The Poetry of Donovan

The Poetry of Donovan

Donovan Leitch was, and is, an iconic figure in the 60s music scene. His early career featured folk songs and he adapted through the wave of psychedelia, becoming a spokesman for the flower children's initial drive for a gentler, less materialistic world. His hit songs are well known, but the magic of the poetry in lesser known album cuts has been largely forgotten. Donovan himself referred to his poetry as “dry songs,” meaning without music, but his imagery, with or without music, remains anything but dry.

Donovan shared influences common to many American folk singers, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and others, but also inherited a rich history of British folk music with its myriad of legends stretching back into antiquity.
A key difference between American folk music and British folk music is the depth of historical, mythical and religious factors that have become imbedded in the British psyche. Granted that some American folk music was brought to this country by British immigrants, the proportion of a few hundred years against millennia still speaks volumes for the imbalance of experience. 

Even to dip a toe into the world of folklore is to unearth an Other Britain, one composed of mysterious fragments and survivals – a rickety bridge to the sweet grass of Albion. As Bert Lloyd mentioned, ‘To our toiling ancestors [these customs] meant everything, and in a queer irrational way they can still mean much to us.’
-Young, Rob (2011-05-10). Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music (p. 183). Macmillan. Kindle Edition.

One of the British people’s most treasured objects is their land. Be it woods, meadows, rocky hills or windswept islands, the land holds more than a means of making a living. The land is the tie between the present and the past. The land connects souls.

(in 1965) …he purchased three islands off the coast of Scotland
Islay, Mingay and Clett, near Skye’s north-west Vaternish peninsula, where he and his friend/‘manager’ Gypsy Dave intended to set up a ‘Renaissance community’ of artists, musicians and poets in a row of tumbledown shepherds’ cottages. In tandem with this dreamy project, he released the double album A Gift from a Flower to a Garden in 1967, which included a languid slice of Highlands picturesque, ‘Isle of Islay’
Young, Rob (2011-05-10). Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music (p. 19). Macmillan. Kindle Edition.

Donovan writes in the chorus of his song, Isle of Islay:

“…felt like a seed on your land,

Felt like a grain of your sand,

Felt like the tide left me here…”
Dry Songs and Scribbles, Donovan ©1967

The land and the sea are common themes for island dwellers, and Donovan is no exception. He attributed the love of the land to his (and all of Britain’s) Celtic roots:

“…I was mocked as a simpleton, when I sang of birds and bees and flowers like a child. Indeed, I was keeping the “wonder eye” open – just like a child.

     I was also showing concern for the future of the world’s ecosystem…The shamanism of the Celts finds the supreme spiritual forces in the natural world. This is why, for the Celts, Mother Earth is the Goddess.” ¹

Little pebble upon the sand, now you’re lying here in my hand,
How many years have you been here?
Little human upon the sand, from where I’m lying here in your hand,
You, to me, are but a passing breeze.
The sun will always shine where we stand
Depending in which land we may find ourselves.
Now you have my blessing, go your way
Dry songs and scribbles ©1967

The blessing of the pebble has been given, and the blessings of nature continued throughout Donovan’s music and poetry through the years. These images are understood at their core by the British folk tradition, even if not consciously.

‘The folk-memory does not retain conscious ritualism, or intellectualized secrecy,’ comments one folk historian, ‘but works as in a dream. In this way, despite a tough oral memory, the spirit of the nature rites is still present.’
Young, Rob (2011-05-10). Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music (p. 185). Macmillan. Kindle Edition.

Even in nature songs that critics have deemed “childish,” flashes of sophisticated imagery weave their way through Donovan’s narratives:

Lullaby of spring “…chiffchaff eggs are painted by mother bird eating cherries…”

Peregrine “…peregrine falcon, hooded and flying, wither ye go, blindly, over the mountain…”

Terracotta: “…the riddle of birds lay solved by the lake…”

Arthurian legends featured largely in the music of Donovan. His song “Guinevere” showed her,
“…draped in white velvet, silk and lace,
Indigo eyes in the flickering candlelight,
such is the silence ‘ore royal Camelot…”

Donovan didn’t confine his poetry to written words. He had been an art student before setting off on his musical adventure and he used that talent to embellish everything that he loved, including his elusive love, Linda, who would later become his wife.

On Sunday I took Linda down to the Portobello Road Market and bought her an antique lace gown, velvet costumes and Victorian baubles. I wanted to dress her in the style of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings that I loved. ²

Even that small excursion would become verse.
Damp uncomfortable, Portabella market day
Cold cutting winds, Ruffled the velvet covered stalls, Everybody is hustlin’
I buy a bloodstone ring, And smile in grey light
With a chilled lip that’s taken a sip of happiness
Feel kissed, for I think of you
Dry Songs and Scribbles ©1971

For Linda, the recipient of the bloodstone ring, Donovan would pour out his finest images. Linda had been the paramour of Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, bearing his son, Julian. After Jones essentially abandoned the young mother and child, she was understandably reticent about falling in love with another “rock star.” Donovan still pursued her, with varying degrees of intensity, for years before they finally married. Enough time passed before their marriage for Donovan to father two children with his American girlfriend, Enid. Even during that time, he still longed for Linda while (he admitted) leading Enid along to keep him from being lonely. When the longing for Linda combined with Camelot inspired images, the result was the song “Legend of a Girl Child Linda.” The song never wavers from lush pictures of fairy-tale children in a fairy-tale world on a failed mission to save “the kingdom” from sadness. The first and last lines frame the story:

“I will bring you gold apples and grapes made of rubies

That have shone in the eyes of the Prince of the breeze…”

And then

“…My sword, it lies broken, and cast in a lake.

In the dream I was told that my princess would wake.”

When it came to Linda (and love in general in Linda’s absence) Donovan would compose a love song from the smallest detail, the slimmest inspiration.

Little Linda glowing cinder, Sparkle like a star

The sun and roses merely show us ‘zactly where we are

A jaguar in a hollow car Far in the winter lane

Lacework trees The jack-frost breeze Pheasant birds are slain

Dry Songs and Scribbles ©1971

 

Like all poets, Donovan was an exceptional observer of people. He was adept at painting a psychic picture of someone in just a few lines. His portrait of the Writer in the Sun captures the loneliness of a stranger:

The magazine girl poses
on my glossy paper aeroplane
too many years I spent in the city
playing with Mr. Loss & Gain
and here I sit, the retired writer in the Sun

I bathe in the Sun of the morning
lemon circles swim in the tea
fishing for time with a wishing line
and throwing it back in the sea
and here I sit, the retired writer in the Sun
Dry Songs and Scribbles ©1971

And a lady seen from afar on a hotel veranda

In the Hotel Juliet at a little table sat
Lady sipping Vichy beneath a lemon tree

In the Hotel Juliet, in the south of France they met
but that was long ago, the memory told her so

In the Hotel Juliet salada vinegrette
reciting by the sea, Rimbaud poetry

In the Hotel Juliet she dreams with no regret
a friendly half carafe, an ancient phonograph

In the Hotel Juliet at a little table sat
sentimental Lady beneath a lemon tree
Dry Songs and Scribbles ©1971

Donovan was not yet 25 years old when he had reached the top of his field and called “retreat” from the madness of what songwriter Joni Mitchell described as the “star maker machinery behind the popular song.” During his rise he was, by his own admission, immature and self-centered. We can observe some of his maturation process in another poem/song that was the product of another chance encounter of a stranger. During a trip to New York prior to the U.S. release of his album, “Sunshine Superman,” he writes:

“During that trip to New York Gyp and I were staying in a hotel called The Hampshire House. Up in the dark rooms overlooking the park, I sat up late with Shawn and a young girl singer. Her hair was cropped, an unusual style then. She explained that her hair had been caught in a Ferris wheel. A near-death situation. There in a dark gloom of the Hampshire House apartment I felt a chill, like a pall, descending on my journey…Was fame a trap?...Was my freedom slipping away?” ³

The poem/song that resulted is a cautionary tale to those who chase the bright carnival lights of fame – and the remedy for the consequences of failure to prepare.

Walkin’ in the sea shore twilight, It’s then you spy carnival lights
You slowly near a magic sight, tangerine sky minus one kite
Take time and tie your pretty hair
The gypsy driver doesn’t care if you catch your hair in the Ferris wheel and turn

A silver bicycle you shall ride, to bathe your mind in the quiet tide.
Far off as it seems, your hair will mend, with the Sampson strength to begin again
Take time and dry your pretty eyes
Watch the seagull fly from far off skies
To build its nest in the Ferris wheel and turn

Dry Songs and Scribbles ©1968

The child-like wonder of Donovan’s story-songs and idealistic mysticism has mostly faded from favor in our materialistic, technology driven society. We are so very sophisticated in our tastes. We are so demanding of our comfort. We spend our lives chasing the next big thing that will finally give our lives meaning and contentment. We live in terror that something unknown will come along to knock us out of the positions that we’ve worked so hard for. We forget that these fears are part of the territory when we neglect the deeper primordial needs of the human being.

While there has always been someone ready to poke fun at folk singers and Morris dancers, the mockery only really turned hostile in the late 1970s, by which time most utopian dreams, hangovers from the 1960s, were falling permanently out of reach. (p. 8). …Folk music was, after all, first and foremost the People’s Music: harboured and preserved in the common mind through the decades and centuries, and sung and danced without the ‘permission’ of the cultural elite or the scrutiny of a trendsetting media. (p. 117). …it will continue to need the friction between conservation and progression, city and country, acoustics and electricity, homespun and visionary, familiar and uncanny. (p 9)

           Young, Rob (2011-05-10). Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music (p. 9). Macmillan.

A popular video proclaims that “The Dirty %&#@*!* Hippies, WERE RIGHT! • ¨ - YouTube.flv The video evaluates the political and ecological philosophies of the “hippies” in light of what has happened to our society in the last 40-plus years. For our own sanity, we might allow for a little more “hippie” philosophy, Donovan style, applied to our inner lives. Peace may never be possible in the outside world, but maybe viewing the world with the eyes of a child, we may find a measure of peace within.

Come close your eyes and hear
melodies from an old music box
Tinkling as tendems and years
go tumbling like tresses and small perfumed locks
sweet dreams were sewn
‘tween the years of her life
a tear in her little kerchief
waiving and fading away, with her
Bottled sands Tomorrow from the Shores of Yesterday
Oh will our visions of Tomorrow mingle with those of Yesterday?
Dry Songs and Scribbles ©1971

Bibliography

¹ Hurdy Gurdy Man: the Autobiography of Donovan by Donovan Leitch
St Martin’s Press 2005
ISBN 0312364342
p111

 ² ibid p 105

 ³ ibid p 131

Dry Songs and Scribbles by Donovan Leitch
Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1971
©1971 except for previously copyrighted items
Library of Congress Catalog Card 70-147359

Electric Eden by Rob Young (Kindle Edition)
Faber & Faber 2010
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0865478562

Evolution of Vietnam Era Protest Songs

Thanks to my good friends who have been interested in this project. It's just a term paper.  I've left out the bibliography, but included the youtube links for the 23(?) songs mentioned here.

Evolution of Vietnam Era Protest Songs

Introduction
      The Vietnam War was a military conflict involving the United States of America that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia beginning in November of 1955 and ending on April 30, 1975 with the fall of Saigon.  Protests against the war gained national prominence in 1965, peaked in 1968, and remained powerful throughout the duration of the conflict. ⁽¹⁾ “Protest songs” not only played an important role in the actual protest actions, but also served to evangelize those not yet involved. The tone and attitude of these songs changed progressively along with the intensity of the protests, both mirroring and driving the momentum of the Anti-War movement.

Who was protesting?

     The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) formed in 1960 as the collegiate extension of an older Left group, the League for Industrial Democracy. By 1962 that organization had been taken over by Tom Hayden and Al Haber of the University of Michigan. The Port Huron Statement was adopted in 1963 as a “manifesto” of the SDS’s “new” mission, one that would seek to form a “new” Left comprised of liberals and socialists alike, take control of the fossilized University system and begin to forge a new society based on cooperation and justice. ⁽²⁾

     The Free Speech Movement (FSM) began at UC Berkeley in 1964, adding students experienced in Civil Rights protest and organization activities.  FSM also clashed with the University establishment, rejecting rules for rule’s sake as petty and stifling.           

     The Quakers (Society of Friends) and Unitarians had a long tradition of opposing war. The group SANE, whose main focus was anti-nuclear proliferation, was formed in 1957, soon lending its voice to antiwar protests. The combined voices of religious, middle class and student perspectives added to the visibility of the antiwar cause, giving it at least a small measure of credibility.

     May of 1964 saw the first of the anti-war protests, beginning with demonstrations attracting under 1000 participants each in NYC Times Square, San Francisco, Seattle and Madison WI. During this month the first draft card burning took place in NYC with 12 young men demonstrating their opposition to the military draft laws.

     The music of protest at the beginning of the antiwar movement was low-key, melodic, and soft. The melodies might have fit into love songs formed to gently seduce listeners away from their blind trust that whatever the government was up to. The music of the protests was often shared with that of the Civil rights movement, including Pete Seeger’s classic tunes, “We Shall Overcome” and “This Little Light of Mine,” along with Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” These gentle songs were more like suggestions than overt protests.

A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan was sung at his 1962 debut in “big time” folk music at a Hootenanny hosted by Pete Seeger . The conversation of the song, between a mother and her “darling young one,” recounts the horrors that the young man has witnessed. With its veiled references to nuclear apocalypse, it gained even more resonance when the Cuban missile crisis developed only a few weeks after Dylan began performing it. ⁽³⁾ 

Where Have all the flowers Gone? Written in 1955 by Pete Seeger with additional verses added by Joe Hickerson in 1961, the song was recorded in 1961 by the Kingston Trio. Continuing the folk tradition of protest songs, the gentle melody weaves around the image of young men buried after war and all the flowers are gone because the young girls have picked them all to bring to the graveyards. #95 on Billboard’s ⁽⁴⁾ Top 100 for 1962

Blowin' in the Wind by Bob Dylan, was written in 1962 and recorded in 1964 by Peter, Paul & Mary and numerous others over the years. The haunting simple melody encases the folk-style “question-question-answer” format except there is no answer to the questions other than “the answer is blowing in the wind.” Indeed the answers to questions of civil rights and an end to the war in Vietnam were beginning to blow with the winds of protest. #16 on Billboard’s Top 100 for 1964

Escalation on All Fronts

     In 1965, the US began bombing North Vietnam and the protesters then had good reason to ramp up the protests. National action was seen in April, with a march on Washington attended by between 15 & 25K protesters, sponsored by the SDS and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Protests were held in June on the steps of the Pentagon, and in August, attempts were made by activists at Berkeley to stop the movement of trains carrying troops.   On November 27, Coretta Scott King, SDS President Carl Oglesby, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, among others, spoke at an antiwar rally that drew 30,000 to Washington, D.C. (the largest to that point). Around the nation, several cities saw similar demonstrations.  On that same day, as if to thumb his nose at the protests, President Johnson announced a significant escalation of U.S. involvement in Indochina. LBJ unveiled plans to increase the number of troops from 120,000 to 400,000. Three songs released in 1965 segued with the movement from concern to anger.

Turn Turn Turn by Pete Seeger, recorded by the Byrds 1965. The simple words of King Solomon from the Bible’s book of Ecclesiates came embellished by Roger “Jim” McGuinn’s
12-string Rickenbacker guitar in Terry Melcher’s novel arrangement style that brought the musical background forward to near equality with the vocals. Seeger’s haunting melody pulls the listener along until the final vocal line, “…a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late!”

Universal soldier by Buffy St Marie, was recorded by the Canadian composer in 1964 and covered by England’s Donovan  in his 1965 album “Fairy Tale.” The lyrics describe the contradictory and consistent attributes of a soldier, someone without whom war would be impossible. The song, however, doesn’t let the listener off with the false option of shunting responsibility elsewhere. The final stanza:

“His orders come from far away no more.
They come from here and there, and you and me,  and brothers, can’t you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.”
© 1964 by Buffy St. Marie

indicts the listener as complicit in the crimes of warriors, reminding that non-military citizens have a voice in policy making. The challenge is clear. What is to be done about this unjust war?

Eve of Destruction by P.F. Sloan 1965 was recorded by Barry McGuire in July, 1965. It is the first of the protest songs to sound angry rather than lofty and thoughtful. McGuire’s raspy voice spits out lyrics that pointedly observe situations around the world and challenge the listener to wake up out of complacency. “You tell me, over and over again, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.”  The beat is driving and insistent. You could dance to it if the inescapable lyrics didn’t cancel out the frivolity of dancing. Something is going dreadfully wrong. Somebody had better do something.

Commitment and Chaos

     Protests against the Vietnam War continued in 1967 and 1968 with more organizations joining the actions. Infighting among the groups began almost as fast as new ones signed up for participation. Inter and intra-group bickering threatened to sideline the movement. Some of the “old” pacifist movement complained that the SDS had failed to criticize the communists and there were many disagreements on tactics and language. ⁽⁵⁾ (1968, location 281) The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (the Mobe) brought in another coalition of

old-time pacifists, new and old leftists, civil rights workers and youth. ⁽⁵⁾  Some protests broke with the classic pacifists’ standard non-violent tactics and brought physical confrontation to several antiwar/anti-draft protests. At a Mobe organized protest at the Pentagon, Jerry Rubin and his friend, Abbie Hoffman entered the fray with what would become known as “Yippie” tactics, telling Pentagon officials and the Press that there would be an attempt to levitate the Pentagon in order to exorcize it of its evil. Abbie Hoffman would later answer in court when accused of conspiracy that “We couldn’t agree on lunch.” ⁽⁶⁾

     By the fall of 1967, only 35% of Americans supported the US policies in Vietnam. This was a huge decrease from the majority who supported the war in 1965. Conversely, the majority of Americans disliked the anti-war protesters. The goal of ending the war was appended by some protest groups to include various other agendas including legalization of drugs, free love and opposition to corporations such as Dow Chemical who manufactured war related materials. Government entities continually harassed the movement’s “leaders,” subjecting them to searches and surveillance, while promoting a tainted picture of them in the media.

     The political and social atmosphere of 1968 was as chaotic as the anti-war movement. In March, LBJ announced his decision to forgo a run for another elected term. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April and many cities experienced devastating riots immediately after. Bobby Kennedy, front-runner for the Democratic nomination, was assassinated in June.  

Culturally, the “hippies” and “flower children” had seemingly come out of nowhere. Rejecting the sterility and perceived hypocrisy of “Establishment” life, they espoused instead a society based on complete freedom -- of  expression, sexuality, intellect – and especially peace. They rejected the notion of property values and experimented with communal living. They rejected the education system, preferring to “expand” their minds with hallucinogenic drugs. Where some measure of teenage “rebellion” had been accepted as “normal,” nothing like the “hippies” had ever been seen.

     It was no wonder that protest songs of those two years represented a wide variety of styles and intensity,  mirroring the confusion embodied in the first line of Buffalo Springfield’s 1967 hit, “For What It’s Worth,”

“Something’s happening here.  What it is ain’t exactly clear…”
©1967 Stephen Stills

Confusion, chaos and consternation embodied the activities surrounding the 1968 DemocraticConvention in Chicago.The national coordinator for the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (The Mobe), Rennie Davis, declared that “there are thousands of young people in this country who do not want to see a rigged convention rubber-stamp another four years of Lyndon Johnson’s war”. In March 1968, representatives of several antiwar groups, including The Mobe’s Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden, antiwar activist David Dellinger, and Yippies Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, met near Chicago to organize demonstrations at the convention. The Yippies had already issued their own call for “A Festival of Life” at the Convention. The Mobe planned a series of teach-ins and mass demonstrations. The Yippies, more creatively (and far less seriously), announced fanciful plans for a public “f**k-in”, declared that they would slip LSD into the city’s water supply, would infiltrate the Convention by seducing the delegates’ wives and daughters, and would pull down Hubert Humphrey’s pants while he spoke at the podium. They also proposed to nominate a pig (named “Pigasus the Immortal”) as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.

--Abbie Hoffman; Norman Mailer; Timothy Leary (2009-05-10). Chicago Seven: Testimony From the 1968 Democratic Convention Conspiracy Trial Red and Black Publishers. Kindle Edition. Location 13

      The Black Panthers planned on bringing a contingent, as did antiwar Catholic priest, Daniel Berrigan. Estimates of potential participants ranged up to a million activists.

     The response to these plans was predictable in substance if not in ferocity. A spring fire at Chicago’s showplace convention center, McCormick Place, had forced relocation of the Convention to the Stockyards neighborhood’s Amphitheater. Mayor Richard J. Daley and his police force were in no mood to put up with disruption, especially in the residential neighborhoods that stood between downtown and the Amphitheater.  They had already endured riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Permits to sleep in the parks were denied to the antiwar/counterculture groups and it was made clear that the 11 p.m. park curfew would be enforced. 

     The clashes between “establishment” and “counterculture” that resulted were well

documented. Less well documented were the quarrels among the protesters. Yippies Ruben

and Hoffman both made good on their promise to find a live pig to nominate for President. They stopped speaking when neither would allow their chosen live pig to “step aside.” Hoffman objected strenuously to the use of marshals to keep marches organized while the SDS and the Mobe considered that practice to be essential. Some wanted to march to the Amphitheater. Others considered it unnecessary. The whole 1968 Democratic Convention turned into a “perfect mess” in countless ways.

For What it’s Worth by Stephen Stills  Released by Buffalo Springfield in 1967. Although the song was written in response to unrest between law enforcement and young patrons of the clubs on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, it quickly became a standard for the antiwar movement. Two notes toggle through the verses, providing an auditory indication of “us-vs-them.” The tempo is relaxed, the melody lovely, the message troubling.

Feel Like I’m Fixin' to Die Rag Country Joe & the Fish 1967 (1969 at Woodstock)
Talkin’ Vietnam Potluck Blues by Tom Paxton 1968
Alice’s Restaurant  by Arlo Guthrie 1967
These three songs introduce the satirical, humorous side of protest songs. The absurdity of the war and the “Establishment” who supported it was not lost on the youth culture. Who in their right mind would sing, “whoopee! We’re all gonna die!”? (Country Joe’s contribution)  Did the troops and Viet Cong smoke weed together? Of course that never happened, but Tom Paxton’s

 little ditty made those indulging back in the States giggle. Surely, Arlo Guthrie didn’t get a “50 dollar fine and (I had to ) pick up the garbage” sentence that led to his fingerprints being on file in Washington, D.C. as a subversive. Guess again, because the “Alice’s Restaurant Massaccree” did indeed happen.  Politically, this attitude was expressed in its extreme fullness by Abbie Hoffman, Yippie Extraordinaire. Hoffman’s pranks disguised as protests—or protests disguised as pranks—included threats to spike Chicago’s water supply with LSD. Despite the obvious impossibility of such an action, Hoffman’s threat still drove Chicago authorities to place armed guards at Lake Michigan water intake points. It was Hoffman’s sense of theater that led Washington, DC protesters to place daisies in the barrels of guns held by troops guarding the Pentagon. The Yippies “themselves” were a fabrication of Hoffman’s. The group never existed except as a put-on, a pretend monster to scare the establishment.

Unknown Soldier by Jim Morrison, The Doors 1968 In troubling contrast to the humorous offerings, this dark theatrical composition conjures up an image of useless, lonely death in war. The tone is despairing. The agony of the vocal, ranging from silk to sandpaper, echoes the sorrow of unending loss for families of the young men lost in Vietnam. In performance the agony intensifies. The “solider,” (Morrison) stands as if facing a firing squad instead of dodging enemy bullets. Did he refuse to obey orders? It’s not clear. Guitarist Robby Krieger points his guitar as if aiming a rifle. A sharp rimshot from John Densmore’s drum and Morrison drops to the ground, writhing. Ray Manzarek continues the undertone dirge on the organ. This is not a game. This is life and death.

Revolution by John Lennon/Paul McCartney The Beatles 1968  If one doesn’t count George Harrison’s rant against the “Taxman,” this song was the first overt political commentary from

the Fab Four. McCartney’s signature uber-rock arrangement showcased Lennon’s puzzled lyrics responding to the beginning of anti-Vietnam War protests in London. Do we want to end a war here, or overhaul society in general? “We all want to see the plan…” Who’s behind all this? “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow…” Keep things peaceful? Yeah, that’s the idea! “…when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out…” Um, you want money? Not if you’re talking about “…people with minds that hate…” The quizzical tone of the lyrics was reportedly insulting to some in the movement, but ultimately served to open the minds of Beatles fans to the legitimacy of opposing the status quo. Recorded in two incarnations on the “White Album,” as well as making the charts as a hit single (the “other” side of “Hey Jude”), the piece remains a beloved anthem after more than 40 years. #78 on Billboard’s Top 100 of 1968

The movement goes mainstream

In 1969, although the violence in Chicago had been blamed on a “Police Riot,” eight “leaders” of the antiwar groups involved in the Chicago actions were placed on trial for conspiracy. The trial became a theater for the antics of Abbie Hoffman and his compatriots. A November, 1969 march on Washington drew an estimated 500,000 protesters.  Draft Board offices in several cities were vandalized with blood poured onto files.  Returning veterans were greeted at airports with but they were also joining the protests against that war in large numbers.⁽⁷⁾ In the war for public opinion, the “Establishment” was losing its hold on support for the Vietnam war while succeeding at painting the opponents to the war as anti-American, doped up hippies.

This polarization of American opinion resulted in a stalemate in the tug-of-war between supporters of the war’s policies and those who opposed them.

The “hippies,” meanwhile, had problems of their own. The Haight-Ashbury scene and the exuberance of Woodstock degenerated under the real consequences of addiction and poverty. Idealistic young people became targets for predators. Runaways were pimped out into the nightmare life of prostitution. Some communes evolved into cults that would later spawn monsters like Charles Manson.

Then came the watershed year of 1970.

In February 1970 news of the My Lai massacre became public and ignited widespread outrage. In April President Nixon, who had previously committed to a planned withdrawal, announced that U.S. forces had entered Cambodia. Within minutes of the televised statement, protesters took to the streets with renewed focus. Then, on 4 May, Ohio National Guardsmen fired on a group of student protesters at Kent State University, killing four and wounding sixteen. Death, previously distant, was now close at hand. New groups-Nobel science laureates, State Department officers, the American Civil Liberties Union-all openly called for withdrawal. Congress began threatening the Nixon administration with challenges to presidential authority. When the New York Times published the first installment of the Pentagon Papers on 13 June 1971, Americans became aware of the true nature of the war. Stories of drug trafficking, political assassinations, and indiscriminate bombings led many to believe that military and intelligence services had lost all accountability. Antiwar sentiment, previously tainted with an air of anti-Americanism, became instead a normal reaction against zealous excess. Dissent dominated America; the antiwar cause had become institutionalized. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/antiwar.html

     Protest music of those years illustrated the tension between the “haves” of the Establishment and the ‘have nots” of the hippies and, increasingly, the lower and middle class who were coming to realize that their sons were the ones dying in the jungles of Vietnam and not the children of the upper crust. Songs of protest began to make the charts and find airplay on AM radio stations instead of being relegated to the counterculture FM stations. Record company executives began to smell money, yet continued to fear backlash if the public went back to perceiving anti-war as anti-American.

Fortunate Son by John Fogarty,  Credence Clearwater Revival 1969 John Fogerty told Rolling Stone : " I remember you would hear about Tricia Nixon and David Eisenhower. . . . You got the impression that these people got preferential treatment, and the whole idea of being born wealthy or being born powerful seemed to really be coming to the fore in the late-Sixties confrontation of cultures.” ⁽⁸⁾

Give Peace a Chance by John Lennon, the Plastic Ono Band 1969 was John Lennon’s first solo single. “Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout…” all these things and all these people, but “…all we are saying is give peace a chance…” Lennon distilled the words of the warring factions of the movement, the pundits, the media and the public into a chorus that would ring throughout the rest of the Vietnam War protests and beyond.

One Tin Soldier, by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, Original Caste 1969 This tune is noteworthy in that it was more of a pop song than a counterculture song. The composers had already written for the likes of Dusty Springfield, The Four Tops and Glen Campbell. ⁽⁹⁾

To Susan on the West Coast Waiting by Donovan Leitch 1969 Donovan returned to his folk music roots and their gentle form of protest with this love letter. Written in the voice of a soldier stationed in Vietnam, the song expressed longing for the woman left to wait, with assurances that he was still the same person despite his location and present occupation.

American Woman Guess Who 1970 The song was the result of an onstage instrumental jam; the lyrics polished after their original improvisation. The driving beat was typical of rock & roll but the lyrics, coming from a Canadian band, proved troublesome. Was this a song about a particular American girl, or American women in general? Was it really anti-American, the “American Woman” referring to the Statue of Liberty as a symbol? “Colored lights may hypnotize…” Were these rockers that cerebral, or did things just happen? Bass player Jim Kale weighed in, “The fact was, we came from a very strait-laced, conservative, laid-back country, and all of a sudden, there we were in Chicago, Detroit, New York -- all these horrendously large places with their big city problems. After that one particularly grinding tour, it was just a real treat to go home and see the girls we had grown up with. Also, the war was going on, and that was terribly unpopular. We didn't have a draft system in Canada, and we were grateful for that. A lot of people called in anti-American, but it wasn't really. We weren't anti-anything. John Lennon once said that the meanings of all songs come after they are recorded. Someone else has to interpret them." ⁽¹⁰⁾ Regardless, when the Guess Who was invited to play at the White House, First Lady Pat Nixon requested that “American Woman” not be played. #3 on Billboard’s Top 100 for 1970

War Pigs, Black Sabbath 1970 is another song that started in a “jam” context. The original title, in keeping with the band’s image, was Walpurgis, the lyrics concerned with a witch’s sabbath. The Vertigo Records execs, however, preferred that the emphasis should be less satanic, so the new lyrics were written. ⁽¹¹⁾  The Black Sabbath members themselves do not agree on meaning of the lyrics. Geezer Butler, bass player, stated that the song was  “"totally against the Vietnam War, about how these rich politicians and rich people start all the wars for their benefit and get all the poor people to die for them." ⁽¹²  The “Prince of Darkness” himself, Ozzie Osbourne, demurred,  claiming that the group "knew nothing about Vietnam. It's just an anti-war song."⁽¹³⁾ 

Subsequent “generations” of rock music fans continue to revere the piece as featuring some of the best guitar work anywhere, with kudos to Black Sabbath’s lead guitarist, Tony Iommi

War by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, Edwin Starr 1970 This song was released on the Temptations’ “Psychedelic Shack” album by Motown records in March of 1970. Motown execs were conflicted when requests for release of the track a a single came pouring in. They were concerned about offending the more conservative fans of the group. The decision was made for Starr to record the single version, which was re-arranged in keeping with Starr’s funky, shouting style. The single was released in June of 1970. These lyrics were unambiguous in their call-and-response. “War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing,!” The music industry had finally captured the essence of ant-war sentiment. #5 on Billboard’s Top 100 of 1970

Ohio by Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 1970 This single was released in May of 1970, just weeks after the May 4 killing of four Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard. Controversy arose surrounding the sincerity of the group’s decision to record and release it so soon after the event that provided the inspiration. It was deemed a heartfelt, direct response to a tragedy by some. Others, more cynical, called it opportunistic. Examination of the lyrics could support either evaluation. On one hand, Young’s lyrics could be viewed as “slapped together,” the best imagery being the first line, “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming…” On the other hand, that very banality could be written off as unvarnished, unpolished emotion. After 40-plus years, the flip side, Stephen Stills’ beautiful dirge “Find the Cost of Freedom,” could be posited as a more fitting tribute to the fallen at home and overseas, but the emotion was too raw at the time for this connection to be made.

Chicago by Graham Nash was written in support of the “Chicago 8,” (later the “Chicago 7”) co-defendents on trial for conspiracy after the 1968 Democratic Convention.  In contrast to the

almost instant release of “Ohio,” this song was not released on disc until 1971 when the actual trial had ended in February of 1970.  The message was undiluted, though, the emotion still fresh. “So your brother’s bound and gagged, and they’ve chained him to a chair…” referred to defendant Bobby Seales, but was felt symbolically by anti-war protesters who felt overwhelmed by the power of the “Establishment,” their voices seeming to go unheard as the war continued. Nash’s pleading with someone unnamed to come to Chicago was for a clear purpose that rang throughout the antiwar protests from the beginning,

“We can change the world…it’s dying to get better…”

©1969 Graham Nash

Conclusion

     Music in America is both a creative and a commercial matter. During the years of the protests against the Vietnam War, songs of protest evolved along with public sentiment against the war. Beginning almost tentatively, these songs picked up the anger and intensity of the antiwar movement as it grew.  Antiwar music also became more diverse as the protests continued. This era saw the introduction of FM “underground” radio stations that played counterculture music including antiwar pieces. This sidestepped the commercial AM stations. By the end of the war, the commercial entities of both record companies and radio stations had aligned themselves with public opinion and antiwar music entered the mainstream.

Song List

Bob Dylan, it’s a hard rain’s gonna fall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkRef6RT9q0
1971 Concert for Bangladesh

Where have all the Flowers Gone
Kinston Trio 1962 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy_6Enxa-Lo
Pete Seeger 1968, Stockholm  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=686sBxeUm14&feature=related

Blowin in the Wind, Peter, Paul & Mary 1963
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8U6Oh9uSY8 1971 antiwar march Washington D.C.

Turn, Turn, Turn, the Byrds 1965
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odj2kNn3_v0

Universal Soldier
Buffy St. Marie (1968 interview and song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGWsGyNsw00
Donovan 1965
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC9pc4U40sI

Eve of Destruction, Barry McGuire 1965
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwYNWYaS3bI

For What it’s Worth, Buffalo Springfield 1967
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itThTYZ1e4E

Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag, Country Joe and the Fish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HVACPv_KFw&feature=related

Talkin’ Vietnam Potluck Blues, Tom Paxton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU7NEOBnMVI

Talkin’ Vietnam Potluck Blues, Tom Paxton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU7NEOBnMVI

Alice’s Restaurant, Arlo Guthrie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8DtpdXZi0M

Unknown Soldier, the Doors 1968
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czaF7tVTfN8

Revolution, the Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imb4tYOk8GE

Fortunate Son, Creedence Clearwater Revival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft749fC-1p4

Give Peace a Chance, the Plastic Ono Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlKX-m17C7U&ob=av3n

One Tin Soldier, Coven (animation )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mASbP3Eq1VE

To Susan on the West Coast Waiting, Donovan 1969
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VmCmXwuDoU&feature=related

American Woman, the Guess Who 1970
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fzk0Fefq4w

War Pigs, Black Sabbath (video from 1978)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbxfe7DMxVo

War, Edwin Starr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-2pNCZiNk
note: video lists date as 1969. All other references list release of the song as 1970

Ohio, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnOoNM0U6oc
note: video description provides historical analysis of the Kent State shootings

Find the Cost of Freedom, CSN&Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK6Nj-buTwg

Note: this video features Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, David Crosby and Graham Nash

Chicago, Crosby Stills & Nash (many years later)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4CmRB0hed8