The Civics of Rock and the Promise of
the New Sounds
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of
MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY: AMERICAN
STUDIES
at the
University of Amsterdam
June, 2014
Graduate School of Humanities – Faculty of Humanities daniel.illes@student.uva.nl
The Civics of Rock and the Promise of the New Sounds
Table of Contents
Abstract……….. 3
Introduction……….... 4
Part One: There’s Something Happening Here…Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Appreciation? ... 8
- Introduction……….. 8
- Chapter One: The Meaning of Rock……… 11
- The Power of Rock is Cultural Exchange……….. 16
- Chapter Two: The Irony of Promise: Mainstream Rules………. 25
- Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival, June 17, 1967……….. ….28
- Conclusion……….... 34
Part Two: Beyond Rock: Social Commitment and Political Conscience in the Music of Sly and the Family Stone (1967-1972) ………... 37
- Introduction……….. 37
- Black Music and a White Scene: The Ascent of Sly Stone……… 40
- Chapter Three: Extraordinary Vibes for Extraordinary Times: The Significance of Sly and the Family Stone……….. 43
- Chapter Four: Pleasure and Purpose: The Impact of Sly and the Family Stone at Home and Abroad………. 51
- Conclusion……… 58
Conclusion……….. 60
Abstract of MA Thesis
The Civics of Rock and the Promise of the New
Sounds
History: American Studies University of Amsterdam Supervisor: George Blaustein June 2014
This study is an in-depth investigation into American popular culture through the lens of popular music, and the development of rock in a particular social and political context: The Sixties. As loose as the definition of this culturally and politically charged decade might be, it is not the actual decade (from beginning to end) that this thesis explores, but specifically the period between 1962 and 1972. The work is divided into two main parts with two chapters in each. Part One is the more historiographical part in which some of the most renowned
popular musicians of the time are discussed in relation to the counter-culture, before the focus shifts to Otis Redding, and Monterey International Pop Music Festival. Part Two makes Sly and the Family Stone the center of attention, and attempts to demonstrate the band’s political significance and cultural impact on American society. This thesis contributes evidence to the debates surrounding rock music as a ‘hotbed’ for interracial cultural exchange, and addresses two broad questions: (1) Why was sixties countercultural protest music compatible with civic participation? (2) How did rock music come into use as an expression of the positive sense of racial identity? Most importantly, I argue thatrock, as a means to spark political
consciousness and a musical expression of a more general national identity, was of vital significance in the rediscovering of not only the youth culture or the counter-culture, but the American culture. The paper concludes by asserting that the corporatization of popular music in the ‘60s was essential for triggering mass political consciousness in order to inspire enough people to campaign for a radical social change.
Introduction
“How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, an’ how many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, the answer is blowin’ in the wind,”1 sang Bob Dylan at the March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom in August 1963. The song is one prime example out of many unofficial anthems of the civil rights and anti-war movements used in 1960s United States. It is a song that belongs to an era of civil disobedience, social injustice, and public activism, particularly toward the oppression of African-Americans. Bob Dylan songs would quickly galvanize life into non-segregated crowds and countercultural movements, although he was a seemingly reluctant figurehead of the counter-culture. Plenty of big names will be remarked upon throughout the chapters (especially in Part One), firstly because of their valuable contribution to protest music within the realm of American popular culture. Secondly, it is almost
impossible to have a thorough discussion on rock music – that came of age in the sixties and was considered as popular music - without mentioning, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix (among others). Leaving them out completely would probably result in unwanted logical gaps in the greater argument that is to detect whether protest music of the counter-culture era was compatible with civic participation. However, this thesis paper is about the importance of protest songs, performed by lesser known (albeit mainstream) informal chroniclers, for the development of popular music, particularly the role rock played from the 1960s to the early 1970s in the struggle against oppression and racism. This way the thesis not only broadens the range of artists, historians and scholars tend to select from, but calls attention to some undeservedly neglected performers as well, such as Otis Redding or Sylvester Stewart of Sly and the Family Stone.
The Civics of Rock and the Promise of the New Sounds tests the validity of essayist
Greil Marcus’ point of view, according to which the examination of American popular music in the 1960s is really the study of the very idea of America and American culture. Since rock is innately tied up into causes supporting certain ideas while opposing others, his book
Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, serves as a basis for my
interpretation of the music’s promise and power. Popular music, as an important vehicle for articulating the growing social tensions that characterized the 1960s, connected the
counter-1 Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind” (song lyrics), accessed June 20, 20counter-14, http://www.metrolyrics.com/blowin-in-the-wind-lyrics-bob-dylan.html
culture to issues of social relevance. Consequently, it is important to look at rock music through the lens of cultural awareness, and treat it as a catalyst for cross-cultural exchange.
The most inspirational and influential primary sources in helping craft my
interpretation of the material include large and underground newspapers and magazines from the 1960s. They are analysed, with particular attention paid to Rolling Stone (among others:
Berkeley Barb, Fifth Estate, Hit Parader, The New York Times) that focuses on politics and
popular culture. Through the use of the press, I was able to open a window to have a thorough insight into the 1960s. A great bulk of the research concentrates on the assertions at the time, made by musicians themselves, managers, promoters, and music journalists. It was most helpful in gathering valuable information on how people have claimed rock music shaped the protest movement. Data sources also included first-hand biographical accounts, interviews and memoirs focusing on how music is remembered or given credit to. In addition, posters, handbills, images, advertisements, song lyrics and album cover art, music charts, and radio playlists will assist this thesis to undertake its purpose; that is to inquire into the civics of rock music. The investigation takes into account audience reaction in contrast to media representations in order to bring to light how people in different social spheres perceived rock music and responded to racially integrated performances.
The first chapter will outline the meaning of rock within the framework of a cultural revolution led by thoughtful musicians and social commentators in response to the poisoning of politics and American life. It includes a discussion about the characteristics of rock
including the new sound of the electric guitar capturing the exact mood of America in the 1960s. The goal is to demonstrate that rock music, as a revolutionary mode of expression, was gaining popularity among the youth not only due to its key role in the rising anti-establishment sentiment, though there was that, but also because the new sound (along with the lyrics) provoked strong emotional responses creating direct connections. This is
particularly helpful in determining musical dynamics as a way of creating conditions for a fruitful musician-audience communication on the one hand, evolving into an interracial individual-community intercourse on the other. Hence, chapter one will examine the shared aspirations of black and white crowds who had found the common ground in their opposition. Considered in this light furthermore the systematic commercialization of rock accelerating audience expansion, was conducive to a widespread and far-reaching musical and cultural exchange. Therefore, chapter one will also investigate the magnitude of cross racial borrowing and re-borrowing of musical elements, as a result of “blending,” that allowed artists to cut across musical and cultural lines. Musicians’ abilities to blend, both physically
and mentally, were of vital importance to the making of integrated music. In this paper thus I will argue that interracial cooperation in rock music made progress toward encouraging interaction in other settings as well.
Chapter two describes the explosion of pop music brought about by bands associated with the British Invasion in the first place, followed by the emergence of the Motown sound as a direct result of the incorporation of black genres (mainly R&B and soul) into rock music. The intention is to point out the significance of black musical acts that came to challenge white artists for chart supremacy serving out a newfound white interest in black music. This section therefore will expose market demand in the sixties that would correlate highly with the corporatization of rock as the music industry understood that there was a considerable white market for black music. Moreover, it ironically reveals that the degree of success of racial integration in popular music hugely depends on marketing and promoting.
Countercultural popular music publications like Rolling Stone magazine along with rock festivals such as Monterey Pop came remotely close to proving that there was no escape from mass consumerism. Using Otis Redding’s Monterey performance as a case study concludes the first part of the thesis in an orderly fashion, and illustrates: a) why the ironic relationship between the counter-culture and the mainstream functioned in favour of and against racial and other youth aspirations at the same time, and b) what the stakes of cross racial
recognition might be in regards to racial identity and musical authenticity.
The second part of the thesis expands on some of the previous chapter ideas outlined in Part One and narrows the discussion about integration down towards its purpose and a conclusion. In Part Two, you will be introduced to music prodigy Sylvester Stewart and his racially integrated, mixed-gender line-up rock ensemble called Sly and the Family Stone. Despite the common association of the band with the Woodstock dream, the main reason for devoting the second half of the body text to one music group is to expose its social
commitment to countercultural political concerns, a territory which have not been fully explored yet. Sly and the Family Stone is worthy of close scrutiny furthermore because more than any other bands in the sixties, it embodied everything that was right and wrong with the counter-culture. Moreover, Part Two attempts to bypass obscuring factors, such as the reputation for being a drug-fuelled party band, which might prevent one from seeing Sly and the Family Stone’s role, importance, and contribution to the countercultural struggle.
Chapter three outlines the significance of Sly and the Family Stone in relation to America’s struggle with processes of integration. It discusses the most important songs and albums released over a period of five years (1967-1971) during which America not only saw
the band’s career skyrocket, but witnessed and experienced its liberation from social oppression as well. It delineates some of the more consciously political songs that helped countercultural ideas spread and creep into even the less progressive regions of the country like Mississippi. By drawing parallels between the popularity of certain songs (that helped usher integration) and the American spirit of youthful rebellion, I can draw a fair picture about the band’s position and role in intersecting the hippie culture and more radical ideals.
Part Two reaches its climax in chapter four, which combines pleasure and purpose and goes into detail about the significance of Sly and the Family Stone at home and abroad. This thesis is neither a military history of the Vietnam War, nor a study of the Black Power movement. However, it is an inquiry into Panthers’ and GIs’ memoirs of the same era. It focuses on the role of integrated music in the Black Panther Party, and in the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam, both of which had used Sly and the Family Stone to promote their own cause. While the former supported Black Nationalism and mobilized the black community, the latter popularized hip militarism and boosted the morale of the troops by encouraging racial integration and sponsoring soul music. This chapter will inspect why Sly and the Family Stone was more in line with the military’s interracial utopianism than the Panthers’ other form of utopianism. Both helped evolve racial and political consciousness, although the fact that the military (that represented the establishment) was more capable of showing understanding and empathetic appreciation towards the counter-culture’s pro-integrationist stance than the Black Panther Party (an icon of the counter-culture), provides some
Part One
There’s Something Happening Here…Cultural Appropriation or Cultural
Appreciation?
Popular culture is a complex and contested reality in the United States, but it remains the primary means of resistance and the most widely used channel for expression of
emancipatory political perspectives.2
Ray Pratt, 1990
Introduction
The political possibilities of popular music in the 1960s served as a point of reflection for American society. This reflection looks critically at the political power struggle between countercultural movements and political conservatism (and social repression) of the Cold War period. This is a common notion and my idea of departure. In Part One, I will
demonstrate how rock music contributed to a widespread and far-reaching cultural exchange between black and white people in America particularly, in regards to the issues the counter-culture was concerned with. The goal of the argument intends to prove that sixties rock came into use as an expression of the positive sense of racial identity, and as a means to channel the anti-Vietnam and pro-Civil Rights protest sentiments. Ironic as it was, since the Baby
Boomer generation was the result of victory in war, they were either organizing against the Vietnam War or fighting and dying in that very Southeast Asian country. Rock played a major role in stimulating debates on contemporary issues, and was an outlet through which the young generation sought liberation and self-respect. Thus, popular music became a new form of expression of their generational identity. Particularly in rock, as the chief vehicle to protest, they found and conveyed individuality through lifestyle choices, while experiencing a sense of collectiveness.3 The main objective of Part One is to analyse the degree of success
experienced by black, white, and integrated bands whose music careers were elevated
through cross-racial borrowing. More important, is that many people have claimed that music shaped the protest movement. As evidence of this fact, I will look at various accounts of key
2 Ray Pratt, Rhythm and Resistance: explorations in the political uses of popular music (New York: Praeger, 1990), 212
3 It is an interesting fact that most ‘60s rock bands took group names implying a sense of collectiveness. (e.g. The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Animals, The Mamas & the Papas, etc.)
people – musicians, rock critics, music journalists, and authors - participating in the music scene, which connected them, one way or another, to the “Movement.” In this light, Part One can be treated as an investigation into the fascinating dynamics of a small history during which musicians helped reinterpret, extend, and correlate Americanness with notions of identity, individualism, and a cultural politics of selfhood. In the 1960s, these became emblems for the aesthetics of blackness in a predominantly white America, even though American popular culture was always inflected by black presence, or directly appropriated from black culture. Multi-racial bands and songs adopted by both black and white audiences in different versions, or different meanings attributed by observers to certain songs or festivals, will demonstrate the mere observation that these cultural expressions have some sort of political dimension.
What cannot be overlooked in this discussion, is the commercial climate; an important factor that successfully managed to fuse the folk and rock worlds as commodities, in the age of “constitutional re-play of mass production.”4 The irony and controversy about the
relationship between consumer lifestyle and protest music have reinforced the idea of crossover of music styles (deep soul, R&B, and white pop), pointing to a profound social impact; a long-term effect that propelled the sixties counter-culture and further revolutionized the American popular culture. To build on this idea, Part One intends to expose the role of American pop-rock music in the sixties in order to solve the riddle; whether rock helped integrate blacks and the “baby boomer generation” into society or increased the process of racialization of America during a decade of intense social divisions and political turmoil. Part of this debate will cover the importance of Otis Redding, whose 1967 performance at
Monterey Pop Festival marked a pivotal moment in music history, for encouraging a shift awayfrom the conventional and highly discriminative, distinguishing categories and concepts of “black” and “white” music; a successful attempt in terms of interracial collaboration. Firstly, in Part One the intention is to point out to the promise and the power of rock music as a revolutionary and authentic 1960s political and cultural resource that forever transformed the counter-culture, the American public sphere (and the world in a broader sense.) Secondly, I also intend to demonstrate the significance of black and white musical intersection, in order to explore the political uses of popular music of this era. This will not only unravel the ideological construction of rock music, but will also tease out the problematic aspects of racial polarization of the heavily charged political rock music. Ultimately, I wish to illustrate
4 Read more about the definition of folk music and protest songs from Bob Dylan’s point of view in Dylan, Bob. The Rolling Stone Interview: Bob Dylan. Rolling Stone magazine, January 20, 1968, 8 Print
the controversies about countercultural protest music, which at its core rejected the idea of mainstream, but at the same time it could not avoid commercialization. In the process, generic racially constructed boundaries have been established by an exploitative and discriminating broadcast media system, united with the increasingly sophisticated and capitalist music industries, to market “black” and “white” music as separate categories for different sub-cultures and ethnic groups. Hence, the common association of rock music with white performers and white experience obscured the history of black musicians in this tradition despite the acknowledgement of rock’s roots in blues. By illuminating the cultural and socio-critical dynamics and aesthetics of rock, the following chapters will critically examine the otherwise intricate web of racial taxonomies in popular music based on American culture.
The Meaning of Rock
During the second half of the 1960s, following the commercialization and
corporatization of the radical mass movement, protest music became extremely popular and widely acceptable and respectable. On one hand, it flooded the market with songs about non-violence, compassion and empathy; progressive-liberal values that were corresponding with the new “American Dream;” envisioned by the participants of the counterculture. On the other hand though, according to Rolling Stone magazine, this process turned protest songs “into a bland, palatable synthetic.”5 This meant a drastic change to folk music -- both as a
movement and a genre -- compared to its early radical spirit, triggering the political ideas of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Huddie William Ledbetter, alias “Lead Belly,” (among other lesser known local musician-activists) on issues that revolved around labour, civil rights and civil liberties causes. As editor Happy Traum of Sing Out! suggested in 1969 for the readers of Rolling Stone magazine, there was the reaction against old-left political values on the part of the sixties countercultural groups, which should not be overlooked here. Due to the common association of folk music with the left, these groups, such as the Hippies, had increasingly (but unwittingly), distanced themselves from the genre as they had become tired of the system’s continuous attempts to persuade the masses about its righteousness and the forcing of post-World War II values upon the new generation. The two worldviews clashed. And with empty slogans derived from well-known and otherwise appreciated folk songs - like “We’re black and white together we shall not be moved”6 - the counterculture could not
truly relate to in the light of the social injustice and deep racism that best characterized the most significant aspects of life in the U.S. Hence, it redefined the quest for left-leaning activists to overcome conformism and conservatism, qualities and attributes that
characterized the old-left and the fifties upper-middle-class culture. The reaction against the poisoning of politics in the United States came with a cultural response and activism, of which rock was a part.
What is rock? What is that sound? More importantly, how does it come into play? In
Mystery Train, music journalist and cultural critic Greil Marcus perceives rock ‘n’ roll music
not only in terms of popular culture, but in a much broader framework that is the context of American culture. While he examines the civics of rock as pop culture, he also broadens his
5 Happy Traum, “The Swan Song of Folk Music,” Rolling Stone magazine, May 17, 1969, 7 6 Pete Seeger, “We Shall Not Be Moved” (song lyrics), accessed June 14, 2014,
assessment by tying rock into what it means to be American. As a San Franciscan, he graduated from University of California, Berkeley in American Studies and “followed the sixties trail to college, Beatle shows, and Dylan concerts,”7 to eventually become a writer and
editor for Rolling Stone, Creem, The Village Voice, etc. Mystery Train, therefore, is a
scholarly work as well as a personal account of events. He argues that “blues and rock ‘n’ roll performers had at once drawn upon and transfigured certain bedrock, ineradicable strains of American experience and identity.”8 That is exactly, as Marcus claims, what had happened
during the sixties. Therefore rock, as a means to spark political consciousness and a musical expression of a more general national identity, was of vital significance in the rediscovering of not only the youth culture or the counter-culture, but the American culture. And just how revolutionary this was? As a musical expression of Americanism and a cultural form, Marcus reveals just how prevalent the paradoxical truth according to which the music’s
anti-establishment tone (therefore un-American from the traditional point of view) served as a mirror image of a distinctive national character. In line with this revelation, Happy Traum notes that rock was seen as a rebellious redemption that was capable of freeing the soul, entertain and simultaneously justify the position of the counterculture in American society. Rock made a decisive shift towards being topical, hedonistic, charged with sexuality, at odds with authority, unpredictable, anarchic and indeed offbeat compared to the attitude and behaviour of previous decades. Therefore, it was revolutionary at its core. Rock was also very political, constantly articulating new values and demanding social change; which fuelled debates about promise and the power of rock. I wish to underpin this argument by referencing Traum; in 1969 he wrote persuasively about how he had observed and interpreted the
emergence of rock in terms of public action and reaction to politics and music:
What was needed then was a new revolutionary music, a new anthem for rebellion and liberation (at least until it, too, is rendered meaningless), [referring to the ambiguous relationship of rock as a form of political engagement and a highly marketable item] and Rock had everything that was needed: It was truly a people’s music (therefore revolutionary), and it was definitely the antithesis of parental attitudes and approval. Loud, explicitly sensual, and implicitly anti-establishment, it was taken over by the Now Generation.9
7 Greil Marcus, Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music (US: Plume Printing, Fourth Revised Edition, May, 1997), x
8 Ibid. xv
What Traum also noted was the fact that protest singers and activists (often one and the same) were caught up in this musical change, and many viewed rock’s potential to mobilize the kids of the “Now Generation” the same way folk music was used as an instrument to propagate in the 1940s. Perhaps, that is one way to explain why Bob Dylan went electric in 1965. Another way to make sense of it could be to treat this musical development as the continuation of the popularization of folk music and an “evolutionary step in an on-going process.”10 That is
how, in 1969, Dylan described the “folk boom” or “folk revival” a few years back. Since electric instruments could more easily create a specific atmosphere, or convey emotions and the mood of a song (or play with the listener’s feelings for that matter), I would not only wonder but argue that Dylan’s statement could explain the emergence and popularity of rock as well. It immediately raises another question though: Why did sixties rock, this “new music,” connect so powerfully with the counter-culture generation? In order to provide an answer, I will add a musical perspective to the discourse about the meaning of rock and argue that among the many reasons three characteristics are noteworthy: firstly, rock’s oddity; secondly, the power of words; and thirdly, the combination of explicit content of a song with sometimes ambiguous messages and stinging social commentary expressed by the music. Today these elements are, of course, fundamental in the construction of (political) rock-making, but in the 1960s, were considered progressive, provocative, seditious and
revolutionary. While rock, back then, outraged people “over thirty,” it made perfect sense for the youth. Why? For the reason that rock cut across all social and racial lines. Take The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” as an example; an ultimate song that
incorporates elements of the blues. By doing so, they contribute massively to integrate blues into the sound of popular music. Besides this, the powerful lyrics outline the band’s irritation with commercialism, which was a widespread belief among the youth.
Excerpt taken from the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” When I'm watchin' my TV
And that man comes on to tell me How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke The same cigarettes as me11
10 Ibid. 8
11 The Rolling Stones, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (song lyrics), accessed June 14, 2014,
Additionally, rock -- as opposed to fifties (teenage) rock n roll in which melody and harmony were centered around the vocal line -- has very much focused on the ultimate sound. Furthermore, rock accentuated reality by laying stress on present issues, resulting in a strong and more direct (often personal) connection between performance, performer, and crowd. Therefore, immediacy (much as the electrification of musical instruments) played a key role in the musician-audience dynamic, which according to musicologist Mark Mazullo, “could be generalized into an individual-community dynamic and serve as a model”12 for the
counter-culture at large. This same argument was used by Janis Joplin, too, who once said that when she had first met Peter Albin of the Big Brother & The Holding Co. in 1965, “he had this weird idea for starting a rock group which would speak to all the children of the nation in their own language.”13 Based on this synergistic relationship, artists became increasingly
successful in capturing psychedelic experiences, which made the so called “acid-rock” extremely popular in the San Francisco Bay Area most especially. By the mid- and late-sixties, rock sounded like nothing people had musically encountered before, and bands typically began to go electric. The rock grooves and amplification in Miles Davis’ In a Silent
Waywas a revelatory experience, something hitherto unknown for the jazz community. Jerry Garcia, former member of the Grateful Dead, would also hint at this trend when he said that "I couldn't think of anything else more worth doing,"14 referring to the electric
instrumentation in Bob Dylan’s music. New technology gear such as keyboards, and heavy-duty professional amplifiers - as well as improved devices in recording - helped new ways of playing to develop in most leading genres. Most importantly, the electric guitar sound palette had expanded by adding effects pedals. For example, Jimi Hendrix’s guitar masterpiece “Machine Gun” or “The End” by the Doors have remained the most powerful expressions and protest of war. In both songs performers could imitate the sounds of war and re-enact the violence and insanity that was taking place in Vietnam at the time. On stage, Hendrix was able to transform his guitar into a weapon of destruction, which allowed the audience to experience the war on the battlefield, albeit from a safe distance. Sixties rock, therefore, was diverse, truly revolutionary and a matter of great consequence, and a way of life for many people. Ultimately, this would make the key figures of the countercultural music scene observers in protesting for peace and justice for all. Sixties rock thus was comprehensive and
12 Mark Mazullo, “Fans and Critics: Greil Marcus's "Mystery Train" as Rock 'n' Roll History,” The Musical
Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), 154, http://www.jstor.org/stable/742456?origin=JSTOR-pdf
13 n. a., “Janis Joplin,” Rolling Stone magazine, October 29, 1970, 8 14 Blair Jackson, Garcia: An American Life (US: Penguin Books, 1999), 67
most of its aspects -- such as sound, lyrics or even artistic creativity in music and album design – highlighted everything the counter-culture represented.
Excerpt taken fromJimi Hendrix’s “Machine Gun”
Machine gun, tearin' my body all apart Evil man make me kill you, evil man make you kill me
Evil man make me kill you, even though we're only families apart Well, I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer
But your bullets still knock me down to the ground15
Excerpt taken from The Doors’ “The End” Can you picture what will be So limitless and free
Desperately in need... Of some...stranger's hand In a...desperate land16
Figure 1 (left): The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland (1968) Reprise records promotes sexual revolution (further implications: interracial sexuality, lesbianism) Figure 2 (right): Cream – Disraeli Gears (1967) Atlantic Records sells psychedelia
15 Jimi Hendrix, “Machine Gun” (song lyrics), accessed June 14, 2014,
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jimihendrix/machinegun.html
16 The Doors, “The End” (song lyrics), accessed June 14, 2014,
Figure 3 (left): Peace symbol on a killing “machine gun.” Photographer unknown Figure 4 (right): A U.S. soldier in Vietnam, 1968. Photograph by Bettman/CORBIS17
The Power of Rock is Cultural Exchange
Part One has reached a crucial point in the discussion of civic issues and rock. Until now I have left open the question of promise and power of rock as a means of public protest, which I shall now expand on. Evidence found in song lyrics, interviews, and
contemporaneous sixties (underground) rock publications suggest that creating cultural exchange through the universal language of popular music reflected and reinforced
developments that attained increasing importance in American life, and a morally bankrupted society riddled with inequities tied to race, class, and gender. Issues revolved around both the everyday political struggles of the day and a lack of understanding, which served as
overarching topics for song-writers regardless of race. But how do protest music and civic engagement correlate, and what is meant by this nexus?
In order to clarify what links them, it is crucial to understand a couple of things. Firstly, how did the counter-culture respond to rock? Secondly, how did rock function in civic life? The degree to which most people perceive song lyrics depends on how much they can identify with what is being sung, either in a small bar like Indra Musik Club where the Beatles would play on arriving in Hamburg, in a middle-sized rock venue like the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, or a mass concert-festival such as Monterey Pop. The obvious
17 http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/peace-symbol-gallery/#/soldier-vietnam_13389_600x450.jpg
manifestation of this was the 1969 Woodstock Festival attracting over 500,00018 people with
a shared political ideology. What I mean is that certain values, attitudes and experiences, when shared, tend to galvanize and unite people. However, different age groups have different principles and ideas resulting in offbeat opinions and goals. In April, 1968, Janis Joplin told writer Nat Hentoff:
…like a lot of my generation, and younger, we look back at our parents and see how they gave up and compromised and wound up with very little…Man, if it hadn’t been for the music, I probably would have done myself in…We’ve [her mother and she] been on opposite sides since I was 14.19
Her words imply that the young generation saw themselves as a new breed; the future of America immune to the old, cold rules of reality, and were unafraid to raise their voice or give utterance to their own lives. In the following statement, Greil Marcus argues that these young men and women “tend to see themselves as symbolic Americans; I think their music is an attempt to live up to that role…[and] dramatize a sense of what it is to be an American; what it means, what it’s worth, what the stakes of life in America might be.”20 As Marcus
suggested, popular music was widely seen as a cultural revolution; a suggestion that has been strengthened and justified from time to time by the statements of public figures. They helped a lot to establish a more liberalized relationship that strengthened the bond between the black and white communities. The obvious implication here is that rock served as a vehicle to channel the countercultural socio-political conflicts (of which the black community were clearly part of), in an ongoing cultural struggle between generations and against the
Establishment. Consequently, this complex social conflict exposed interracial activism as a powerful trigger for the development of racial, as well as class, gender, and sexual identities, which had sparked the pro-Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam movements. As a result, blacks and whites revolted indirectly simply through music (or directly at demonstrations), which
broughtwhite crowds together with minority groups echoing, as Michael Campbell states in
Popular Music in America: “the social dimension of the relentless pursuit of racial
equality.”21 Bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Buffalo Springfield, Canned Heat or
18 n.p., “The Woodstock Festivals.” Woodstock. Woodstock 1969, n.d. Web. 06 March. 2014. 19 n. a., “Janis Joplin,” Rolling Stone magazine, October 29, 1970, 7
20 Greil Marcus, Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music (US: Plume Printing, Fourth Revised Edition, May, 1997), 4
21 Michael Campbell, Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On (US: Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc, 2011), 223
the music of Bob Dylan as such -- among countless other groups and solo artists – supported these causes; causes that were deeply rooted in the idea that they could illuminate those typical American questions addressing tradition and destiny, freedom and equality. But the new forward looking national character required more than just that, hence the denouncement of segregation by Martin Luther King and others as a violation of the American Dream. Arguably this is why the counter-culture seemed to have imagined that rock could add resonance to their work, justify their efforts or ratify their choices, and possibly help America overcome its cultural crisis fuelled by perceptions of race relations, generational and national identity and an unwanted war. The sources of new ideas and the attitude rock represented through style were evident for contemporary columnists such as Traum. He contended that leading protest musicians “took the folk (and rock) style, shaped it, and added the poetic and meaningful lyrics to which we could identify our lives and struggles.22” This was the real
power of the ‘60s rock, at least while it was still meaningful.From the viewpoint of those who protested, whether directly or indirectly, rock may have promised a radical change, something tangible to navigate with in a world of uncertainty. Though the protest movement first reared its head in the U.S. much earlier, B.B. King contends in 1970, millions of “young people are [still] searching for that certain something” in music, in order to re-shape society, and eventually create a new America in which they hoped they could “start it over again.”23
In dialogue with this discussion Ray Pratt argues in Rhythm and Resistance that “music may function as a material force with significant political potential. What people make of that potential remains an open question.”24 While in the context of the civics of rock
in the sixties,popular music could not achieve concrete political goals. Traum argues that rock was still successful in generating “a newfound and widespread interest in Black music”25
attracting historically unprecedented levels of musical and cultural exchange. In the October 29, 1970 issue of Rolling Stone, John Greenwald asserts that
B.B. [King] has developed a style of guitar playing which has been one of the primary influences on guitarists in the rock and blues world. During the last few years white musicians, particularly Mike Bloomfield and Eric Clapton, have gained immense popularity playing in a guitar style directly derived from B.B. King.26
22 Happy Traum, “The Swan Song of Folk Music,” Rolling Stone magazine, May 17, 1969, 7 23 John Greenwald, “BB,” Rolling Stone magazine, October 29, 1970, 32
24 Ray Pratt, Rhythm and Resistance: explorations in the political uses of popular music (New York: Praeger, 1990), 211
While it would not be unusual to treat this as white cultural appropriation, black artists occasionally would also avail themselves of the opportunity to borrow, which is why B.B. “studies…and listens carefully to the Beatles.”27 In reference to Janis Joplin’s music, again, it
can be used to illuminate this reciprocal interplay as well. According to the Rolling Stone, “she was the first [successful] white blues singer (female)…who sang the blues out of black influences but had developed her own sound and phrasing.”28 From the viewpoint of the
magazine Joplin - among other white blues singers – was an “innovator in a certain style,”29
who did not try to be black nor was intended to “steal” the black man’s music. Though she idolized Otis Redding and Bessie Smith, and would play songs like “Ball ‘n’ Chain” – originally written by Big Mama Thornton - it was the combination of Joplin’s voice and her interpretation of music that really tied her to blues and rock. By the same token, Erna
Franklin did a cover song of Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart” that also appeared on the U.S. Pop Singles chart. Other crossover successes -- Jimi Hendrix’s version of “Wild Thing” (Chip Taylor cover) or his “All Along the Watchtower” (Bob Dylan cover), both of Aretha
Franklin’s “I Say a Little Prayer” (Burt Bacharach cover) and “Bridge over Troubled Water” (Simon & Garfunkel cover), Cream’s “Crossroads” (Robert Johnson cover), Creedence and Clearwater Revival’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” (Marvin Gaye cover), The Rolling Stones’ “Little Red Rooster” (Howlin’ Wolf cover) among others – have been often
associated with the cover artist, rather than the originators of these songs. On one hand, this trend represents the fortification of the racially polarized music culture of the sixties and its entrenched tradition of segregation in the music industry. On the other hand, though, rock not only introduced black artists like Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Richie Havens or The
Chambers Brothers to a wider American (white) culture, it identified the roots of rock in Anglo- and Afro-American elements. Much the same way when Joplin was scheduled to play at the annual Memphis Sound party, she was introduced to a predominantly black crowd. Subsequently, blues crossed over from being black music to people’s music and a genuinely national phenomenon. This cross-genre fusion of elements from both black and white traditions thus created the unmistakable “sounds at the bottom of their music”30 as Traum
referred to many of the famous contemporary British and American musical performers either
26 John Greenwald, “BB,” Rolling Stone magazine, October 29, 1970, 31 27 Ibid. 32
28 n. a., “Janis Joplin,” Rolling Stone magazine, October 29, 1970, 8 29 Ibid.
black or white.The end result thus was the incorporation of black music, and therefore black culture, tradition, and struggle, into wider themes like the total picture of the countercultural phenomenon through American popular music. A generation that had grown up in the fifties listening to traditionally black music and then black-influenced rock a decade later, had a hard time tolerating prejudice that they saw deeply embedded in most areas of public life. However, as the counter-culture came to realize that rock could possibly change all that, a cultural exchange had begun to gain foothold in America.
As it has been suggested, this cultural exchange in music was not a one way street. What made this mutual experience great is the fact that musicians had begun to use their musical knowledge and repertoire to play whatever they felt was good and transformed it something new without preconceptions.31 More importantly though, due to the fact that rock
welcomed other genres -- such as folk, country, blues, soul and R&B – the most powerful idea on the issue of making integrated music was that “blending” together began to
characterize the more universal view of rock, and by extension popular music. It allowed new ideas to flow freely in both directions. In 1962 the Beatles performed at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, where the group shared the bill with Little Richard. According to Billy Preston, one of Richard’s musicians, it was a special moment in his life when the two groups “became close because we had time to hang out and talk to each other.”32 Along the lines of
Preston’s recollection about “blending” were the Rolling Stones’ U.K. tour of 1963 with Bo Diddley and Little Richard; the tour of 1965 joined by Howlin’ Wolf and Etta James; as well as their tour in the U.S. with B.B. King, Chuck Berry, and Ike and Tina Turner as support acts. These shows, at which both the audience and the artists were exposed to each other’s music and culture, along with Joplin’s aforementioned appearance in Memphis, can exemplify my point about the significance of “blending” ideals of countercultural
consciousness and the development of a racial identity and national character. Leaving the auditoriums and festival sites, one may realize that this “togetherness” had gone way beyond the actual musical journey; which by no means is a matter of minor importance, to create something larger. As rock gained status at national level and around the world as a music
31 See more on Otis Redding talking about the mutual experience of cultural exchange in music here: Jim Delehant, “Otis Redding Interview” Hit Parader September, 1967 in David Brackett, eds, The Pop, Rock, and
Soul Reader: Histories and Debates (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 162
“I like what these rock and roll kids are doing. Sometimes they take things from us, but I take things from them too. The things that are beautiful, and they do a lot of beautiful things.” Otis Redding in 1967
32 “The Beatles Meet Little Richard,” YouTube video, 0:21, Posted by “Roland Neubauer,” Mar 30, 2008,
representing freedom, it revealed the African-American roots and heritage deeply embedded in the national culture. On the other hand, rock also worked well in delimiting a form of high Cold War sensibility following the post-war struggle for racial equality. This had linked the black experience with broad social tensions and political strife to stand at the centre of the youth counter-culture.
Figure 6. 1963 U.K. package tour
Michael Campbell argues that it was a pragmatic approach with “no sense of connection between the social standing of a style,”33 which proved to be fundamental in the revolutionary
new sound of rock music in the sixties. Drawing on the logic behind the aforementioned theory of “togetherness,” I argue that rock’s success can be measured by acknowledging that a large proportion of American people appreciated the “otherness” of black and integrated bands as much as “white music.” This can be explained: a) what the majority might consider “white music” is deeply rooted in “black music;” and b) it represented, once again, the open-mindedness of the counter-culture era.Questions then arise: Did rock music fulfil its
promise? Did it provide the spark to inflame the counter-culture movement and an escape from mass culture?
In retrospect, the counter-culture, as an existentialist movement, may seem rebellious and even revolutionary, because in no other era prior to the sixties had interracial
developments played out in music to such an extent as it did in this single decade under scrutiny. However, the fact that the counter-culture’s main achievement did not really go beyond triggering people’s consciousness might alter one’s opinion. It may be true that the “awakening of consciousness,”34 as Michael Jacob Kramer defines the question of success, is
not to equate to an accomplishment of revolution. To support his own argument Kramer also claims that rock “provided an arena in which participants could consider the dilemmas of mass culture from within [italics used in original text] mass cultural life,”35 which calls
attention to how, more often than not, it was “only” the provocation of the mind. Although much less than an actual revolution, sixties anti-Establishment rock music bore testimony to the power of popular culture that adopted conventions in opposition to the Establishment, revalued old standards, and re-interpreted democracy, capitalism, and the central trope of the American experience. If this was not the “revolution of the mind” and a sign of aspiration to a much larger cultural resonance, I would wonder how else could one describe such a radical form of mass-cultural expression. Even if Kramer’s critical thinking is logical, I would challenge him by claiming that the revolution indeed occurred in the process and construction
33 Michael Campbell, Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On (US: Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc, 2011), 203
34 Michael Jacob Kramer, “The Civics of Rock: Sixties Countercultural Music and the Transformation of the Public Sphere” (PhD dissertation, University of North Carolina, 2006), 19
of rock-making as well as in performing, producing and recording. This had had a profound effect on the performance and on the end product as well. The result was a completely different musical experience, which in turn forever changed the way people approached and perceived rock and popular music. What is even more important is that this new rock style delivered music and message in such a way that it was almost impossible for the audience to ignore their social relevance and political potential.
The promise and power of rock during the sixties were essentially there to provide the counterculture with extreme hopefulness; something to face the world with during a moment when questions of race, crossover, and musical authenticity reached a peculiar intensity. The experience of rock confirmed and promised for that matter the possibility of social
transformation, and the possibility for political achievement. The idea that rock might break down racial boundaries - in part via interracial collaboration, and even cross-racial
borrowing, and re-borrowing of the various elements from different music genres - served as a weird, but complete expression of body, soul, and mind. Certainly, in the early and mid-sixties context, rock had a duty to assist the counter-culture irrespective of any kind of socially constructed boundary; like a social institution, demonstrating capacity and a
powerful force with significant potential within American society. The collective thought of the idea that integration could manifest itself in the many forms of civic and political life and that becoming the reality was also a moment of recognition of what people could do to change history in the midst of a great political crisis and a unique cultural context. Although the reality was more complex, the cultural and critical dynamics gave rock, nevertheless, an almost mythic sense of power to counter the instinctual oppression of the youth, the blacks – and therefore American culture - and effect a positive social change. In consideration of the tradition of American racism and militarism, however, the counter-culture’s approach to improve race-relations and win the multitude over to the anti-war cause (amid the rapid escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam) seems a rather unrealistic approach of a lost generation. And yet, despite all of this, the legacy of countercultural protest music is still remembered. Although rock did not achieve concrete political success or provide an escape from mass culture (even though, rock created the latter), it has been found that pop-rock succeeded (inter)racially, but ultimately failed politically.
Chapter Two
The Irony of Promise: Mainstream Rules
To anatomize pop-rock’s revolutionary potential in the context of commercialization, one shall take a closer look at the developments in “black” music during the years leading up to 1967, and what came shortly after. Jon Landau of Rolling Stone argues that exploiters of popular music recognized a trend, according to which the middle-class segment of the pop audience (predominantly white and well-educated) were constantly searching for new extensions of expressive musical modes. Therefore, “whole styles can come and go in a matter of months.”36 What Landau observed was the considerable speed with which the white
audience displayed its habit to consume music. Consequently, people began to co-opt groups and solo artists into their “sonic machine.” Building upon Landau’s remark, it is fair to argue that black music (and pop-rock in general) served out consumer demand. The adoption of
new sounds and groups from both the “black market” and the white pop world thus allowed “developments like the rise of San Francisco [and Monterey Pop] to take place.”37
As a result of the new interest in black music on the part of a wider American consumer society, record companies - that dealt primarily with soul and R&B, such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax labels - began to respond to people’s need by flooding the market with key artists and new albums. B.B. King’s Blues is King was an instant commercial success in 1967, but many other groups and solo artist followed his path. Black pop groups, led by The Esquires, The Impressions, The Supremes, Sam and Dave, James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Dionne Warwick, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, etc., all began to rise to the top of the popular charts; where each had hit a commercial peak, and as Michael Campbell describes this music completion between the races: Black performers “kept challenging the Beatles [and other white bands] for chart supremacy.”38 For example,
The Supremes, according to the Billboard pop singles chart archive (The Hot 100), topped thrice in 1964, four times in 1965, twice in 1966, and twice again in 1967. Other black-pop acts (mostly R&B and soul) – Mary Wells, The Dixie Cups, The Temptations, Percy Sledge, Four Tops, Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye -- would also top the charts (even in the early seventies), which was a significant development compared to the number of black (and integrated) pop bands in the period that had preceded it. This is neither to argue that never prior to this period had black musicians risen to prominence, nor to ignore the existence of earlier interest in black music on the part of the white audience. It is rather to point out the small history of a “black invasion” of American popular culture; an aspect, which neither has been properly approached nor researched. It often remains unmentioned due to the landslide success of bands as part of the so called “British Invasion,” which during the first half of the decade eclipsed black music so to speak. With the emergence of the Motown sound as a counterweight to “white blues,” and a variety of black styles represented by a number of successful R&B or soul artists who came to dominate the charts, this was no longer true. Thanks to people like Berry Gordy, Jr. (Detroit entrepreneur and founder of the Motown record label), whose main achievement in the music business was the creation of “the first black pop style to cross over completely [in order] to find a large audience among blacks, whites, and everyone else.”39 Due to the black pop explosion, Gordy literally managed to turn
37 Ibid.
38 Michael Campbell, Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On (US: Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc, 2011), 216
the world onto soul music beyond measure, and Americans found themselves listening to something so strangely familiar, yet hauntingly new and different, resulting in a new look at the black community. Michael Campbell, an expert in the field, takes this argument even one step further by stating that “for the first time in history, a black style was on equal footing with white music.”40 Surprisingly, it was uncommon in black pop to address openly the
country’s social and racial situation. Although two outstanding releases are worth including here: One is James Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud,” which promotes self-acceptance and black unity, and the other is a more universal song and a countercultural anthem, “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye. Their appearance on the top of the Billboard pop charts gave authentic and valid reasons for countercultural protesters to bring dilemmas about war, police brutality, prejudice, and black empowerment to the attention of the wider American public.
Excerpt taken fromJames Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud Say it louder,
I'm black and I'm proud
Now we demand a chance to do things for ourselves We tired of beating our heads against the wall And working for someone else
A look a'here,
One thing more I got to say right here
Now, we're people like the birds and the bees We rather die on our feet,
Than keep living on our knees41
Excerpt taken fromMarvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” Father, father
We don't need to escalate You see, war is not the answer For only love can conquer hate You know we've got to find a way To bring some lovin' here today
40 Ibid. 218
41 James Brown,“Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” (song lyrics), accessed June 14, 2014,
Father, father, everybody thinks we're wrong Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply because our hair is long Oh, you know we've got to find a way To bring some understanding here today42
The combination of black and white protest music working in tandem was effective at transmitting messages of social relevance, which would eventually come to challenge the system. In this light the distinctly black take on popular music could not go unnoticed due to the growing political awareness and white participation in the Civil Rights movement, particularly among the college student population. In other words, John Landau claims: “black music [as much as white music] accounts for the overall pattern of development taking place in 1967.”43 Moreover, it played an important role in reinterpreting and reshaping
American pop-rock with elements drawn from both sides on the colour spectrum. Ultimately, therefore, I claim that racial integration of popular music by achieving a crossover success signalled and echoed the all-encompassing and revolutionary spirit of the counter-culture. Nothing proves this trend better than the historical performance of Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival.
Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival, June 17, 1967
By 1967 pop had become rock… a form of expression for youth in general, for a generation.44
- Simon Frith, 1983 In many respects Monterey Pop is worthy of note, but for the purpose of this essay, I will focus on the crucial performance of Otis Redding for two reasons. First, almost 50 years later, it is impossible to consider his presence on the festival bill without referring to the premonitory signs of musical evolution. The significant cultural changes that took place in sixties popular music, I contend, began to materialize on a particular night, under which soul - that is so intertwined with black history and so expressive of black culture - was
42 Marvin Gaye, “What’s Going On” (song lyrics), accessed June 14, 2014,
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/marvingaye/whatsgoingon.html
43 Jon Landau, “Soul ‘67,” Rolling Stone magazine, Feb 24, 1968, 18
reconfigured from black music to people’s music in its presentation and reception. The fact that Redding was backed by Booker T. & the MG’s -- a racially integrated rock group – marked not only a historical performance, but served as a primary example of the cultural dynamics of rock. Monterey Pop did not only catapult Redding into superstardom, but it also emphasized the natural inclusivity of the festival. Importantly, the intersection of black and white music posed a great challenge to genre conventions, but it also signalled a pivotal moment of cultural transition and diversity. Monterey Pop also represented and confirmed countercultural ideologies even if it was symbolic. This, in the context of the larger political events, --such as Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, racial riots in several U.S. cities, and the assassination of Malcolm X -- can certainly be treated as a brief moment of liberation; a social or countercultural “revolution,” albeit without definite political achievement. The second important point about Monterey was,as Sarah Hill notes in “When Deep Soul Met the Love Crowd,” that it marked “the first moment when the counterculture was exploited for the mainstream.”45 Therefore Monterey’s musical program in its entirety (of which most
performers were considered to be part of the sixties revolutionary protest movement one way or another) became “targeted” by the American corporate advertising industry, which
cunningly turned the countercultural rhetoric of revolution – generally speaking- into a multi-billion dollar business.
This “all-encompassing”46 festival, as Sarah Hill likes to call it, was musically and
racially a diverse gathering. However, white dominance remained clear even on the festival bill. Only three African-American artists –Lou Rawls, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix – stepped on the stage during the festival providing little racial balance. In spite of this fact, Redding gained enormous popularity with the predominantly white audience for the first time in his career,47 sky-rocketing his song “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” to number one on
the U.S. pop-chart, just a few months after his death,48 keeping the first position for four
weeks.
In an interview given to Jim Delehant of Hit Parader in September 1967, Redding expresses his feelings about his newfound notoriousness in the black and white pop-rock
45 Sarah Hill, “When deep soul met the love crowd: Otis Redding: Monterey Pop Festival, June 17, 1967” in Ian Inglis, eds., Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time. (UK: Ashgate, 2006), 30
46 Ibid. 29
47 See more on Redding’s popularity among the white audiences here: David Brackett, The Pop, Rock, and
Soul Reader: Histories and Debates (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 161
48 See U.S. pop-chart 1968 Number One Songs: http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/number-one-songs-by-year/?y=1968&chart=us
world, in which he was describing how he viewed musical integration and business. “They treated me like I was somebody”49 said Redding in reference to having been on tour in
England. Why would he say that? Moreover, why would he sing this: Excerpt taken from Otis Redding’s “Respect”
“What you want honey you've got it, And what you need baby you've got it
All I'm asking is for a little respect when I come home?”50
It immediately suggests that perhaps, his home-country, the United States had not treated him (and the black community) decently and respectfully, which in the light of the civil rights movement was not surprising. His next comment, “if I were to leave the U.S…”51 revealed
how he had been fantasizing with such a thought, albeit he added that he would not leave his country. This implied a certain hope for respect outside his home, which was probably triggered by the promise pop-rock had to offer. Whether the essence of Redding’s music lied in his interest in crossing racial (and musical) lines, or in knocking down those racial barriers, whether his “quest” for respect and liberation was that of the same kind as for the millions of young people of the counter-culture generation remained very much an open question. However, one thing is certain, that is the inclusion of “A Change is Gonna Come,”52 which
suggests that he believed in the power of the counter-culture as this song had already come to exemplify the Civil Rights Movement cause, when Redding borrowed it. Additionally, Redding’s own version of “Satisfaction” on Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul functions the same way, but implies a more powerful idea: his sympathy for the audience and what it represented allowed him to enter into people’s feelings and create a brief moment of lucidity in the midst of the obscurity and despair, exposing the promise of rock and the hope of the 1960s. In the meantime, Redding’s performance revealed The Rolling Stones’ southern soul roots when the latter’s “’borrowed’ R&B was ‘borrowed back’ by Otis Redding, it was one of
49 Jim Delehant, “Otis Redding Interview” Hit Parader September, 1967 in David Brackett, eds, The Pop,
Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 161
50 Otis Redding, “Respect” (song lyrics), accessed June 14, 2014, http://www.metrolyrics.com/respect-lyrics-otis-redding.html
51 Jim Delehant, “Otis Redding Interview” Hit Parader September, 1967 in David Brackett, eds, The Pop,
Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 161
many moments of mutual respect enacted at Monterey Pop, and it suggested very clearly to the audience that”53 pop-rock was the embodiment of a bi-directional cultural exchange; a
flirtation the counter-culture audience could only identify with. In much the same way that Dylan existed as a counterweight to black music (as “Blowin In the Wind” may suggest), Redding’s performance demonstrated that he had similar visions in his mind. Did Redding have to cross out his blackness to gain cross-racial recognition and mainstream pop chart success? No, he did not. Despite the short, but solid set list,54 his overall performance and the
positive interaction with the predominantly white crowd suggest that the best popular artists, regardless of race, could create cross-racial relatedness by expressing gratitude and appreciation for one another without having to give up their badge of identity. Lloyd Marcus claims that “the cruelest and saddest effect of slavery and racism in America is that it caused us blacks to hate ourselves.”55 He addresses an important point in order to emphasize the role
of black pride in popular culture. He explains that songs like James Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” are righteously considered black pride anthems because firstly; they helped black people overcome hundreds of years of slavery, and at the same time, secondly; they make the multitude realize that taking pride in one’s identity is the way forward. He is certainly right. Therefore I take the liberty of adding Redding’s Monterey performance to his argument since it served as a primary example that fits perfectly with the same logic and reasoning. Thus, social belonging and status became key factors to self-realization.
In Mystery Train Greil Marcus claims that the success of these performers lies in their capability to unite people, even if they do not have much in common rather than their
response to the music. Though there was that, what really came across was unique: the expression of freedom-loving individuals whose shared attitude toward a collective purpose and a sense of belonging were manifested in Redding’s phenomenal performance. His successful attempt to create immediate links between people from different backgrounds demonstrates a generation’s shared experience centred upon general war, anti-Establishment and pro-Civil Rights sentiments. Therefore, the ascertainment here is that
53 Sarah Hill, “When deep soul met the love crowd: Otis Redding: Monterey Pop Festival, June 17, 1967” in Ian Inglis, eds., Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time. (UK: Ashgate, 2006), 36
54 Set list in order: 1. “Shake” (Sam Cooke cover) 2. “Respect” 3. “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” 4. “Satisfaction” (The Rolling Stones cover)6. “Try a Little Tenderness” (Ray Noble cover)
55 Lloyd Marcus, “Say It Loud -- I'm Conservative, and I'm Proud!” American Thinker. January 23, 2010. Web
while Redding made no direct reference to political issues and problems, he had still drawn on that shared experience expanding the horizons of rock and popular culture to give a sense of how far the music could go. Much like the soul version of “Satisfaction,” Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” therefore “is a song, you know, we all ought to sing some time. This is the love crowd, right? We all love each other, am I right? Let me hear you say
yeah…”56 Then the “love crowd” roared in response to Redding, and it was a roar of
tremendous respect and understanding, which showed how successful Redding was in emphasizing – even demanding – audience participation when he performed. At a crossroads of race, this incredible chemistry let him stay true to his black identity, while totally
embracing and accepting the values of his audience, and everything that the counter-culture at large represented. He also encouraged racial boundary crossings. This simultaneously
suggests a continuing relevance, as well as doubtfulness of authentication to the formation and maintenance of racial identities blurred by the 1960s.
Redding’s contribution to trigger the love crowd at Monterey and the counter-culture at large into believingthat they could change the world somehow, was an honest happening; albeit it would be naïve to think about subsequent events like Woodstock in the same regard. Monterey Pop illustrated the very moment at the highest point when the risk of "selling out" became unambiguously exploited for the mainstream; a phenomenon that “betrayed” the counter-culture, preventing it from walking down on the path Monterey began to pave. Had the path been followed in subsequent years, though it was not, it may have helped work out the racial contradictions the counter-culture had trouble with. Having been able to look back at the developments and the direction music had taken following Monterey Pop, I assert that 1967 and the festival itself marked a watershed and the end of the hippie zeitgeist.
Referencing Hunter S. Thompson’s protagonist Raoul Duke, in the story of Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas, who famously captures this turning point in the so called “wave
speech” and says: “So now, less than five years later [in 1971], you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”57 For that very reason,
and from then on, racial and other contradictions of the counter-culture started to come to the surface, and the systematic commercialization of the music thus began from both within and outside. Soon after the festival in September 1967, Redding stated that “you can’t have
56 Craig Werner,A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America (US: University of Michingan
Press, 2006), 90
