TT # 20 | 13 Hippie Songs About War and the Age of Aquarius

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Posted by Damozel | You Tube is such a wonderful thing.    This is the sound of war, resistance, and a transient transcendence.  In those days everything had a rainbow aura around it, even blood and death and the seemingly endless grind of my generation's war.  We thought that things were changing and that we could be the agents of change.  You can hear in the voices that these singers thought what they were saying meant something that transcended the merely personal.  Meet the old boss just like the new boss, and the people who we thought were leading us into a new age.   

I am sorry I didn't embed the actual videos.  At first I did, but then I started wondering about copyright issues and decided just to link to them.  It's not nearly as much fun, I do realize.  But they are all TOTALLY worth a look.   

1.  Melanie Safka with the Edwin Hawkins Singer ("Lay Down") .  Breath-taking; incomparable.  Raise the candles high!

2. Hair ("The Age of Aquarius") The amazing opening of the Milos Formon film made several years after the stage play, choreographed by Twyla Tharp.  Not to be missed.  Alas!  That dawning never came to pass....

3.  Hair ("The Flesh Failures/Let the Sun Shine In"). This is from the Milos Formon film starring Treat Williams and John Savage.  Heart-breaking, but with such a life-affirming conclusion....and it still give me chills after nearly 30 years.Which is why I picked this rather than the ones from the play.

4.  Bob Dylan ("Masters of War")   Includes famous quote by Dwight Eisenhower.  Updated for the current regime!  (Don't watch it if you're a fan of Bush---I chose it for the song and not the video).

4.  The Doors ("Peace Frog").  I cried for three days when Morrison died.  But I can't imagine him old.

5. The Grateful Dead ("Estimated Prophet") California....

6.  Buffalo Springfield ("For What It's Worth")   Stop! Hey, what's that sound?  Awesome footage....

6.  Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ("Military Madness") on 2002-04-22 --- a song from their Buffalo Springfield Days showing they can still rock this classic antiwar song.

7.  Arlo Guthrie ("Alice's Restaurant"). The funniest war story ever.

9.  John Lennon ("Give Peace A Chance")--Not Lennon's best, but one of the unforgettable sounds from that era.

10.  The Mamas & Papas ("California Dreamin'")  Yearning set to music.

11.  Bob Dylan ("Mr Tambourine Man")  Deep.

12.  Janis Joplin ("Me & Bobby McGee"). No video, just the greatest rendition ever.

13. The Doors ("When the Music's Over").  Renew my subscription to the resurrection....

BN-Politics thanks our intrepid commenters:

1. Nothing Noteworthy
2. Wylie's Words
3. On A Limb with Claudia
4. Lulu's Laundry
5. Diary of a Former Catholic Church Worker
6. Secret Agent Mama
   
7. Pop Culture Dish, Presented by Malcolm
8. Gratitude Journal
9. The Pink Flamingo
10. Nichtszusagen
11. Adelle Laudan
12. Salome's Corner
13. Storyweaver's Web
14. A Strange Life
15. Romance from the Heart
16. Whisperings from the Wings
17. Just Say These Words
18. The Petrini Page
19. Fond of Photography
20. I Read Banned Books
21. D3
22. Traces of a Stream
23. A Gentleman's Domain
    

Comments

[Patti]

I am a child of the 70's, but know most of these. :)

[Wylie]

Age of Aquarius and California Dreaming -- both bring back memories from very early childhood. VERY EARLY. ;)

[Open Grove Claudia]

Some of these are my very favorite - Alice's restaurant, California dreaming (what I'm doing now). I am too young for this to be my music but I enjoy it anyway.

Happy TT!

[Lulu]

This is an awesome list! I was born in 1970, but I fell in love with the Doors when I was in the 11th grade. Come on baby light my fire!

[No nonsense girl]

that's a great list!!!! Mine's up, 13 truths that have changed my life

[Secret Agent Mama]

Awesomely awesome list!!

[Malcolm]

I love me some "Lay Down" (Candles In the Rain)" by Melanie! I just discovered "Peace Frog" within the past year. It quickly became one of my favorite Doors' songs. Great list of tunes.

[Greatfullivin]

Finally music I know!!! I want to see them all so I will be back when I have more time. AWESOME LIST! I haven't heard Alice's Restaurant in years.Joplin, Crosby Stills Nash and Young...you have all the greats listed here.I just saw Dylan in concert this summer. Thanks!

[SJ Reidhead]

Good stuff here. I think I have most of 'em on my Ipod!

The Pink Flamingo

[Darla]

Great memories, and so appropriate.

[Adelle Laudan]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Those were my teen years. Happy T13!

[Carrie Lofty]

One of the quietest, best anti-war/anti-Bush songs of the last few years (quiet, in that it received no publicity and has powerfully ambiguous lyrics) is U2's "Crumbs From Your Table."

And I wonder how many people who today listen to the songs you listed know how radical they were at the time...

[Greatfullivin]

Well I came back and watched em all. Awesome. It brings back some memories for me. Watching Dylan makes one realize what made him so great. I also enjoyed the video footage from Lennon. I remember it well. Joplin was also great. Thanks so much for sharing this, there are a few of us old hippies still around.

[Xakara]

Being born in the mid-70's means that I got these songs as the fading of an idea. There's a very strange connection to them, as if some part of my DNA knows I just missed the era I was meant for with my rampant idealism. Interestingly enough, I also think I was born too soon for all the things I want to change. Guess that makes this just right in the end. *wink*

Thanks for the linkss and the musical memories. :)

~X

[Karen]

I just saw Morrison singing 'Hello, I love you' this morning on VH1. He was unbelievable.

Great list of songs! Excellent TT.

[Danielle]

I didn't enter the world until '74, but California Dreaming is an all time favorite of mine!

[Cindi]

Great list.

"It Ain't Me Babe" by Dylan is conjectured to be another comment on war/the draft. Interesting position.

Thanks for the songs.

Cindi

[Shoshana]

I like most of these songs, even if I was just about born when they came out.

[Cathy]

Great list! Now, if you'll excuse me while I kiss the sky....

[Janet]

OMG, I ADORE that Melanie song...haven't heard it in YEARS, thanks :-)

[cajunvegan]

Love this week's TT ... outside of your norm ... "For What It's Worth" is one of my all-time faves.

Stop by my Coulda Woulda Shoulda NaBloPoMo edition and vote for my next entry.

[J. Lynne]

For some reason I have always preferred the play to the movie -- regarding Hair.

There have been some very good anti-war Country songs recently. Don't ask me the names of any. My brain is all mucked up with being sick and I couldn't even tell my mother what to put on her netflix list last night either. SheDaisy did one a year or two ago that was excellent and sad.

[nicholas]

I remember sitting with a gang of schoolchums in The King's Head pub, Tothill Street in London, underage drinking after school, and all of su singing along to the chorus of Alice's Restaurant on the juke box. The ones from Hair also bring back lots of memories.

[pjazzypar]

You some great sixties resistance songs. I was around during that time, though not an adult. I remember hearing these songs on the radio and not really understanding the metaphors and nuances they conveyed. When I grew older I would hear some of the more popular ones and say to myself, HEY! so that's what they meant. I like them all, but I am especially fond of the eerily melancholy music in the beginning of "For What It's Worth". Awesome list!

[GP]

Thanx for the memories :)

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