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Music and the Counterculture

Music has long been an expression of the society within which the particular kind or genre of music originated in. There is a distinct musical expression that can be identified with most cultures at any given time within the evolution of the cultural tradition and setting. There is a relationship between music and the identities of the people within the society. Western musical idiom easily is associated with the periods of the pre and post World War II era with an evolutionary pattern that leads to and distinctly defines the counterculture experience that began in the 1950s in Paris in the Left Bank student community, and was influenced by "French bohemian intelligentsia (Shuker 57)." It spread to America in the early 1960s, in Greewich Village, New York (Shuker 57). As it spread across the country, the term "counterculture" became a term defined by social theorists associated with the American youth movement of the Viet Nam war era (Shuker 57). It is a period of American history that is defined musically, because the music of the era was an expression of the passions of the American youth about love, protest, and peace.

This essay is a brief exploration of the music of the counterculture movement, and how the music was an integral part of the transition of the American culture from a post World War II era, to a an era that is defined by political activism and distinct and drastic social changes. Not since the creation of the American Constitution had the phrase, "For the people, by the people," represented the power resting with the American public as the progenitors of the American destiny as it did during the counterculture movement; nor have they had it since that, although the recent election of President Barack Hussein Obama, which involved record numbers of young voters may be an indication of an impending new youth movement.

The counterculture movement of the 1960s and the music of that era, which is inextricably woven into fabric of the movement, remains one of the most socially significant times in American history, and continues to be the subject of examination, analysis, and debate. The music from the era reflects a social conscience; one that has since that period matured, but which manifests itself as political, social, and spiritual guidebook for Americans today.

Rock-n-Roll Will Never Die

The early 950s rise of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and other musicians and bands whose work had the fast rhythms and dance beats acclimated American society to rock and roll, but it did not prepare the white heterogeneous American society for that which would follow the 1950s.

"Adult society heaved a collective sigh at the end of the 1950s. They believed that rock and roll had neatly been channeled into mainstream culture. They were soon to gasp in horror. The beast was not dead; it was merely sleeping. What woke it up was the powerful jab of the 1960s counterculture youth (Martin and Segrave 111)."

In the early 1960s, the post World War II generation of American parents experienced the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, braced their selves for the long winter of nuclear Cold War between the United States, Russia, and Communist China, and quietly watched the escalation of the Viet Nam war on television. Then, breaking the quiet with loud music and protest was upon -- the sleeping beast had claws. Groups like The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, The Rolling Stones, Who, and Iron Butterfly, as well as individual headline artists like Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin (billed individually or with her band, The Big Brother Holding Company), Bob Dylan, and many other groups and solo artists, had the rhythm and beat of rock and roll, but not the love-sick and romantic lyrics of the 1950s. The youth of the counterculture movement made political, social, and religious statements, which were counterintuitive to the conservative beliefs held by their parents, whom the youth of the movement referred to as "the establishment (Gair 62)." The establishment was defined by age, and their conservative or liberal social, political and religious ideologies that prevented people from living as a single community of human beings who might live together naturally but for the obstacles of social racism and sexual bias, elitist political fraud and the hijacking of the American Government from the American people, and religious ideologies that caused people to remain apart. It was not just change in America they were seeking, it was change world-wide, and they would stop at nothing to achieve their perceptions of how the world should live together, in peace.

For their parents, looking to understand how the product of their conservative, or liberal, post World War II economic abundance had yielded offspring whom then wore tied died shirts and jeans, refused to get hair cuts, openly smoked marijuana, and who were sexually promiscuous; there could be just one answer: the music, and the musicians who created lyrics to rock-n-roll beats that were anti-social messages and inflamed the passions of the young hearts and minds. It was the influence of and musicians, the parents believed, that turned adolescents and teenagers into rebellious and angry people so bold as to defy the political system of the United States, and who called the U.S. Government "Big Brother," referring to the secret activities, spying, wire tapping, and, they believed, undermining of the U.S. Constitution.

The parents of the 1960s youth were, in part, right. The music was rocking, the beats and acoustical sounds worked young people into drug induced frenzies; but messages were real, heartfelt, and the product of soul searching -- a high ride and music was the engine that carried them along an exploration of intellectual discovery. If their parents did not readily recognize the government's usurping of their Constitutional rights, then certainly their children did, and they were not going to stand for it. The music lyrics encouraged young people to revolt, and portrayed the U.S. military and government as baby-killing war mongers for profit. The lyrics to Bob Dylan's song, Masters of War succinctly expresses the attitude of most of America's young people about the Viet Nam war:

"Masters Of War"

Come you masters of war

You that build all the guns

You that build the death planes

You that build all the bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks.

You that never done nothin'

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand

And you hide from my eyes

And you turn and run farther

When the fast bullets fly.

Like Judas of old

You lie and deceive

A world war can be won

You want me to believe

But I see through your eyes

And I see through your brain

Like I see through the water

That runs down my drain.

You fasten all the triggers

For the others to fire

Then you set back and watch

When the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion'

As young people's blood

Flows out of their bodies

And is buried in the mud.

You've thrown the worst fear

That can ever be hurled

Fear to bring children

Into the world

For threatening my baby

Unborn and unnamed

You ain't worth the blood

That runs in your veins.

How much do I know

To talk out of turn

You might say that I'm young

You might say I'm unlearned

But there's one thing I know

Though I'm younger than you

That even Jesus would never

Forgive what you do.

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul.

And I hope that you die

And your death'll come soon

I will follow your casket

In the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand over your grave 'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

This song demonstrates the attitude towards the government and the war, but the manifestation of the counterculture movement attitude that reflected the song were events which were destructive and dangerous. Milton J. Bates () cites author Michael Herr, from his book, Dispatches (1991), whose perspective the on the youth counterculture movement is that of a Viet Nam soldier who is assessing the counterculture from the same distance, in reverse geographical location, as did the American youth, and even Bob Dylan himself, who assessed the Viet Nam war from America. Bates says:

"In Dispatches, Herr represents the 1960s as a period when violence suffused the youth culture, when 'rock and roll turned more lurid and dangerous than bullfighting,' and 'rock stars started falling like second lieutenants.' The rock stars who fell -- Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison -- personified the dark side of a generation that wanted to believe in the regenerative powers of love. 'All you need is love,' sang The Beatles. But they sang against a backdrop of militant demonstrations, the hazing of soldiers, environmental 'monkey-wrenching,' self-destructive drug trips, and a knifing death at the Altamont Rock Festival in 1969. Apart from the Weatherman faction of Students for a Democratic Society, which took Charles Manson as its hero, most people who identified with the 1960s counterculture deplored violence as much as they deplored the war in Viet Nam. Yet they were able to adapt the Boone myth to their own purposes by playing down its violence and emphasizing the first half of the regenerative cycle, the Indianizing of white pioneers. For those on the political left, as well as those on the right, the wilderness and the Indian were ideologically charged symbols (Herr 1991) (Bates 29)."

While Herr's assessment was tainted with the experience of a returning Viet Nam era war veteran, he is correct that the assessment of the 1960s counterculture was somewhat self-serving, if not tainted in its own perceptions. The music industry that served to flame the passions and whose lyrics were the call to arms for domestic resistance and unrest, earned literally billions of dollars for he record labels, feeding the wealth and excess of the corporate establishment that the people involved in the movement and even those who sang the songs, claimed to deplore. Yet the musicians did not sing for free, nor did their audiences pass around a coffee collection to fund the bands; it was a business for the stars, the industry, as much as the excessive use of illicit drugs was akin to the illegal governmental operations and the greedy capitalistic corporate ventures that the young people sang about and protested.

The excess of the American counterculture youth is perhaps best memorialized by a series of music industry related events. On March 27, 1969, John Lennon, who was by the time the event took place a "former" Beatle; with his new wife, Yoko Ono, staged a "bed-in" for peace in the presidential suite of the Amsterdam Hilton (Kane 110). It probably drew more attention to the break up of the Beatles as a group, since Lennon's new wife was accused of having been the dividing factor in the group's break up. Lennon was indeed a peace advocate, but he also had by that time evolved, as did the counterculture movement and youth, to reflect the excess of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The "bed in" resulted in one of the most successful songs of Lennon's career, The Ballad of John and Yoko (1969), whose lyrics are this:

The Ballad of John and Yoko

"Standing in the dock at Southampton,

Trying to get to Holland or France.

The man in the mac said, "You've got to go back."

You know they didn't even give us a chance.

Christ you know it ain't easy,

You know how hard it can be.

The way things are going

They're gonna crucify me.

Finally made the plane into Paris,

Honey mooning down by the Seine.

Peter Brown called to say,

"You can make it O.K.,

You can get married in Gibraltar, near Spain."

Christ you know it ain't easy,

You know how hard it can be.

The way things are going

They're gonna crucify me.

Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton,

Talking in our beds for a week.

The newspaper said, "Say what you doing in bed?"

I said, "We're only trying to get us some peace."

Christ you know it ain't easy,

You know how hard it can be.

The way things are going

They're gonna crucify me.

Saving up your money for a rainy day,

Giving all your clothes to charity.

Last night the wife said,

"Oh boy, when you're dead

You don't take nothing with you

But your soul - think!"

Made a lightning trip to Vienna, eating chocolate cake in a bag.

The newspaper said, "She's gone to his head,

They look just like two gurus in drag."

Christ you know it ain't easy,

You know how hard it can be.

The way things are going

They're gonna crucify me.

Caught the early plane back to London.

Fifty acorns tied in a sack.

The men from the press said, "We wish you success,

It's good to have the both of you back."

Christ you know it ain't easy,

You know how hard it can be.

The way things are going

They're gonna crucify me.

The way things are going

They're gonna crucify me.

Lennon's song has just one reference to "peace," which is a clever double entendre, given the bed in; nonetheless is not called Bed In for Peace; it is the Ballad of John and Yoko, about their experience as a couple, about gives no indication of why anyone is going to "crucify" Lennon. While the song drew very little attention to the ongoing Viet Nam peace process, it drew plenty of attention from religious fundamentalists who were outraged by Lennon's use of "crucify" in the song (Martin and Segrave 180).

The height of the counterculture movement, the epitome of the movement's musical expression of their ideologies and passion, culminated in one of the most memorable events in music and American history: Woodstock. In August, 1969, on a 600 acre farm belonging to Max Yasgur, in upstate New York, with estimates of as many as 400,000 young people and music fans in attendance for the three day music festival, the Woodstock music festival took place (Perrone 41). Photographs of the event bear out at least that figure. The festival was three days of peace, love, and rock and roll, with music headliners like Country Joe McDonald, whose combination The Fish Cheer & I Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die Rag (1965) summed up the feelings of the youth regarding Viet Nam. These are the lyrics:

The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag

Gimme an F!

F!

Gimme an I!

Gimme an S!

S!

Gimme an H!

H!

What's that spell ?

FISH!

What's that spell ?

FISH!

What's that spell ?

FISH!

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,

Uncle Sam needs your help again.

He's got himself in a terrible jam

Way down yonder in Vietnam

So put down your books and pick up a gun,

We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for ?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam;

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let's move fast;

Your big chance has come at last.

Gotta go out and get those reds

The only good commie is the one who's dead

And you know that peace can only be won

When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for ?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam;

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why

Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Huh!

Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,

Why man, this is war au-go-go.

There's plenty good money to be made

By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,

Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,

They drop it on the Viet Cong.

And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for ?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam.

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why

Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on mothers throughout the land,

Pack your boys off to Vietnam.

Come on fathers, don't hesitate,

Send 'em off before it's too late.

Be the first one on your block

To have your boy come home in a box.

And it's one, two, three

What are we fighting for ?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam.

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

The song's lyrics speak to the large numbers of young men who were being sent to Viet Nam, only to return home in caskets. The song reflects a casual disregard for life of the victims, which was the way that the counterculture movement's young people believed that the U.S. Government treated the young. The government acted as though the sons and brothers of American families were dispensable. The Viet Nam was the first American war that was televised, and each night the public was inundated with frame after frame of news footage showing fallen young American men dead on foreign soil. There was, too, the issue of the destruction and loss of lives in Viet Nam, and there were far too many photographs of naked young children, their skin burning from napalm and agent orange to allow any American to have a restful night's sleep.

At Woodstock, the American counterculture came together in the spirit of their movement. They rocked, and literally rolled in the rain soaked fields of mud and water, sharing food, clothes, shelter and making love. They lived what they preached -- at least for those three days. There were drugs aplenty, which were as much an expression of the counterculture movement as were the songs, and in fact there were songs about the LSD and other drug experiences. The Jefferson Airplane, a group that performed at Woodstock, memorialized the movement's drug use in their song, White Rabbit (Unknown). These are the lyrics to the song, sung by Gracie Slick:

White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane

One pill makes you larger

And one pill makes you small

And the ones that mother gives you

Don't do anything at all

Go ask Alice

When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits

And you know you're going to fall

Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar

Has given you the call

Call Alice

When she was just small

When men on the chessboard

Get up and tell you where to go

And you've just had some kind of mushroom

And your mind is moving slow

Go ask Alice

I think she'll know

When logic and proportion

Have fallen sloppy dead

And the White Knight is talking backwards

And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"

Remember what the dormouse said;

"Keep YOUR HEAD

Woodstock was the perhaps the counterculture's last hurrah, too, since the movement also began to implode that year, beginning with the break up of The Beatles. Beginning in 1970, the American Government began de-escalating the Viet Nam war, and on January 28, 1973, the last Americans were evacuated from a rooftop in Saigon (Butler 21). The war was over, and the center piece of the counterculture movement was no more.

Conclusion: The Day the Music Day

Don McLean's song, American Pie (1971) is a eulogy to the counterculture movement. The lyrics are these:

American Pie

A long, long time ago I can still remember how that music used to make me smile

And I knew if I had my chance

That I could make those people dance

And maybe they'd be happy for a while. 1

But February made me shiver

With every paper I delivered,

Bad news on the door step,

I couldn't take one more step, 2

I can't remember if I cried

When I read about his widowed bride 3

But something touched me deep inside,

The day, the music, died. 4

So...

Refrain:

Bye, bye Miss American Pie 5

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry 6

Them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey 'n' rye 7

Singin this will be the day that I die.

This will be the day that I die. 8

Did you write the book of love 9