All I can say about this picture is "WOOF!"
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
When President Reagan demolished the Berlin Wall and destroyed the iron curtain, I was finally able to sign "We Shall Overcome" with Peter, Paul, & Mary.
Yup. More than once I heard him described as someone who truly wasted his talent. But I'm sure it kept him in drug money.
Good observation.
The story was tuned more towards promoting more war protests.
The writer takes liberties that there are many who do not support the operation in Iraq.
Typical liberal Bu!! $hit.
They have ugly old Cindy is the poster girl for the liberal left.
At least he was being honest about it. Unlike John Lennon singing "Imagine all the people sharing all the wealth." I loved The Beatles, but I didn't see John living a lifestyle anything close to the average.
Politically acute? Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, and Marty Balin? I think they were primarily acid heads.... They did make some good music though!
Just call me Mellow Yellow!
"But I'm sure it kept him in drug money"
Till he died.
You've got me there. I did not know he was dead. Now we really can call him Mellow Yellow (Quite Rightly.)
"Also have my "Surrealistic Pillow"
Had that in vinyl, had it in cassette; haven't bought it in CD.
A couple of years ago I saw an interview with Grace Slick on a VHS about the Doors in Europe...what a sanctimonious, air-headed, arrogant...I could go on, but why?
When I think back to those days, I just have to wonder: how did so many people get so wrong about so much so quickly? I mean, we thought we were better than any people who ever came before us, that we were the next step in the evolution of humanity -- and everything we knew was wrong.
I thank God that reality squoze that out of me. But for the Grace of God, I could have been like Beelzebubba and the Hildebeeste, and never have come out of it.
"You've got me there."
Naw, I ain't got nothin'. I thought you were talking about Jerry Garcia.
Didn't some SUV commercial use Dick Dale's protest song, "Misrlou"?
You might ask what "Miserlou" protested...it protested against the lame sleepy folk music that was putting pop music listeners to sleep.
Dick Dale is still going strong while Graceless Oil Slick is sitting on a bar stool asking, "Ya got a quarter?" Dick Dale recently played for the troops over the Middle East.
"it protested against the lame sleepy folk music that was putting pop music listeners to sleep."
Reminds me of the album, "Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room."
"Anybody remember the great folk music scare of the 50s? Whew. That (expletive) nearly caught on."
Look out, he has a new CD coming out soon. His son and daughter are both actors (Donovan Leitch and Ione Skye, respectively).
I watched that commercial with the wife the other day and she joked that the now generation (Tommy Hilfiger) couldn't even come up with their own music........
dsc -- you nailed it. So many of my friends in those days really did believe that our parents generation were cruel idiots and that we, as 17 and 18 year olds, had some special kind of enlightenment. Arrogance is right. I never felt that way -- always a right-wing republican, even while buying "Are You Experienced" or "Pictures Of Matchstick Men." But I think a large part of that generation gave new meaning to the word "hubris." And some of them still do, and think all that garbage they spread in the 60s was a positive thing.
Dick Dale rules. "Let's Go Trippin'" bump. And props to The Surfaris and Chantays while we're at it.
"always a right-wing republican"
My hat is off to those of you who were smart enough not to be taken in.
When I heard that "you should learn from your mistakes," I took that to mean that the best way to learn the most was to make every conceivable mistake.
Hah!! It's guys like you who had the intellectual honesty to see the light who really deserve the credit. To paraphrase a currently popular slogan, I was stuck on Conservative. No effort was involved!
All I can say about this picture is "WOOF!"
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