Choose one song related to a peace, conflict, or social movement from the past 10 years. Research the social elements of the topic and explain how the songs impact influenced opinions or society. Here

Choose one song related to a peace, conflict, or social movement from the past 10 years. Research the social elements of the topic and explain how the songs impact influenced opinions or society. Here
“Takin’ Care of Business”: Rock Music, Vietnam and the Protest Myth Author(s): Kenneth J. Bindas and Craig Houston Source: The Historian , NOVEMBER 1989 , Vol. 52, No. 1 (NOVEMBER 1989), pp. 1-23 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24447600 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected] Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Historian This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms “Takin’ Care of Business”: Rock Music, Vietnam and the Protest Myth By Kenneth J. Bindas and Craig Houston* THE decade of the 1960s is remembered as an era of swirling change and social protest, with rock music, as Melody Maker announced in 1968, “the last medium not totally controlled by business interests.” Many persons, including scholars, believe the decade’s music fostered a social revolution and spoke for the ideals of young people. But does this romantic image reflect rock music’s true history during this era? On the subject of the Vietnam War, one of the most important events of the sixties, rock music and its musicians were noticeably silent. Only when the American public altered its opinion toward the war did the record industry and prominent musicians redirect their music by marketing songs with antiwar themes. While a few antiwar rock songs became popular hits, when placed in the broad context of rock music’s anti-Establishment stance from 1965 to 1974, the attention given to the Vietnam War by the rock ‘n’ roll industry was minimal.1 Since its birth rock music has been rebellious. The central themes of the new music included sex, freedom from parental authority and youth. Dominated by black-influenced rhythm and blues, rock music conflicted with society norms. As the music grew up in the sixties, its attitude, sound, beat and lyrics were at the center of the new youth culture. While the themes remained constant, after 1965 rock ‘rt’ roll adopted a vigorous anti Establishment posture. To many young people, the Establishment represented an uncaring bureaucracy, social and economic injustice, and a morality blind to anything but profit. The decade’s youth, or “technocracy’s children” according to historian Theodore Roszak, viewed their parents’ lives and cultural institu *Kenneth J. Bindas is Assistant Professor of History at West Georgia College. Craig Houston is Instructor of History at the University of Toledo. 1 “Don’t Laugh But the Next Step Could Be Pop as a Political Power,” Melody Maker, 26 October 1968, 13. This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 100 τ 90-. Ζ g 50+ M g 40-r 30, 20-t 10 The Historian CHART 1 Support for the War in Vietnam 1965-1973 Under 30 80- 30-49 Total Population Τ0- 60 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 SOURCE: American Institute of Public Opinion, as listed in John Mueller, War Presidents and Public Opinion (New York, 1973yf * D O O X S 3 R O O Y R O S D V V L P . tions as decadent and morally bankrupt. Moreover, they identified problems such as civil rights, urban decay, rural poverty and the burgeoning military-industrial complex as bastard children of the Establishment’s culture.2 Many who rejected the Establishment’s insensitivity and materialism attempted to create and identify themselves with their own culture. This counterculture encompassed not only cultural but political ideals as well, thus combining “new ways of CHART 1 Support for the War in Vietnam 1965-1973 100-r 90-. 20-t 10 Under 30 80t 30-49 Total Population TO”” 60-t- 40-r 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 2Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter-Culture (Garden City, N.Y., 1969yf F K D S . This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam CHART 2 Top-Selling Antiwar Rock Songs 1965-1974 10 τ « ω m S D Ζ 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 Ί974 SOURCE: Billboard Magazine. Antiwar rock songs comprised less than 1.5yb R I W K e approximately 1000 singles to make Billboard’s yearly top 100 chart, 1965-74. living with fundamental social and political change.” For the creators of the new social order, the counterculture represented an escape from parental and Establishment control. The socio cultural wing of the youth movement looked to the writings of Norman O. Brown, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey in their near mystic pursuit of Dionysian satisfaction. Rarely did this group involve itself in more volatile movement activities. Instead, its credo became “Tune in, Turn on and Drop out.” Long hair, love beads and an assortment of paraphernalia became emblems of the generation, resembling a rite of passage. In contrast, the political New Left formed the rhetorical backbone of their protest around the philosophies of Herbert Marcuse, C. Wright Mills, Paul Goodman, Michael Harrington and others, and were committed to “restructuring the social order.” Many of the political radicals also adopted the lifestyle associated with CHART 2 Top-Selling Antiwar Rock Songs 1965-1974 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 ‘1974 This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian counterculture resistance, making it difficult for the Establish ment to distinguish between social and political radicals.3 Both the social and political wings of the counterculture identified rock music as their mouthpiece. Like all musical forms, rock ‘n’ roll provoked its listeners’ feelings; but rock lyrics amplified the emotional response and participation of its audience. The scholar Simon Frith has argued that “lyrics constantly reflect and reinforce whatever ethos society currently considers desirable.” For example, Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” detailed the generation’s isolation from the Establishment as well as their alienation from each other: “battle lines being drawn, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”4 Rock ‘n’ roll attacked all aspects of the Establishment, becoming a countercultural institution. The Rolling Stones ridiculed in “Satisfaction” the materialism and conformity that the post-1945 era spawned. The Beatles’ albums after 1965 contained attacks on the established order: “Piggies,” “Fool on a Hill,” “Taxman” and “Eleanor Rigby,” to name a few. The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, the Who and many other groups attacked established attitudes toward sex (“Hello, I Love You,” “Light My Fire”yf W R Z D U G W K H X V H R I G U X J V W R D F K L H Y H S H D F H R f mind (“Purple Haze,” “Magic Carpet Ride,” “Mother’s Little Helper”yf D Q G W R Z D U G V R F L H W V L Q D E L O L W W R X Q G H U V W D Q G V L [ W L H V ‘ young people (“My Generation,” “Manic Depression”yf 5 Rock, as a commodity, marketed these anti-Establishment themes in order to capture the consumer whose ideals it mirrored. To many, the Vietnam War represented everything corrupt, mad and entrenched about the Establishment. Wayne Hampton, in Guerrilla Minstrels, believed the Vietnam War served as the “major catalyst to mass protest,” and further, that the opposition to the war involved two forms: the dedicated movement and the less participatory counterculture. To both branches of this New Left, the Vietnam War was the Establishment. Logically, rock music should have exploited what appeared to be a huge antiwar, anti-Establishment market.6 :,Kenneth Kenniston, Youth and Dissent (New York, 1971yf $ O O H Q – . Matusow, The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York, 1984yf . 4Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth,” Retrospective, ATCO SD 33 283,1969. Simon Frith quoted in “Why Do Songs Have Words?” in Aaron Levine White, ed., Lost in Music: Culture, Style and the Musical Event (London, 1987yf . 5Wayne Hampton, Guerrilla Minstrels (Knoxville, 1986yf . 6 Ibid., 14. This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam Investigations over the past fifteen years into rock’s antiwar leanings have developed two schools of thought. The first argues that antiwar rock was not’ an immediate commercial success. These analysts, such as Terry Anderson, R. Serge Denisoff, Steve Chappie and Reebee Garofalo, view antiwar rock music as a marginal commercial product until 1970, when it was co-opted into mainstream American thought. This school believes, how ever, that the few songs released helped to develop an antiwar opposition.7 The other camp, dominated by the popularizers of sixties’ culture, insists that antiwar rock was always in vogue and, more importantly, influential. Led by David Pichaske, Herbert London and Robert Pielke, they have argued that antiwar rock music was in the vanguard of 1960s political consciousness. But these analysts have ignored the basic premise of the rock industry; as Abbie Hoffman recognized, “loving rock music just makes you a good consumer. It was only ‘revolu tionary’ because we said it was.”8 ‘Included in this group are the following works: Jerome L. Rodnitzky, “The Decline of Contemporary Protest Music,” Popular Music and. Society 1 (Fall 1971yf : 44-50; Rodnitzky, Minstrels of the Dawn (Chicago, 1976yf 0 D W W K H Z 5 L Q D O G L , “Olive-Drab Rebels: Military Organizing During the Vietnam Era,” Radical America 8 (May-June 1974yf 6 W H Y H & K D S S L H D Q G 5 H H E H H * D U R I D O R 5 R F N D Q d Roll is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music Industry (Chicago, 1977yf * U H L O 0 D U F X V $ 1 H Z $ Z D N H Q L Q J L Q 7 K H 6 R X Q G V R I 6 R F L D O & K D Q J H H G 5 . Serge Denisoff and Richard A. Peterson (Chicago, 1972yf 5 D O S K * O H D V R Q , “A Cultural Revolution,” in Denisoff and Peterson, Sounds of Social Change, 137-46; Carl Betz, The Story of Rock (New York, 1973yf ‘ H Q L V R I I 6 L Q J D 6 R Q J R f Social Significance (Bowling Green, Ohio, 1983yf 5 D O S K ( . Q X S S $ 7 L P H ) R r Every Purpose Under Heaven: Rhetorical Dimensions of Protest Music,” The Southern Speech Communication Journal 46 (Summer 1981yf & K D U O L e Clark, “When Rock Went to War: Looking Back on Vietnam and Its Music,” Veteran, February 1986,10-23; Terry H. Anderson, “American Popular Music and the War in Vietnam,” Peace and Change 11 (July 1986yf . “See B. Lee Cooper and Larry S. Haverkos, “The Image of American Society in Pop Music: A Search for Identification and Values,” Social Studies 64 (December 1973yf ( O O H Q 6 D Q G H U 7 U L S V 1 H Z < R U N f; Jane Earle Johnson, “Rock Music as a Reflector of Social Attitudes Among Youth in America During the 1960s,” (Ph.D. diss., St. Louis University, 1978yf * D U & % X U Q V , “Utopia and Dystopia in Popular Songs: Rhetorical Visions in the United States, 1963-1972,” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1981yf ; Donald W. Turner, “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore: The Rhetorical Potential of Anti War Song Lyrics During the Vietnam Conflict for the New Left,” (Ph.D. diss., Pennsylvania State University, 1982yf 5 R E H U t Rosenstone, ” ‘The Times They Are-A Changin’: The Music of Protest,” Annals of the American Academy 382 (March 1969yf % X U Q V 7 U H Q G V L Q / U L F V L Q W K e Annual Top Twenty Songs in 1963-1972,” Popular Music and Society 9 (1983yf : This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian Even though the general public endorsed the Vietnam War in the early years, rock music failed to capitalize on that sentiment, repeating the pattern of pop music from previous conflicts. America’s entry into World War I was the only exception in the twentieth century, as it engendered an outpouring of patriotic compositions led by George M. Cohen’s “Over There” and Irving Berlin’s “It’s Your Country and My Country.” The outbreak of World War II did not summon forth an avalanche of popular prowar music, despite governmental pressure. Musicologists Peter Hesbacher and Les Waffen identified twenty-seven war songs and all expressed “positive attitudes” about the conflict. However, these songs comprised only seven percent of the total top ten songs for the period, and after 1943 few patriotic songs reached popular chart audiences. This trend continued during the Korean War, an era almost devoid of patriotic popular music. Only four prowar songs emerged during the first two years of the crisis, representing .9 percent of the total top ten chart listings for 1950-1953.9 Rock ‘n’ roll, with its anti-Establishment credo, broke from the patriotic tradition and became the first popular music to be antiwar, but was limited in sales and scope until 1970. Meanwhile, one segment of popular music—country/western—stood solidly behind America’s involvement. The key word is popular, meaning a large volume of sales. Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and others wrote many folk songs to protest the war from 1962 to 1968, but these protest ballads had limited market potential. Historian Terry Anderson has explained that for “a 25-39; Glenn A. Baker, “Rock’s Angry Voice,” Goldmine, July 1982,10-11; H. Ben Auslander, ” ‘If Ya Wanna End War and Stuff You Gotta Sing Loud’: A Survey of Vietnam Related Protest Music,” Journal of American Culture 4 (Summer 1981yf : 108-13; Don J. Hibbard and Carol Kaleialoha, The Age of Rock (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1983yf – R K Q 2 U P D Q 7 K H 3 R O L W L F V R I 5 R F N & K L F D J R f; George W. Chilcoat, “The Images of Vietnam: A Popular Music Approach,” Social Education 49 (October 1985yf ‘ D Y L G 5 3 L F K D V N H $ * H Q H U D W L R Q L Q 0 R W L R Q 3 R S X O D r Music and Culture in the Sixties (New York, 1979yf 5 R E H U W * 3 L H O N H < R X 6 D < R u Want a Revolution: Rock Music in American Culture (Chicago, 1986yf + H U E H U W , U a London, Closing the Circle: A Cultural History of the Rock Revolution (Chicago, 1984yf + D P S W R Q * X H U U L O O D 0 L Q V W U H O V $ U Q R O G 3 H U U L V 0 X V L F D V 3 U R S D J D Q G D $ U W W o Persuade, Art to Control (Westport, Conn., 1985yf $ E E L H + R I I P D Q 6 R R Q W R E H a Major Motion Picture (New York, 1980yf . 9Lester S. Levy, Give Me Yesterday: American History in Song, 1890-1920 (Norman, Okla., 1975yf * H Q H / H H V ) U R P 2 Y H U 7 K H U H W R . L O O I R U 3 H D F H ” High Fidelity, November 1968, 57-58; Peter Hesbacher and Les Waffen, “War Recordings: Incidence and Change, 1940-1980,” Popular Music and Society 8 (1982yf . This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam generation raised on rock ‘n’ roll they were not as popular as an amplified message.” An examination of music between 1965 and 1967 reveals only seven rock songs which spoke out against the war, and only two of these made the top 100.10 During the initial years of the Vietnam War, rock ‘n’ roll remained noncommittal while the American public supported the United States’ role there. A 1965 Gallup poll revealed that sixty four percent believed America was justified in becoming involved in Vietnam. In addition, only twenty-nine percent of those Americans aged 21-29 believed “the U.S. made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam.” Antiwar sentiments remained in the minority through 1967 as more than sixty-seven percent of those polled by Gallup that year favored continued bombing of North Vietnam. The third most popular alternative to the Johnson administration’s gradual escalation policy was to “blow [the enemy] off the map.”11 Rock music reflected national sentiment by releasing few songs that mentioned the war, and fewer still that objected to it. Several factors contributed to this muzzling. As a young business enterprise, rock ‘n’ roll still faced obstacles, both financial and cultural, which prevented the medium’s flowering. The rock genre itself accounted for only fifteen percent of Columbia Records’ profits in 1964 and would not become a billion dollar industry until 1966. Songwriters and performers, usually young and part of the counterculture, turned over their products (songs and performancesyf W R V W U D L J K W U H F R U G H [ H F X W L Y H V D Q G H Q W U H S U H Q H X U s with vastly different lifestyles and opinions. Finally, antiwar music faced a limited market because fewer than twenty nine percent of those aged 21-29 opposed the war. This age group comprised almost eighty percent of the record-buying market, 10Max Geltman, “The Hot Hundred: A Surprise,” National Review, 6 September 1966, 896; Hesbacher and Waffen, “War Recordings,” 81; Anderson, “American Popular Music,” 54. See also Baker, “Recording the Right,” Goldmine, November 1981, 176-78; Jens Lund, “Fundamentalism, Racism, and Political Reaction in Country Music,” in Denisoff and Peterson, Sounds of Social Change, 79-91. The term rock is used here as defined by Betz in Story of Rock, viii: “music rather different from Jazz or traditional Folk … to which it is related . . . [but folk] did not originate [on record]. For the most part, [it] originated and developed through live performances. Rock . . . has generally done the opposite. Record [sales] are the music’s initial medium.” “George Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935-1971, 3 vols. (New York, 1972yf 6 K H O G R Q $ S S O H W R Q 7 K H 3 X E O L F 7 K H 3 R O O V D Q G 7 K e War,” Vietnam Perspectives 1 (May 1966yf H 0 6 F K U L H E H U $ P H U L F D n Politics, Votes and Public Opinion,” Politics 10 (November 1975yf . This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian and their prowar attitude toward Vietnam lessened the likelihood of their purchasing antiwar records.12 Rock also faced opposition from the federal government, which controlled the primary entertainment mediums of television and radio. The Federal Communications Commission (FCCyf restricted air play of some rock songs, warning radio stations that they could face legal action for airing lyrics deemed inappropriate for broadcast. Radio and TV stations were unwilling to accept any controversial rock songs, especially antiwar songs, for fear of FCC retribution. In contrast, by 1966 non-rock popular songs in support of the war had captured a significant portion of the record-buying public. Sgt. Barry Sadler’s “Ballad of the Green Berets” led this group, becoming the top-selling song of 1966.13 While a handful of songs during the period 1965-1968 opposed the war and achieved modest commercial success, they were in direct contrast to the prevailing acceptance of the war. The most popular of these, Barry McGuire’s social commentary “Eve of Destruction,” attacked all aspects of the Establishment from racism to war.14 Even though attempts were made to ban the song from the airways—ABC affiliates and other top forty stations refused to play “Eve of Destruction”—it still attained the number one-song status and remained in the top twenty for eight weeks.15 12Lees, “From Over There,’ ” 60; Godfrey Hodgson, America in Our Time (Garden City, N.Y., 1976yf & K D S S L H D Q G * D U R I D O R 5 R F N D Q G 5 R O O 3 D X l Hirsch, The Structure of the Popular Music Industry (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1967yf . “Turner, ” Ί Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore,’ ” 4; Tom Phillips, “Vietnam Blues,” New York Times Magazine, 8 October 1967, 12. Excellent examples are the censorship of Pete Seeger and the Smothers Brothers for their antiwar presen tations on television. Sadler’s song placed twenty-first in the top-selling songs of the 1960s. See Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (New York, 1985yf , 552. I4Barry McGuire, “Eve of Destruction,” Dunhill 4009, 1965. Antiwar titles were taken from a number of sources, including Baker, “Rock’s Angry Voice,” 10-11; Chilcoat, “The Images of Vietnam,” 601-603; Clark, “When Rock Went to War,” 10-23; Cooper, A Resource Guide to Themes in Contemporary American Song Lyrics, 1950-1985 (Westport, Conn., 1986yf ‘ H Q L V R I I 6 R Q J V R I 3 U R W H V W : D U & Peace: A Bibliography and Discography (Santa Barbara, Calif., 1973yf 7 K H D E R Y e sources include a number of marginal listings, but a careful listening of these reveals they do not qualify as antiwar songs, such as “American Woman” by the Guess Who. Only those songs which explicitly mention war and its evils are included. See also Hesbacher and Waffen, “War Recordings.” “Denisoff, Sing a Song, 37; Burns, “Utopia,” 43. Sales figures are taken from Peter E. Berry, The Hits Just Keep on Comin’ (Syracuse, 1977yf ) U D Q N + R I I P D Q , comp., The Cashbox Singles Charts, 1950-1981 (Metuchen, N.J., 1983yf : K L W E X U Q , Billboard Book; Stephen Nugent and Charlie Gillett, Rock Almanac: Top Twenty This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam No antiwar song would surpass McGuire’s 1965 hit. Several more artists tried to capture the small antiwar market, mostly in the new folk-rock genre. Donovan recorded Buffy St. Marie’s compo sition entitled “Universal Soldier” in 1965, and the song reached number forty-five in the top 100. Two years later he released the more direct “The War Drags On,” in which he sang “Dan . . . went out to fight the good fight in South Viet Nam” but never returned; the song never reached the top 100. Simon and Garfunkle released “Seven O’Clock News/Silent Night” in 1966 for Columbia Records. At the end of the song they quoted Richard Nixon’s admonishment of antiwar protesters, calling them “the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.” It also failed to make the pop charts. The more provocative the song, it seemed, the fewer the sales.16 Some songs from this period, despite low sales figures, would later become cult classics. In 1967 Country Joe McDonald and the Fish recorded “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.” The song, while a favorite today among the Vietnam generation, received little air play and sold few copies before the group’s appearance at Woodstock and the subsequent album and movie about the event. The group’s Barry Melton and Joe McDonald later recognized that their music had become concurrently commercialized and trivialized to the point where they were “selling peace . . . for $3.98.”17 The year 1968 represented a transition in popular attitudes toward the American presence in Southeast Asia. The Tet Offensive of February dimmed forever General William West moreland’s “light at the end of the tunnel.” In the midst of this debacle, nearly sixty-one percent of those Americans polled considered themselves “hawks,” while seventy percent advocated the continued bombing of North Vietnam. Two months later, in early April, Gallup released figures which for the first time indicated American dissatisfaction with the war. The “hawk/ dove” ratio was even at forty-one percent, and among those 21-29 years old, forty-two percent considered themselves “doves” and forty-one percent still thought of themselves as “hawks.” In American and British Singles and Albums of the 50s, 60s, and 70s (Garden City, N.Y., 1978yf . 16Donovan, “Universal Soldier,” Hickory 1338/Capitol 5504,1965, and “The War Drags On,” Hickory 1417, 1967; Simon and Garfunkel, “Seven O’Clock News/Silent Night,” Columbia 11669,1966. Clark, “When Rock Went to War,” 12. “Country Joe McDonald and the Fish, ” ‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die’ Rag,” Vanguard 79266, 1967. Turner, “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore,” 180. McDonald and Barry Melton interviewed in “Country Joe and The Fish: An Interview,” Jazz and Pop, November 1968, 37. This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian August the Democratic National Convention in Chicago exploded with a massive demonstration and riot which seemed to typify a year which had witnessed the senseless assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.18 Rock ‘n’ roll music, as a commodity of the marketplace subject to fluctuations in consumer demand, responded to the war’s wavering popularity by releasing a few more antiwar songs. More amplified rock began to speak out for reasons of both culture and commerce. After 1967, the music industry changed as the musical traditions of folk, soul, blues and rock blended and merged, and technology in amplification improved. Listeners and bands formed a closer bond by identifying themselves as outsiders and members of a counterculture. Some equate this post-1967 music with revolution, but in reality the transformation was actually a business decision, as profit-oriented businessmen and corpora tions came to realize the market possibilities of rock music. R. Peter Strauss, president of Strauss Broadcasting Group, told an interviewer in 1966 that the purpose of a radio station was to play the most popular music, regardless of its content. Popular songs meant more listeners, which in turn meant greater advertising revenue.19 Taking the growing disillusionment with the Vietnam War into consideration, the rock music industry in 1968 released five antiwar songs, as many as in the previous three years combined, with four of these reaching the top 100. Simon and Garfunkle’s “Scarborough Fair/Canticle,” in which the antiwar message remained hidden amidst a swirling interchange between the singers, hit number eleven. In contrast Bob Seger’s message in “2+2=?” left little to the imagination, but only reached number ninety. Eric Burdon and the Animals released the most explicit and best known of the year’s antiwar songs in “Sky Pilot.” Although extremely long, which made it rather unsuitable for a.m. radio play, it still remained in the top 100 for sixteen weeks, peaking at number sixteen.20 The year 1968 also signaled rock musicians’ transition to album-oriented rock. These artists asserted more control over 18Gallup, Gallup Poll 3:2106,2124-25. For a good first-hand description of the disillusionment of 1968 see Raymond Mungo, Famous Long Ago: My Life and Hard Times with the Liberation News Service (Boston, 1970yf . 19Hirsch, Structure, 61. Chappie and Garofolo,Rock and Roll, is the standard by which to understand the economic underpinnings of the rock industry. 20Simon and Garfunkel, “Scarborough Fair/Canticle,” Columbia 4-44465, 1968; The Bob Seger System, “2+2=?”, Capitol 2143, 1968; Eric Burdon and the Animals, “Sky Pilot,” The Twain Shall Meet, MGM K-13939,1968. 10This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam their now-profitable product and assumed the tasks of composing, arranging and producing many of their albums. In addition, they attempted to give generational relevance to their material in order to reach the audience in a direct manner. Songs released on albums, which contained from ten to fourteen other songs, benefited from the overall market reception of the long-playing record. An example was “Draft Morning,” included on the Byrds’ 1968 album The Notorious Byrd Brothers, which reached many listeners. The Doors’ “Unknown Soldier. ” released as part of their popular Waiting for the Sun album, broke into the top 100 singles chart and rose to number twenty-two.21 The antiwar songs that reached a significant level of popularity from 1965 to 1968 contained several general themes. The first was a sense of confusion felt by youth over the war. Most of the songs failed to attack American involvement, yet they revealed a sense of helplessness and viewed the war as an absurd creation of the Establishment’s military madness. The Byrds in “Draft Morning” detailed the plight of a young draftee who left his warm bed to report for duty even though he did not agree with the war. His only protest was the impotent question: “Why should it happen?” Jim Morrison of the Doors gave a stark interpretation of the anonymous masses giving their lives for an ambiguous cause. All that awaited the “Unknown Soldier,” he cried, was a grave, as death proved the only peace, when finally “it’s all over, the war is over.”22 Cynicism became a way to attack the conflict. Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” admonished the political powers for sending American boys off to kill and die while denying them the right to vote. The Fugs ridiculed the mentality of the political and military elite by singing “if you don’t kill them the Chinese will, if you don’t want America to play second fiddle, kill for peace.” The cynical outlook toward the war reached its zenith with Country Joe McDonald’s ” ‘Fixin’-to-Die’-Rag,” in which he prophesied that “peace will only come when we blow them all to kingdom come.”23 21The Byrds, “Draft Morning,” The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Columbia 9575,1968; The Doors, “Unknown Soldier,” Waiting for the Sun, Elektra 45628, 1968. Charles Reich, The Greening of America (New York, 1970yf V H H D O V o Andrew Bailey, “Albums Overshadow Singles as Key to Talent’s Hit Status in British Market,” Variety, 27 August 1969, 51. “The Byrds, “Draft Morning”; the Doors, “Unknown Soldier.” “Country Joe and the Fish, ” Ί Feel-Ldke-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die’ Rag”; the Fugs, “Kill for Peace,” ESP 1028,1966, and “War Song,” Tenderness Junction, Reprise S6280. 11This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian In addition to feelings of cynicism and powerlessness, some musicians were conscious of the war’s grim toll on both individuals and society. Part of this awareness involved their understanding that this war—Vietnam—was different from previous American wars and that any American father could “be the first one on [his] block to have [his] son come home in a box.” The songs identify the jungle war, the yellow peril and the manner of fighting a modern war. Eric Burdon’s “Sky Pilot,” drawing upon World War IPs “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” for its title character, reverberated with the sounds of modern warfare— helicopters, bombs and machine-gun fire. Country Joe simply identified the war’s site, “the next stop is Vietnam,” while Bob Seger lamented that his friend was “buried in the mud in some foreign jungle land.” The most explicit indictment of the war came from the Fugs, who in “Kill for Peace” sang that “the only gook an American can trust is a gook that’s got his yellow head bust.”24 Perhaps the most disturbing theme was the loss of faith in government, in humanity and finally in God. The contradictory words and deeds of the government concerning the Vietnam War destroyed respect for the Establishment’s values and institutions. According to the government, in the words of Bob Seger, “You say he died for freedom,” but to Seger the war’s purpose was transparent: “he died to save your lives” and to protect American political prestige. The young soldier could not be faulted because he was only an international pawn in the deadly game between communism and democracy. Both Donovan and the Fugs believed the powers used the “Universal Soldier,” fearing that if South Vietnam fell to the Communists then the Vietnamese “might love the Russians.” America had to send her boys to prevent this travesty. But to many young people this justification had no factual basis, and they echoed Seger’s sentiment that “it’s the rules not the soldiers that are [the] real enemies.”25 Burdon’s “Sky Pilot” also described the loss of faith in God and government. As an agent of the U.S. government, the chaplain had a duty to convey to the young soldiers that “the fate of your country is in your young hands.” The sky pilot went on to tie America’s millennial mission to the war, asking God to “give you strength to do your job real well.” When the soldiers went off to fight, he stayed behind and prayed for a successful mission. A 24Country Joe and the Fish, ” ‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die’ Rag”; Eric Burdon and the Animals, “Sky Pilot”; Bob Seger System, “2+2=?” 25Bob Seger System, “2+2=?”; Donovan, “Univeral Soldier”; Fugs, “Kill for Peace,” and “War Song.” 12This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam young, wounded soldier, upon his return from battle, gazed at the sky pilot and quoted the Bible, “Thou shalt not kill.” The failure of God and country resulted in the loss of faith in humanity itself. The individual was helpless to stop the endless cruelty and inhumanity of war.26 Richard Nixon’s ascension to the presidency, combined with the internal convulsions that rocked America in 1968, ushered in a new era both in the Vietnam War and in the American response to it. Between 1968 and 1970 the war grew unpopular and opposition to the war gained respectability as prominent poli ticians and opinion-shaping elites began to speak out. By the end of 1969 the Gallup Poll showed that a majority of Americans (55yb f regarded themselves as doves while only a third (31yb f thought of themselves as hawks. Almost sixty percent of Americans in their twenties, the primary target for rock, considered themselves doves.27 Research has shown that opposition to the war developed more for pragmatic reasons than because of undue influence from either the media or antiwar activists, the war’s two traditional scapegoats.28 Raymond Mungo, a young antiwar activist and co-founder of the Liberation News Service, understood this in 1970: the anti-war movement . . . didn’t end the war; worst of all, though, the anti-war movement . . . has been slowly co-opted in the public mind by profoundly pro-war forces—Kennedy, McCarthy, business men, etc., people who do not disagree with the morality of murder but who see this war, this time, as unproductive.29 Objection even spread to the halls of Congress where members supporting the war attacked colleagues expressing their support for the Vietnam moratorium of October 1969. Opposition developed largely because Americans grew tired of “the failure of our substantial military investments to yield victory.”30 26Eric Burdon and the Animals, “Sky Pilot.” 27Gallup, Gallup Poll 3: 2222, 2223. Charles DeBenedetti, “On The Signifi cance of Citizen Peace Activism: America, 1961-1975,” Peace and Change 9 (Summer 1983yf 5 L Q D O G L 2 O L Y H ‘ U D E 5 H E H O V . 28George Herring, “Vietnam Remembered,” Journal of American History 73 (June 1986yf . 29Mungo, Famous, 114. 30″Huge Moratorium Protest Divides Congress,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Reports, 17 October 1969, 1971-73; Howard Schuman, “Two Sources of Antiwar Sentiment in America,” American Journal of Sociology 78 (November 1972yf . 13This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian Disenchantment with the war reached mainstream America in 1969 and paralleled rock’s emergence as pop music’s economic leader. By the end of the decade rock sales had increased to more than sixty percent of Columbia’s total sales. Throughout the record industry over $1.8 billion worth of records and tapes were sold by 1971, but not until that year did rock comprise a majority (54yb f in sales for popular music.31 Given the anti-Establishment stance of rock music, one would presume that musicians would record songs opposing the war. Yet, many rock personalities kept silent about Vietnam. Few major artists spoke out against the war. In fact, the Beatles, by far the best-known group in the 1960s, had little to say on the topic except “we don’t like war, war is wrong.” John Lennon, in a 1981 Playboy interview, acknowledged the Beatles’ lack of antiwar material, but cited the song “Revolution” as his personal antiwar statement. The reason the group failed to record antiwar songs, he said, was because their manager, Brian Epstein, “stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war.” Lennon added that Epstein even prohibited press questions about the conflict. Following Epstein’s death and with Yoko Ono’s influence, Lennon became more outspoken. In 1969 he and Yoko participated in the “Bed-in for Peace” in Amsterdam and soon thereafter recorded “Give Peace a Chance.” The Rolling Stones, the era’s other premier rock group, also failed to oppose the war. This should not surprise anyone for, according to David Harker in his One for the Money, the Stones’ “inability to see social unpleasantness seems almost congenital.” Thus two of the era’s most famous groups epitomized the attitude of rock musicians in general.32 When public support for the war declined in the late 1960s, the music industry responded to the changing climate. Russell Sanjek, public relations director for BMI records, said in 1968 that “the music business is a whore. It will make and market anything . . . that it thinks will sell.” The years 1969-1974 witnessed a boom in antiwar sentiment, and the release of thirty four antiwar songs reflected the change. Of that group twenty-six 31Gillett, Making Tracks: Atlantic Records and the Growth of a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry (New York, 1974yf & K D S S L H D Q G * D U R I D O R 5 R F N D Q G 5 R O O ; “The Revolutionary Hype,” Time, 3 June 1969,49; CBS Market Research, cited in Chappie and Garofalo, Rock and Roll, 185. 32Robert E. Dallos, “Beatles Strike Serious Note in Press Talk,” New York Times, 23 August 1966. John Lennon interviewed by David Sheff, September 1980, in G. Barry Golson, ed., The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (New York, 1981yf + D P S W R Q * X H U U L O O D 0 L Q V W U H O V ‘ D Y L G + D U N H U 2 Q e for the Money: Politics and Popular Song (London, 1980yf . 14This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam reached the top 100. The antiwar stance had found a market, and industry analyst Jonathan Eisen best explained this change, describing the record business as “a billion dollar a year industry, [which] lives through the propagation of transient tastes and meaningless crazes.”33 Nevertheless, some artists did write bolder lyrics about the war. But as the number of songs opposing the war increased, their numbers remained minute in comparison to the total number of popular songs released. John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance,” which rose to number eleven in the top 100, did not name the Vietnam War, but its message about conflict was obvious. More popular and explicit in its opposition, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s (CCRyf ) R U W X Q D W H 6 R Q G H W D L O H G W K H Q D W L R Q V L Q H T X L W D E O e draft policy. “Fortunate Son,” CCR’s fourth gold single, rose to number three and remained on the charts for ten weeks.34 Other more radical—albeit less profitable—songs examined the role of draft resisters and evaders. Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Sweet Cherry Wine,” which rose to number seven, sang about the military’s displacement of God as mankind’s judge. Using religious invocation, the group warned: Listen now we ain’t marchin’ anymore. No we ain’t gonna fight, Only God has the right to decide who’s to live and die.35 At the same time, Steppenwolf launched a scathing attack upon America and her institutions in their album Monster, which featured “Draft Résister,” a song supporting young men who were evading conscription. The group labeled as “traitors to humanity” all who refused to join the antiwar movement and, if necessary, dodge the draft. The song did not make the popular charts.36 When Richard Nixon announced in May 1970 that the war had been extended into Cambodia, the spread of American military involvement reignited antiwar opposition. Once again the Establishment’s actions spoke louder than its words; Nixon’s drive for peace included expanding the war. Almost immediately protests flared with demonstrations occurring throughout the 33Lees, “From Over There,’ ” 60; Jonathan Eisen, The Age of Rock (New York, 1969yf [ L L L . 34John Lennon, “Give Peace a Chance,” Apple 1809, 1969; Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son,” Fantasy 634,1969. 35Tommy James and The Shondells, “Sweet Cherry Wine,” Roulette 7039, 1969. 36Steppenwolf, “Draft Résister,” Monster, Dunhill DS-50066,1969. 15 This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian United States. One such demonstration took place at Kent State University, where amidst the confusion the Ohio National Guard killed four students. Shortly thereafter Crosby-Stills-Nash & Young (CSNYyf U H O H D V H G W K H L U X Q V H W W O L Q J 2 K L R 7 K H V R Q J s author, Neil Young, regretted that “I had to write this song. It’s ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students.” While peaking at number fourteen, it encountered some resistance from radio stations because of its blatant description of the Vietnam War’s effect on American lives at home. A major hit for CSNY, “Ohio” became the long-awaited popular antiwar anthem, even though it never mentioned the war.37 Between 1970 and 1971 a majority (56yb f of Americans viewed the war as a mistake and sixty-one percent advocated early withdrawal. Motown Records, the General Motors of rock, decided to cash in on the public’s new outlook toward war and society and, according to scholar Gary Burns, “belatedly discover[ed] a social consciousness.” Artists such as the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Freda Payne and Edwin Starr now understood that “protest songs were commodities manufactured for profit,” just like love songs. According to Starr, war destroyed all aspects of life and was good for “absolutely nothing.” Starr’s “War” remained in the top-selling slot for three weeks and became the first antiwar song from Motown to climb to number one. Starr and Motown president Barry Gordy, upon seeing the success of “War,” released “Stop the War Now,” but it failed to achieve its predecessor’s high rating, reaching only twenty-four in the charts. The Temptations, who helped write “War,” also contributed a number one selection in “Ball of Confusion.” The 1970 song concluded “end the war, and the band played on.” Marvin Gaye and Freda Payne also had top-selling discs with lyrics expressing a desire for the war’s end. In his number one hit “What’s Goin’ On,” Gaye, assuming the persona of a young man, told his father “we don’t need to escalate . . . war is not the answer.” Payne also viewed the war in personal terms, believing the men going to fight in Vietnam were being wasted.38 37Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Ohio,” Atlantic 2740, 1970; Neil Young quoted on record jacket, Decade, Warner 3RS 2257, 1976. Charles E. Fager, “Chilling Outrage,” The Christian Century, 12 August 1970,999; “Banned Ohio’ released here,” Melody Maker, 25 July 1970, 3. 38Gallup, Gallup Poll 3: 2254, 2316; Edwin Starr, “War,” Gordy 7101, 1970 and “Stop the War Now,” Gordy 7104,1970; The Temptations, “Ball of Confusion,” Gordy GS954,1970; Marvin Gaye, “What’s Goin’ On,” Tamla TS-310,1971; Freda Payne, “Bring the Boys Home,” Invictus 9092, 1971. Albert Goldman, “The Emergence of Rock,” in The Sixties, ed. Gerald Howard (New York, 1982yf ; Burns, “Utopia,” 147. 16This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam The popularity of antiwar rock songs peaked between 1970 and 1971 with the release of twenty-two such compositions, fifteen of which made the weekly top 100 singles chart. CCR released two songs in 1970 with underlying antiwar themes, and both became top ten sellers. Although “Run Through the Jungle” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain” never mention Vietnam, they “burned vivid images into the enlisted man’s mind,” according to many Vietnam veterans. John Lennon continued his antiwar stance with the allegorical fantasy “Imagine.” Reaching the number two slot, the song asked the idealistic question “what if?” Within Lennon’s Utopian dream, residents of the world would abandon the notion of war. In 1970 former Army paratrooper Jimi Hendrix released a song dedicated to “all the soldiers fighting in Vietnam,” and used his guitar as a “Machine Gun” to show his solidarity with the troops. Hendrix’s “Izabella,” released in 1973 after his death, described a soldier’s longing to hold his girlfriend instead of his gun. Graham Nash, on his best-selling 1971 album Songs for Beginners, lamented that “military madness was killing the country.”39 Aside from the established rock acts which publicly dissented from the war, several marginal groups released albums with antiwar selections, but none reached the charts. The Association sang “Requiem for the Masses” on their album Insight Out, dedicated to those who had died in Vietnam. Steve Miller sang the “Jackson-Kent Blues” for the young people from the two campuses who had been killed during the demonstrations. Sea Train’s “Marblehead Messenger” asked the soldier to lay down his weapons to “put an end to war.” On Black Sabbath’s album Paranoid, the song “War Pigs” attacked the world’s military generals whose “evil minds . . . plot destruction.” Reggae star Jimmy Cliff released his version of a protest song in 1970, simply entitled “Vietnam.” He told the story of a mother who mourned her son’s loss in Southeast Asia and begged, “somebody please stop the war.”40 39CCR, “Run Through the Jungle,” Fantasy FANT-8402,1970 and “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” Fantasy 637, 1970; John Lennon, “Imagine,” Apple SW-3379, 1971; Jimi Hendrix, “Machine Gun,” Band ofGypsys, Capitol STA0472,1970, and “Izabella,” War Heroes, Reprise RS2103,1973; Graham Nash, “Military Madness,” Songs for Beginners, Atlantic SD7204,1971. Clark, “When Rock Went to War,” 13. 40The Association, “Requiem for the Masses,” Insight Out, Warner Brothers WS-1696,1970; Steve Miller Band, “Jackson-Kent Blues,” Number Five, Capitol 436,1970; Sea Train, “Marblehead Messenger,” Marblehead Messenger, Capitol SMAS-829,1971; Black Sabbath, “War Pigs,” Paranoid, Warner Brothers K-3104, 1970; Jimmy Cliff, “Vietnam,” A & M 1167,1970. 17 This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian Realizing the vast consumer potential of antiwar material, record companies now promoted “schlock.” By 1972 protest rock had become so mainstream that middle-of-the-road pop performers capitalized on the public’s disenchantment with the Vietnam adventure and questioned the war on am. radio. Unwilling to attack America’s involvement in Southeast Asia, these songs decried war in its most generic sense. Cat Stevens’ 1971 number four hit “Peace Train” referred to the war in an ambiguous way and offered little more than prayer as a solution. The Fifth Dimension sought to profit from the growing antiwar sentiment with an obscure allusion in their 1970 song “Save the Country.” Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (ELPyf P R F N H G W K H / X F N 0 D Q . [who] went to fight wars for his country … no money could save him so he laid down and died.” Melanie hit the top ten with two vague antiwar ballads in 1970, “Lay Down (Candles in the Rainyf D Q G 3 H D F H : L O O & R P H $ F F R U G L Q J W R 3 O D Q f.” Even the Beach Boys now labelled the war a waste, and in “Student Demonstration Time” they sang that “I know we’re all fed up with useless wars and racial strife.” Included on their Surf’s Up Brother album, the song represented in toto the Beach Boys’ protestations about Vietnam.41 As support for the Vietnam War diminished and the rock industry released more antiwar material, changes in musical approach took place. While the songs in this period (1969-1974yf lacked specific references to Vietnam, they criticized war in obscure ways, questioning the very concept. The situation in Vietnam now symbolized war in general, as the songs protested the moral decay of civilization: “War, what is it good for?” A significant portion of these songs failed to mention any war but attacked in vague references the polarization of the era, best exemplified by “Ohio,” “Peace Train” and “Imagine.” The graphic atrocities of war which characterized the earlier period’s lyrics became absent after 1970, as protest became vague and centered upon the need for Utopian peace. The vividness also disappeared in the music. Simple chord patterns and production techniques had dominated the earlier songs, as they included the sounds of war—planes, bombs, guns, bugles—and often featured one singer with little backup. But in the period after 1970 the 4’Cat Stevens, “PeaceTrain,” A& M1291,1971; The Fifth Dimension, “Save the Country,” Bell 6045, 1970; Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, “Lucky Man,” Cotillion 44106,1971; Melanie, “Lay Down (Candles in the Rainyf % X G G D K 0 and “Peace Will Come (According to Planyf % X G G D K % H D F K % R V , “Student Demonstration Time,” Surf’s Up Brother, Brother 6453, 1971. Eisen, Age, xii; Clark, “When Rock Went to War,” 13. 18This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam songs became “slicker.” As production technology improved, songs included complex arrangements, best exemplified by Edwin Starr’s “War” and Freda Payne’s “Bring the Boys Home.” This period’s antiwar songs included trumpets, violins, harmony backgrounds, dance rhythms and any number of other techniques designed to increase product desirability. With rock’s commercial ization of the antiwar song, it was not surprising that the period after 1969 saw an increase in released material.42 While opposition to the war appeared to increase on the record charts in 1970 and 1971, the record buyers, companies and artists did not mobilize against the war. Society assimilated and accom modated radical political messages, and then proceeded to distill and soften the rhetorical potential. John Sinclair, manager of MC-5 and chairman of the White Panther party, while believing in the revolutionary potential of rock music, understood by 1970 that the “music was no longer wholly ours, it . . . had been turned into an entertainment form . . . and it was out of our hands.” John Gabree, writing in High Fidelity, questioned if any popular consumer-oriented art form could offer much hope to transform society. Noted music historian David Rosen, while concluding that young people felt some protest towards their society and culture, observed that record companies viewed protest music only in terms of its commercial potential—that is, profitability. Sinclair concurred, believing that the Establishment “moved in and took it over by buying off the musicians and turning music into a simple Amerikan commodity which could be bought and sold like anything else.” By 1971 Country Joe McDonald, an acknowledged antiwar musician, had become disgusted with the increased trivialization and commercialization of the war, a process he had seen sprouting three years earlier. His audiences did not “care about the ‘Fixin’-to-Die Rag,’ ” he complained, but were more excited and enthusiastic about the possibility of publicly spelling the word “fuck” in the “Fish Cheer.”43 McDonald’s gripe points to another obstacle against a true radical mobilization: most rock audiences were apolitical. Record buyers might have recognized the political and moral undertone 42Starr, “War.” 43John Sinclair, Guitar Army: Street Writings/Prison Writings (New York, 1972yf – R K Q * D E U H H 5 R F N $ U W 5 H Y R O X W L R Q R U 6 H O O 2 X W ” + L J K ) L G H O L W D Q d Musical America, August 1969; David M. Rosen, Protest Songs in America (Westlake Village, Calif., 1972yf 6 L Q F O D L U * X L W D U $ U P ‘ D Y L G ) H O W R Q D Q d Tony Glover, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Country Joe McDonald,” Rolling Stone, 27 May 1971, 37. 19 This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian of the antiwar songs and albums they purchased, as Rolling Stone’s John Morthland observed in 1970; but few became “sufficiently motivated to take actions against the war,” he concluded. Young people often bought and listened to albums and attended concerts as a means to escape the war’s reality, for as Jerome Rodnitzky concluded, “rock concerts provided musical performances to see and hear, but hardly to think about.”44 The blame for the failure of rock music to develop a political and moral conscience must rest with artists and record companies, as well as consumers. The objective of any performer in the record industry is to reach the greatest number of people by selling records. John Fogerty of CCR believed it foolish not to be commercial. “Success,” he noted, “means a lot of people accepted what you do.” Joe McDonald also realized the necessity of commercialization. “We find ourselves,” he said, “in an adult world of business, of having to compete.” Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones felt powerless within the corporate structure. He believed that the Stones’ albums did not flow straight from the group to their audiences, but rather they went through the hands of some “very straight English private . . . company,” who then released what it believed the people would buy. Frank Zappa, a controversial and respected artist, understood the profit motive. In 1969 he declared that “most . . . people,” whose job it was to produce, promote and sell records to deejays and record stores, “know nothing about music, but look instead for the commercial potential.” Thus, by the end of 1971 antiwar rock songs had become not a social protest rising up from the people, but a brief, commercially viable product.45 Top record executives who operated their enterprises on a strict financial basis began to view the war as an economic quagmire. The Columbia Broadcast System (CBSyf D Q G 5 D G L o Corporation of America (RCAyf P X O W L Q D W L R Q D O F R P S D Q L H V Z K L F h dominated the recorded music industry in the United States, supported the war throughout the Johnson presidency when the conflict’s economic effects were positive. But in the late 1960s inflation, the imbalance of payments, recession and continued student and ghetto riots took a negative social and economic toll 44John Morthland, “Kent Aftermath: Teen Turmoil Poison at B.O.,” Rolling Stone, 25 June 1970, 8; Rodnitzky, Minstrels, 140. 45 John Fogerty, interviewed by Ralph Gleason in Rolling Stone Interviews, 2 vols. (New York, 1971-1973yf & K H * X H Y D U D U H Y R O X W L R Q < L S S L H V K L S S L H V , fascists, LSD and Country Joe,” Melody Maker, 23 November 1968, 11; Rolling Stone Interviews 2:288; “Zappa Paints a Picture of Two Worlds Divided,” Billboard, 10 May 1969, 50. 20 This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam and caused the industry’s support for the war to wane. CBS aired its dissent in 1971 with the documentary, The Selling of the Pentagon. RCA, which owned the National Broadcast Company, lagged behind CBS in opposing Vietnam involvement due to its multimillion-dollar Department of Defense contracts which ran through 1974. By the early 1970s most record producers, executives and multinational corporations favored disengagement from Southeast Asia and, since they controlled the popular record culture, proceeded to disseminate profitable radicalism with an antiwar message.46 When Nixon ended American military involvement in Vietnam in January 1973, Americans sought to put the long conflict behind them, and music returned to the established marketable themes of love, romance and broken hearts. Although the war continued in Southeast Asia, American popular music, always a reflection of national attitude, ignored the distant fighting. Only seven antiwar rock songs appeared after the Paris Peace Accords. ELP re-released its 1971 single “Lucky Man,” hoping to capitalize on their own increased notoriety and the war’s end, but the song fared no better the second time around, reaching only sixty-three in the top 100. A number one song which dealt with the Civil War, “Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, described a fiancée’s anger over the death of her betrothed who had died a hero. The O’Jays released a number one single in 1973 which urged people all over the world to climb aboard the “Love Train.” Still the message of these songs was lost amidst vague generalities and popular clichés.47 A few artists continued to address the war and its ramifications for American society during the period 1972-1974, but consumer appeal proved meager and the records never became hits. Perhaps the best known of these artists was Bruce Springsteen and the Ε Street Band. On his first album Greetings from Asbury Park, Springsteen sang “Lost in the Flood,” about a returning veteran 46Chapple and Garofalo, Rock and Roll, 186-87, 220; Rodnitzky, “Decline of Contemporary Protest Music,” 49. In 1973 ten corporations accounted for 82.9yb R f U.S. domestic record sales. 47Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, “Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” ABC ABCD 824, 1974; O’Jays, “Love Train,” Philadelphia KZ-31712, 1973. Anderson, “American Popular Music,” 61-62. The authors discuss only five; the remaining two are: A1 Wilson’s “La La Peace Song” and Albert Hammond’s “The Peace maker.” Although some analysts, including Cooper and Clark, list more songs in this era, most of their listings do not qualify because of their ambiguity, such as Coven’s “One Tin Soldier,” or because they are more gospel music than rock, such as the Chi-Lite’s “There Will Never Be Peace.” 21 This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Historian alienated from society. The New York Dolls also confronted postwar guilt in “Vietnamese Baby” asking, “now that it’s over . . . what you gonna do?” But by the end of 1973 the war seemed distant to the public, and musicians, producers and record companies once again followed after the audience’s changing tastes.48 The question then becomes, why was rock not overwhelming in its opposition to the Vietnam War? The reasons, aside from the profit motive, are several. First, young people desired to remain loyal Americans, as evidenced by Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock. While many believed the Vietnam War to be wrong, they felt the blame lay with the Establishment, not the soldiers. Those fighting the war were of the same generation and held many of the same beliefs, often including an antiwar attitude. Vietnam was rock’s first war, and for musicians to attack it was tantamount to abandoning their husbands, brothers and friends fighting in Southeast Asia. Moreover, the soldiers in Vietnam also purchased rock albums. But perhaps a more central reason was the aim of rock music itself. Rarely political, rock spoke to and for the cultural wing of the counterculture. As Allen Matusow argued in The Unraveling of America, “as the decade closed it became clear that drugs, sex, and rock and roll lacked intrinsic moral content”; and further, that the appeal of rock music to the counterculture came from its “demonstrable power to liberate the music instincts.” Rock, therefore, remained apolitical because the market it targeted for purchase—”turn-on-drop-out” youth—was not overtly political.49 As the years passed, popular imagination enthroned rock music as the leader of political antiwar opposition. In romantic hindsight most young people of the sixties have been cast as social reformers, antiwar activists and hippies. Mass media reinforces this myth through movies like The Big Chill and 1969 and television programs like “Family Ties,” “Kate and Allie” and “Simon and Simon,” all of which glorify the “good old days” of the 1960s. All these romantic remembrances place rock in the forefront of social and cultural activism. A countercultural symbol, rock unified America’s youth by focusing on personal 48Bruce Springsteen and the Ε Street Band, “Lost in the Flood,” Greetings from Asbury Park, Columbia KC 31903, 1973; New York Dolls, “Vietnamese Baby,” Mercury SRM-1-675,1973. 49Matusow, Unraveling of America, 303-304. ΔΔ This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Rock Music & Vietnam politics; but in the main, it remained apolitical toward society’s problems—especially civil rights and the Vietnam War.50 This nostalgic leap-of-faith theory presumes that because rock was anti-Establishment, it was antiwar. Radio stations have engraved this myth onto the American imagination as they promote nostalgic “noontime nuggets,” “electric lunches” and “psychedelic suppers” which allow the listener to relive his or her glory days in the last era that mattered. In addition, recent antiwar songs of Bruce Springsteen (“Born in the USA”yf % L O O y Joel (“Goodnight Saigon”yf D Q G & K D U O L H ‘ D Q L H O V 6 W L O O L Q 6 D L J R Q f have added to the mystique that rock music, social activism and antiwar attitudes walked hand in hand. Since the 1950s, rock ‘n’ roll has stood outside and criticized the adult culture in which it flourished. After 1965 rock adopted anti-Establishment principles and articulated the counter culture’s aims. At the same time, rock was a business and, as Michael Lydon wrote in Ramparts in 1969, rock music was “an American creation on the level of the hamburger or the billboard.” As a consumer-oriented industry, rock had to determine where the market existed and adjust its product development to changing opinions. Songs about sex, drugs, alienation from parents and revolution sold well, as did the standard themes of love and youth. In contrast, songs about the Vietnam War did not. Antiwar rock represented only a small number of songs released, and musicians avoided specific references to the war in Southeast Asia. Far from creating attitudes about the war, the music industry pandered to consumers’ changing tastes. Not even the Vietnam War, the most flagrant manifestation of the established culture’s tenets, could force the rock industry to speak out. Recognizing rock music’s concern for the bottom line, Rolling Stone magazine observed, “The difference between a rock star and a robber baron is six inches of hair.” “Takin’ care of business” stands as an appropriate motto for popular music in any era.51 Like all corporations, record companies followed public opinion in the sixties, and always gave consumers the product they desired. 50See Jon Wiener, “Looking Back, Moving Ahead,” The Nation, 26 March 1988, 421-22; Andrew Fisk, “Far Out, Man,” in “Letters,” The Nation, 21 May 1988, 698. 51Michael Lydon, “Rock For Sale,” Ramparts, June 1969,19. Rolling Stone magazine quoted in George Brown Tindall, America: A Narrative History, 2 vols. (New York, 1984yf % D F K P D Q 7 X U Q H U 2 Y H U G U L Y H 7 D N L Q & D U H R I % X V L Q H V V ” Mercury SRM 1-1004,1974. 23 This content downloaded from 204.158.145.107 on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:46:53 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms