Your threshold for what makes a leftist album are a mite higher than mine.
Almost Cut My Hair was a lot more than a fashion statement...read the lyrics if you’re weren’t around then to remember. It was an ode to the dope and yippie feeling of being persecuted by the man.
Woodstock...an homage to the hippie and anti-war and anti-capitalism mood of the freaks?...please...I still remember the lyrics in my head....”And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation”
I was a part of that time and a believer...young dumb and full of ____, and believe me that album really crystalized that us versus them feeling....idealistic long haired pot smoking semi yippies versus the staid establishment
Teach Your Children was a lecture to about don’t let your kids be squares like the parents.
that was my take anyhow
Oh, yeah...you got the lyrics right. However, to me it’s a feeling. I remember those times very well. Even little ole me was antsey.
However, little ole me wasn’t in the mood for what would happen to “our nation”. That is so Obamaesque.
What is your take on “Our House”?
“Your threshold for what makes a leftist album are a mite higher than mine.”
I guess so. Because to me, although hippies definitely were leftists (or at least most of them; I’m sure there were a few honest libertarians), and CSNY were hippies, there has to be an explicit political message for an album to be leftist. It’s tempting to treat it all as one big ball, determining any paean to youth, drugs, sex, peace, or whatever, is implicitly political. Especially as how the Sixties generation thought that way. “The personal is political.” Indeed, *everything* was political, from music you to food to how you styled your hair. That’s why it’s so damn annoying to read, watch, or listen to anything from that era if you’re not in the mood to condemn Amerika and dream of utopia.
However, before we go too far, we ought to realize there’re still degrees or polititude (if you will). Implicit politicism is and always will be less political than more explicit kinds. “Ohio” is clearly more political, and therefore more leftist, than “Woodstock.” You and I know the lyrics
“And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation”
is supposed to be contra-Vietnam and contra-military-industrial-complex. But grant me that it’s pretty vague (at least compared to “For What It’s Worth,” “Born in the USA,” or that Country Joe and the Fish song) and stated in such a way as to be considerably less tendentious than various other rockin’ antiwar statements. And though like other tired-old Sixties statements it may be hopelessly utopian, unlike “imagine no possessions,” it’s utopian in a way that’s not immediately offensive.
As for “Almost Cut My Hair,” okay, it’s a little more than fashion. It’s the whole “Damn the Man, I’m gonna be me” hippy feel. But still, is that political? It leads to politics, yes. Just like, for instance, we all know rainbows and speedos play some part in the leftist gay lobby’s political ambitions. But neither are themselves political. Merely part of the larger “lifestyle” of certain politically-inclined sub-cultures.
“Teach Your Children,” if you pay close attention, also advises children not to despise parents for squarness, as it’s not their fault (it’s the 50s fault, I guess). Definitely bent in the children’s favor, but not so one-sided as you might think.
By the way, even assuming the above songs are inarguably leftist, that’s only 3 of the ten tracks. You have to dig an awful lot deeper to find messages in “Carry On,” (a call for the perpetuation of serial sexual relationships?) “Helpless,” (a call for nanny-state protection?) “Our House” (a call for cohabitation without marriage?).