American Academy of Political and Social Science

"The Times They Are A-Changin'": The Music of Protest Author(s): Robert A. Rosenstone Source: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 382, Protest in the Sixties (Mar., 1969), pp. 131-144 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1037121 . Accessed: 22/09/2011 16:18

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http://www.jstor.org "The Times They Are A-Changin"' The Music of Protest*

By ROBERTA. ROSENSTONE

ABSTRACT: Once a medium of vapid love lyrics, popular music in the 1960's has taken on a new seriousness. In the words of popular songs, young musicians have begun to express their alienation from and disdain for American institutions and mores. Part of this has taken the form of traditional attacks on war and intolerance. More significant, however, have been criticisms of the quality of life in an affluentsociety. In their music, youth have worried about such things as the impact of technology on man, the confused state of American sexual practices, and the repressive nature of supposedly democratic institutions. Affirming a strong faith in the freedom of the individual, song writers have turned their backs on pragmatic reality and have sought freedom in a transcendentalexploration of man's internal reality. Part of this has been done with "mind-expandingdrugs," and many songs have urged listeners on to the use of hallucinogens. For youth, music has come to serve the function of helping to define and codify the standards of their own subculture. And it has also put them in touch with more serious critiques of Americanlife made by the intel- lectual community.

Robert A. Rosenstone, Ph.D., Pasadena, California, is Associate Professor of History at the California Institute of Technology. He has written articles on both the Radical Right and the Radical Left for such publications as the Journal of American History, Engineering and Science and the South Atlantic Quarterly. Dr. Rosenstone has also edited a volume entitled Protest from the Right (1968). He is author of a forthcoming study of the Lincoln Battalion, the Americans who fought in the Spanish Civil War. * The author would like to thank his student and assistant Michael Henery for his research help on this paper, and even more for his aid in bridging the generation gap. 131 132 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

AT the beginning of the 1960's, no- Rock 'n Roll to its ultimate absurdity." body took popular music very seri- Three years later the Saturday Review ously. Adults only knew that rock n' roll, solemnly discussed a new Beatles record which had flooded the airwaves in the as a "highly ironic declaration of disaf- 1950's, had a strong beat and was fection" with modern society, while in terribly loud; it was generally believed 1968 Life devoted a whole, laudatory that teen-agers alone had thick enough section to "The New Rock," calling it eardrums,or insensitive enough souls, to music "that challenges the joys and ills enjoy it. Certainly, no critics thought of the . . . world." 2 Even in the intel- of a popular star like the writhing Elvis lectual community, popular music has Presley as being in any way a serious found warm friends. Such sober jour- artist. Such a teen-age idol was simply nals as The Listener, Columbia Univer- considered a manifestation of a sub- sity Forum, New American Review, and culture that the young happily and Commentary have sympathetically sur- inevitably outgrew-and, any parent veyed aspects of the "pop" scene, while would have added, the sooner the better. in The New York Review of Books-a Today, the view of popular music has kind of house organ for American drastically changed. Some parents may academia-composer Ned Rorem has still wonder about the "noise" that their declared that, at their best, the Beatles children listen to, but important seg- "compare with those composers from ments of American society have come to great eras of song: Monteverdi, Schu- recognize popular musicians as real mann, Poulenc."3 artists saying serious things.1 An indi- The reasons for such changes in atti- cation of this change can be seen in tude are not difficult to find: there is magazine attitudes. In 1964, the no doubt that popular music has become Saturday Evening Post derided the more complex, and at the same time Beatles-recognized giants of modern more serious, than it ever was before. popular music-as "corny," and Re- Musically, it has broken down some of porter claimed: "They have debased the old forms in which it was for a long time straight-jacketed. With a wide- 1 The definition of "popular music" being music has used in this article is a broad one. It en- ranging eclecticism, popular compasses a multitude of styles, including folk, 2Saturday Evening Post, Vol. 237, March folk-rock, acid-rock, hard-rock, and blues, to 21, 1964, p. 30; Reporter, Vol. 30, Feb. 27, give just a few names being used in the musi- 1964, p. 18; Saturday Review, Vol. 50, August cal world today. It does so because the old 19, 1967, p. 18; Life, Vol. 64, June 28, 1968, p. musical classifications have been totally 51. smashed and the forms now overlap in a way 3 "The Music of the Beatles," New York that makes meaningful distinction between Review of Books, Jan. 15, 1968, pp. 23-27. them impossible. Though not every group or See also "The New Music," The Listener, song referred to will have been popular in Vol. 78, August 3, 1967, pp. 129-130; Columbia the sense of selling a million records, all of University Forum (Fall 1967), pp. 16-22; them are part of a broad, variegated scene New American Review, Vol. 1 (April 1968), termed "pop." Some of the groups, like Buf- pp. 118-139; Ellen Willis, "The Sound of Bob falo Springfield, Strawberry Alarm Clock, or Dylan," Commentary, Vol. 44 (November the Byrds, have sold millions of records. Oth- 1967), pp. 71-80. Many of these articles deal ers, like the Fugs or Mothers of Invention, with English as well as American popular have never had a real hit, though they are groups, and, in fact, the music of the two played on radio stations allied to the "under- countries cannot, in any meaningful sense, be ground." Still, such groups do sell respectable separated. This article will only survey Amer- numbers of records and do perform regularly ican musical groups, though a look at English at teen-age concerts, and thus must be consid- music would reveal the prevalence of most of ered part of the "pop" scene. the themes explored here. THE MUSIC OF PROTEST 133 adapted to itself a bewildering variety folk songs were often serious, they were of musical traditions and instruments, hardly contemporary. Popular were from the classic Indian sitar to the most numbers about organizing unions, which recent electronic synthesizers favored by might date from the 1930's or the late composersof "serious"concert music. nineteenth century, or about the trials As the music has been revolutionized, of escaping Negro slaves, or celebrating so has the subject matter of the songs. the cause of the defeated Republicans In preceding decades, popular music was in the Spanish Civil War. Occasionally, almost exclusively about love, and, in there was something like "Talking A- the words of poet Thomas Gunn, "a Bomb Blues," but this was the rare very limited kind [of love], constituting exception rather than the rule." a sort of fag-end of the Petrarchan A change of focus came when per- tradition." The stories told in song formers began to write their own songs, were largely about lovers yearning for rather than relying on the traditional one another in some vaguely unreal folk repertoire. Chief among them, and world where nobody ever seemed to destined to become the best known, was work or get married. All this changed Bob Dylan. Consciously modeling him- in the 1960's. Suddenly, popular music self on that wandering minstrel of the began to deal with civil rights demon- 1930's, Woody Guthrie, Dylan began by strations and drug experiences, with writing songs that often had little to do interracial dating and war and explicit with the contemporary environment. sexual encounters, with, in short, the Rather, his early ballads like "Masters real world in which people live. For of War" echoed the leftist concerns and perhaps the first time, popular songs rhetoric of an earlier era. Yet, simul- became relevant to the lives of the teen- taneously, Dylan was beginning to write age audience that largely constitutes the songs like "Blowin' In the Wind," "A record-buying public. The success of Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," and "The some of these works prompted others to Times They Are A-Changin'," which be written, and the second half of the dealt with civil rights, nuclear war, and decade saw a full efflorescenceof such the changing world of youth that par- topical songs, written by young people ents and educators were not prepared to for their peers. It is these works which understand. Acclaimed as the best of should be grouped under the label of protest-song-writers, Dylan in mid- "protest" songs of the 1960's, for, taken decade shifted gears, and in the song together, they provide a wide-ranging "My Back Pages," he denounced his critique of American life. Listening to former moral fervor. In an ironic them, one can get a full-blown picture chorus claiming that he was much of the antipathy that the young song younger than he had been, Dylan writers have toward many American specifically made social problems the institutions. worry of sober, serious, older men; pre- Serious concerns entered popular sumably, youths had more important music early in the 1960's, when a great things than injustice to think about. revival of folk singing spread out from After that, any social comment by college campuses, engulfed the mass Dylan came encapsulated in a series of media, and created a wave of new "pop" surrealistic images; for the most part, stars, the best known of whom was Joan he escaped into worlds of aestheticism, Baez. Yet, though the concerns of these 5 Time, Vol. 80 Nov. 23, 1962, pp. 54-60, "The New Music," loc. cit., p. 129. gives a brief survey of the folk revival, 134 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

psychedelic drugs, and personal love have not been blind to his plight. But, relationships. Apparently attempting to egalitarian as they are, the white musi- come to grips in art with his own per- cians have not been able to describe the sonality, Dylan was content to forget reality of the black man's situation.8 about the problems of other men." Rather, they have chronicled Northern The development of Dylan is impor- liberal attitudes towards the problem. tant not only because he is the leading Thus, composer-performer Phil Ochs song writer, but also because it parallels penned works criticizing Southern atti- the concerns of popular music in the tudes towards Negroes, and containing 1960's. Starting out with traditionallib- stock portraits of corrupt politicians, eral positions on war, discrimination, law officials, and churchmen trembling segregation, and exploitation, song writ- before the Ku Klux Klan, while Paul ers of the decade turned increasingly to Simon wrote a lament for a freedom descriptions of the private worlds of rider killed by an angry Southern drugs, sexual experience, and personal mob.9 Similarly white-oriented was freedom. Though social concerns have Janis Ian's very popular "Society's never entirely faded, the private realm Child," concerned with the problem of has been increasingly seen as the only interracial dating. Here a white girl one in which people can lead meaningful capitulates to society's bigotry and lives. Now, at the end of the decade, the breaks off a relationship with a Negro realms of social protest and private in- boy with the vague hope, "When we're dulgence exist side by side in the popu- older things may change/But for now lar music, with the latter perceived as this is the way they must remain."10 the only viable alternative to the world Increasingly central to white-Negro described in the former songs.' relationships have been the ghetto and urban riots, and a taste of this entered THE NEGRO IN SONG the popular music. Phil Ochs, always on top of current events, produced "In In turning to the protest songs of the the Heat of the Summer" shortly after 1960's, one finds many of the tradi- the first major riot in Harlem in 1964. tional characters and concerns of such Partially sympathetic to the ghetto- music missing. Gone are exploited, im- dwellers' actions, he still misjudged their labor poverished people, leaders, "finks," 8 This article is concerned almost exclusively and company spies. This seems natural with music written and performed by white in the affluent 1960's, with youths from musicians. While popular music by Negroes middle-class backgroundswriting songs. does contain social criticism, the current Of there has been one increas- forms-loosely termed "soul music"-make course, comments about oppression similar to those ingly visible victim of exploitation in this which Negroes have always made. The real decade, the Negro; and the songsters change in content has come largely in white music in the 1960's. 6 Wills, op. cit., gives a good analysis of 9 Phil Ochs, "Talking Birmingham Jam" and his work. Though he is very quotable, there "Here's to the State of Mississippi," I Ain't will, unfortunately, be no quotations from Marching Any More (Elektra, 7237); Simon Dylan in this article because the author cannot and Garfunkel, "He Was My Brother," afford the enormous fees required by Dylan's Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. (Columbia, CS publisher for even the briefest of quotations. 9049). (Songs from records will be noted by 7 It must be pointed out that, in spite of the performer, song title in quotation marks, and large amount of social criticism, most songs album title in italics, followed by record today are still about love, even those by company and number in parentheses.) groups such as Country Joe and the Fish, best 10 Copyright 1966 by Dialogue Music, Inc. known for their social satire. Used by permission. THE MUSIC OF PROTEST 135

attitudes by ascribing to them feelings view." 14 It is true that the death of of shame-rather than satisfaction-in President Kennedy inspired more than the aftermath of the destruction.' A one song, but these were tributes to a later attempt, by Country Joe and the martyr, not a politician.'5 If Kennedy Fish, to describe Harlem ironically as in death could inspire music, Lyndon a colorful vacation spot, verged on Johnson in life has seemed incapable of patronizing blacks, even while it poked inspiring anything, except perhaps con- fun at white stereotypes. Only the tempt. In a portrait of him, Country closing lines, "But if you can't go to Joe and the Fish pictured the, then, Harlem . . ./Maybe you'll be lucky President as flying through the sky like and Harlem will come to you," followed Superman ("It's a bird, it's a plane, by sounds of explosion, thrust home it's a man insane/It's my President what indifference to the ghetto is doing L. B. J."). Then they fantasized a to America.12 The most successful song Western setting: depicting the situation of the Negro was Come out Lyndon with your hands held "Trouble Coming Everyday," written by high during the Watts uprising Drop your guns, baby, and reach for the in 1965. Though the song does not go sky I've got you surroundedand you ain't got so far as to approve of rioting, it paints a chance a brutal picture of exploitation by mer- Send you back to Texas, make you work chants, bad schooling, miserablehousing, on your ranch.16 and police brutality-all of which affect One traditional area, antiwar protest, ghetto-dwellers. Its most significant does figure significantly in the music of lines are Zappa's cry, "You know some- the 1960's. With America'sinvolvement thing people, I ain't black, but there's in Vietnam and mounting draft-calls, a whole lots of times I wish I could say this seems natural enough. Unlike many I'm not white." No song writer showed songs of this genre, however, the current with the black more empathy struggle ones rarely assess the causes of war, for liberation than that.'3 but dwell almost exclusively with the effect which war has on the individual. POLITICIANS Thus, both Love and the Byrds sing about what nuclear war does to children, While the downtrodden are heroes of while the Peanut Butter Conspiracypic- traditional the vil- many protest songs, tures the effect of nuclear testing on often lains are politicians. Yet, politics everyone: "Firecracker sky filled with enters the of the 1960's. rarely songs roots of fusion ... /We're so far ahead an unreconstructedvoice from the Ochs, we're losing." 17 Most popular of the in 1930's, depicts vacillating politicians Alarm "Incense and some and mentions cor- 14Strawberry Clock, works, Dylan Peppermints," written by John Carter and rupt ones early in the decade. But the Tim Gilbert, Strawberry Alarm Clock (Uni., typical attitude is to ignore politics, or, 73014). Copyright by Claridge Music, Inc. 15 perhaps, to describe it in passing as "A Phil Ochs, "That Was the President," "I Ain't the "He yardstick for lunatics, one point of Marching Any More; Byrds, Was A Friend of Mine," Turn! Turn! (Co- 11 Ochs, I Ain't Marching Any More. lumbia, CS 9254). 12 "The Harlem Song," Together (Vanguard, 16 "Superbird," Electric Music for the Mind VSD 79277). Copyright by Joyful Wisdom and Body (Vanguard, 79244). Copyright by Music, Inc. Tradition Music Company. 13 Mothers of Invention, Freak Out (Verve, 17 Love, "Mushroom Clouds," Love (Elektra, 65005). Copyright 1968 by Frank Zappa EKL 4001); the Byrds, "I Come and Stand Music, Inc. All rights reserved. at Every Door," Fifth Dimensior (Columbia, 136 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

antiwar songs was P. F. Sloan's "Eve to make music out of the horrors of of Destruction," which, for a time in war, and a kind of black humor is a 1965, was the best-selling record in the common response. In a rollicking num- country (and which was banned by some ber, the Fugs, with irony, worry that patriotic radio-station directors). The people may come to "love the Russians" title obviously gives the author's view and scream out a method often advo- of the world situation; the content deals cated for avoiding this: "Kill, kill, kill mostly with its relationship to young for peace."23 And one of Country Joe's men like himself: "You don't believe most popular numbers contains the fol- in war, but what's that gun you're lowing: totin'?" 18 There are alternatives to Well come on generalslet's move fast carrying a gun, and defiance of the draft Your big chancehas come at last enters some songs, subtly in Buffy St. We gotta go out and get those reds Marie's "Universal Soldier" and stri- The only good Commieis one that's dead And know that can be won dently in Ochs' "I Ain't Marching Any you peace only When we blow 'em all to kingdomcome.24 More." 1 Perhaps more realistic in its reflection of youthful moods is the The injustice and absurdity of Amer- Byrds' "Draft Morning," a haunting ica's Asian ventures, perceived by the portrait of a young man reluctantly song writers, does not surprise them, for leaving a warm bed to take up arms and they feel that life at home is much the kill "unknown faces." It ends with the same. The songs of the 1960's show the poignant and unanswerable question, United States as a repressive society, "Why should it happen?"20 where people who deviate from the norm If many songs criticize war in general, are forced into conformity-sometimes some have referred to Vietnam in par- at gunpoint; where those who do fit in ticular. The Fugs give gory details of lead empty, frustrated lives; and where death and destruction being wreaked on meaningful human experience is ignored the North by American bombers, which in a search for artificial pleasures. Such unleash napalm "rotisseries" upon the a picture is hardly attractive, and one world.21 In a similar song, Country might argue that it is not fair. But Joe and the Fish describe children cry- it is so pervasive in popular music ing helplessly beneath the bombs, and that it must be examined at some length. then comment ironically, "Super heroes Indeed, it is the most important part of fill the skies, tally sheets in hand/Yes, the protest music of the decade. Here keeping score in times of war takes a are criticisms, not of exploitation, but superman."22 No doubt, it is difficult of the quality of life in an affluent soci- not of Peanut Butter "Won- ety: only physical oppression, CS 9349); Conspiracy, the far more subtle mental derment," written by John Merrill, Great but also of Conspiracy (Columbia, CS 9590). Copyright oppression that a mass society can by 4-Star Music Company, Inc. produce. 18 Copyright 1965 by Trousdale Music Pub- lishers, Inc. YOUTH AS VICTIM 19 Buffy St. Marie, "Universal Soldier," Southern Publishing, ASCAP; Ochs, I Ain't Throughout the decade, young people Marching Any More. have often been at odds with estab- 20 The Notorious Byrd Brothers (Columbia, lished authority, and, repeatedly, songs CS 9575). 21 "War Song," Tenderness Junction (Re- 23 "Kill for Peace," The Fugs (Esp. 1028). 24 prise, S 6280). "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die," I Feel 22 "An Untitled Protest," Together. Copy- Like I'm Fixin' to Die (Vanguard, 9266). right by Joyful Wisdom Music. Copyright by Tradition Music Company. THE MUSIC OF PROTEST 137 picture youth in the role of victim. that youngsters have felt, they do not Sometimes the victimization is mental, ignore the problemsthat all humans face as when com- in a mass society. Writer Tom Paxton plain of outworn thought patterns and knows that it is not easy to keep one's say "All your children are poor/Unfor- life from being forced into a predeter- tunate victims of lies/You believe." 25 mined mold. In "Mr. Blue" he has a On a much simpler level, Sonny Bono Big-Brother-like narrator telling the voices his annoyance that older people title character,a kind of Everyman, that laugh at the clothes he wears, and he he is always under surveillance,and that wonders why they enjoy "makin' fun" he will never be able to indulge himself of him.26 Now, Bono could musi- in his precious dreams of freedom from cally shrug off the laughs as the price of society. This is because society needs freedom, but other songs document oc- him to fill a slot, no matter what his casions when Establishment disapproval personal desires. Of that slot, the nar- turned into physical oppression. Thus, rator says, "You'll learn to love it/Or Canned Heat tells of being arrested in we'll break you." And then comes the Denver because the police did not want chilling chorus: any "long hairs around."27 The Buffalo What will it take to whip you into line Springfield, in a hit record, describe A broken heart? gun-bearing police rounding up teen- A brokenhead ? It can be agers on the Sunset Strip, and draw the arranged.x1 moral, "Step out of line the men come Though no other writer made the mes- and take you away.'"28 On the same sage so explicit, a similar fear of being theme, Dylan ironically shows that forced into an unwelcome slot underlies adults arbitrarily oppose just about all many songs of the period. activities of youths, saying that they The society of slotted people is an should "look out" no matter what they empty one, partly described as "TV are doing.29 More bitter is the Mothers' dinner by the pool,/I'm so glad I fin- description of police killing large num- ished school." 32 It is one in which ber of hippies, which is then justified people have been robbed of their hu- on the grounds "They looked too weird manity, receiving in return the "tran- . . it served them right." 30 Though sient treasures" of wealth and the use- the incident is fictional, the Mothers less gadgets of a technological age. One clearly believe Americans capable of of these is television, referred to simply shooting down those who engage in as "that rotten box," or, in a more sin- deviant behavior. ister image, as an "electronic shrine." Though the songs echo the oppression This image of men worshipping gadgets 25 We're Only in It for the Money (Verve, recurs. In the nightmare vision of a 65045). Copyright by Frank Zappa Music, McLuhanesque world-where the me- Inc. All rights reserved. dium is the message-Simon and Gar- 26 "Laugh at Me," Five West Cotillion, funkle sing of men so busy bowing and BMI. to a "neon that can- 27 "My Crime," Boogie (Liberty, 7541). praying god" they 28 "For What It's Worth." Copyright 1966 81 "Mr. Blue," written by Tom Paxton, by Cotillion Music, Inc.-Ten East Music Clear Light (Elektra, 74011). Copyright 1966 -Springaloo Toones. Reprinted by permission. by Deep Fork Music, Inc. All rights reserved. 29 "Subterranean Homesick Blues," Bob Used with permission. Dylan's Greatest Hits (Columbia, KCS 9463). 82Mothers of Invention, "Brown Shoes so We're Only in It for the Money. Copy- Don't Make It," (Verve, right 1968 by Frank Zappa Music, Inc. All 65013). Copyright 1968 by Frank Zappa rights reserved. Music, Inc. All rights reserved. 138 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

not understand or touch one another. the technological age has created so Indeed, here electronics seem to hinder many artificial things that nothing nat- the process of communication rather ural remains. Concerned with authen- than facilitate it. People talk and hear ticity, the songsters are afraid that man but never understand, as the "sounds himself is becoming an artifact, or, in of silence" fill the world."3 Such lack of their favorite word, "plastic." Thus, communication contributes to the indif- the Jefferson Airplane sing about a ference with which men can view the life "Plastic Fantastic Lover," while the and death of a neighbor, as in Simon's Iron Butterfly warn a girl to stay "A Most Peculiar Man."34 It also cre- away from people "made of plastic."38 ates the climate of fear which causes The image recurs most frequently in people to kill a stranger for no reason the works of the Mothers of Invention. other than his unknownorigins in Straw- In one song, they depict the country as berry Alarm Clock's "They Saw the Fat being run by a plastic Congress and One Coming."s5 President.39 Then, in "Plastic People," Alienated from his fellows, fearful and they start with complaints about a girl- alone, modern man has also despoiled friend who uses "plastic goo" on her the natural world in which he lives. face, go on to a picture of teen-agers on With anguish in his voice, Jim Morrison the Sunset Strip--who are probably of the Doors asks: their fans-as being "plastic," too, and What have they done to the earth? finally turn on their listeners and say What have they done to our fair sister? "Go home and check yourself/You think Ravished and plundered and ripped her and bit her we're talking about someone else." o4 Stuck her with knives in the side of the Such a vision is frightening, for if the dawn audience is plastic, perhaps the Mothers, And tied her with fences and draggedher themselves, are made of the same phony down.S6 material. And if the whole world is In a lighter tone but with no less serious plastic, who can be sure of his own an intent, the Lewis and Clark Expedi- authenticity? tion describe the way man has cut him- self off from nature. LoVE RELATIONSHIPS There's a chain around the flowers Toward the end of "Plastic People," There's a fence around the trees the Mothers say, "I know true love can This is freedom'scountry never of Do anything you please. be/A product plasticity."41 This brings up the greatest horror, that With a final thrust they "You add, in a "plastic" society like the United don't need to touch the flowers/They're States, love relationships are impossible. plastic anyway." 37 For the young song writers, American This brings up a fear that haunts a love is viewed as warped and twisted. number of recent songs, the worry that Nothing about Establishment society s "Sounds of Silence," Sounds of Silence (Columbia, CS 9269). right 1967 by Screen Gems-Columbia Music, 34 Sounds of Silence. Inc. Used by permission. Reproduction pro- 35 Wake Up . . . It's Tomorrow (Uni., hibited. 73025). 38 Surrealistic Pillow (Victor, LSP 3766); 36 "When the Music's Over," Strange Days "Stamped Ideas," Heavy (Atco, S 33-227). (Elektra, 74014). Copyright 1967 by Nipper s9 Uncle Bernie's Farm," Absolutely Free. Music, Inc. All rights reserved. 40 "Plastic People," Absolutely Free. Copy- 37 "Chain Around the Flowers," The Lewis right 1968 by Frank Zappa Music, Inc. All and Clark Expedition (Colgems, COS 105). rights reserved. Words and music by John Vandiver. Copy- 41 Ibid. THE MUSIC OF PROTEST 139 frightens them more than its attitudes criticisms of female sexual attitudes towards sex. Tim Buckley is typical in abound. The Mothers say disgustedly singing that older Americansare "Afraid to the Americanwoman, "You lie in bed to trust in their bodies," and in describ- and grit your teeth," while the Sopwith ing them as "Faking love on a bed made Camel object to the traditional kind of knives." 42 Others give graphic por- of purity by singing, "I don't want no traits of deviant behavior. The Fugs woman wrapped up in cellophane."46 tell of a "Dirty Old Man" hanging This is because such a woman "will do around high school playgrounds; the you in/Bending your mind with her talk- Velvet Underground portray a maso- ing about sin."'' All the musicians chist; and the Mothers depict a middle- would prefer the girl about whom Moby aged man lusting after his own thirteen- Grape sings who is "super-powered,de- year-old daughter.43 The fullest indict- flowered,"and over eighteen.48 ment of modern love is made by the Living in a "plastic"world where hon- United States of America, who devote est human relationships are impossible, almost an entire album to the subject. the song writers might be expected to Here, in a twisted portrait of "pleasure wrap themselves in a mood of musical and pain," is a world of loveless mar- despair. But they are young-and often riages, homosexualrelationships in men's making plenty of money-and such an rooms, venomous attractions, and overt attitude is foreign to them. Musically, sadism-all masked by a middle-class, they are hopeful because, as the title suburbanworld in which people consider of the Dylan song indicates, "The Times "morality" important. To show that They Are A-Changin.'" Without de- natural relationships are possible else- scribing the changes, Dylan clearly where, the group sings one tender love threatens the older generation, as he lyric; interestingly, it is the lament of a tells critics, parents, and presumably Cuban girl for the dead Che Guevara.44 anyone over thirty, to start swimming The fact that bourgeois America has or they will drown in the rising flood- warped attitudes towards sex and love is waters of social change.49 bad enough; the songsters are more In another work, Dylan exploits the worried that such attitudes will infect same theme. Here is a portrait of a their own generation. Thus, the Col- presumably normal, educated man, lectors decry the fact that man-woman faced with a series of bizarre situations, relationships are too often seen as some who is made to feel like a freak because kind of contest, with a victor and van- he does not understand what is going quished, and in which violence is more on. The chorus is the young genera- acceptable than tenderness.45 Perhaps tion's comment to all adults, as it mocks because most of the singers are men, "Mr. Jones" for not understandingwhat is happening all around him.50 42 "Goodbye and Hello," written by Tim Buckley, Goodbye and Hello (Elektra, 7318). 46 We're Only in It for the Money; "Cello- Copyright 1968 by Third Story Music, Inc. phane Woman," The Sopwith Camel (Kama All rights reserved. Sutra, KLPS 8060). Copyright by Great 43 The Fugs; "Venus in Furs," The Velvet Honesty Music, Inc. Underground and Nico (Verve, V6-5008); 47 "Cellophane Woman." Copyright by "Brown Shoes Don't Make It," Absolutely Great Honesty Music, Inc. Free. 48 "Motorcycle Irene," Wow (Columbia, CS 44 The United States of America (Columbia, 9613). CS 9614). 49 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. 45 "What Love," The Collectors (Warner 50 "Ballad of a Thin Man/Mr. Jones," High- Bros.-Seven Arts, WS 1746). way 61 Revisited (Columbia, CS 9189). 140 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

The changes going on are, not surpris- afterlife. Elsewhere, Buckley explic- ingly, associated with the carefree, joy- itly condemns Christianity, saying "I ful experiences of youth. As Jefferson can't hesitate and I can't wait for Airplane sings, "It's a wild time/I see pleasant street." 53 Similarly, the people all around me changing faces/ Doors' Jim Morrison states, "Cancel my It's a wild time/I'm doing things that subscription to the resurrection,"and in haven't got a name yet." 51 The most the same song literally shrieks, "We full-blown description of the changing want the world and want it now."54 world is Tim Buckley's "Goodbye and Here is the impatient demand of youth Hello," a lengthy and explicit portrait that all problems be swept aside and the of what the youth hope is happening. world be made into paradise without Throughout the song the author con- delay. trasts two kinds of people and their en- vironments. On the one hand are the How To LIVE "antique people"-godless and sexless-- Though the times may be changing, of an industrial civilization,. living in the songsters are well aware that- dark dungeons, working hard, worship- despite their brave words and demands ping technology and money, sacrificing -there is plenty of strength left in the their sons to placate "vaudeville" gen- old social order. Obviously, they can erals, and blinding themselves to the see the war continuing, Negro demands fact that their "masqueradetowers" are not being met, and the continuing hos- "riddled by widening cracks." Opposed tility of society toward their long hair, to them are the "new children," in- music, sexual behavior, and experimen- terested in flowers, streams, and the tation with drugs. Faced with these beauty of the sky, who wish to take off facts, the musicians must deal with the their clothes to dance and sing and love problem of how to live decently within one another. What's more, the "an- the frameworkof the old society. Here tique people are fading away"; in fact, they tend toward the world of private they are already wearing "death masks." experience mentioned earlier in this arti- As the song says, "The new children cle in connection with Dylan. Many will live because their elders have of their songs are almost programs for died." 52 youth's behavior in a world perceived as Buckley's vision of the new world being unlivable. that is coming is obviously that of a The first element is to forget about kind of idyllic Eden before the fall, a the repressivesociety out there. As Sop- world in which men will be free to romp with Camel says, "Stamp out reality and play and indulge their natural de- . . ./Before reality stamps out you."'55 sires for love. It is a pagan world, the Then it is imperative to forget about antithesis of the Christian ideal that trying to understand the outside world would postpone fulfillment to some rationally. In a typical anti-intellectual stance, the Byrds describe such attempts Though this song has obvious homosexual overtones, it also stands as youth's criticism 53 "Pleasant Street," written by Tim Buck- of the older generation. ley. Copyright 1968 by Third Story Music, 51 "Wild Tyme (H)," After Bathing at Inc. All rights reserved. Baxter's (Victor, LSO-1511). Copyright by 54 "When the Music's Over," Strange Days. Ice Bag Corporation. Copyright 1967 by Nipper Music Company, 52 "Goodbye and Hello," written by Tim Inc. All rights reserved. Buckley, Goodbye and Hello. Copyright 1968 55 "Saga of the Low Down Let Down," The by Third Story Music, Inc. All rights re- Sopwith Camel. Copyright by Great Honesty served. Music, Inc. THE MUSIC OF PROTEST 141

as "scientific delirium madness.""6 freedom should be used by the individ- Others combine a similar attitude with ual in an extensive exploration of his a strong measure of carpe diem. Spirit own internal world. Central to the deride people who are "always asking" vision of the song writers is the idea that for "the reason" when they should be the mind must be opened and expanded enjoying life, while H. P. Lovecraft if the truths of life are to be perceived. admits that the bird is on the wing and Thus, the importance of external reality states, "You need not know why.")57 is subordinated to that of a psychologi- What is important is that the moment cal, even a metaphysical, realm. The be seized and life lived to the fullest. most extensive treatment of this sub- As Simon and Garfunkel say, one has ject is by the Amboy Dukes, who devote to make the "moment last," and this half of a long-playing record to it. is done best by those who open them- Their theme is stated quite simply: selves fully to the pleasures of the "How happy life would be/If all man- world.58 kind/Would take the time to journey to The most frequent theme of the song the center of the mind." 63 Like any writers is the call to freedom, the total mystical trip, what happens when one freedom of the individual to "do his reaches the center of the mind is not own thing." Peanut Butter Conspiracy easy to describe. Perhaps the best at- carry this so far as to hope for a life tempt is by the Iron Butterfly, who that can be lived "free of time.""5 claim that an unconscious power will be Circus Maximus and the Byrds-despite released, flooding the individual with the fact that they are young men-long sensations and fusing him with a free- to recapture some lost freedom that dom of thought that will allow him to they knew as children.60 Such freedom "see every thing." At this point, man can be almost solipsistic; Jimi Hendrix will be blessed with the almost super- claims that even if the sun did not rise natural power of knowing "all." 64 and the mountains fell into the sea, he Such a journey is, of course, difficult would not care because he has his "own to make. But youth has discovered a world to live through."6 But for oth- short cut to the mind's center, through ers, it can lead to brotherhood. As H. the use of hallucinogenicdrugs. Indeed, P. Lovecraft says, "C'mon people now, such journeys are almost inconceivable let's get together/Smile on your brother, without hallucinogens, and the so-called /Try and love one another right now." 12 "head songs" about drug experiencesare A desire for freedom is certainly noth- the most prevalent of works that can be ing new. What is different in the songs classified as "protest."65 In this area, of the 1960's is the conviction that this s3 "Journey to the Center of the Mind," 56 "Fifth Dimension," Fifth Dimension. Journey to the Center of the Mind (Main- 5 "Topanga Window," Spirit (Ode, 212 stream, S 6112). Copyright 1968 by Brent 44004); "Let's Get Together," H. P. Lovecraft Music Corporation. (Phillips, 600-252). 64 "Unconscious Power," Heavy. 58 "Feeling Groovy," Sounds of Silence. 65 There are so many "head songs" that list- 59 "Time Is After You," West Coast Love-In ing them would be an impossibly long task. (Vault, LP 113). Some of the most popular protest songs of the so "Lost Sea Shanty," Circus Maximus decade have been such works. They include (Vanguard, 79260); "Going Back," The No- Jefferson Airplane, "White Rabbit," Surrealistic torious Byrd Brothers. Pillow; the Doors, "Light My Fire," The 61 "If 6 Was 9," Axis (Reprise, S 6281). Doors (Elektra EKS 74007); Strawberry 62 H. P. Lovecraft, "Let's Get Together," Alarm Clock, "Incense and Peppermints," written by Chester Powers, H. P. Lovecraft. Incense and Peppermints; and the Byrds, Copyright by Irving Music, Inc. "Eight Miles High," Fifth Dimension. 142 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

the songs carefully distinguish between writers, a society which makes war on "mind-expanding," nonaddictive mari- peoples abroad and acts repressively juana and LSD, and hard, addictive toward helpless minorities like Negroes, drugs which destroy the body. Thus, youth, and hippies at home. It is a the Velvet Underground and Love both land of people whose lives are devoid of tell of the dangers of heroin, while feeling, love, and sexual pleasure. It is Canned Heat warn of methedrine use a country whose institutions are crum- and the Fugs describe the problems of bling away, one which can presumably cocaine.66 But none of the groups hesi- only be saved by a sort of cultural and tate to recommend "grass" and "acid" spiritual revolution which the young trips as a prime way of opening oneself themselves will lead. to the pleasures and beauties of the Whether one agrees wholly, partly, or universe. As the Byrds claim in a typi- not at all with such a picture of the cal "head song," drugs can free the indi- United States, the major elements of vidual from the narrow boundaries of such a critical portrait are familiar the mundane world, allowing him to enough. It is only in realizing that all open his heart to the quiet joy and this is being said in popular music, on eternal love which pervade the whole records that sometimes sell a million universe.6 Others find the reality of copies to teen-agers, in songs that the drug experience more real than the youngsters often dance to, that one day-to-day world, and some even hope comes to feel that something strange is for the possibility of staying "high" happening today. Indeed, if parents permanently. More frequent is the fully understand what the youth are claim that "trips" are of lasting benefit saying musically to one another, they because they improve the quality of life must long for the simpler days of Elvis of an individual even after he "comes Presley and his blue suede shoes. down." 68 The Peanut Butter Conspir- If the lyrics of the songs would dis- acy, claiming that "everyone has a turb older people, the musical sound bomb" in his mind, even dream of some would do so even more. In fact, a good day turning the whole world on with case could be made that the music itself drugs, thus solving mankind's plaguing expresses as much protest against the problems by making the earth a loving status quo as do the words. Performed place.69 An extreme desire, perhaps, in concert with electronic amplification but one that would find much support on all instruments-or listened to at among other musicians. home at top volume-the music drowns the individual in waves of sound; some- A REPRESSIVE SOCIETY times it seems to be pulsating inside the This, then is the portrait of America listener. When coupled with a typical that emerges in the popular songs of light show, where colors flash and swirl the 1960's which can be labelled as on huge screens, the music helps to pro- "protest." It is, in the eyes of the song vide an assault on the senses, creating an of 66 "Heroin," Velvet Underground; "Signed overwhelming personal experience D. C.," Love (Elektra, 74001) ; "Amphetamine the kind that the songs advise people to Annie," Boogie; "Coming Down," The Fugs. seek. This sort of total experience is 67 "Fifth Dimension," Fifth Dimension. certainly a protest against the tepid, 68See Country Joe and the Fish, "Bass which other de- the Mind partial pleasures songs Strings," Electric Music for and scribe as the lot of America. Body; or United States of America, "Coming bourgeois Down," United States of America. Another aspect of the music which 69 "Living, Loving Life," Great Conspiracy. might be considered a kind of protest is THE MUSIC OF PROTEST 143

the attempt of many groups to capture of cultural lag that makes their view- in sound the quality of a drug "trip," to points valueless for youth. Into the try through melody, rhythm, and vol- place of these traditional sources of ume to-in the vernacular-"blow the information have stepped the youth mind" of the audience. Of course, themselves, and through such things as youngsters often listen to such music the "underground" press and popular while under the influence of hallucino- music they are telling each other exactly gens. In such a state, the perceptive what is happening. In this way, the experience supposedly can have the music has achieved popularity-at least quality of putting one in touch with in part-because it telegraphs impor- regions of the mind and manifestations tant messages to young people and helps of the universe that can be felt in no to define and codify the mores and stan- other way. Such mysticism, such dards of their own subculture. A young. transcendental attitudes, are certainly a ster may personally feel that there is no protest against a society in which real- difference between his parents' drink. ity is always pragmatic and truth in- ing and his use of marijuana. Certainly, strumental. it is comforting to him when his friends To try to explain why the jingles and feel the same way, and when popular vapid love lyrics of popular music in the songs selling millions of copies deliver 1950's evolved into the social criticism the same message, there are even and mystical vision of the 1960's is cer- stronger sanctions for his "turning on." tainly not easy. Part of it is the fact Thus, the lyrics of the music serve a that performers,who have always been functional role in the world of youth. young, started writing their own songs, It is interesting to note that the out of their own life experiences, rather popular music also puts youth in touch than accepting the commercialoutput of with serious, intellectual critiques of the older members of tin pan alley. American life. Perhaps it starts only But this does not explain the popularity as a gut reaction in the song writers, but of the new songs. Here one must look they have put into music the ideas of to the youthful audience, which decided many American social critics. Without it preferred buying works of the newer reading Paul Goodman,David Riesman, kind. For it was the commercial suc- C. Wright Mills, or Mary McCarthy, cess of some of the new groups which youngsters will know that life is a "rat opened the doors of the record com- race," that Americans are a "lonely panies to the many that flourish today. crowd," that "white-collar" lives con- tain much frustration, and that the war THE FUNCTION OF MUSIC in Vietnam is far from just. And they will have learned this from popular Though one cannot make definitive music, as well as from their own obser- judgments about this record-buying vation. audience, some things seem clear. Cer- The other side of the coin from criti- tainly, it is true that with increasingly cism of contemporary life is the search rapid social change, parents-and adults for personal experience, primarily of in general-have less and less that they the "mind-expanding"sort. As is obvi- can tell their children about the ways of ous by now, such expansion has nothing the world, for adult life experiences are to do with the intellect, but is a spiritual not very relevant to current social con- phenomenon. Here a final critique is ditions. Similarly, institutions like the definitely implicit. Throughout the school and the press suffer from a kind music-as in youth culture-there is the 144 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY search for a kind of mystical unity, an we are in need of more utopian thinking ability to feel a oneness with the uni- and feeling. And while one might not verse. This is what drugs are used for; wish to follow their prescriptions for this is what the total environmentof the the good life, they have caught some- light and music shows is about; and this thing of the desire for freedom that all is what is sought in the sexual experi- men feel. What could be more utopian ence-often explicitly evident in the and yet more inviting in its freedom than orgasmic grunts and moans of perform- the hopeful picture which the Mothers of ers. Through the search for this unity, Invention paint of the future: the music is the implicitly condemning There will come a time when everybody fragmentation of the individual's life Who is lonely will be free . . . which is endemic in the modern world. TO SING AND DANCE AND LOVE The songsters are saying that it is wrong There will come a time when every evil to compartmentalize work and play, That we know will be an evil to cut men off from the natural WE CAN RISE ABOVE wrong Who cares if hair is long or short rhythms of nature, wrong to stifle sex Or sprayed or partly grayed ... and love and play in favor of greater WE KNOW THAT HAIR productivity, wrong to say man's spir- AINT WHERE IT'S AT time when itual needs can be filled by providing (There will come a you won't even be ashamed if you are fat!) him with more material possessions. This is obviously a criticism that can Who cares if you're so poor only be made by an affluent people, but You can't afford to buy a pair these youth do represent the most afflu- Of mod a-go go stretch elastic pants countries. And rather than THERE WILL COME A TIME ent of all WHEN YOU CAN EVEN wallow in their affluence, they have TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF WHEN sensed and expressed much of the YOU DANCE 70 malaise that our plagues technological 70 "Take Your Clothes Off When You The be made society. charge may Dance," We're Only in It for the Money. against them that they are really utopi- Copyright 1968 by Frank Zappa Music, Inc. ans, but the feeling increases today that All rights reserved.