Did Rock And Roll Save America From Communism?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/07/30/did-rock-roll-save-america-communism ^

[chessplayer]

I bet you thought rock and rollers in the '60s were all left-wing radicals advocating the violent takeover of America in order to replace our style of government with communism.

According to Ralph Benko, a conservative human rights advocate, you couldn't be more wrong:

[T]he evidence is that the greatest musicians of the golden age of Rock (to whose work we’re all still listening since nothing better has come along) are, where it counts the most, deeply conservative.

Taking this further, Benko believes the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Who may have stopped America from installing a Marxist dictatorship (h/t Paul Chesser):

With the Cultural Revolution in full cry in China, and French students throwing Molotov cocktails in Paris (as in the image above, which, full disclosure, is of anarchist rioting after the Sarkozy election, not from the 60s), there was a great deal of agitation among students in the US in opposition to the Vietnam war, the draft, and in favor of civil rights and the sexual revolution. There was also a lot of passion for Marxist thought.

We’ll never know exactly how close America came to installing a Marxist dictatorship. But the failure to do so certainly wasn’t from any lack of effort by the self-avowed Marxist/Leninist student leaders.

Who stopped them?

The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and The Who. That’s who.

Some examples?

The most explicit pull on the “emergency chord” was The Beatles “Revolution,” from The White Album (1968) and the flip side to their mega-classic “Hey Jude” which guaranteed lots of airplay. Some lines:

You tell me that it’s evolution Well, you know We all want to change the world But when you talk about destruction Don’t you know that you can count me out

You ask me for a contribution Well, you know We’re doing what we can But when you want money for people with minds that hate All I can tell is brother you have to wait

You tell me it’s the institution Well, you know You better free you mind instead But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow

Nobody was hipper than John Lennon. If Lennon ruled out Lenin … revolution was officially un-hip.

Read on for more.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

At the time, the smarter students realized that communism was awful, but at the same time, the US government was terribly flawed. The dumber ones equated the two as being equally disastrous.

This gave rise to a three part left. The “Humphrey” liberals, who were of the “fat cat” school of liberalism with the yellow dog democrats; the “Menshavik” left, who today we associate with nanny government, endless whining, and squishy liberalism; and the radical left, then as now a small minority, who actually believe the Marxist crapola of people like Noam Chomsky, and wanted to be more violent than they were.

Finally an entente of Menshaviks and radical leftists wrested control of the party from the Humphrey liberals, giving us the Democrat party today.

For the first time, academia did everything it could to radicalize and frighten students. Though the odds were quite small of being drafted, being sent to Vietnam, and dying, students were threatened that if they *didn’t* protest against the war, their professors would fail them, they would lose their draft deferment, be drafted, sent to Vietnam, and die.

The draft deferment system was terribly corrupt and unfair, the politicians in Washington did everything they could to make the war a stalemate, and they were sanctimonious about it. And the media, of course, then as now, were worthless scum.

[BenLurkin]

Rock and Roll started as a somewhat wholesome American musical style.

It soon became a battering ram employed by America's most intractable enemies.

[netmilsmom]

Sarah and I, who are the same age, are the END of the boomers. None of us were into the Beatles. We were BeeGees and disco or Aerosmith and hard rock.

The Beatles were the end all be all to the 1953 through 1957 crowd. (although really the later part of that group were all into Jazz) And they’ll be gone or drooling soon.

I have tons of Boomer cousins and sisters. Happily, I’m at the VERY end of the loonies.

[Larry381]

Rock and Roll didn’t save us from anything. Rock and Roll helped bring depravity into the mainstream. And that is one of the communist goals to undermine our society

I worked with many black musicians and groups in the late 50's and early 60's and many of these black Rock n' Roll pioneers came from deeply religious roots, were patriotic (in spite of rampant discrimination)and loved this country. What finally destroyed many of them was not Jim Crow, or Communism but drugs, heroin in particular.

[Altura Ct.]

This is a joke, right?

[MrLee]

Lennon never said that.

[headsonpikes]

Rock and Roll and Mad Magazine.

And IF Science Fiction.

[HerrBlucher]

Maybe we should look at the lyrics of “Imagine” before we make Lennon a conservative.

[ansel12]

Sorry but that is just way off base and way too specific, it is nonsense. I'm constantly amazed at how angry some freepers are about things that they shouldn't be taking so personally.

Here is a little study indicating that they are still holding on to a diverse group of fans. The Beatles were not a group that appealed to a very narrow age range.

http://blog.rapleaf.com/rapleaf-study-popularity-and-fan-demographics-of-michael-jackson-the-beatles-elvis-and-madonna-across-social-media/

"The Beatles’ dominating popularity online — The Beatles’ online celebrity may be bolstered by both their music’s enduring appeal and the success of their recent compilation album 1 released in 2000, which has become one of the best-selling albums of this decade with over 31 million in worldwide sales. While all the artists in this study are period icons, The Beatles’ prominence on social media may suggest their ability to better transcend generations, which is in part evidenced by them having the second-youngest fans."

[InvisibleChurch]

Have we been saved from communism?

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

...America came to installing a Marxist dictatorship. ...Who stopped them? The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and The Who. That’s who.

I'm speechless at the thought.

The Beatles suck. They killed American Rock and Roll. Nothing they did measured up to the talent coming out of Memphis and the American blending of county, blues, and pop. Then came the Beatles and knock offs like the Monkeys, etc. and then the end of good rock and roll.

[ReluctantDragon]

Complete and utter nonsense!

There is another version of Revolution on the White Album where Lennon says “don’t you know that you can count me out - in”.

[ansel12]

Though the odds were quite small of being drafted, being sent to Vietnam, and dying, students were threatened that if they *didn’t* protest against the war, their professors would fail them, they would lose their draft deferment, be drafted, sent to Vietnam, and die.

Did you actually see any professors saying that? I never did.

[LibFreeOrDie]

rock and rollers in the '60s...the greatest musicians of the golden age of Rock...The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and The Who.

The '60s was the Golden Age Of Rock? Brit bands saved the U.S.? What is this guy smoking?

These Brit bands were originally inspired by the truly Golden Age Of Rock - the '50s, and by blues musicians.

[murron]

Not so fast. My daughter, who is in her early 30’s, loves the Beatles. Another girl I work with, the same age, named her baby Lennon after John Lennon because she loves the Beatles. There are many young people who love the Beatles and know their history.

[1010RD]

Yes, Mad Magazine back when they were skeptical and humiliated dumbness.

[RonInNaples]

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Ted Nugent live! Although seeing him OUTDOORS is more beneficial to the health of your auditory circuits. He closed the last show of his I saw with a flaming arrow shot from a compound bow into a white double-cutaway Gibson guitar on a stand across the stage. Great shot, cool stunt, what a waste of a beautiful guitar.

The blues and black gospel music, the roots of rock and roll. Doesn’t get much better than listening to B.B King or Buddy Guy.

[j_tull]

Check Ted Nugent’s little heard 1975 gem, Stormtroopin’

In the early morning hours there’s a din in the air;
mayhem’s on the loose.
Stormtroopers comin’, and you better be prepared.
Got no time to choose.

Get ready. Stormtroopers comin’.

Comin’ up that street, jackboots steppin’ high.
Got to make a stand.
Looking in your windows and listen to your phone.
Keep a gun in your hand.

Get ready. Stormtroopers comin’.
Get ready. Stormtroopres comin’ around.

Two hundred down, and it’s comin’ ‘round again.
Got no second choice.
Where’s the justice and where’s that law.
Raise your healthy voice.

Get ready. Stormtroopers comin’.
We’ll be ready. Stormtroopers comin’.
Getting ready. Stormtroopers comin’.
Get ready. Stormtroopers comin’.

[gusopol3]

Country/ Western might have a better claim; areas of the country where C/W strong have applied the brakes as leftiets have pulled the urban elites farther toward Marxist.

[Secret Agent Man]

Let me be more accurate:

HE WROTE IT.

John Lennon, in his book, A Spaniard in the Works, portrays Jesus Christ as, “Jesus El Pifico, a garlic-eating, stinking little yellow, greasy fascist bastard catholic Spaniard.” (A Spaniard in the Works, p.14)

And they were friggin communists and lovers of communists. “Back in the USSR.” “You don’t know how lucky you are, boy.”