Page 40 - All About History - Issue 53-17

Rock ‘n’ Roll

Born to be Wild

THE ROCK REVOLUTION

The 1960s was a seismic decade of political

and social upheaval, with a soundtrack
that echoed the changing times

Written by Rob Hughes
T he crowning moment of Country lunch counters of North Carolina and peaked in

600 acres of farmland in upstate New York. A
Joe McDonald’s career wasn’t
period of accelerated change that had brought
exactly planned. Standing before
nearly half a million people at
with it racial tensions, riots, student revolts and
Woodstock in the early afternoon
of 16 August 1969, he’d already assassinations. All of this came with an apposite
soundtrack, a rush of insurgent music — from folk
played to a largely underwhelming response. A to rock ‘n’ roll to psychedelia — that reflected the
quick word with his tour manager had resulted seismic changes of the times. Moreover, in its
in him returning to the stage for one final tune, emergence as a weapon of cultural revolution, it
before the arrival of the next act, Santana. sought to shape them.
McDonald began strumming the chords to Protest music was hardly a new concept in the
‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag’, the political 1960s. Against a backdrop of the nuclear threat,
anthem he’d recorded “ALL OF THIS McCarthyism, the Cold
with his band, Country War and the leftist
Joe & The Fish. A bitingly progressive movement,
sarcastic critique of US CAME WITH the post-war years had
policy in Vietnam, in seen a marked increase
particular the escalating AN APPOSITE in the number of songs
numbers of young that addressed social
conscripts, the song’s SOUNDTRACK” and political issues.
power lay in both the Woody Guthrie, Josh
immediacy of its message and its singalong verses. White, Harry Belafonte and The Weavers (featuring
The Woodstock masses shook themselves from the outspoken Pete Seeger) had been at the
their slumber and began joining in: “And it’s one, vanguard in the United States, while a small cadre
two, three, what are we fighting for? / Don’t ask of voices — chief among them folk singer Ewan
me I don’t give a damn / Next stop is Vietnam / MacColl — had aligned themselves to Campaign
And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates / for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain.
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why / Whoopie!
We’re all gonna die.”
The crowd became more animated and rose to
their feet — yelling, clapping and roaring approval
— as McDonald led them to a feverish finale. By
the time he’d exited the stage, acoustic guitar held
aloft in salute, they were screaming for more. It’s a
scene immortalised in Michael Wadleigh’s Oscar-
winning Woodstock documentary, released the
following year, and one that came to embody the
disaffection and rage that pumped the heart of the
American counterculture.
Woodstock also served to bookend a The 1960s counterculture during
tumultuous decade of social and political unrest. its most celebrated hour, at the
It was an era of protest that had begun at the 1969 Woodstock Festival
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