Page 42 - All About History - Issue 53-17

Rock ‘n’ Roll

But the rise of the Civil Rights Movement,
allied to matters surrounding voter registration
rights, social equality, the nuclear arms race and
the onset of the Vietnam War, resulted in an
outpouring of protest in 1960s America that
was unprecedented.
The decade was barely a month old before
the ruptures began. In February 1960, inspired
by Martin Luther King Jr’s policy of non-violent
protest, four black college students staged a sit-in
at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North
Carolina. Word spread fast, fanned by local news
reports, and by the fourth day, there were 300
people. Students across the state organised similar
protests, soon followed by other Southern cities in
Tennessee, Mississippi and Virginia.
As the Civil Rights Movement gathered
John Lennon and Yoko Ono, with
momentum over the next few years, so too did Timothy Leary in the foreground, record
the songs that accompanied it. Pete Seeger’s ‘If I ‘Give Peace A Chance’ in their Montreal
Had A Hammer’ hit a popular nerve when Peter, hotel room, 1st June 1969
Paul And Mary took it into the Billboard top ten in
1962. Twelve months later, the folk trio’s cover of divisions between the American people and those great Mahalia Jackson, Peter, Paul And Mary
‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ sold 300,000 copies in its in power. and black folkstress, Odetta. Baez led the crowd
first week and became a huge international hit. Its That August, Dylan and his female counterpart, through Odetta’s poignant ‘Oh Freedom’, as well as
author, 22-year-old singer Bob Dylan, was quickly the equally vociferous Joan Baez, were among the old gospel song that was swiftly adopted as the
gaining a reputation as a leading voice of protest in those who performed at the unofficial anthem of the protest movement, ‘We
the cause of civil liberties. March On Washington that took Shall Overcome’.
His own version of the song appeared on The place at the Lincoln Memorial. The latter, first popularised by Pete Seeger and
Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, released in 1963, which Over 250,000 people were in Guy Carawan, offered a succession of declarations
also housed another key composition: ‘Masters attendance as Martin Luther King that posited an unwavering belief in the advent of
Of War’. This track was a fierce satire on the rise Jr, highlighting the lack of civil a better, more compassionate world: “We shall all
of what ex-President Eisenhower had called “the and economic freedoms available
military-industrial complex”. With its references to to America’s black population amid a
“death planes”, “big bombs” and “young people’s climate of boiling racial tension, delivered Gibson
blood” flowing into mud, the song was a strong his historic “I Have A Dream” speech.
Les Paul
and defining statement on the ever-growing Others who sang that day included gospel

Introduced in 1952, the Les Paul is
perhaps one of the most recognised
guitars of all time. Used by greats
such as Eric Clapton and Pete
Townshend, its signature sound is
instantly recognisable. The shape
has become legendary over time,
synonymous with every genre of
music you could want to play.

The crowd at the March On
Washington For Jobs And Freedom in
Washington, DC, 28 August 1963

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