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
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Generation-X/Generation Reagan (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Hey now, Townshend and Daltrey can still blow so-called "rockers" half their age off the stage.
Using "Volunteers" in an ad circa 2005 makes about as much sense as using Glenn Miller or Kate Smith in a Pepsi ad circa 1985.
Eric, you should know by now that "Everybody wants a piece of the Action", including Steve, Andy, and Mick.
Even Donovan is making money via a certain auto commercial that is using his "Catch the Wind."
Geez, I thought that was Dylan.
Heck, that sounds like any Black Crowes concert. I saw them in San Diego back in the Navy. I was really worried that I might breathe the ambient "air" too deep and get my number called the next day for random urinalysis.
"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."
Although I was a bit too young to take part in the 60s, I remembered viewing those people through the lens of a bewildered, neglected child and considering them somewhat exotic. How wrong I was.
Although glad to have survived that era, I might dismiss it as something I simply outgrew. However, I outgrew Barbie dolls too, but I don't feel angry or misled. The 60s leave such a sour taste with me, I have to hit a lot of pillows just to vent out the rage I feel toward this breed of humanity who belonged in a psycho ward and took a lot of others with them.
How sad to see the Sheehan gang attempt a repeat performance. They have all the idiocy of the 60s without the glamor.
Forget Donovan or Jefferson Airplane. What comes to mind is the Who (my favorite band) singing about "teenage wasteland" in their classic album WHO'S NEXT.
This guy never grew up. His mind is stuck in time, reminiscent of all things hippie and shallow. Pathetic.
A minor nit--although Donovan covered it with great success, "Universal Soldier" was written by Buffy Sainte-Marie, I believe...
Worst I ever heard was a muzak version of "Street Fighting Man."
She had great hair!
May I have your mother's email address? She'll be overjoyed to know how, all these years later, you remember and practice "If you can't say somethin' nice..."...
But, Alouette, about those "Sarcasm" tags: there are young-uns present...
Why is that not a nice thing to say? She had the best hair of anyone in the '60's. I would have killed to have hair like that.
"Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind"
Yeah, that was a good one.
You know, I had forgotten that Donovan put out so much music.
Okay, sorry... My sisters probably feel the same way, because they hated our curly, baby-fine, blond hair (at least they still have theirs ;-).
Yes, Sainte-Marie's is full, thick, and straight. I never liked her "do," though--I always thought she looked like she'd given herself a quick trim with a pocketknife right before taking the stage...
"considering them somewhat exotic."
The uniform regulations on Haight Street were as strict as the army's. Even at that time, though, I felt bad about how wounded soldiers from the Praesidio were treated.
Not that the "flower children" had the nerve to insult them directly -- even when they were on crutches.
"I might dismiss it as something I simply outgrew."
Or maybe not. Everything we do becomes baggage.
"but I don't feel angry or misled."
Ahhh, I can't blame anybody else. I should have known better. I was taught better. I just came down with a bad case of "I know everything" and turned my back on my upbringing.
Although, the rhetoric certainly was persuasive -- if you didn't know anything and had no life experience. The most interesting thing to me was the way the attendance at so-called "anti-war" rallies dropped off after they ended the draft. Guess the war was okay if you didn't have to go.
"the rage I feel toward this breed of humanity who belonged in a psycho ward and took a lot of others with them."
I've been ridiculed a few times even on FR for trying to point out the role the KGB played in all that. Don't ever let anybody tell you there weren't both home-grown and imported communists involved, or that the KGB didn't spend a good deal of money making it worse.
"How sad to see the Sheehan gang attempt a repeat performance. They have all the idiocy of the 60s without the glamor."
And without KGB funding.
"Forget Donovan or Jefferson Airplane. What comes to mind is the Who (my favorite band) singing about "teenage wasteland"
Yeah, but you couldn't walk up and down Haight Street without hearing "Somebody to Love" and "Sunshine Superman." Among that crowd, "Magic Bus" was the Who's biggie. Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth," Beatles, "All You Need is Love," Country Joe and the Fish, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag." Woodstock was later.
"(actually a criticism of the left, btw)"
It was a topic of conversation when Paul McCartney sang, "But if you want money for people with guns and hate, don't you know that you can count me out," and John Lenon leaned in with a leer and hissed, "In."
I guess a lot of people didn't think he was serious, but there was scuttlebut that his funding of terrorism was what eventually got him killed.
I thought that it was Catcher in the Rye that got him killed.
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