Somewhere between rock and roll and the psychedelic seventies is a time of protests, riots and war. From this turbulent time in history, Stephen Stills penned a rhythmic tune which would become an anthem for protests, “For What It’s Worth.” As a member of the group known as Buffalo Springfield, Stills was a talented musician and song writer. The song was written during a time of civil rights protests and the Viet Nam war. Contrary to popular thought, the song was not written to protest the Viet Nam war or the deaths on the Kent State campus, however it was written and recorded to shed light on the Sunset Strip riots in Los Angeles. When Pandora’s Box, a club on the strip for teens, was closed in November 1966, the protests started and lasted …show more content…
about six weeks. An old 10:00 curfew law took effect to control the young people and noise. The teenagers were no longer welcomed in the clubs and Stills was inspired to write the song about the events occurring on the Strip (Rasmussen). Buffalo Springfield recorded the song in early December 1966, as a single and performed it live when Pandora’s Box opened for one night Christmas 1966. It peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 in early 1967 (Ertegun 129). Then it was included as the track one song on the albums Buffalo Springfield and Retrospective: The Best of Buffalo Springfield. Ahmet Ertegun reported Stills first said: "I have this song here, for what it's worth, if you want it." Thus the title was born. The single recording was eventually subtitled "Stop, Hey What's That Sound" so that the song would be more easily recognized (127). The words remain as relevant as ever, especially, "There's battle lines being drawn / Nobody's right if everybody's wrong." It could be about what passes for debate on social media today. The hook for this song is actually the singalong chorus which is so eloquently developed. The song begins in a slow methodical way using electric guitars and a few simple notes repeated over and over the drums add a pulse-like beat. Stills voice begins in a conversational tone. It is almost like telling a story. The first two lines get the listeners attention “There’s something happening here / What it is ain’t exactly clear.” In this first verse, Stills with the emotional reserve of his voice, presents the drama of the situation and the rhythmic music. Using the term “children” focuses the listener’s attention on the innocence and youth of those involved. The writer continues using simple phrases and concepts and the issues of fear and anger are formed. The voice remains calm and collected while calling to the audience to “Stop” and see what is happening. As the song is ended, the guitar continues to softly play then fades away. Through the years, “For What It’s Worth,” has been used over and over in many different situations.
It has moved from the laid-back version to full blown rock. Music in the 1960’s was a cultural movement. Stills captured the emotions of the people and reflected the mood of an increasingly diverse country during a time of political and cultural change. “For What It’s Worth” seems as relevant today as it was in 1966. Though the band’s tenure was short, only about two years, Buffalo Springfield was a pivotal rock group with an organic, home-grown musical approach that reverberated beyond the Sixties (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame). Stills’ purpose in writing the song was to acknowledge what was happening in the streets of LA. The folk-rock style used in the song is evidenced by the repetition, constant pulse-like beat and soft spoken sound of the vocals. Stills utilizes inflection within the chorus repeating the word “stop” in an emphatic manner. He also uses first person throughout the song. For instance, he writes “I think it’s time we stop” using both I and we pronouns which establishes unity between the writer and the protestors in the …show more content…
street. However, Stills also uses punctuation, namely commas, for emphasis in “For What It’s Worth.” In the repeated lines “I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound” and “It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound.” This technique continues throughout the lyrics of the song making way for the simple yet mesmerizing message for the listener. As for Stills' song, many fans saw it as an antiwar anthem, but he refuted that theory. "It was really four different things intertwined, including the war and the absurdity of what was happening on the Strip," he said, "But I knew I had to skedaddle and headed back to Topanga, where I wrote my song in about 15 minutes. For me, there was no riot. It was basically a cop dance" (Qtd in Rasmussen). Clearly his thoughts were about what was happening to the teens of LA. Stills tone is objective, observant, and calming. He also uses the rhetorical device, chiasmus, the crisscrossing of words. “Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong” illustrates the complexity and simplicity of the lyrics. Setting the stage for new ideas, Stills asserts in the songs first line, “There’s something happening here/ What it is ain’t exactly clear/ There’s a man with a gun over there/ Telling me I got to beware.” It was this opening that influenced the idea the song was about the war in Viet Nam. But the real inspiration was much closer for Buffalo Springfield. It was all about the riots on the Sunset Strip. “Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong” illustrates the complexity and simplicity of the lyrics. Rhetorically, chiasmus is the crisscrossing of words and Stills uses it in “For What It’s Worth.” Stills incorporates simple and easily understood language while the piercing sounds of the guitars lead the way for the soft vocal accompaniment. “For What It’s Worth” was written during a time when protests were escalating.
The civil rights movement, soldiers fighting in Viet Nam, and across the United States protesters chose the song as their anthems. The conflicts of the times seem to be paralleled to the lyrics “Paranoia strikes deep / Into your life it will creep / It starts when you are always afraid / You step out of line, the man come and take you away. Citizen soldiers and anti-war protests were occupying college buildings and parks. The song has been featured in films, documentaries, and television shows through the years proving the simplicity and simple ideas posed by Stills continues to be relevant even in today’s
world. While the event was certainly politically, socially, and emotionally charged it was the inspiration for Stills’ music. The world outside of Los Angeles embraced the slow, rhythmic sounds as an anthem for bigger and louder protests. In these turbulent times, Stills managed to overcome with a calm voice, slow rhythmic music, and a catchy chorus. Somewhere between rock and roll and the psychedelic seventies is a time of protests, riots and war. However, Still’s survived the times through a cool head and music.
Feeling unwanted from the closest people in your life who turn away from you when you need them the most, is the worst feeling a person can endure. I chose the song “My Story” by Sean McGee, because people young and old can relate to his song. People from different backgrounds can relate to each other when there are living homeless or raised as a foster child. Sean McGee wrote “my daddy don’t know, my momma don’t care, it don’t matter if I’m here, it don’t matter if I’m dead” people all around the world have the same issues and share a common culture. A master status is the most important status a person occupies, this is a key factor in determining a person’s social position.
My first song I´ve chosen is Sean McGee, song titled My Story. Mainly the song is about him facing different struggles, obstacles, and all the horrible things and situations he´s been in throughout his life. I can connect to this song and the lyrics for many reasons. One of his lines were ¨Do you know how it feels to be left out in the rain¨? And I have faced times like this when I feel like no one is there or have my back, and in the line he´s trying express how it feels to have nobody and be all alone. Also throughout this song he expresses how everyday you wake up your face with something rather it's just a minor issue or something that will greatly impact your life.
The Temptations’ 1970 hit “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World is Today)” bravely sheds light on the political and social issues plaguing the world during the 1960’s. Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, this song deviates from Motown’s usual clean and charismatic approach and serves as a prelude for songs like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Through the use of shrewd lyrics, psychedelic instrumentals, and intimidating vocals “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World is Today)” serves its purpose in making a statement against the tumultuous world America created.
This song reminisces about the loss of Private Rodger Young and reminds soldiers to push forward through the loss. Since death was something typically seen on the battle field Losser took this sad moment and turned it in to a rally together moment to get the job done. Loesser reflects the idea that America is tired of the war and are ready to keep progressing in life. While this song may not have been the most popular of the time period, Life magazine at the time felt like it was vital to print the music in the worlds for all to
To the persistent individual, though, there is a body of music in existence that merits regard. It is powerful music written by the youth of America, youngsters who did have a stake in the Vietnam War. There can be little question about the origins of the power which American protest music conveyed: those who wrote such music lived each day with the real knowledge that they were losing friends in, and could possibly be forced themselves to go to, Vietnam. One such group, Creedence Clearwater Revival, made its contribution to this genre near the end of the Vietnam War.
April 26th, 1992, there was a riot on the streets, tell me where were you? You were sittin' home watchin' your TV, while I was paticipatin' in some anarchy. First spot we hit it was my liquor store. I finally got all that alcohol I can't afford. With red lights flashin' time to retire, and then we turned that liquor store into a structure fire. Next stop we hit it was the music shop, it only took one brick to make that window drop. Finally we got our own p.a. where do you think I got this guitar that you're hearing today?
[2] After the fifties, Americans were emotionally dead. During the next decade the population would search again for the “grand ideals” of democracy. The American people were looking for something in the 1960’s; they were searching for ideals and dreams. The Sixties were a “time of rebellion, defiance of authority, acting out hopes and dreams. . . a time of reconsidering the way we lived, the way we behaved toward people in this country and abroad” (Zinn in Morgan, ix). During the Sixties people began to take into account American history and began to attempt to redress the past. Perhaps the largest and most influential group in motivating the American people was musicians. They began to put the feeling of America into songs, and they used those songs to fight for what they believed in, from anti-war songs to sexual liberation and free drug use. It was the fight for ...
The 1960s was the era of rebellion. It was a time when views of many people started to change dramatically as unexpected things were happening from the Cold War to the assassinations of nation’s leaders. So within this disturbed era, many citizens started to rebel and question the authorities saying that they were ruining the country. The younger generation, especially, stood firmly in front to lead the action to change the ideas of the older generation. One of the main methods they used to speak their opinions was through music and we can see the power it had on the people through one of the main protest anthems called “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969. The song speaks out to the elite controlled America and becomes one of many instances of the younger generation questioning and rebelling against the authority in the late 1960s. They send people a message that the citizens of United States do not live in a fair world and the authorities are not doing their jobs. By creating images through the comparative and descriptive lyrics such as who “waves the flag” , and “some folks are born with silver spoons in hand”, its repetition of the chorus “it ain’t me” and the instrumentation of the song which sounds like the cry of the working class to signify that the Vietnam War is a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight, this song by the Creedence Clearwater Revival shouts to the world that the elite-controlled America is unfair as it can get; and becomes a big part of the counterculture movement. However, contrary to the message of the song, challenges to authority and privilege did not come exclusively from the working class. Rather, members of the upper class were also involved in opposition movements, for instance vi...
During the turbulent era of the 1960s, youth excelled boundaries and expectations to adequately improve the world. Throughout this time, many individuals were trying to juggle the conflicts between racism, sexism, and the turning point in the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive. This battle occurred in 1968, and was a watershed moment in the Vietnam War that ultimately turned many Americans against bloodshed. “The total casualties – dead, wounded, and missing in action – had grown from 2,500 in 1965 and would top 80,000 by the end of 1967” (Willbanks 6). Destruction from the poignant fighting convinced rising numbers of Americans that the expense of United States’ commitment was too immense. The Anti-War movement gained momentum as student protesters and countercultural hippies condemned this kind of violence. As a result, many American citizens attended a three-day concert, Woodstock, because they desperately needed a place to be rescued from the brutality and turmoil. A young member of “The Beatles,” John Lennon, created music that was essential for the success of antiwar uprisings, as well as Woodstock attendees who justify the purpose of attending. Woodstock abruptly became a compelling icon; a turn of events where even all of the world’s calamities could not conquer the notions of peace, harmony, and cultural expression driven by young Americans to assert their voices as a generation, by genuine music and proclaims made by Woodstock celebrators.
Despite people’s desire to bring back the feeling of the original Woodstock, all that can remain is its effect on the people who experienced it and the affect on the culture they lived in. The concert was necessary to have because it eased tension in a time of history that was full of war and prejudices. Its stories will be told, some good, some bad, but the desire that people feel to experience it firsthand will never be lost.
The 1960’s was one of the most controversial decades in American history because of not only the Vietnam War, but there was an outbreak of protests involving civil and social conditions all across college campuses. These protests have been taken to the extent where people either have died or have been seriously injured. However, during the 1960’s, America saw a popular form of art known as protest music, which responded to the social turmoil of that era, from the civil rights movement to the war in Vietnam. A veritable pantheon of musicians, such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan sang their songs to encourage union organizers to protest the inequities of their time, creating a diverse variety of popular protest music, which has reached out to the youthful generations everywhere demanding for a revolutionary change. The protest music took the children of the 1960’s to a completely new different level. Musicians of this generation were not going to sit and do nothing while the government lied to the people about what was going on in Vietnam. Instead, they took their guitar-strumming troubadours from the coffee houses, plugged them in, and sent the music and the message into the college dorm rooms and the homes of the youth of America. However, as decades went by, protest music does not have much of an impact as it use to because of the way things have changed over the years. Through the analysis of the music during the 1960’s, there shall be an understanding on how the different genres of protest music has affected social protesters based on how musicians have become the collective conscience of that generation through their lyrics and music and the main factors that contributed to the lack of popula...
The year is1965, 8 years into the Vietnam war and 2 years in the shadow of a presidential assassination, marked the inception of an artistic vision, cut to Vinyl. Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 revisited is a testament to the state of America in the 1960s, using poetic devices, and engaging rock and roll music to capture the imagination of a breadth of people, unwittingly, it would seem, brought change to the minds of Americans. Opening their eyes to what was happening and inflicting a sense of new found justice in their hearts, Living vicariously through Bob Dylan’s intense imagery, due to the events unfolding in that period, People latched on to Dylan’s lyrics and imposed their own expression and feeling onto his songs.
Bob Dylan was an artist that recorded protest music. He recorded “Times Are A-Changin” in 1963. The lines “There’s a battle outside and it’s ragin’. It’ll soon shake your windows, rattle your walls” are a reference to the Vietnam War. At first, you think he is trying to get the public to not try to understand the war. In all reality, he was talking about how confused and frustrated at how many parents sons’ and daughters were sent to war. Another song by him is “Blowin’ in the Wind” and it became an anthem for the civil rights era. “Chimes of Freedom” by Bob Dylan is another protest song. He uses imagery from wind, hurricanes, etc. to tell a bigger
To some, December 6, 1969 may not hold any particular significance. To Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger, however, it’s remembered as the day the sixties suffered a tragic death. Irrational bikers and terrified fans were not a part of Jagger’s vision when him and his bandmates organized a free concert at California’s Altamont Speedway. Despite incessant warnings that a concert of such a large magnitude was not the best idea, the Stones went ahead with it in light of criticism they’d received regarding their ticket prices being too high. They’d performed for overflow audiences without incident in major cities before, but this crowd of 300,000 was different. A total of four births and four deaths were the result of that evening, one of which was a homicide. The stabbing of Meredith Hunter by Hell’s Angel Alan Passaro happened to be captured on film, and is now the climax of the legendary rock n’ roll documentary Gimme Shelter. Larger cultural discourses shape the way non-fiction narratives are told, and the only entity larger than the notion of disaster within the film is the notion of Jagger as a celebrity. In the words of Amanda Howell, “Jagger's ‘double self’ literally takes center stage in Gimme Shelter. On the one hand, Jagger embodies the freedom, expressivity and hedonism of the countercultural movement, while on the other he appears adept in his relation to "straight" society.” In addition to this “double self,” Jagger can also be described as a commodity in the eyes of his adoring fans. What happened at Altamont was, in a sense, an explosion of tensions that had built up over the sixties; an explosion which Gimme Shelter depicts Mick Jagger to have been shielded from as a result of his three façades.
Music has been around for thousands of years. Music has progressed since that time and has slowly become what it is today. Though music has been around for such a long time, protest music just started to develop in the Vietnam Era, the year 1954. The war started the era of protest which, in turn, created a new form of music which incorporated a specific type of lyric that was a way of expressing protest through the song. Since music in this era was already a big thing, artists thought it would be a good idea to get their political viewpoints out there. They did it through something that affected everybody in that time and space. The artists view spread quickly through the country because of the catchy tune and the viewpoints that are listed. In the United States of America, it is a very common thing to conform to others in a group (Conformity…). Since conformity is such a common occurrence in a large group, all the artist has to do is find a couple of people in the group, group being an audience, who agree with the artist and the rest will unfold on its own. The artist will keep on performing while the word of him and his music will spread from person to person. Conformity will ultimately bring people together on the same viewpoint until eventually, there are thousands of people there with the artist to protest. These artists have grown over time along with the style of music that they bring along with them. Protest music still exists today and is one of the most effective forms of protest that we have.