Posted on 12/18/2018 3:42:17 PM PST by agatheringstorm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DabDcm59RGI
“Talk John Birch Paranoid Blues” by Bob Dylan, live 1964
Well I was feelin’ sad and kind of blue,
I didn’t know what I was gonna do,
The communists was a comin’ around,
They were in the air and on the ground,
They were all over.
So I ran down most hurriedly and joined the John Birch Society,
I got me a secret membership card and started walkin’ home to my back yard,
Lookin’ on the sidewalk, underneath the hedges.
Well I was lookin’ everywhere for them gol’darn reds,
I got up in the morning and looked under my bed,
Looked behind the kitchen, behind the door, tore loose the kitchen floor,
I couldn’t find’em!
Looked behind the sofa and behind the chair lookin’ for them reds everywhere,
Looked way up my chimney hole,
Even way down inside my toilet bowl,
They got away!
I heard some footsteps by the front porch door,
So I grabbed my shotgun from the floor,
I snuck around the house with a huff and hiss,
Saying “Hands up you communist!”
It was the mailman…he punched me out.
Well, I was sittin’ home alone and I started to sweat,
I figured they was on my television set,
I peeked behind the picture frame,
Got a shock from my feet that hit my brain
Them reds did it…the ones on Hootenanny.
Well I quit my job so I could work alone,
I got a magnifying glass like Sherlock Holmes,
Found some clues from my detective bag,
I discovered red stripes on the American flag,
Old Betsy Ross!
Well I finally started thinkin’ straight,
When I run out of things to investigate,
Couldn’t imagine doing anything else,
So now I’m home investigatin’ myself,
I hope I don’t find out too much,
Good god.
“I figured they was on my television set”.
Yep. You figured correctly. And in your internet also.
Bob Dylan was just joining the Media campaign to discredit anti-communists.
He changed as he got older.
Greatest singer songwriter ever. I don’t care what the buzzards say.
Only marginally-— because he also wrote “Peace has Come to Zimbabwe”—— actuating the liberal world globalism that brought the horror to the Breadbasket of Africa—Rhodesia, and gave it to the money skimming Commie Dictator Mugabe. The SAME process of disowning private property (this time to include Black owned- Zulu lands) of white farmers.. is occurring Right Now in South Africa by the same group of US lib loving communists-— Where obamaumao went to PRAISE them in speeches including the “redistribution” of wealth. There are and were NO previously black owned lands which the Boers settled in the 1600’s. None. Pure communism.
Yeah, well, he was way wrong wasn’t he?
IBT: DCS crowd shows up.
I too am a Dylan fan, but I lost a lot of respect for him because of that.
Don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. He was nothing if not perceptive of trends.
He did knock off on the social commentary right quick though, like somebody flipped a switch. Ever notice in later years, he had virtually no presence in the “antiwar” movement? He didn’t even play at Woodstock, and he lived in Woodstock at the time, or near enough.
Now, there is a theory about this, naturally. Someone suggested some sort of deal was made to him, not sure by whom, but the gist of it goes something along the lines of “we won’t draft you, if you knock off the political stuff”. Sounds a little out there, doesn’t it?
A piece of the puzzle was supposedly offered when he sang “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more.” Earlier in the 60s, in his Civil Rights days, he performed at a farm owned by a man named McGee, footage of his performance and others is often shown in documentaries. So Maggies Farm is supposed to be a veiled reference to all this. Again it’s a little “out there”, but it is true he ditched the Folkie persona pretty quick and picked up an electric guitar and band. Not that I believe any of this, but it’s interesting. Elvis was drafted of course, though by the 1960s only a few 60s band members, not very many. They seemed to avoid drug busts or harsh penalties at least for the most part as well.
Woodstock wasn’t in Woodstock. Not even very close.
It’s all relative. Upstate New York eh? Bethel isn’t that far from “Big Pink” is it? I mean, wouldn’t it have sort of make sense for Dylan to perform there? Not that strange maybe, he was a little reclusive at the time.
Without traffic, it is 90 minutes. There was traffic. Chopper was the only way in.
You know I looked on the map, it was a county or two away. The concert that is, near Bethel. I guess it depends on your definition of “close”.
Well OK, but you can’t get around that a crapton of bands from LA and San Francisco made the journey. I’m too lazy to look it up, but I’d expect some bands from overseas too. Who, I’m not sure.
Dylan sold his soul to the devil, and has admitted it in several interviews, including Ed Bradley’s “60 Minutes” interview.
The scheduled acts came in by chopper because the roads for several miles were blocked for most of Friday and all of Saturday. By Sunday, the roads were clear enough to get in and out of town at a crawl. Jimi Hendrix was scheduled and almost couldn't get there.
Before the concert started, nobody knew it was going to be the gigantic deal that it was. The organizers couldn't even settle on a venue until the last minute. We drove to Woodstock on Thursday and then spent hours trying to find out where it was being held. It was a cluster #$%^. I'm pretty sure Bob didn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole. The weather sucked too.
Yeah, I think it was a real mess from the sound of it.
Hiss was a Red indeed. Nixon was right.
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