The Vietnam war and the black people's position in the society were the biggest issues in politics in the USA in the sixties. The whole nation was interested in the outcome of these questions.
The young John F. Kennedy was elected, with minimal margin, as a president in 1960. He stood for something new and fresh in American politics. He said the famous words: Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, and with these words he raised an appeal to the youth in the country, to commit to the social debate in politics. Kennedy's appeal to the modern generation and the younger style of his presidency indeed not only attracted new groups but reflected new attitudes and forces in American life.
After winning the Second World War, the USA saw it as their mission to fight for liberalism and democracy all over the world. The Cold War against the communist regime of the Soviet Union led USA involvement in Vietnam. It was the longest battle the USA fought, and it brought its biggest defeat both politically and military. This made the population lose much of their respect for the authorities at Pentagon and the White House. The Vietnam War was the reason for an extreme politically polarization in the USA. Compared to other wars the USA had been involved in this war brought down the consensus about foreign affairs, which had existed in since the Cold War started. Many people couldn't see the reason for sending so many soldier to fight on foreign soil for a suspect cause that had so little to do with the USA as a nation. About 3 million American soldiers were in Vietnam, and the official death reports say that 58.000 American soldiers lost their lives. Around 10% of the Vietnamese population, around 4 millions, died. The Vietnam war also raised questions and problems. The number of black people who were sent to Vietnam was much higher than the number of whites. Another problem that the American society had to deal with was how they should treat the people who got problems when they returned from the war. The government did not succeed in helping the victims from the war. The situation between the races got so edgy that the government had to invest in integration and try to compensate for what the injustice the white man had done against the black man for centuries.
This part of the Civil Rights movement period lasted from 1954 to 1965, and is also called the black revolution.
For almost ten years colored people fought a lonely battle, but in 1964 white students supported the black peoples fight for equal rights. The battle did cost a lot of lives, and particularly the killings of Malcolm X and later Martin Luther King raised big questions of how the USA formed it's society.
The riots at the Universities in the middle of the sixties were not just a anti-racist movement, even if it started from the anti-racist battle. It also developed to a Free speech movement against the conservative authorities at the Universities. It gave the students a lot of experience in political work, which became very useful later on in the sixties. It also made the students more active in politics, when they saw that they were actually able to get results from their work. This shows a big difference between the new thinking youth in the sixties and the conservative youth that grew up in the fifties.
In the history of the USA after the Second World War, the Sixties have a special significance. The politics that had sharpened ideas and events over the first half of the twentieth century were no longer relevant to the improved social conditions and the greater historical realism of the second half. Together with the improved social conditions the population of young people between 18 and 24 years old increased with 53% and made half of the American population under 30. The Government put out a big effort to get them into Colleges and Universities. But many also ended up in Youth Ghetto's in the big cities. This made it possible to gather a lot of young people with the same ideas and interests, which led to various sub - cultures with new ideas popping up all over the country.
Politically it led to anti-war protest organizations, urban riots, black militancy and a revolt of youth against their elders were soon to create insurrectionary situations that also spread to Europe. For a time it persuaded many that a major change in the political and social order of the West was impending.
The war in Vietnam was one source of outrage and protest together with black civil rights. Major social changes were demanded and, though the more extreme demands of the time were never satisfied, much changed. Post-war political life took on a new direction and there were many serious observers who believed that the American way had been challenged and transformed for good.
The Sixties generation was a generation of experimental rebels. It began by rebelling against irritations close at hand, and before the decade was over the rebellion had spread to virtually all areas of American life. Most of all, this generation rebelled against the humdrum of middle-class life that annihilated the self in narrowness of vision and smallness of heart. In the end the rebellion of the sixties denied the very essence of Western civilization: liberalism, organization, morality, reason and deferred gratification.
Through out history the world has seen some generations that have made an impact more than all of its predecessors. The decade from1960 to 1970 was definitely one of those eras. The people didn't follow the teachings of its elders, but rejected them for an alternative culture which was their very own.
Made up of the younger population of the time this new culture was such a radical society that they were given their own name which is still used today. They came to be called the Hippies. The hippie movement started in San Francisco, California and spread across the United States, through Canada, and into parts of Europe. But it had its greatest influence in America. During the 1960's the Hippies shocked America with their alternative lifestyle and radical beliefs. Hippies came from many different places and had many different backgrounds. All Hippies were young, from the ages of 15 to 25. They left their families and did it for many different reasons. Some rejected their parents' ideas, some just wanted to get away, and others simply were outcasts, who could only fit in with the Hippie population. Under 25 became a "magical age", and young people all over the world were united by this bond. This bond was of Non-conformity and it was the 'Creed of the Young'. Most Hippies came from wealthy middle class families. Some people said that they were spoiled and wasting their lives away. But to Hippies themselves this was a way of life and no one was going to get in the way of their dreams and ambitions. Hippies flocked to a certain area of San Francisco on the corner of Haight Street and Ashbury Street, where the world got their first view of this unique group. This place came to be known as the Haight Ashbury District. There were tours of the district and it was said that the tour 'was the only foreign tour within the continental limits of the United States'. The Hippies were so different that the conservative middle class could not relate to them and saw them as aliens.
The Haight Ashbury district lies in the very center of San Francisco. In the years of 1965 and 1966 the Hippies took over the Haight Ashbury district. There they lived and spread their psychedelic theme through out the whole area. In the Haight Ashbury district there were two parks that that all Hippies knew well. The most famous of the two was the Golden Gate Park. The single most important event that put the Hippies on the map was held at the Golden Gate Park. It was called the Trips Festival. The Trips Festival was a week long festival designed to celebrate the LSD experience. Besides this festival dozens of other events took place at Golden Gate Park, some of which were free concerts by The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and Anti-War rallies held by Hippie political leaders. The other park is called the Buena Vista park and is known for housing hippies at night and for socializing during the day. As the 1960's progressed, the youth in America united. 'In 1969 400,000 young people materialized for three dizzying days to listen to rock and blues music, to wear funny clothing or no clothes at all, to talk, sing, dance, clap hands, to drink beer or smoke pot and make love-but mostly to marvel again and again that they were all there together. This festival was held in a small town in up-state New York and came to be called Woodstock, after the town it was held in.
2.1 Drugs, especially LSD
One of the basic foundations of the Hippie movement was the flagrant use of illegal drugs. There were many drugs that the Hippies used but none was more used then marijuana. From 1960 to 1970 the number of Americans who had tried marijuana had increased from a few hundred thousand to 8,000,000. The majority of these new users were from 12 years old to 21. To some Hippies, drugs and music were the most important aspects of their lives. Another drug that was prevalent in the Hippie population was LSD. Some Hippies thought that 'LSD puts you in touch with your surroundings'. But that was not always the case. On occasion a hippie would take bad LSD and would experience a 'bad trip' or would 'freak out'. When someone took bad LSD, freak out is exactly what they would do and sometimes they never came back. Bad LSD was so common that even at Woodstock people were having bad trips and freaking out. Even with this bad LSD everywhere people still used it, they went as far as to make a religion out of it.
A man by the name of Dr. Timothy Leary was a Harvard professor who had ideas about LSD. He said 'LSD is western yoga. The aim of all Eastern religion, like the aim of LSD, is basically to get high; that is to expand your consciousness and find ecstasy and revelation within'.
Another preacher of the use of LSD was an author by the name of Ken Keasey. He travelled around the United States in a psychedelic bus giving LSD to anyone and everyone who would take it. Hippies were notorious for there out of the ordinary music. Many Hippies were actually musicians themselves. Hippies used music as a way to get their thoughts and ideas out. One of the most influential musicians of the time was Bob Dylan. The lyrics of the song 'Like Rolling Stone' express the thoughts of many Hippies. They say: How does it feel; How does it feel To be without a home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone? These lyrics expressed Dylan's personal thoughts to what was happening to him. He did feel 'like a rolling stone' and so did his peers. His simple but meaningful lyrics are what made him so popular and successful. Many Hippies considered Dylan as a spokesman for their beliefs. Drugs were also themes in many bands songs. Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze' is about LSD. 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,' is a Beatles song also about LSD. The Grateful Dead also took part in the fad with their song 'Casey Jones,' with lyrics such as 'High on Cocaine' and 'You better watch your Speed.'
Besides their music and drugs Hippies did some out of the ordinary things that were as shocking as their clothing. It was common for hippies in the Haight Ashbury District to put a nickel in a parking meter, then set up blankets and lie down in the space for a half hour. This was unusual behaviour so it is not strange that the public did not take them seriously. 'People thought Hippies were the next funniest thing to the Three Stooges'. Television shows made fun of this counter culture. Movies made fun of them as well. One called the Presidents Analyst was extremely successful. The movie was dedicated 'to the life, liberty, and pursuit of happenings,' and was based on the Hippies wacky antics. People all over the America were outraged at how strange these people were and at the same time were in tears at how funny they were. Even though from afar the Hippies were entertaining, in reality they were devastating the American family and were tearing the country in two. While the adults of the time were conservative, hard working, and caring mainly about money, the Hippies didn't care about any of that. They were party animals. Many didn't work unless it was completely necessary, they never went to church nor did they care for saving their virginity until after they were married.
Hippies easy going attitudes and fun and games lifestyles were put away when the topic of politics came up. Indubitably the instigator for their existence, politics played a huge role in their lives. Having strongest feelings for the Vietnam War and for the Civil Rights Movement, the Hippies made their beliefs known to the world. They did this in many ways including musical shows, pacifist folk songs, and through peaceful sit-ins. But none of their actions were more seen and heard of then their protests and rallies. The Hippies were aware that the war was being lost and that thousands of American soldiers were dying. They took it upon themselves the make their beliefs heard. They put together a protest larger then the ever before. Once organized not just Hippies came, but students, intellectuals, radicals, and citizens of all classes took part in it. This protest was held in Washington DC in the heart of the United States. 250,000 protesters gathered for one common goal. They wanted their troops to come back home and for United States involvement in the war to be ended. Through the years of the Vietnam War hundreds a anti-war rallies were held. By the decades end protests seemed to have done some good. Sixty five percent of all Americans had similar views as the hippies. They wanted their troops back and that's what they got in the 1969 when the President gave the word to bring them back home. Hippies had other feelings about racism and persecution. They took part in the civil rights movement, just as they did in the for the Vietnam troops. When President Kennedy tried to pass his Civil Rights policies and they never went through, the Hippies were more aggravated. Eventually some Hippies tried to make their colonies where there was no racism and persecution. There were Hippie communes all over the United States. Some communes believed that they were 'fighting against the white man's perverted society of pollution ,war, and greed." These communes didn't get very popular and failed after a few years. Hippies still fought for racial equality. Finally when the 1960's were over new laws were put into action helping racial equality which would not have happened without the Hippies.
Hippies also used music to express themselves emotionally, spiritually, and politically. Music can make a statement, give voice to a movement, even unite people. As hippies explore their inner world, music guides them along in their quest for meaning. Without drugs it can get you high. With drugs, well, let's just say, music can be a religious experience.
To explain the impact of music as a social phenomenon, we need to go back before the hippies to the Civil Rights Movement. The protesters would sing a song called 'We Shall Overcome'. The Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, 'One cannot describe the vitality and emotion this hymn evokes across the Southland. I have heard it sung in great mass meetings with a thousand voices singing as one. I've heard a half dozen sing it softly behind the bars of the Hinds County Prison in Mississippi. I have heard old women singing it on the way to work in Albany, Ga. I've heard the students singing it as they were being dragged away to jail. It generates power that is indescribable. It manifests a rich legacy of musical literature that serves to keep body and soul together for that better day which is not far off.'
So the early sixties saw music becoming more than just entertainment. It was now music with a message. And the messages helped the hippies to identify with important issues and events greater than ourselves. These songs had an impact on the consciousness of not just hippies but all society. Some of these songs also broke new ground musically. One way or another they hit us deeply, made us think, made us dream, made us feel as one people.
3.1Jimi Hendrix (1942 - 1970)
"Without question, Jimi Hendrix was one of the most innovative, creative, determined guitarists of our time. While making a name for himself in music's history books, he blazed the way for other young guitarists to form their own sound while at the same time reaping the benefits from Hendrix's expertise." (Rolling Stone - magazine)
After being a sideman throughout the early 1960s for many groundbreaking R&B artists like Little Richard and the Isley Brothers, Hendrix found himself being pigeonholed. His talents weren't being used to their best abilities so Hendrix broke out on his own.
Hendrix moved to New York in the mid-'60s, making waves in various clubs while hooking up with blues rocker John Hammond, Jr's band. While playing in a club one night, Animals bassist Chas Chandler approached Hendrix. Convincing Hendrix to move to London, Chandler became his manager and worked with him on his first solo gig. Bringing drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding on board, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was born.
The Experience incorporated R&B and soul and melded those sounds into an eclectic pop variation of psychedelia just coming onto the scene. The London music scene in 1967 was exploding and so did Hendrix with his debut album, Are You Experienced? Hendrix took guitar playing to another level with songs like 'Purple Haze,' 'Hey Joe' and 'The Wind Cries Mary.' Hendrix quickly jumped to the forefront of music. While each of those songs put Hendrix into the UK Top 10, they indirectly earned him a top spot at the Monterey Pop Festival in the United States later that year. Hendrix commanded everyone's attention while he played his guitar behind his back and over his head. His guitar wanderings incited a degree of spiritual hysteria, especially for the musician himself. He'd finger his guitar and then set it on fire, praying to the guitar gods who blessed him with his unbelievable craft.
Everyone from music moguls to teenage kids were taken by Hendrix's experimentation. Not since the likes of Eric Clapton or Pete Townshend had a young musician been able to take off on a stage. He'd use distorted riffs, mind-blowing feedback and heart-thumping wah - wah pedals to make his music speak to the crowd.
Hendrix would go on to record only two other full-length albums before he died of a drug overdose in 1970 at the age of 27; Axis: Bold As Love and the double-LP Electric Ladyland---still just as mind blowing today as it was nearly 30 years ago. In the course of the few years before he died, Hendrix seriously experimented in funk, jazz and Mississippi Delta blues, spending much time in the studio but never releasing an album. From these sessions, producers posthumously culled tracks and released Hendrix albums, both live and studio.
Machine gun,
tearin' my body all apart.
Machine gun, yeah,
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 were only families apart.
Well, I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer,
You know what I mean?
Weh, hey, and your bullets keep knockin' me down.
Hey, I pick up my axe an' fight like a farmer, now,
yeah, but you still blast me down to the ground.
The same way you shoot me baby,
you'll be goin' just the same, three times the pain.
And with your own self to blame, machine gun!
I ain't afraid of your bullets no more, baby.
I ain't afraid no more.
After awhile, your, your cheap talk won't even cause me pain,
so let your bullets fly like rain.
'Cause I know all the time your wrong, baby,
and you'll be goin' just the same.
Machine gun, tearin' my family apart.
Hey yeah, alright, tearin' my family apart.
Interpretation:
In the first four lines of the song Jimi Hendrix describes the brutality of war. He used the machine gun as a symbol for this brutality.
I think Jimi also tried to reinforce the impressions on the war by using words like "tearin´ apart". The next step in this song is the establishment, which he personified as an evil man. He accuses the establishment of making murderers out of people. And with these four recurrences he constructed a vicious circle, because there aren´t any winners in a battle. The guitar solos in Hendrix´ song could stand for machine guns. With his extraordinary way of playing the guitar he reinforces the emotion, which accrue by listening to this song. That's maybe one of the reasons why his songs are so special.
In the next lines of the song he points out that every man would fight to keep his family alive - even with primitive weapons.
He could also criticise the fact that in every war civilians are murdered as well. At the end of the first stanza he also mentions the psychological problems which occur when somebody commits a murder. Especially after the Vietnam - war, veterans had psychological problems because they had thought that they would have fought for the peace and liberty of the Vietnamese. But when they arrived at home people threw vegetables and other things at them. This was very hard for the soldiers because they thought they would be regarded as heroes at home. So many Vietnam - veterans couldn't find the way back into normal life.
In the second stanza he isn't afraid of the bullets any longer because he knows that the one who is shooting at him suffers as much as he does. At the end it seems to me like he had resigned because he tells the machine gun to take his family apart.
Purple Haze was in my brain,
lately things don't seem the same,
actin' funny but I don't know why
'scuse me while I kiss the sky.
Purple Haze all around,
don't know if I'm coming up or down.
Am I happy or in misery?
Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me.
Purple Haze was in my eyes,
don't know if it's day or night,
you've got me blowing, blowing my mind
is it tomorrow or just the end of time?
Interpretation:
I think this song is a very good example for the way of thinking during the hippie time. Jimi Hendrix might describes in this song the events that happen when you are taking LSD. Purple Haze is a symbol for the psychedelic events which happen "on the trip". A person who takes LSD normally can't see any clear structures, for them the surroundings fuse together and they can see a kind of fog consisting of a lot of colours. In the first stanza Jimi is amused and happy with his condition, maybe because the LSD is "only" in his brain.
He sees things completely different, from a different point of view. But he isn't able to control his body any longer, that's why he is acting in a funny way and that's why he can kiss the sky.
In the second stanza "Purple Haze" is everywhere and he doesn't know if it's becoming a bad trip or not. He can't divide if he is happy or not, his feelings depend on the drug. In the last line of the second stanza he personifies LSD with a girl, who conquers him.
At the end of the song the drug is even in his eyes, which symbolises a bad trip. A bad trip happens when the drug has got a bad quality. The consequences of such pills are that you can get delusions or in the worst case you could even die.
This drug has made him crazy so that he doesn't know if it's day or night. Furthermore he doesn't know if he is alive or not and he can't distinguish if it's tomorrow or the end of time, which means that he isn't sure whether he is still alive or dead.
Internet:
http://www.azlyrics.com/h/hendrix.html
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/jimi-hendrix/lyrics.htm
http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/
http://www.woodstock69.com/
http://www.rockhall.com/exhibitions/featured.asp?id=955
http://www.rollingstone.com/sections/home/text/default.asp
Books:
"Die 60er Jahre - Portrait einer Ara" by Linda Mc Cartney
"Hippies from A to Z" by Skip Stone
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