![]() But the big story that year was the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.Įverybody was there to protest and make a statement, especially because President Lyndon Johnson (a Democrat who never showed up in Chicago) had been the one to escalate the war in Vietnam. It was the year when Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Putting the drug culture off to the side, we’re moving into 1968 and widespread protests for civil rights, equal rights and an end to the war. They disapprove of their parents’ way of life and long for communes full of peace and free love. There is a young generation that is becoming ecologically-aware and socially conscious. Voices are rising in the streets from the ghettoes to the cities to the suburbs. It was doubtful that anyone would dance because the lasting imagery is that hippies and their contemporaries sat around getting high or wasted while they listened to the album.Īt the same time, there is a growing disenchantment with the Vietnam War and the establishment as a whole, and the “players” are moving from San Francisco to college campuses across the nation. Pepper” was hardly an album full of dance music. The lines about getting up to dance and not having the chance have a number of possible meanings. ‘Cause the players tried to take the field I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends. Yes, I’ll get high with a little help from my friends. And the there were the Sergeants (The Beatles) with the new marching tune for the generation, “Sergeant Pepper.” Maybe “With A Little Help from My Friends” or “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is the new marching tune … I lean to “A Little Help …” and the lines: Oh, I’ll get by with a little help from my friends. The Summer of Love puts us in the middle of the hippie movement in San Francisco, where smoking weed (sweet perfume) and being a “Flower Child” were the “in” things to do. The Doors and Jefferson Airplane released albums that brought back SOME dance music, Motown was on the upswing and even folk music had taken on more of a “pop rock” attitude. Bob Dylan, who suffered a motorcycle crash in 1966, is out of the picture. The British Invasion has largely subsided and American music is moving beyond its infancy. ![]() We now move ahead to the Summer of Love in 1967 (the half-time air, summer as the half-way point in the year). While the Sergeants played a marching tune With the Jester on the sidelines in a cast Chronologically, the 1966 symbolism of The Lovin’ Spoonful and The Byrds makes the most sense but the Manson symbolism may be too hard to ignore. The roots of The Lovin’ Spoonful, which was founded in New York City, go back to the Mugwumps, a group that included Mama Cass and Denny Doherty (later of the Mamas and Papas). Thinking about the “summer swelter” for a long time, I FINALLY remembered that “Summer in the City” was a #1 hit for The Lovin’ Spoonful in July 1966 (some images in the song could be described as helter skelter). The song was released in April and The Byrds literally ran for cover (the fallout shelter) after the outcry about their song (this was Gene Clarke’s last song with The Byrds). “Eight Miles High” may have been released carelessly, not anticipating such a backlash, and it signaled an end to the success of The Byrds (falling fast … also a reference to coming down from a high). Helter skelter is a term that means to rush forward carelessly or with things strewn about. The Beatles’ song was released in 1968 on the “White Album” and is most often used to refer to the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders by Charles Manson and his “family” … the helter skelter reference seems to break the chronology if it does symbolize the Manson murders. McLean plays on The Beatles’ title “Helter Skelter” amidst a 1966 reference to the Byrd’s song “Eight Miles High” … a song best noted for being banned because of its references to drugs (landing foul in the grass). Sometimes the hardest part of poetry (such as reading Shakespearean verse) is knowing where one thought ends and another begins. The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
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