Not long ago, someone here repeated the witticism, "If you can remember the 60s, then you weren't there". I'm writing now in anticipation of PBS screening of Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home", documentary about Bob Dylan 1961-1966. Much of what is remembered as the 60s really happened in the 1970s. But the stuff in this movie really did happen in the 60s.
When Bush gave a big televised speech in the run up to the Iraq war, I couldn't bear to listen. The enterprise seemed so utterly doomed. It was on every damn channel, practically. Flipped around the 500+ satellite stations, and TRIO was running a Woodstock documentary. Not the Woodstock movie, but the same footage. I kid you not, I went directly from Dubya to Country Joe & the Fish:
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.
Couldn't have been more perfect. Times were different then, because of The Draft, but much is the same.
Come on Wall Street, don't move slow, Why man, this is war a-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made, supplying the Army with the tools of the trade
As a Vietnam Vet, Country Joe had standing, though the audience didn't give that much thought. Some say that Anti-War Movement was against the troops. But I was against the war because of what guys I knew told me about it when they came home. This wasn't long after Tet, and a lot of cannon fodder was needed - the draft was the Sword of Damocles hanging over all. My brother went to college in Canada.
Thing is, I was at Woodstock to hear the original, and so as my country was poised to invade Iraq I was reinhabiting that earlier time. The mud, the music, the altered states, the celebratory defiance. Being so crowded in the audience that if one person moved it spread like a ripple to half a million of your closest friends. The movie has obscured my authentic memories - some performances may be remembered only from the movie. Others, remembered well, ended up on the cutting room floor.
All except for Cain and Abel and the Hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody's making love or else expecting rain
I remember odd stuff: having had a program for the festival, little boys in yarmulkes handing out balogna sandwiches on Wonder Bread and giving drinks of water from a hose, a barn with its boards being torn off for somebody's fire with a Santa's sleigh inside, army helicopters flying overhead dropping unwrapped marshmallows on the crowd. (It was a disaster area, and they couldn't very well drop canned hams!) Did those things happen? Who knows? If you remember it, you weren't there? Nyah. I was.
My name it is nothing, my age it means less
The country I come from is called the Midwest
I'uz taught and brought up there the laws to abide
And that the country I live in has God on its side
It wasn't all hippies and antiwar and such, not by a long shot. In the late 60s, a college sociology class did a project, putting the Bill of Rights in petition form and taking it door to door. The learning experience was mainly in having a bunch of doors slammed in their faces, being called "Commies" and so on. A friend got beat up with his own camera at the `68 Democratic Convention. National Guard killed (yes, killed) student demonstrators (Whoops, that was the 70s). Had to be 21 to vote back then, though being 21 wasn't always enough.
How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky...
How many deaths does it take till he knows that too many people have died
No one used the term "buzz" then. But there was buzz. Everyone thought there would be unannounced appearances by the Big Three: Beatles, Stones, Dylan. (Didn't happen.) More than anyone else, Dylan supplied the Sound Track of that time. Back then, there was no internet, and TV didn't have a lot to offer. It was FM, it was vinyl, it was guitars, and it was concerts. Everybody knew the words,
You know something's happening here, but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones
Martin Scorsese made his reputation in the film business editing the Woodstock movie. His latest effort will be on PBS tonight & tomorrow, "No Direction Home" about Dylan in the 60s. I want to revisit that time; there's treasures of spirit and attitude to be excavated and pressed into service again.
Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Fall `68, HS American History teacher took us on a field trip to hear a presidential candidate speak. It was George Wallace, and the location was Boston Common. Demonstrators as far as the eye could see were chanting "Seig Heil! Seig Heil!" while a brass band played "God Bless America" from a bunting-bedecked bandstand. Some raggly-looking guy was walking around with a sign reading "Give Georgie Acid". It made an impression. Dubya musta been getting drunk at Yale that day. Or maybe he'd already graduated, and was getting drunk in Texas instead.
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
I worked at the Post Office in the 70s. I quit by sending my 2-week's notice while on vacation. For my last night, I made one of those custom iron-on t-shirts. Black with sparkle letters Ain't Gonna Work on Maggie's Farm No More. Everyone knew what it meant.
College with Mideast studies during the Oil Crisis. 10% of the nation's Saudi students were at Portland State then. Hung out with lefty Iranians. Wrote a paper on Kurds for "Oil in the Persian Gulf" class. The night the Shock & Awe actually started, PBS was doing a fundraiser. I watched present-day Peter Paul & Mary singing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", and cried and cried and cried and cried. I knew They didn't know what They were doing at all. They were in an ideology bubble. We were in the aftermath of 9/11 still. I knew the main result would be exactly what we're seeing: an effective recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. I understand why people say we can't "cut and run", but that's based on wishful thinking. The adventure was doomed from the start. There's no good way out.
Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall
For he who gets hurt will be he who has stalled
Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I'm gonna make sure to watch "No Direction Home". Tonight Monday Sept. 26 and tomorrow on PBS. I've not seen it but recommend it anyways.