“Takin’ Care of Business”: Rock Music, Vietnam and the Protest Myth

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Notes

1. Don't Laugh But the Next Step Could Be Pop as a Political Power, ”Melody Maker, 26 October 1968, 13.

2. Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter‐Culture (Garden City, N.Y., 1969), chap. 1.

3. Kenneth Kenniston, Youth and Dissent (New York, 1971), 144; Allen J. Matusow, The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York, 1984), 275–308.

4. Buffalo 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, 1987), 83.

5. Wayne Hampton, Guerrilla Minstrels (Knoxville, 1986), 15.

6. Ibid., 14.

7. Included in this group are the following works: Jerome L. Rodnitzky, “The Decline of Contemporary Protest Music,” Popular Music and Society 1 (Fall 1971): 44–50; Rodnitzky, Minstrels of the Dawn (Chicago, 1976); Matthew Rinaldi, “Olive‐Drab Rebels: Military Organizing During the Vietnam Era,” Radical America 8 (MayJune 1974): 17–52; Steve Chappie and Reebee Garofalo, Rock and Roll is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music Industry (Chicago, 1977); Greil Marcus, “A New Awakening,” in The Sounds of Social Change, ed. R. Serge Denisoff and Richard A. Peterson (Chicago, 1972), 127‐36; Ralph Gleason, “A Cultural Revolution,” in Denisoff and Peterson, Sounds of Social Change, 137–46; Carl Betz, The Story of Rock (New York, 1973); Denisoff, Sing a Song of Social Significance (Bowling Green, Ohio, 1983); Ralph E. Knupp, “A Time For Every Purpose Under Heaven: Rhetorical Dimensions of Protest Music,” The Southern Speech Communication Journal 46 (Summer 1981): 377–89; Charlie 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 1986): 51–65.

8. 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 1973): 319–22; Ellen Sander, Trips (New York, 1973); Jane Earle Johnson, “Rock Music as a Reflector of Social Attitudes Among Youth in America During the 1960s,” (Ph.D. diss., St. Louis University, 1978), 72‐132; Gary C. Burns, “Utopia and Dystopia in Popular Songs: Rhetorical Visions in the United States, 1963‐1972,” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1981), 138‐54, 208, 211‐13; 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, 1982), 31, 164‐87, 198‐205, 274‐92; Robert Rosenstone,” ‘The Times They Are‐A Changin’: The Music of Protest,” Annals of the American Academy 382 (March 1969): 731–44;Burns, “Trends in Lyrics in the Annual Top Twenty Songs in 1963‐1972,” Popular Music and Society 9 (1983): 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 1981): 108–13; Don J. Hibbard and Carol Kaleialoha, The Age of Rock (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1983); John Orman, The Politics of Rock (Chicago, 1984); George W. Chilcoat, “The Images of Vietnam: A Popular Music Approach,” Social Education 49 (October 1985): 601–603; David R. Pichaske, A Generation in Motion: Popular Music and Culture in the Sixties (New York, 1979); Robert G. Pielke, You Say You Want a Revolution: Rock Music in American Culture (Chicago, 1986); Herbert Ira London, Closing the Circle: A Cultural History of the Rock Revolution (Chicago, 1984); Hampton, Guerrilla Minstrels; Arnold Penis, Music as Propaganda: Art to Persuade, Art to Control (Westport, Conn., 1985); Abbie Hoffman, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (New York, 1980), 177.

9. Lester S. Levy, Give Me Yesterday: American History in Song, 1890‐1920 (Norman, Okla., 1975), 136‐38; Gene Lees, “From ‘Over There’ to ‘Kill for Peace, ’“High Fidelity, November 1968, 57‐58; Peter Hesbacher and Les Waffen, “War Recordings: Incidence and Change, 1940‐1980,” Popular Music and Society 8 (1982): 77–101.

10. Max 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.”

11. George Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935‐1971, 3 vols. (New York, 1972) 3:1971, 2010, 2052; Sheldon Appleton, “The Public, The Polls, and The War,” Vietnam Perspectives 1 (May 1966): 3–13;E. M. Schrieber, “American Politics, Votes and Public Opinion,” Politics 10 (November 1975): 207–209.

12. Lees, “From ‘Over There, ’“60; Godfrey Hodgson, America in Our Time (Garden City, N.Y., 1976), 340; Chappie and Garofalo, Rock and Roll, 305; Paul Hirsch, The Structure of the Popular Music Industry (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1967), 68.

13. Turner, ”‘I 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 presentations 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, 1985), 552.

14. Barry 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., 1986); Denisoff, Songs of Protest, War & Peace: A Bibliography and Discography (Santa Barbara, Calif, 1973). The above 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.”

15. Denisoff, Sing a Song, 37; Burns, “Utopia,” 43. Sales figures are taken from Peter E. Berry, The Hits Just Keep on Comin' (Syracuse, 1977);Frank Hoffman, comp., The Cashbox Singles Charts, 1950‐1981 (Metuchen, N.J., 1983); Whitburn, Billboard Book; Stephen Nugent and Charlie Gillett, Rock Almanac: Top Twenty American and British Singles and Albums of the 50s, 60s, and 70s (Garden City, N.Y., 1978).

16. Donovan, “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.

17. 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.

18. Gallup, Gallup Poll3: 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, 1970), 53‐70.

19. Hirsch, Structure, 61. Chappie and Garofolo, Rock and Roll, is the standard by which to understand the economic underpinnings of the rock industry.

20. Simon 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.

21. The 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, 1970), 243‐47; see also Andrew Bailey, “Albums Overshadow Singles as Key to Talent's Hit Status in British Market,” Variety, 27 August 1969, 51.

22. The Byrds, “Draft Morning”; the Doors, “Unknown Soldier.

23. Country Joe and the Fish,”‘I Feel‐Like‐I'm‐Fixin'‐to‐Die’ Rag”; the Fugs, “Kill for Peace,” ESP 1028, 1966, and “War Song,”Tenderness Junction, Reprise S6280.

24. Country 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=?”

25. Bob Seger System, “2+2=?”; Donovan, “Univeral Soldier”; Fugs, “Kill for Peace,” and “War Song.”

26. Eric Burdon and the Animals, “Sky Pilot.”

27. Gallup, Gallup Poll 3: 2222, 2223. Charles Debenedetti, “On The Significance of Citizen Peace Activism: America, 1961‐1975,” Peace and Change 9 (Summer 1983): 13; Rinaldi, “Olive‐Drab Rebels,” 27.

28. George Herring, “Vietnam Remembered,” Journal of American History 73 (June 1986): 163.

29. Mungo, 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 1972): 513.

31. Gillett, Making Tracks: Atlantic Records and the Growth of a Multi‐Billion Dollar Industry (New York, 1974), 274; Chappie and Garofalo, Rock and Roll, 177; “The Revolutionary Hype,” Time, 3 June 1969, 49; CBS Market Research, cited in Chappie and Garofalo, Rock and Roll, 185.

32. Robert 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, 1981), 158. Hampton, Guerrilla Minstrels, 18‐20; David Harker, One for the Money: Politics and Popular Song (London, 1980), 103.

33. Lees, “From ‘Over There, ’“ 60; Jonathan Eisen, The Age of Rock (New York, 1969), xiii.

34. John Lennon, “Give Peace a Chance,” Apple 1809, 1969; Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son,” Fantasy 634, 1969.

35. Tommy James and The Shondells, “Sweet Cherry Wine,” Roulette 7039, 1969.

36. Steppenwolf, “Draft Resister,”Monster, Dunhill DS‐50066, 1969.

37. Crosby, 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.

38. Gallup, 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, “TamlaTS‐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, 1982), 349; Burns, “Utopia,” 147.

39. CCR, “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 of Gypsys, Capitol STA0472, 1970, and “Izabella,”War Heroes, Reprise RS2103, 1973; Graham Nash, “Military Madness,”Songs for Beginners, Atlantic SD7204, 1971. Clark, “When Rock Wentto War,” 13.

40. The 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.

41. Cat Stevens, “Peace Train,” 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 Rain),” Buddah 5060 and “Peace Will Come (According to Plan),” Buddah 5066, 1970; Beach Boys, “Student Demonstration Time,”Surf's Up Brother, Brother 6453, 1971. Eisen, Age, xii; Clark, “When Rock Went to War,” 13.

42. Starr, “War.”

43. John Sinclair, Guitar Army: Street Writings/Prison Writings (New York, 1972), 28; John Gabree, “Rock: Art, Revolution, or Sell‐Out?”High Fidelity and Musical America, August 1969; David M. Rosen, Protest Songs in America (Westlake Village, Calif., 1972), 148; Sinclair, Guitar Army, 28; David Felton and Tony Glover, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Country Joe McDonald,” Rolling Stone. 27 May 1971. 37.

44. John 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, 1971‐1973), 1:338‐39; “Che Guevara, revolution, Yippies, hippies, 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.

46. Chapple and Garofalo, Rock and Roll, 186–87, 220; Rodnitzky, “Decline of Contemporary Protest Music,” 49. In 1973 ten corporations accounted for 82.9% of U.S. domestic record sales.

47. Bo 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: Al Wilson's “La La Peace Song” and Albert Hammond's “The Peacemaker.” 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.”

48. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, “Lost in the Flood,”Greetings from Asbury Park, Columbia KC 31903, 1973; New York Dolls, “Vietnamese Baby,” Mercury SRM‐1‐675, 1973.

49. Matusow, Unraveling of America, 303‐304.

50. See 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.

51. Michael Lydon, “Rock For Sale,”Ramparts, June 1969, 19. Rolling Stone magazine quoted in George Brown Tindall, America: A Narrative History, 2 vols. (New York, 1984), 2:1295. Bachman‐Turner Overdrive, “Takin' Care of Business,” Mercury SRM 1‐1004, 1974.

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Notes on contributors

Craig Houston

Kenneth J. Bindas is Assistant Professor of History at West Georgia College. Craig Houston is Instructor of History at the University of Toledo.