Posted on 09/26/2005 4:23:05 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Tens of thousands marched on Washington last Saturday to protest George Bush's war in Iraq. The crowd included college-age activists, veterans of Vietnam War protests, entire families united against the war, and parents whose children have been killed in Iraq.
It was the largest protest yet against this war. Larger ones will almost surely follow.
If there had been a soundtrack to Saturday's march past the White House, you couldn't pick a much more appropriate song to kick it off than Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers."
Released in 1969 by one of the most politically acute bands of the era, "Volunteers" was a scorching anthem for America's activist youth:
Look what's happening out in the streets
Got a revolution
Got a revolution. . . .
One generation got old
One generation got soul
This generation got no destination to hold, pick up the cry!
Come on now we're marching to the sea
Got a revolution
Got a revolution
Who will take it from you
We will and who are we?
We're volunteers of America
Volunteers of America
Volunteers of America. . . .
I was just a kid when "Volunteers" was playing on alternative radio, but years later, I remember the passion in a college teacher's voice as he projected the lyrics on a giant screen and talked about the power of rock music to galvanize a movement and to reflect the times.
More than 35 years later, it's a different war and a different time, but the American voice of dissent is still strong -- and sure enough, I did hear "Volunteers" last Saturday as that protest was under way.
However, it wasn't blaring from a loudspeaker in Washington. It was on my television, during a break from a college football game, and it was the anthem for a Tommy Hilfiger commercial, with lots of beautiful people undulating around in the name of . . . fashion.
Of course, this sort of thing is nothing new. For years, I've talked about rock songs of protest and anger that have been turned into ads for luxury cars or themes for conservative politicians.
But this has to be one of the worst. "Volunteers" for Tommy Hilfiger? How do the writers for "Saturday Night Live" come up with parody commercials these days, when the real things are so often so ridiculous?
mailto:rroeper@suntimes.com
I thought that it was Catcher in the Rye that got him killed.
Maybe it was delayed karma in his case.
Absolutely, that is my understanding too. I'm betting Buffy didn't write "Sunshine Superman" though!! (And I thought she had the most irritating voice -- I wasn't too big on the folkies anyway.)
Can't disagree with the first part. She wrote some great music and pretty good poetry, though, so I bought all her stuff "back then"--same-same with Leonard Cohen, Kris Kristofferson and many others who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, or didn't try.
Back then, I thought I was going to get rich writing music and singing (I still believe I was good enough, just not good-looking and politically correct enough, but I'm sure some might disagree ;-). At any rate, when I heard something I liked, I wanted to hear the songwriter do it, even if I didn't like their interpretation much. The hippie "interpretation groove" thing, you know?
Sometimes subtle changes in style or lyrics make large differences in effect or "meaning." Covers of Sylvia Fricker's "You Were On My Mind" and Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings," as well as Buffy Sainte-Marie's cover of Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game"--which grabbed even this then-mostly-closeted Republican at the end of The Strawberry Statement--come to mind.
I wasn't big on "the folkies," either, at first; I had a rock band, until rock went psycho. I became a folkie around the time my favorite rock group (maybe still my favorite group) did "Eight Miles High" (a good song, but a better folk song than a psychedelic rocker, for my tastes).
Besides, doin' folk by myself meant I didn't have to split with three or four other folks :-). I never got rich at it, but it paid for most of my education (a law degree I no longer use) and got me lots of--uh, well, I had a lot of fun...
All that was our music, though, and it's a big part of our memories now, even for those of us who've rejected its message as we "grew up." My non-classical library is about two-thirds "oldies," and I have a lot of music. Some commie makes a few cents every other time I order a CD--but at least the message of the radical stuff is long since lost on me.
Well put, umbagi. And if you're talking about that Byrds album "Fifth Dimension" that had "Eight Miles High" and a lot of other good songs, I think I wore out about three copies of it. And I do understand the point about going solo and not having to share the take with the drummer -- incipient Conservatism, even while you were singing Phil Ochs and Tim Buckley.
Phil Ochs? How did you know? I haven't quit--"Changes" remains one of my favorite songs, ever. I prefer Ian and Sylvia's version--my only copy is on vinyl...
"Do tell."
Yeah, that was going around the intel community.
a whole ten times?
like wow....lol
I owned Volunteers...and lotsa other JA
what can I say?
I'm sorry kiddies?
hardly....
"I will survive" is a Gloria Gaynor disco song, re-introduced in the movie "The Replacements". "Touch of Grey" is the song you are referring to..
nah....Donovan's best was:
(am I the only former freak on this thread?)
The Intergalactic Laxative
Words & Music by: Donovan Leitch - 1973
Performed by: Donovan
Album: Cosmic Wheels - 1973
I was impressed like everyone,
When man began to fly,
Out of earthly regions,
To planets in the sky.
With total media coverage,
We watched the heros land,
As ceremoniously
They disturbed the cosmic sand.
In awe with admiration,
We listened to the talk.
Such pride felt they,
Such joy to be
Upon the moon to walk.
My romantic vision shattered,
When it was explained to me,
Spacemen wear old diapers
In which they shit and pee.
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me,
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem,
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.
They don't partake like you and I,
Of beefy burger mush.
Their food is specially prepared
To dissolve into slush.
Absorbed by multi-fibers
In the super diaper suit,
Otherwise the slush would trickle
Down inside the boot.
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me,
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.
You may well ask now what becomes
Of liquid they consume.
A pipe is led from penis head
To a unit in the room.
The water is recirculated,
Filtered for re-use.
In case of anti-gravity -
Pee gets on the loose.
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me,
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.
Wherever man has conquered,
On the quest for frontiers new,
(Da da da da)
I'm glad that he's always had to do
The number one and two.
It makes it all so ordinary,
Just like you and me,
To know the greatest heroes,
They had to shit and pee.
The intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to there,
For cosmic constipation
There's none that can compare.
If shitting is your problem
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
The intergalactic laxative,
The intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to Mars.
By '73, I had already made the move. Though still a registered 'rat, I voted for Nixon in '72 (and caught hell for it.)
LOL! I love that song! My fave Japanese pop group the Pizzicato 5 sampled the cello break from that song about a jillion times...
Nope. I'll prove it...
God is playing marbles,
With His planets in the sky.
.......NOT being political activists. They were at the top of the heap of 'hippy-crites'.
Hmmm -- I must have seen you perform! "Changes" was indeed a good song -- haven't heard it in ages. Haven't heard Ian and Sylvia for ages either.
""Touch of Grey" is the song you are referring to.."
Thanks. Got more than a touch myself, complete with CRS syndrome.
Cheers,
CSG
In 1973 I was in 1st grade. I only know who Donovan is because I was the youngest of seven children and my older siblings had large album collections. =D
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