| JUST SAY KNOW
“ The eastern world, it is explodin’
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re
totin’
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin’ “
When Barry Mc Guire’s “Eve Of Destruction
“ went to Number One on the American Charts & Top Ten
around the world in 1965 , it was the biggest hit to come out from
the so called “Protest Music “ movement of the time
& it’s dark dystopic tirade against the modern world still
reads as one of the darkest set of lyrics to have ever become a
hit.
Against the background of the Vietnam War &
the Civil Rights Movement creating division & turmoil in American
society, Bob Dylan’s “ Freewheelin’ “ album
containing “Blowing In The Wind”, “ Masters Of
War “ & “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall “
had reached Number 23 on the album charts the year before, Peter
Paul & Mary were sweetening Bob’s songs & having hit
albums & singles, the folk/rock Protest movement as it had been
branded by the press was in full bloom. Politics & social concerns
elbowed away the love songs for the first time in pop history, in
spite of the fact that Eve Of Destruction was written by a hack,
played by session musicians & sung by the ex lead singer of
the soft/folk New Christy Minstrels who’s first take vocals
were never meant to have been released & a right wing radio
boycott & attempt to ban it, the times did indeed seem to be
changing.
Of course social & political protest had been
part of folk music since it’s European roots & into American
history, but it was Woodie Guthrie’s dustbowl populist politics
that in the 1940s spread the message through mass media for the
first time. His “This Machine Kills Fascists “ sticker
on his guitar was a blunt message to his huge audience & those
who were the targets of his ire. His friend Pete Seeger took up
the torch after his death, his songwriting & playing welded
politics & traditional folk songs into a popular form that was
embraced by the workers & students of the time. And then he
annoited people like Phil Ochs, Joan Baez & Bob Dylan into the
vital New York folk scene, where they honed their message &
music before Dylan turned his back on the “Protest Singer”
label through withdrawl & electricity. It is worth noting that
a year after McGuire’s hit, the right-wing retaliated with
Sgt Barry Sadler’s “ Ballad Of The Green Berets”
a pro Vietnam rant that stayed at Number One on the charts for 5
weeks!
Although Rock ‘n’ Roll era had an
implied social protest bad boy stance, when Marlon Brando in controversial
The Wild One movie responded to the question as to exactly what
his character was rebelling against, slurred in response “
Whatya got? ”, it was more a nihilistic than a political statement.
Aside from Eddie Cochrane’s “Summertime Blues”,
class struggle analysis encapsulated in 3 minutes, the vast majority
of the rock ‘n’ roll era’s concerns were carnal
or capitalist.
After the volatile Vietnam era where black &
white music dealt with the political & social problems &
issues, the voice of protest became more muted, the occasional rock
star aligning themselves with causes like Anti Nukes, it wasn’t
until the punk explosion in England when lyrics again focused on
social & political one fingered protest, The Clash put the name
of America’s dirty little secret war targets, Sandanista!
into the record shops of the world, Tom Robinson sang about being
Glad To Be Gay & then Paul Weller & Billy Bragg formed The
Red Wedge Movement, a generation of angry youth fed up with living
under Maggie Thatcher’s stern right wing rule & singing
about it.
Of course in Australia Midnight Oil actually became
more political as the years went by, rather than the other way around,
providing a headbanging inside & out for their fervent audience,
assuming a radical stance that somehow managed to teach rather than
preach most of the time.
But since then so called “Protest Music”
has been relatively muted, Rage Against The Machine no doubt caused
many young men in their audience to buy Che Guevera T Shirts even
though they knew nothing about him really, while for almost 20 years
Public Enemy have been virtually a lone voice in the mysoginist
macho rap world, taking a hard poltical & social stance, they
remain one of the only performers in popular music who have been
so consistent & uncompromising in their activism.
And yet if you look at the current state of the
world, you would expect protest music to be a vital force in popular
conciousness as it was in the 60s, but it is rare for dissent to
find a voice in the charts or even in the hearts & minds. Mind
you, in America the chill is really on for outspoken musicians,
particular in country music that seems to have become the right
wing music of choice, just ask Steve Earle & The Dixie Chicks
who incurred their wrath on rightwing radio & TV & at the
cash register. But that doesn’t account for the almost total
lack of opposition & outrage in contemporary music, certainly
nothing to compare with Mc Guire’s achievement over 40 years
ago.
My theory is that it’s the ironic distance
that modern media seems to generate, where nothing is authentic
or original, but referential & gesture. Feelgood mantras for
the alienated mind. To expose the self in the media world is to
risk pain rather than pleasure, to protest is to expose the self
to ridicule, to speak out is to risk.
Or perhaps to paraphrase Skyhooks’ throwaway
line...
“Whatever happened to the revolution?
We all got jobs & it drifted away “
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