a backdrop

of heart wrenching pedal steel , also looked forlove and understanding for

a character of the lower class. Through a pleading message to an unnamed

woman, Dylan extolled the virtuesof the simple man, and advised her to stay with

him even though "his clothes are dirty" because, in his eyes, "you're the best

95 Bob Dylan, "Drifter's Escape,"John Wesley Harding. 96 Bob Dylan, "," "I Pity thePoor Immigrant,"J ohn Wesley Harding. 50 thing he's ever seen."97 Almost at odds with "Lay Lady Lay," Dylan's "Girl

From the North Country" ideal herowas a rambling man who has once loved and lefta lady there as he moved on to another partof the country. Even though he oftenthought back to her "in the darkness of my night/ and the brightnessof my day," he would not go back there and settle down with her, even though "she once was a truelove of mine."98

The lyricson Dylan's soundtrack to the westernfilm Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid focusedalmost exclusively on this theme of a man who possessed a distinctive heroic quality. In Dylan's mind, Billy the Kid has the "lawman on your trail" because hI!;°lifestylethreatened the country'sprogress into the twentieth century. Obviously disenchanted with the currentstate of affairsin his own time, Dylan looked back and saw his villains as those that tried to keep law and order and shaped America. Therefore,the lawmen were mere "bounty hunter[s]" who were out to get the film'shero not because he was an outlaw, but because "Billy they don't like you to be so free." The most famoussong offthis soundtrack, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" combined pathos and a quality of senselessness to the death of a lawman shot down. As the chorus repeated

"Knock, Knock, Knockin'on Heaven's Door" ad irifinitum and Dylan moaned during the verses "Mama take this badge offof me/ I can't use it anymore" and

"Mama put my guns in the ground/ I can't shoot them anymore," the song possessed a meditative tone. Has the lawman done any good in this world? Was there a connection between the cries to his mother as he lay dying and the factthat

97 Bob Dylan, "Lay Lady Lay," NashvilleSJ..yline. 98 Bob Dylan, "Girl From theNorth Country," Nashville Skyline. 51 it was froma lifestylethat was profoundlymasculine in nature? And is there an

99 aura of senselessness around the entire desperado mindset and morality?

TheByrds' main focuson heroesand anti-heroes throughout their musical output was much more closely related to idealized westernher oes than the average Jeffersonian-idealized,yeoman farmer. Their songs tended to focuson and glorifycowboys and outlaws who wandered the vast American landscape on horseback searching foradventures. These heroeswere always ready and willing to fight, oftenfor the little guybeing trodden upon by some ugly and powerful element of American capitalism.

Their cover of Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd" perfectlyillustrated this point. Recounting the exploits of the famedoutlaw, this song set up a wandering outlaw as a literal Robin Hood of the AmericanWest as he gave food to families "on relief' while on the run from the corruptpolice. With a socialist­ tinged message, lines such as "Some will rob you with a six gun and some with a fountainpen" but "You'll never see an outlaw takea familyfrom its home," The

Byrds saluted both the outlaw heroand Guthrie's controversial folkballad by including it on their 1968 Sweetheart of the Rodeo LP. Whetheror not such statements should be seen as accurate was surely debatable, however, that was not the key to understanding the band's version of this song. It servedto both tie their music with revolutionarym usic of the past as well as recalling the folkcircle days of leader Roger McGuinn. 100 Likewise, the "Ballad of Easy Rider'' viewed in connectionwith the film forwhich it was written, presented the movie's

Door," Pat Garrett & Billythe Kid. 99 Bob Dylan, "Billy," "Knockin' on Heaven's 100 Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd," Sweetheart of the Rodeo; Johnny Rogan, "Song Notes to Sweetheart of the Rodeo," 8. 52 protagonists in much the same way. Even though they were drug dealers, the theme and filmcombined to portray them as moderndesperadoes traveling the open roadwith motorcycles standing in as modernhorses. As they searched for happiness and peace of mind, the audience was taken on the journeywith them, until, in the finalscene , their murder was presented as an ultimate tragic event due

1 1 to the song's assertionthat "all he wanted was to be free." 0 Likewise, their cover of the Z. Manners and S. Seely homily to the astronauts who firstlanded on the moon, "Armstrong,Aldrin, And Collins," sought to make heroic figuresout of these astronauts. These three men were presented as cosmic wanderers and trailblazers and served as idealized modernday cowboys as they went out and

1 2 reveled in what President John F. Kennedy dubbed "The New Frontier." 0

Another Byrds'Guthrie cover, "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)," was one of the fewinstances where the band utilized the poor and downtrodden as noble figures. Recounting the death of migrantworkers in a plane crash, the song spoke to the daily strugglesof such noble individuals who scrapped out a meager existence while being chased "like outlaws, like rustlers,like thieves." Even in death they will receive none of the distinction or caring that is due them, for"All

3 they will call you will be/ Deportee."10

"Lover of the Bayou" created a heroic figureout of a bayou ruffian, who

"swam with thecro codile" and consumed both "the bat in the gumbo" and "blood froma rusty can." This hardenedindividual was seen as an idealized example of masculinity to the point that his self-proclaimed title of"Lover of the Bayou"

101 Roger McGuinn, "The Ballad of Easy Rider," TheBallad of Easy Rider. 102 Slotkin, GunfighterNation, 2. 103 Woody Guthrie, "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)," TheBallad of Easy Rider. 53 implied not only a sexual prowess but an intimate attachment with the nature that surrounded him. "" found TheBy rds recounting another tale of heroicproportions tied in with nature,as the song revolved arounda horse wrangler's quest to rope the perfectwild chestnut mare. The song, in tum, focusedon the beauty of the landscape surroundingour hero, his undying drive and masculinity to "get that horse if I can," complete with sexual connotations,

"And we'll be friends forlife / She'll be just like my wife,"culminating in the

4 riderand horse plunging over the edge of a cliff.10 This song also servedas a take-offon an old westernstory, TheMustangs, by J. FrankDobie, which detailed the hunt and attempted capture of a wild horse. In this tale, as in the song, the horse chose leaped over the edge of the cliffrather than be conquered and sub. �u gatedb y man. 10s

Finally, TheByrds' "Just a Season" combined their rock 'n' roll traveling lifestylewith thatof an old west cowboy. The parallels between the two can be seen in the ways in which the lyricscombined the sexual prowess of a modern rock star, "I'd have my funwith a shy girl, then maybe hop a train," with that of a western gambler, "I'd have my funwith a gambling man and bluffhim with my face/ And it's drinks foreverybody in the place."106 The connections between the freedomenjoyed by the roving gambling men of this mythic AmericanWest was akin to the roving rock group that roseto prominence in the 1960's and was acutely apparent to the men who were caught up in such an existence.

104 Roger McGuinnand , "Lover of the Bayou," "Chestnut Mare," (Untitled), Sony Music Entertainment, Inc., 1970 & 2000. 105 Tompkins, West of Everything,103-4. 106 Roger McGuinn and Jacques Levy, "Just a Season," (Untitled). 54

The Grateful Dead's music and lyrical focuswas attuned to the previously-mentioned bands as they sought to paint heroicportraits of the lower classes as well as glorifyingthe idealized westerncowboy and desperado. The band consciously sought, according to Jason Palm, to "align itself with a steady stream of fictionaland complex drifters"often set in the back drop of the

American West as they facedhardship in their desire to both possess unbridled

107 freedom and sustain themselves. 1970's "Cumberland Blues" recounted the daily strugglesof Depression-era miners. Faced with a thin line between being able to support oneself and being caught in abject povertywas the "fivedollar bill" that a man could make a day at the mine. Unfortunately,the opportunityto make such money was not available to all, so that while one may "Make good money/ Five dollars a day/ Made anymoreI mightmove away," others were

"making nothing at all/ andyou canhear him crying .... " This tenuous survival servedto portraya sympathetic view of the miner's world throughboth the good times and bad, foreven the miner that is doing well forhimself is still looking to move away. Therefore,it was not surprisingtha t "Lotta poor man got the

Cumberland Blues/ ... can't win forlosin' / Lotta poor mangot to walk the line/

8 Just to pay his union dues."10 LyricistRobert Hunter feltit a greatcompliment

when a "grizzled veteran" of the mine asked, "I wonder what the guy who wrote

this song would've thought if he'd ever known that something like the Grateful

107 Jason Palm, "The GratefulDead vs. The American Dream?" Perspectives on the Grateful Dead: Critical Writings, Robert G. Weiner, ed. (Westport,Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999), 150. 10s JerryG arcia, Phil Lesh and Robert Hunter, "Cumberland Blues," Workingman's Dead. 55

109 Dead was gonna do it?" It wasn't a cover ofsomeone else's song, and the fact that the band could write and record a song that immediately struck a former miner as being of another time and place spoke volumes ofthe power the group possessed in tapping into this mythical American past and adding to it their own particular voice and vision. Another Dead song, "Black Peter," sung through the perspective of a dying poor man, decried the factthat "People may know but/The

1 10 people don't care/That a man could be as poor as me. ... "

Perhaps the most interesting GratefulD ead tune that fitin this hero categorywas their take on the legend ofCasey Jones. This legend, taken fromthe real story of a railroad engineer killed in an accident on the Illinois Central

Railroad in 1900, was based more on folkloreand romance than actual events.

Differentincarnations of this song appeared fromdifferent regions ofthe country, as musicians would put their respective spin on the original source material. Each version would focuson differentaspects ofthe tragedy while employing varying slang terminology and placing the action in differentparts of the country. Some versions had Casey dying in Memphis, Tennessee, while others in Canton,

Ohio.111 Contributing furtherto this folk tradition ofremaking a song into one's own, The Grateful Dead's version of"Casey Jones" reconceptualized the railroad folk hero forthe 1960's.

The Dead 's take on the song servedto reimagine this legend into their contemporarysoc iety and in turnmake the story and the character more hip. In

109 Steve Silberman,"Album Notes," Workingman'sDead, I I. 110 Jerry Garcia and RobertHunter, "Black Peter," Workingman'sDead. 111 NormCoh en, Long Steel ail:R TheRailroad in American Folksong, Second Edition (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), 132-157. 56 their version, the heroic CaseyJones was not a tragic figureon a doomed track, but instead he was "Drivingthat train/High on / Casey Jones you'd better watch your speed." Throughthis melding of the newer drugculture, complete with a knowing snortat theopening of thetrack, with the older folktradition, the bandwas drawinga clearconnection betweentheir cultural understandings and landmarksof the.past. 112

On theirAmerican Beautyalbum, TheDead incorporatedthe hero and anti-herom otif into such classics as "Friend of the Devil" and "Truckin'," both of which combined thefreedom of the open roadwith thatof heroicactivity. As the voice of"Friendof the Devil" headed "out fromReno/ ... trailedb y twenty

hounds," the sense that he was a criminalon the run was understood even though

no crime was specificallymentioned. His road lifestyle was also apparentfrom hisconfes sion that he's "Got a wifein Chino, babe/ Andone in Cherokee/ First

one says she's got my child/ But it don't look like me." So not only wasthis man

on the run from the law and involved with two (or more) women, he also had an

intimate relationshipwi ththe devil so thathe can claim any "Friend of the Devil

is a friend of mine." Yet, he is presented as anythingbut a villain, forhe is both

the protagonist and the heroof thesong. Thelistener will wanthim to escape

both the captors and thewome n tryingto tie him done and raise a child thatmight

be his. 113

112 JerryGarci a and Robert Hunter, "Casey Jones," Workingman's Dead. 113 Jerry rcia,Ga JohnDaws on, andRobert Hun ter, "Friend of theDevil," American Beauty. 57

"Truckin,"' as previously mentioned, portrayedthe band in the context of modernday cowboys as they traveled throughout the country dealing with the law, women, and boredom as they continued on their "long, strange trip." "Me &

My Uncle," also previously-mentioned, painted a semi-heroic portrait of the narrator, an unrepentantmurderer characterizedby his unflinchingmasculinity.

Continuing in this manner of idealizing westernmasc uline heroes, members of the band created a side project in the early 1970's that focusedsolely on their fascination. Thatthey chose the name New Riders ofthe Purple Sage served to tie them together with ZaneGrey's classic 1912 westernno vel Riders of the PurpleSag e, offeredth em up as new heroic figuresakin to the cowboys presented in that fictional work.

TheBand's musical output also fitnicely into this genre's phenomenon of painting heroic images of both downtroddenAmericans and wanderingdesperado types. On their debut album, three songs trulyc aptured this sentiment: Bob Dylan and Richard aM nuel's "," "The Weight," andtheir cover of Bob

Dylan's "." "Tears of Rage," the opening track fromtheir

1968 Music From Big Pink album, was sung through the perspective of a pleading parent addressing a child who feltsome sortof disdain and disconnect between the two generations. This song, filledwith "fatiguea nd sorrow"as it recounted a tale of"forgetting, rejection, betrayal, and ... abandonment," ran in opposition to much of the youth-oriented culture of the time, and was certainlyan interesting

114 way to open a debut album. "Tears of Rage" was a powerful,slow song that lamented "Tearsof rage/ Tears of grief/ yWh must I always be the thief," as the

4 11 Marcus, Old, Weird America, 205. 58 parent tried to forma connection with the wayward child: "We carriedyo u in our arms/On Independence Day/ Andyou'd throw us all aside/ And put us on our

"115 T'h . way. Jn .1 i e B an d's moral umverse,. t h e wammg to not trustanyone over thirty certainlydid not apply.

"The Weight" focusedon an unassuming wanderer as he interacted with others traversing the American landscape. Lyricist Robbie Robertson felthe was born"to pack my bag and be on my way down the Mississippi River" and this song spoke of such a transient lifestyle. 116 The sense of ragged beauty in their strugglesto survive and to help out those they met on the road was powerful.

When the song's protagonist was given a dog that its owner could no longer care forand was told to just feed him "whenever he can," the listener gained a deep sense of these people's everyday strugglesfor survival. "I Shall Be Released," on the other hand, was sung fromthe point of view of an unrepentant prisoneras he awaited the day in which he would be freed. While others around him screamed out "cryinghe was framed,"our singer quietly bides his time remembering "every faceof every manwho put me here" so that he could be assured to exact complete · revenge on h.1s enemies. 117 Their second, self-titled album was released in 1969 and contained even more of a focuson American characters presented in heroic fashion,especially in threeson gs: "The NightThey Drove Old Dixie Down," "Jawbone," and "The

UnfaithfulServant." All threeson gs presented members of American society

115 Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel, "Tears of Rage," Music From Big Pink. 116 "TheBan d: TheNew Sound of CountryRock," Time, January 12, 1970, 42. 117 Jaime Robbie Robertson, "The Weight,"Bob Dylan, "I Shall Be Released," Music From Big Pink. 59 who possessed certaindegrees of heroic characteristics that have been deemed praiseworthy; whether it be a Civil Warera farmer, an unrepentant Wild West criminal, or a house servantrecently firedfor an unnamedoffense against the homeowner.

The hero of"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was one Virgil

Kane,who, complete with biblical ramifications,was a poor southernfarmer trying to surviveas the Civil War closed. The song offered up a highly romanticized view of the Old South and helped to perpetuatethe "Lost Cause" mythology surroundingthe Confederate States of America. With allusions to

RobertE. Lee, thefall of Richmond, and the death of his eighteen-year-old brother at the hands of a Yankee farmer, the song painted the picture of a

Confederacyof the imagination. Throughthe eyes of the song's voice, a humble farmerwho adhered to the policy of''take what ya need and ya leave the rest" whendealing with his lifeand livelihood anddidn't mind a ruralexistence of

"choppin' wood" even if''the money's no good," the presentation of the South was that of a populist paradise where common farmerswere starved and killed by

118 the northerna rmy. There is no mention of slavery, Southernpatriarchs, or the plantation lifestyleand mindset that was also a vital part of the South and served as an impetus for going to war. In this song, the Old South took on a mythic quality as a land where romantic heroes like Virgil used to call home. The sense that someone else "drove" theSouth and this idyllic region down is presented in as a tragic event.

118 Jaime Robbie Robertson, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," The Band. 60

"Jawbone" depicted the lifeof a horse thief and bankrobber who, as the chorus stated, was "a thief and I dig it." For this character, " stands just behind the door," and he always seemed eager to open it and jump right in.

As Jawbone driftedin and out of prison,the only thing that trulyupset him was when he saw his "name upon the post office wall,"that puts him "on edge 'cause

9 they wrote it too small."11

Finally, "," centered around a servantwho had been released fromservice due to some unnamed infractionthat had raised the ire of the employer. As the song shiftspoints of view fromthat of the house owner who was satisfiedthat the fired servantwill finally"learn to findyour place" to the servant facingan uncertain future;"Goodbye to that country home,/ So long to a lady I have known." As the servant facedthe futurein which there may not be too many options foremployment, it became clear that the listeners' sympathies

should reside with the lower class as the angryemploy er could easily replace any

120 stolen merchandise or restore any unruly behavior in a matter of days.

The heroes presented in these songs, whether thieves, killers, or simple

working men, servedto create a connection between 1960's era listeners and the

populist mentality of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These

songs served to reassert claims that the real and trueheroes of Americansociety

were those that oftenwere denigrated or ignored by society. They also

profoundly influenced the youth of the 1960's as their '' counterculture

coalesced around such sentiments.

119 Richard Manuel and Jamie Robbie Robertson, "Jawbone," TheBand. 120 Jaime Robbie Robertson, "The Unfaithful Servant," TheBand. CHAPTER3:

Death and Destruction:

Graveyard Trains, Floods, andVisions of theApocalypse

As key components of many early blues and folkso ngs, the themes of deathand destructionnot surprisingly emergedfull fledged in the country rock movement of the late 1960's.121 Rangingfrom personal anguishand pain to employingapocalypti cal imagery, these songs painted picturesof American life as one of tunnoiland struggle. Oftenbiblical imagery was used to great effectto symbolizethis sense of dread andunease surroundingboth this verypersonal and widespread fearof death anddestruction.

Thisimagery appeared from t he verybeginning of Creedence's recording career. The final song offtheir firstLP, "Walkon TheW ater," conveyed a sense of dread as a man walking down by the riverside sees, complete with biblical implications, a man'' walking on thewa ter ...calling out my name." Evoking a spiritual being, perhapse ven the spirit of Jesus Christ himself, the image coming towards our lone wanderer told him "do not be afraid,"but it was no use, as

Fogerty's protagonist was offru nningaway fromhis fatescreaming, "I don't wanna go," and hedging his bets against any rthfu er run-ins with such visions as he "swear[s] I'll never leave my home again." I t begged the question whethera 122 man could truly outrunhis fate.

121 Marcus, Old, Weird America,104-8, 162-4, 202-3, 261-2. Revival. 122 JohnFogerty and Tom Fogerty, ''Walkon The Water," Creedence Clearwater

61 62

"GraveyardTrain," off1969's Bayou Country,recounted a car accident in which a loved one was killed thought lyrics that were largely reminiscent of

Robert Johnson'sblues pastiche. Johnson, one of the earlytwentieth century most famed blues men, had a preoccupation with death being on his trail, and evil portentsthat the crossroads on the outskirtsof town offered. Thesesentiments could be foundin his classic acoustic blues songs such as "Hellhound on My

Trail," and "Crossroad Blues." Fogertydecried the "Hound" as in a Greyhound bus that took his love's lifedown at the "crossroads." What made the song interesting was how Fogerty employed the railroad imageryin an entirely differentcontext; rather than focusingon the freedomit might offer,he emphasized the chance of death and destruction it presented. This song portrayed a man wishing fordeath "standing on the railroad,waiting forthe Graveyard

Train." In this case, the train would bring him the ultimate freedomand lead to a reunion between him and his love. 123

"Tombstone Shadow," "," and "Feeling Blue" are also prime examples of how Fogerty employed these themes of death and destruction throughout Creedence 's music. In "Tombstone Shadow," death seemed to be truly stalking the song's protagonistas "everytimeI get some good news, Ooh/

There's a shadow on my back," and he foundhimself afraidof traveling on that beloved open road and trulyliving lifeto the fullest. "Bad Moon Rising" likewise employed a sense of dread that consumed the individual. This song was noteworthy fortwo key reasons: one, its catchy and pleasant musical structure

123 John Fogerty, "Graveyard Train,"Bayou Country. 63 completely contradicted the nature of its apocalyptic lyrics; two, those lyrics combined to form paranoida vision of the destructive forcesof which nature is capable. Everyperceived danger was presented fromthe firstperson perspective as "I see the bad moon rising/I see trouble on the way./ I see earthquake and lightning/ I see bad times today." In this individual's mind, "the end is coming soon,' because he could "hear the voice of rage and ruin." In one sense this song served to reassertthe awesome powers of death and destructionthat we cannot take out of nature's grasp. On the other hand, it pointed to the utter futilityof constantly worrying about any l?erceiveddeath at nature's hands. Perhaps that was why the music was so catchy, as a sort of black humor hung around the proceedings since who knows what might befallany of us as we "go around tonight." In "Feeling Blue," the like-minded voice could "feelit in my bones, my book is due" and at every treehe spies "over yonder," he feltthere will be "a rope hangin' just forme ." In his mind, "Things are pilin' up to break me down."124

Finally, a quartet of Creedencesongs servedto combine this sense of fear, death, and destructionwith contemporaryevents in such a way that the songs took on adding meaning with an understanding of the currentpolitical climate.

Creedence'saudience would be able to relate with Fogerty's lyricsof uncertainty and dread that characterize his songs "Effigy,"","

"Who'll Stop the Rain," and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" These songs servedto combine such currentp olitical events, especially the , with

124 John Fogerty, "Tombstone Shadow"; "Bad Moon Rising," "Feeling Blue," Green River; Willyand the Poor Boys. 64

such a feelingof sadness and confusionthat were partof the human condition that

they remain both powerfuland significantto this veryday.

"Effigy"combined the American tradition of burningeffigies with a sense

ofimpending unrest. With sly allusions to both President and his

Republican WhiteHouse, Fogerty sang ef"a fireburning on/ The palace lawn"

that will soon spread to "the palace door" as Nixon's famed "Silent majority" of

"non-shouters" and "non-demonstrators""Weren't keepin' quiet/ Anymore." In

Fogerty's apocalyptic vision, this firehad spread to the "country side" so that "In

the mornin'/ Few were leftto watch/ The ashes die." There was a sense of

confusion and unease as throughoutthe song the choruswonders "Whois

burnin'?/Who is burnin'?/E ffigy."125

"Run Through the Jungle," perhaps Fogerty'smost visceral attack on the

Vietnam War, combined both a sense of death and destruction with modern

politics and mixed in a touch of biblical allusion to create a song that sought to, in

the space of a fewminutes, recreate the confusionand devastation of a war zone.

As the song began, a cacophony of sound immediately grabbed the listener's

attention and held it as Fogerty'svoice rose out of the din to moan, "Whoa,

thought it was a nightmare,/Lo, it's all so true"as the realities of Vietnam dawn

on the poor soldier who "Better runthrough the jungle" to survive. In Fogerty's

opinion, the "Devil's on the loose" in Vietnam and the only way fora soldier to

survive is to look out for himself rather than forany cause or military glory. As

the song continued, it seemed to Fogerty that the devil's influenceis on both sides

125 John Fogerty, "Effigy," Willy and the Poor Boys; James L Roark, et al, TheAmerican Promise, 1081.

L___ 65

of the fightnow that the United States armyhad "Two hundred million guns...

loaded," it is "Satan [that] cried,"Take aim!" The last verse served to further

dirty the hands of the United States governmentas it skewered its approach to the

war by comparing it with a position handeddown fromon high: "Over on the

mountain/ Thunder magic spoke/Let the people know my wisdom,/ Fill the land

with smoke," complete with the disconnect between the governmenton high and

the people down in the trenches. In Fogerty'sjudgment the war was indeed a

nightmare come true as even nature, the jungle in this song, was threatening to the

common soldier embroiled in Satan's machinations. 126

In both "Who'll Stop the Rain?" and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

Fogerty posed unanswerablequestions to his audience that appealed to their

sympathies. Rainfallin these two works served as symbolic of the unending

quagmire of the Vietnam War that facedthe United States in the early 1970s.

Therefore, Fogerty'smeditation that "Long as I rememberthe rain been coming

down./ Clouds of myst'rypouring confusionon the ground," serveda symbolic

critique of the war and the continued unnecessarybloodshed. Even a lyrical

retreat to Fogerty's beloved South seeking "shelter fromthe storm,"does not help

as he still wondered, "Who'll stop the rain?" "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

conveyed similar sentiments as Fogertypondered what "Someone told me long

ago," that "There'sa calm beforethe storm." In Fogerty's mind "its been coming

forsome time" as the unending rain of"Who'llStop the Rain" must give way and

"It'll rain a sunny day" as the clouds of Vietnam will part bringing in peace and

sunlight. Unfortunately, Fogerty had yet to witness this and was still actively

126 John Fogerty, "Run 'ThroughThe Jungle," Cosmo's Factory.

L_ 66

seeking anyone who has "ever see the rain/ Coming down on a sunny day?" His

optimism that it will end started to fadeas the song came to a close and he was

forcedto admit it has "Been that way forall my time," and wonder whether it

"can't stop" and will continue this way "'Til forever." The miseryof unending

rainfallvia the nonstop bloodshed of the war was, in Fogerty'spresentation, akin

to the disastrous effectsa natural unending rainfallwould bestow upon

humanity. 127

Much of Bob Dylan'swork focusedon the themes of this chapter, and more than any of the other artistmentioned he seemed willing to employ layer afterlayer of meaning and biblical allusion to his lyrics in order to create song structuresthat tended to reveal themselves aftermultiple listenings. Nowhere was this more apparent than on his John WesleyHarding album, which contemporary rock criticJon Landauviewed as evidence of Dylan's "profoundawareness of the

[Vietnam] war" and how it was affecting Dylan's lyricaloutlook based on "the mood of the album as a whole."128 While that view should not be entirely discounted, John Wesley Harding was more about thetimeless human universal conditions of pain, suffering,love, death, fearthat were and continue to be feltby all Americans,than one specificwar, no matter how divisive or destructive.

The album's opener, the previously-mentioned gunslinger ode "John

Wesley Harding," applauded this westernfol k hero forbeing an avenger, as he traveled around doling out justice to the wicked, while never being known to g tra "hurt an honest man." A type of God on earth,D ylan's Hardin veled with a

You Ever Seen the Rain?" 121 John ogerty,F "Who'l l Stop the Rain?"· '· "Have Cosmo's Factory; Pendulum. 128 Marcus, Old, Weird America,55. 67

"gunin everyhand" and took away those that deserveddeath and spared those that have been honest and righteous.129 Dylan's "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" combined the image of a key religious figure with a sense of dread forthe future as the saint out wanderingthe countryside in "misery" was "searching forthe very souls whom already have been sold." In the wake of such a pathetic image and 0 bleak futurefor humanity, the singer "Bowed my head and cried."13

"All Along the Watchtower'' and "Drifter's Escape" fitcomfortably in this same mold. "All Along the Watchtower," craftedaround an in media res conversation between an unnamedjoker and thief, was a ruminationon modem existence complete with feelings of emptiness and apocalyptic futurewarnings.

The joker especially feltthe weight of a meaningless modem lifeand acknowledged this disconnect throughhis powerfullament:

There must be some way out of here .. ./ There's too much confusion,I can't get no relief/Businessmen they drinkmy wine, Plowmen dig my earth,/None of them along the line knowwhat any of it is worth. As the thief triedto comforthim, he admitted that while ''there are many here among us that feel that lifeis but a joke" a select few,like themselves, "have come through that and this is not our fate." As the song ended, the quiet apocalypticton e shone a bit brighteras "the wind began to howl" and ''two riders were approaching." Dylan quietly set the scene foran apocalyptic showdown where those who were wrapped up in this so-called meaningless modernexistence

129 Bob Dylan, "John Wesley Harding," John Wesley Harding. 130 Bob Dylan, "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," John Wesley Harding. 68 and treat lifeas a joke were set to suffera terriblefate at either the hands ofthe

l3l approaching riders or the howling winds ofa vengefulGod.

The previously-discussed "Drifter'sEscape" set up the poor drifter

suffering, afraidand uncertain ofhis futureas he was completely at the hands of the "cursed jury" as they "cried formore" condemning him. Luckily forhim,

Dylan's vision ofGod acted in the favorof the downtrodden and sends a bolt of

lightning to strike the "courthouse out ofshape" so that while everyone in the jury

and the crowds outside "kneltto pray," the "drifter didescape." Also, another

previously-discussed song, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," concernedwith the

heroicnature ofboth Billy the Kid and his lawfulpursuer s, presented a lawman's

death as almost pitifulas the overt masculinity of a Wild West lawman was lost as

3 he cried out forhis "Mama" as he lay dying. 1 2

Two songs fromDylan's famedbootleg collection, The Basement Tapes,

focusedexclusiv ely on these themes of death and destruction and were suffused

with a sense of"Judgment Day."133 One, "Crash on the Levee (Down in the

Flood)" focused on the devastation ofa small ruralcommunity as the rain does

not cease to fall. The other, "This Wheel's on Fire," writtenwith TheBand's

Rick Danko, dealt more with personal issues and alienation as precursors to

devastation both on a personal scale and in termsoflarger social issues.

"Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)" displayed nature as always

straddling the precarious line between necessitating survival and bringing

131 Bob Dylan, "All Along the Watchtower," John Wesley Harding. 132 Bob Dylan, "Drifter's Escape"; "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," John WesleyHarding; Pat Garrett & Billy het Kid. 133 Marcus, Old, Weird America, 67. 69 unending misery and destructionon humanity. Here, Dylan's nature offeredup to man "the meanest floodthat anybody's ever seen," so that human ties and social positions were rendered meaningless in its wake. It was literally every man for himself in the faceof such personal and societal destruction as Dylan cried it's

"Sugar forsugar, salt forsalt" and "Kingfor king, queen forqueen," and if you go down in the floodto try and save either your land our property, the tragic

4 outcome was "gonna be your fault."13

"This Wheel's On Fire" focusedon the feelingsoflosing control over one's own lifeand the impending dangers that it might entail. As the song meandered along with a decidedly menacing tone, Dylan sang, "Ifyour mem'ry

servesyou well/ We were going to meet again and wait" as his thoughts of a lover

who has spumedhim haunt his mind until he shiftsin a chorusthat warnsof

impending disaster: "This wheel's on fire/Rolling down the road,/Best notifymy

next of kin,/ This wheel shall explode!"135

The Grateful Dead 's name itself evoked these images of death and

destruction. F amously chosen at random fromthe Funk and Wagnell's New

Practical Standard Dictionary fo the EnglishLanguage, the name harkened back

to European folktales that centered on the exploits oft he "ghost[s] of the grateful

dead." These helpfulspirits will assist a charitable living friendor family

1 6 member in a time of need long afterthe y themselves have passed away. 3

4 13 Bob Dylan, "Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)," TheBasement Tapes. 135 Bob Dylan and ,"This Wheel's On Fire,"The Basement Tapes. 136 Joseph Holt, "The Ripple Effect,"Perspectives on the Grateful Dead: Critical Writings, Robert G. Weiner, ed. (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999), 225-6. 70

Therefore, it was not surprisingthat The Grateful Dead 's music from this

periodalso excelled at utilizing these themes. Two pertinent examples offtheir

classic Workingman's Dead album were"Dir e Wolf' and "Casey Jones," both works previously-mentioneddue to their superior quality and ability to

incorporatenearly all of the categories examined. TheDead's "Casey Jones" set up hisdeath as drug-related,thus created a bridge to thepast througha huge in­ joke that a beloved folkhero, who was memorialized andwep t over, was actually

a key forerunner of theyouth-centered drug culture. Nowhere in thisversion

were ladies moaninga nd children weeping. "Dire Wolf's"tale ofinteraction and

murder at thehands of a huge wild animalonce again tied man and his fateto the

laws of nature,no matter how farremoved he tried to become fromits pull. The

factthat his deathwas soon immortalizedin a folksong that''the boys sing round

thefire" also servedas a connectionto thepast, as theband created andkilled off

a characterto tie theircreation to thelong line of tribute andlament folk andblues

songs. 137

Two other Dead songs, "He's Gone" and"Attics Of My Life," also

focused on deathas anexit. In "He's Gone," the unnamedman who haspassed

on was describedas "gone/Like a steamlocomotive/ rolling down the

track .. ./and nothing's gonnabring him back." Oftenplayed live when someone

close to the band had passed away, this song served as both a lovingt ributeto a

departed friend as well as speakingto the pain of still being here as the trainrolled

down thetra ck. "Attics Of My Life"spoke to a more spiritualworld where one its would head aftera life"spent ..• ./ Seekingall that's still unsung" had reached Dead. 131 JerryG arciaand Robert Hunter, "DireWolf," Workingman's 71

ultimateconclusion to a lifewhen ''mylights grow old." Both songs successfully

8 painted death as a touching, naturalrelease fromliving. 13

Thelast two bands to be discussed, however, did not utilize these allusions

to deathand destructionas oftenor to as greatan effect. However, when these

two bandsdid choose to include songs focusedon death and destructionthey were

oftencovers of songs by artiststhey respected and enjoyed. In the processthey

legitimized theirconnections to the material andthe artiststhat originally

performedthem, placin g themselves firmlyin concertwith the long line of

Americanpopular culturethat focused on such matters.

TheByrds' covers of such songs as MerleHaggard's "Life in Prison,"

Woody Guthrie's"Pretty Boy Floyd," and"Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los

Gatos)," LittleFeat's "TruckStop Girl,"and Bob Dylan and Rick Danko's ''This

Wheel'son Fire," all tied theband into thismotif. Whetherit be by glorifyinga

enterprisinggunslinger, lamenting the death of poor and unnamedmigrant

workers, depicting a repentant murderer who "prays everynight for death to

come" afterkilling his wife, weeping over the automobile death of a beloved girl,

or warning of impending personaldread anddevastation, these coversall fitinto

this overarchinghuman condition to be bothfearful and fascinated with the

prospectsof impending death anddestruction. Andpeppered through their

albums that lionized nature,the open road, their idealized heroes, such songs

servedto create a more fullyrealized picture of Americanexistence.

138 Jerry Garcia and RobertHunter, "He's Gone"; "Attics of My Life,"Europe '72; AmericanBeauty; David Dodd, "TheAnnotated "He's Gone," TheAnnotated Grate.fa!Dead Lyrics. Found at: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/gone.html,June 8, 2005.

I - 72

TheBand's coversevoked similar responses. Whetherit was recording the Basement Tapes favorite"This Wheel'sOn Fire" or their own version of

LeftyFrizzell's 1959 countryhit "," a song termed an "instant folksong" by one of its co-, the group's focuson death and destruction was on a much more basic and personal level. The main characters of both songs dealt with their own issues, whether it be an impending sense of self-dread, or silently heading to the gallows to preserve the happiness and dignity of your alibi,

9 "your best friend'swife." 13 Like most greatBand songs, these songs brought to the forefront of the listener's imagination how it must be to live and deal with these situations, and helped to create both another place and time as the soothing music and images of a song that "feel[s]too old to date" detailed a sorrow-filled woman walking among the hills and visiting her lover's grave in her "Long Black

140 Veil" swirled around their minds.

Death and destruction as musical themes were key partsof rural folkand blues and were utilized to display ties to both the natural and supernaturalworld to listeners. Therefore, boththe natural and spiritualforeboding of much of the music of this genre sought to tie into the authenticity of folkand blues culture and reemphasize thet ies between all human beings as they facelife and death. These songs arrived at the tail-end of the "sex, drugsand rock 'n' roll"m ovement and, amidst natio nal turbulence, death, destruction,and rampant dangerous drugusage,

139 Danny Dill and , "L ong Black Veil," Music FromBig Pink. 140 Marcus, Old, Weird America, 175-6. 73 they paved the way forthe more introspective music that achieved its highest level of commercial popularity in the early to mid 1970s. 141

141 Braunstein, ed., Imagine Nation, 305-7. Conclusion: "Come Join Uncle John's Band,"

as Roots Rock Legacy Continues

These songs, fromthe clash and bang of Creedence 's "Run 1broughThe

Jungle," to the somber apocalypticwarnings of Bob Dylan's "All Along the

Watchtower," servedto fitin withother works of Americanpopular culturethat

soughtconnections to our mythicpast. These songsnot only spoke to the past,

but they critiquedthe present and looked eitherlongingly or hesitantly towards

the future. As cultural artifactstied in withboth musical formsand literary

symbolismfrom the past, as present day critiques of politics and society, and as

warningsto futuregenerations, they presented troveof ideas to be

explored by thelistener if theywished to delve deepenough. The leap fromthe

populist sentiments of thelate nineteenth centuryand thesentiments foundin

thesesongs allformed part of a musicaland historical movement through which

lower and working class culturesought acceptance and ultimately glorificationas

typifiedby Richard Slotkin's discussion of populist culturalartifacts of the

nineteenth and twentiethcenturies. 142

The legacy of this musical movementran deep in ¾nericanpopular

cultureas thismore strippeddown approachto popularmusic led the way forthe

more confessional, acoustic-based,singer-songwriter balladry thatrose to

prominenceas the 1970's wornon. Artistssuch as James Taylor, and Arlo

Guthrie, the son of Woody, would continue to explore anddelve deeperinto this

new, yet familiar, areaof folksyrock and roll, all the whilewearing their

142 Slotkin, GunfighterNation, 281-3.

74

L__ 75 influences on their sleeves. It was not uncommon forArlo to include both covers of worksby his fatherand Bob Dylan on his albums as a way of marryingthe past with the present and tying himself into the legendary musical status of both artists.

Concurrently,many English bands began to seek a returnto their roots, so to speak, as they turnedawa y frompsychedelic musical pastures formore stripped down arrangementsthat had deeper historicalmeanings and symbolism.

TheBeatles and RollingStones re-emphasized their connection to American blues, early rock 'n' roll, and folkarrangement through their work of this period in songs such as "Rocky Raccoon," "Get Back," "Wild Horses," "Salt of the

Earth," and "Brown Sugar." These songs fitcomfortably in the genre described

throughoutthis thesis and were exceedingly popular when firstreleased and

remain so today. Other British groups also went forwardin their musical careers

by looking backwards, as Traffic'sJohn BarleycornMust Die album, built around

a century'sold folktune focusingon harvesting grain,was both a critical and

commercial success, and the folkgroup sought to bringold

Britishfolk songs to the masses by combining them on their albums with covers

and new arrangementsof Bob Dylan songs.

This search forauthenticity in culturewas nothing new, and the muse of

these artistswas to create, throughtheir music, an idyllic picture of American life

that was rural and communal in nature. Not surprisinglysome of the biggest fans

of this genrefell in line with this presentation of idealized Americanlife, although

not always with the best results. And while the images and opinions presented in

these songs were simplificationsand distillations of American past society, 76 whether it be taking the African American voice and experience out of the occasion, presenting characters not quite praiseworthy as heroic,or relegating women to a second class status where they were presented as antithetical to a life of freedom, they were immensely popular and powerfulin craftingan alternate vision of what American society could be. Now when currentacts sing of escaping on horseback, or robbing trains, they are singing as much about the movement and feelingpresented in the 1960's as in the 1860's. The timelessness of the music added to the authenticity of the images presented and discussed as the listener wanted to believe there was a time and a place foran American Robin

Hood that wandered the West doing good deeds as they dealt with their modem existence. These songs served to illuminate and alleviate the alienation of the

"crisisin the status of knowledge" and understanding of the postmodernWestern world; perhaps that is why they are still so powerful. 143

Nor is the spiritof this musical genre dead even some fortyyears later.

Alternativecountry groups, more criticaldarlings andcult artists than the popular music icons of the 1960's, still mine this well of American nature, landscape, and cowboys as inspiration. Even rapartists are part of the legacy of this musical evolution fromthe fields to the stereo, as their focuson urban panoramas and vigilante justice as romantic ideals of modem masculinity fallin line with populist attempts to glorifyth e lowest social levels of the Americansocial hierarchy. The tone and execution is very different, but the spirit is very much the same.

43 1 John Storey, Cultural Theoryand PopularCulture: An Introduction, ThirdEdition (New York: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2001), 150. 77

Many of the artists mentioned have gone on to have long careers of popular approval highs and lows, but most have kept the spirit oftheir country and roots rock alive while adding various other authentic musical forms, from reggae to African, into their work. A great example of the staying power ofthese musical forms and ideas was Bob Dylan's album "Love and Theft," released nearly fortyyears into his musical career. Not coincidentally this album shared the same title as scholar Eric Lott's study ofblackface minstrelsy, which was discussed in this thesis as a key musical touchstone forwhite artists as they sought to recreate the authentic aspects ofblack culture and music. A critical and popular hit, the album careened throughout American history fromrock, country, , , and hard hitting blues, all the while incorporating lyrics that focusedon American characters and landscapes much in the same jaded and skewed vision as foundon his Basement Tapes. Death, loneliness, apocalyptic floods, poor beggars, and unease abounded on this album as Dylan seemed to once again wander the countryside and depict an America that is at once timely and timeless, beautifuland desolate.

th It was released on September 11 , 2001.

.JI BIBLIOGRAPHY

LYRICS

Lyrics forthe songs discussed throughout the paper were found, when not based

on the author's interpretations, at thefollowing websites:

http://theband.hiof.no

www.bobdylan.com

http://www.creedence-online.net http://arts.uscs.edu/gdead/agdl/

ALBUMS

The Band • Music From Big Pink (1968) • TheBand (1969) • StageFright (1 970)

TheByrds • Sweetheartof the Rodeo(1968) • Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde(1969) • TheBallad ofEasy Rider (1969) • (Untitled) (1970)

Creedence ClearwaterRevival: • Creedence ClearwaterRev ival (1968) • Bayou Country(1969) • Green River (1969) • Willy and the Poor Boys (1969) • Cosmo'sFactory (1970) • Pendulum (1970)

Bob Dylan: • John WesleyHa rding (1967) • NashvilleSkyline (1969) • SelfPortrait (1970)

78 79

• New Morning(1970) • Pat Garret & Billy the Kid (1973) • TheBasement Tapes (1975) w/ The Band • The Bootleg Series: Volumes 1-3 (1991)

The Grateful Dead • Workingman's Dead (1970) • American Beauty(1970) • Grateful Dead (live) (1971) • Europe '72 (live) (1972)

SONGS

Beddoe, A.F. "Copper Kettle (The Pale Moonlight)."

Dill, Danny,and Marijohn Wilkin. "Long Black Veil."

Dylan, Bob. "All Along the Watchtower," "Billy," "Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)," "Down Along the Cove," "Drifter's Escape," "Girl From the North Country," "Goin' To Acapulco," "I Am a Lonesome Hobo," "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," "If Dogs Run Free," "I Pity the Poor Immigrant," "I Shall Be Released," "John Wesley Harding," "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," "Lay Lady Lay," "Lo and Behold!," "Sign on the Window," "Tiny Montgomery,"''Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," "Yea! Heavyand a Bottle of Bread," and "You Ain't Going Nowhere."

--·, and Rick Danko. "This Wheel'son Fire." __.., and Richard Manuel. "Tears of Rage."

Fogerty, John. "Bad Moon Rising," "Bornon the Bayou," "Cross-Tie Walker," "Don't Look Now (It Ain't You or Me)," "," "Effigy," "Feeling Blue," "Fortunate Son," "Gloomy," "Graveyard Train," "Green River," "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?," "Lodi," "Long As I Can See the Light," "Looking Out My Back Door," "Penthouse Pauper," "Porterville," "Proud Mary," "Ramble Tamble," "Run Through the Jungle," "Sailor's Lament," ''Travelin' Band," "TheWorking Man," "Tombstone Shadow," "Up Around the Bend," and "Who'llStop the Rain?"

___,. and Tom Fogerty. "Walk on The Water."

Garcia,Jerry and Robert Hunter. "Attics of My Life,""Black Peter," "Brown-Eyed Woman," "Brokedown Palace," "Casey Jones," "Dire Wolf," "Easy Wind," "He's Gone," "Rambleon Rose," "Ripple," and "Uncle John's Band." 80

____,, JohnDawson, andRobert Hunter. "Friend of the Devil."

-� Phil Lesh, andRobert Hunter. "CumberlandBlues."

-� Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, andRobert Hunter. "Truckin' ."

Guthrie, Woody. "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)," and"Pr etty Boy Floyd."

Hart, L, andR. Rodgers. "Blue Moon.�•

Kristofferson, Kris. "Me & Bobby McGee."

Ledbetter, Ruddie. "CottonFields."

Manuel, Richard. "We CanTalk. "

_ _,and Jaime Robbie Robertson. "Jawbone," "WhenYou Awake,"and "WhisperingPines."

McGuinn, Roger. "The Ballad of Easy Rider."

__., andJacques Levy. "Chestnut Mare,""Just a Season," and "Lover of the Bayou."

_ _,and GramParsons. "Drug Store TruckDrivin' Man."

Parson, Gram. "HickoryWind."

Phillips, John. "Me & My Uncle."

Polland, Pamela. "Tulsa County."

Robertson, Jaime Robbie. "AcrossThe Great Divide," "CaledoniaMission," "KingHarvest (Has Surely Come),'' "Rockin' Chair," "TheNight They Drove Old Dixie Down," "TheUnfaithful Servant," "The Weight," " Time to Kill,"and "Up on CrippleCreek."

Traditional. Arr. byBob Dylan. "ManyThousand Gone."

Traditional. Arr. by GratefulDead. "Goin' Downthe Road Feeling Bad," and "I KnowYou Rider."

Traditional. Arr. by Roger McGuinn. "Jack Tarrthe Sailor."

Traditional. Arr. by RogerMcGuinn and Chris Hillman. "I Am aPilgrim. " 81

Weir, Bob and RobertHunter. "Sugar Magnolia."

York, John. "Fido."

WEBSITES

"JohnWesley Hardin." Found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ John_Wesley_Hardin.

Dodd, David. The AnnotatedGrateful Dead Lyrics. Found at: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/.

ALBUM NOTES

Bowman, Rob. "Album Notes." Music From Big Pink, Capitol Records Inc., 1968 & 2000, 11-4.

Christgau, Robert, "Cosmo's FactoryAlbum Notes." Creedence Clearwater Revival Box Set, 2001 Fantasy Inc., 63.

Fong-Torres, Ben. "Creedence ClearwaterRevival: An American Band." Creedence Clearwater Revival Box Set, 2001 Fantasy Inc., 8.

Rogan, Johnny. "Song Notes." Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde. Sony Music Entertainment Inc., 1997, 8. --. . "Song Notes." Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Sony Music Entertainment Inc., 1997, 8.

__ . "Song Notes." TheBallad ofEasy Rider. Sony Music Entertainment Inc., 1997, 7, 8.

Selvin, Joel. "Bayou CountryAlbum Notes." Creedence ClearwaterRevival Box Set. 2001 Fantasy Inc., 52, 54.

Silberman, Steve. "Album Notes." Workingman's Dead. WarnerBros. Records Inc., 1970 & 2001, 4, 11.

Ward, Ed. "Willy and the Poorboys Album Notes." Creedence ClearwaterRevival Box Set. 2001 Fantasy Inc., 61.

L___ _ 82

ARTICLES

"Dylan View on The Big Boo." MelodyMaker. June 4, 1966, 13. Uncut Magazine: Legends #1: Dylan, Volume 1 Issue 1, 28.

"The Band: The New Sound of Country Rock." Time,January 12, 1970.

Shank,Barry. "'That Wild Mercury Sound": Bob Dylan and the Illusion of American Culture." boundary 2.29.1, 2002, 98, 106-8

Zwerling, Andy. "Album Review GratefulDead American Beauty." Rolling Stone 73. Found at: http://rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/10904/.

SECONDARY WORKS

Braunstein, Peter, and Michael William Doyle, eds. Imagine Nation: The American Countercultureof the 1960s & '70s. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Cohen, Norm. Long Steel Rail: TheRailroad in American Folksong. Second Edition. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000.

Dylan, Bob. Chronicles: Volume One. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

Farber, David andBeth Bailey. The Columbia Guide to America in the 1960s. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Franklin, H. Bruce. Vietnam and Other American Fantasies. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000.

Hajdu, David. Positively Fourth Street: The Lives and Times ofJoan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi BaezFarina, and Richard Farina. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001.

Hedin, Benjamin, ed. Studio A: TheBob Dylan Reader. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2004.

Hine, Darlene Clark, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. AfricanAmericans: A ConciseHistory. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2004.

Lipsitz, George. Time Passages: CollectiveMemo,y and American Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990. 83

Lott, Eric. "Love & Theft": BlaclifaceMinstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1993.

Marcus, Greil. Mystery Train: Images ofAmerica in Rock 'n 'Roll Music. New York: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1975 and 1982.

___ . The Old, Weird America: The World ofBob Dylan's Basement Tapes. New York: Picador, 1997.

Roark, James L., Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, and Susan M. Hartmann. TheAmerican Promise: A Historyof the United States. Second Edition. Vol. II ofll. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.

Rorabaugh,W. J. Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Shelton, Robert. No Direction Home: The Lifeand Music of Bob Dylan. New York: Beech Tree Books, 1986.

Slotkin, Richard. GunfighterNation: TheMyth of the Frontier in Twentieth­ CenturyAmerica. Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1992.

Storey, John. Cultural Theoryand Popular Culture: An Introduction. Third Edition. New York: Pearson/PrenticeHall, 2001.

Tompkins, Jane. West ofEverything: TheI nner Lifeof Westerns. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Weiner, RobertG ., ed. Perspectives on the Grateful Dead: Critical Writings. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999. 84

CHRISTOPHER LEE WITTE Vita

Education: 2004: The College of New Jersey: History, Classical Studies Minor.

Senior's Honor Thesis: "'Intending to Take All We Have': Confederate Agricultural Policy Duringthe Civil War."

Awards: New Jersey Edward J. Blaustein DistinguishedScholar Award Winner Golden Key Honor Society Member Phi Beta Kappa Honors Historical FraternityMember Graduated Cum Laude