Forces of Chaos and Anarchy: Rock Music, the New Left and Social Movements, 1964 to 1972 Jordan Louis Cummings a Dissertation Su
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Forces of Chaos and Anarchy: Rock Music, the New Left and Social Movements, 1964 to 1972 Jordan Louis Cummings A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Political Science York University Toronto, Ontario September 2017 © Jordan Louis Cummings, 2017 Abstract This dissertation engages an unresolved debate on the ‘rock aesthetic’ in New Left Review, between Perry Anderson and David Fernbach while pointing toward a new dialectical social theory with which to analyze cultural form in general and music in particular. The debate was in the first instance methodological, formal/technical vs. lyrical contextual analysis. Within this methodological debate we see inscribed the misunderstanding the sixties New Left had of the sixties counterculture, and thus the conditions of possibility for a missed encounter. Rock music was neither a direct instantiation of the times, as Anderson implies, nor was it an entirely new form that must be schematized sui generis with a new set of axioms, as suggested by Fernbach. Indeed, it was both and then some. In engaging this debate, I use canonical figures of the era as my primary case studies as well as what I call my excursions – miniature analyses that capture the broader point I am making in my cognitive mapping of the cultural production of the long sixties. From this project’s standpoint, it was the Left that missed an encounter with the counterculture, not the counterculture that missed an encounter with the Left. To continue this engagement, I have deployed what I have called a theory of the missed encounter. I engage what could have taken place, that is to say, if the implicit metaphysical and practical connection between rock music culture and the Left had been consummated, by examining why this could not have taken place, why there was a missed encounter. As against the more commonly theorized Popular Front and Punk eras which I stipulate as consummated encounters, the sixties, aesthetically and politically – did not coalesce in the same sense. The Missed Encounter, for me, is a heuristic, a point-of-departure. I presume, thus, with my own analysis that once one goes beyond mythology, a missed encounter is readily apparent. The purpose of my rethinking of the rock music canon is not positivist proof of a missed encounter, rather it is to formulate the ‘sixties question’ through the premises of its existence. ii Dedication This project is dedicated to my union, CUPE Local 3903. I learned as much, if not more from my involvement in 3903 than I did from any other aspect of my post-graduate education. 3903 at its best acted, and continues to act as the tip of the spear for progressive forces at York University. My graduate education was “interrupted” twice by strikes, including a long and protracted one less than two months into my Masters. These “interruptions” showed how student-workers and contract faculty are able to fight back against the neoliberal austerity agenda. I also learned from the many mistakes I made, and we made, in our years of internal and external struggle. These lessons shape me as a human being. Alienated capitalist society brings the individualization of collective problems. CUPE 3903 at our best suggested and implemented collective solutions to what many would like us to see as individual, atomized problems, from the mundane to the deadly serious. The material, emotional and indeed spiritual benefits of being a union member cannot be exaggerated. I cannot imagine how I would have been able to sustain a material existence if not for CUPE 3903. I also cannot imagine having undertaken this project if not for the union. Indeed, it was first suggested to me by fellow union members. iii Acknowledgements There are too many people and institutions to thank, as I like to think I have learned something from everyone who I have encountered through the years. First and foremost, I must thank my family. My parents, Richard Cummings and Joanne Cummings cultivated a sense of wonder and possibility in me at a very young age, and have supported my circuitous route to the position I am in to this day. From the mundane to the urgent, this entire project was helped immensely by my parents. My brother and sister and their partners, Daniel Cumming, Tova Rose, Angie Shiffman and Adam Shiffman have been coaches, friends and interlocutors throughout the years of work I’ve put into this project. I would be remiss if I did not mention my niece Izzy and nephews, Evan and Tyler. My doctoral supervisor, Shannon Bell cannot be thanked enough. Through our many years of work together, Shannon has been everything an academic supervisor should be: supportive and humane, inspirational and demanding in all the right ways. Going back to my Masters, Shannon has challenged me to think outside of orthodoxy, and this project itself started out as a graduate term paper for her “Aesthetics and Politics” seminar. Greg Albo is one tough – but kind editor, and his commitment to methodological rigor and innovation has made this project more than merely a work of cultural analysis, but serious comparative political science. Scott Forsyth was present at a Historical Materialism panel some years back at which I first presented some of the ideas contained in this work, and asked me some sharp questions. His sharp questions and cultural-theoretical pointers, in particular engaging the Popular Front and Punk eras, helped make this project a great one. I also would like to give special thanks to David McNally, who acted as my Dean’s Representative and who was involved in this project from the start, and indeed helped formulate the ‘hook’ of the project. Important acknowledgement must be given to my external examiner Will Straw for his exquisite and challenging questions, and as well to John McCullough, for his innovative suggestions, ones that I will keep in mind as I continue this unbroken chain of a project. As far too many other individuals have played a part in this project to name, I’d like to focus on those who have played a very direct role – of which there are indeed more than a few. First and foremost, my colleagues at Red Wedge of whom there are too many to name, for as we like to say, “rekindling the revolutionary imagination”. I’d like to thank Lindsay Springer for her close- edit of this dissertation. I’d also like to thank Neil Braganza, Tobin Haley and Alex Levant, alongside my siblings, for attending and supporting my doctoral defence. Finally, I’d like to thank Melissa Rakestraw, Jeremiah Gaster, Nicole Leach, Sharmeen Khan, Bill Crane, Colin J. Campbell, Toby Manning, Neil Davidson, Tom Laughlin, Kate Doyle Griffiths, Sebastian Budgen, Sarah Gray, Katherine Factor, Richard Seymour, Megan Kinch, Tracy Supruniuk, Panagiotis Sotiris and Charlie Post for their support of this project, whether by way of discussion, reading it or editing me and shaping me as a writer and an intellectual. iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v Special Note to Readers viii Part I Theory of the Missed Encounter and the Social History of Cultural Production Chapter One: Left Is How I Always Turn 1 1.1) Life During Wartime 1 1.2) Dropping Science 4 1.3) Unbroken Chain 7 1.4) Missed Encounters and the Long View 13 1.5) Structure and Process 20 1.6) What’s the Use 27 Chapter Two: The Strangest of Places 30 2.1) More From a Three Minute Record 30 2.2) Waves and Encounters 36 2.3) Parameters of the Encounter 41 2.4) The Social History of Cultural Production 48 2.5) Towards a Rock Aesthetic 56 Chapter Three: The Sake of Art in General and the Sake of Art in Capitalism 59 3.1) What’s Puzzling You is the Nature of My Game 59 3.2) Music, Communism, Alchemy 61 3.3) Don’t Forget the Charm 67 3.4) The Implications of Charm 72 3.5) Mellow my Mind: The Glory of Distraction 77 Chapter Four: Here We Are Now, Entertain Us 81 4.1) Realism or Modernism? Yes Please! 81 4.2) Realism, Modernism and the Music Question 86 4.3) Time of the Season 92 4.4) Intelligence or Agency 95 4.5) Money (That’s What I Want) 98 4.6) Chimes of Freedom: Enter the New Left 100 4.7) From May ’68 to Neoliberalism 104 4.8) The Great Rock & Roll Conspiracy 106 Chapter Five: Passages from Rock and Roll to ‘Rock’ 110 5.1) Any Old Way You Choose It 110 5.2) When I Grow Up to Be a Man 113 v 5.3) Ready to Go Anywhere 116 5.4) Everybody Must Get Stoned 119 5.5) White Light/White Heat 123 5.6) Pulled into Nazareth 127 5.7) Stoking the Star Maker Machinery Behind the Popular Song 130 Chapter Six: It’s All Too Much 134 6.1) We Blew It 134 6.2) Carrying Pictures of Chairman Mao 139 6.3) Kaleidoscope Eyes 144 6.4) Killed the Czar and His Ministers 150 Part II Case Studies: Excursions in the Long sixties Chapter Seven: Jehovah’s Favorite Choir 157 7.1) Saint of Circumstance 157 7.2) The Transitive Nightfall of Diamonds 160 7.3) Wake of the Flood 164 7.4) I’ll Get Up and Fly Away 169 7.5) Five Dollars a Day 171 7.6) The Kids They Dance and Shake Their Bones 180 Chapter Eight: English Rock: Palace Revolutions and Compromised Solutions 189 8.1) The Peculiarities of English Rock 189 8.2) Just a Shot Away 193 8.3) I, Me, Mine 197 8.4) Parting on the Left, Now Parting on the Right 205 8.5) A Choice of Cancer or Polio 216 Chapter Nine: Wheels On Fire: Bob Dylan in Historical Context 227 9.1) Live in a Political World 227 9.2) Younger than that Now 231 9.3) Ceremonies of the Horseman 236 9.4) Lookout, Kid 238 9.5) Temporary Like Achilles 243 9.6) Too Much Confusion 247 Chapter Ten: A Conclusion: Rethinking Rock and Roll 255 10.1) Split Open and Melt 255 10.2) To Kingdom Come 261 10.3) Glass Onion 266 10.4) That Bow Tie is Also a Camera 269 10.5) Chaos and Anarchy 275 vi Bibliography 278 A) Books, Articles, Presentations and Correspondence 278 B) Music 292 C) Film and Television 305 vii Special Note to Readers: In addition to the Spotify playlist embedded below, throughout this project, there are embedded hyperlinks that will take the reader to YouTube or other public domain videos of performances and/or audio recordings of the linked song or album.