Page 45 - All About History - Issue 53-17

Rock ‘n’ Roll

curious way, it perfectly captured the cultural But it was at the Woodstock Festival that the
shifts of the past few years. “At the same divergent strands of 1960s protest came together,
time the folk boom was happening, the civil from Richie Havens’ rendition of ‘Freedom’ to
rights movement was happening, the anti-war Country Joe McDonald, Joan Baez and CSNY and
movement was happening, the ban the bomb on through to the closing act, Jimi Hendrix. The
movement was happening, the environmental guitarist’s savage deconstruction of that most
movement was happening,” sacred of US institutions —
Guthrie explained later. “There “DIVERGENT the national anthem, ‘The
was suddenly a generation Star-Spangled Banner’ — was
ready to change the course STRANDS OF emblematic of an alternative
of history.” society searching for new
The decade of protest THE 1960S meaning under the old flag.
reached a peak in the summer “The ‘Sixties was an intense
of 1969. That June, holed up PROTEST conversation,” concludes
in Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Michael Lydon. “People were
Hotel, John Lennon and Yoko CAME really talking to each other,
Ono staged their second trying to discover new ways
Bed-In for Peace. Joined by TOGETHER” of living and interacting.
the Canadian chapter of the There was a lot of serious
Radha Krishna Temple and thought, led in many ways
an assemblage of famous friends — including by The Beatles, the Stones and Dylan, who were Jimi Hendrix served in the
Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary — the couple coming up with very powerful, challenging US army but was discharged
before the Vietnam war began
instigated a simple two-chord tune whose chorus statements. Millions of people, including myself,
provided the simplest of messages: “All we are took Dylan’s lyric ‘He not busy being born is busy
saying / Is give peace a chance”. A worldwide dying’ [from ‘It’s Alright Ma, (I’m Only Bleeding)’]
hit, the song gained further importance months as a personal challenge. It was a case of: I hear Rickenbacker
later when it was sung by over half a million what you’re saying. I want to do something
demonstrators at the Vietnam Moratorium Day in other than work for a corporation. I want to find 360
Washington, DC. something new.”

Demonstrators outside a During The Beatles’ 1964 US tour,
schoolboard office protest the head of California’s Rickenbacker
against segregation, St Louis,
Missouri, early 1960s company presented George Harrison
with the 12-string 360. Its distinctive
chime gave the band its defining
sound, soon emulated by The Byrds’
Roger McGuinn when he plumped for
the 370 model.

© Getty Images, Shutterstock/Rex

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