We’re laboring to birth a new life-giving cultural narrative

The ‘60’s & ‘70’s countercultural revolution had a life-giving narrative and a compelling “soundtrack” that carried it. We’re missing those now.

I’m a Boomer, and the events we’re living through in the U.S. today feel very familiar to me, similar to the countercultural revolution of the 60’s & 70’s. Here are a couple of important differences:

1.     The revolution of the 60’s & 70’s had a compelling, powerful narrative that we’re missing today, and

2.     That narrative was carried by a “soundtrack” of protest music which framed, focused, and fueled the revolution with strong inspiration and heart, soulful purpose and meaning, and action.  

We don’t have that kind of life-giving narrative and music now for these times.

That was a massive, all-consuming collective cultural experience. Some boys chose to move to Canada in order not to be sent to Vietnam to fight a war they didn’t believe in. Too many boys went to ‘Nam and came back in body bags. Too many came home with serious trauma of all kinds and were not effectively supported to be able to function again in this culture. That whole experience still impacts us, even if we’re not conscious of it.

For those who didn’t experience that revolution, here’s some context:

Excerpts from this article: 

“. . . the late ‘60s and early ‘70s . . . was a tumultuous time in the United States . . . dominated by political and social unrest. During the 1965 to 1975 time period, there were 3 main protest movements that happened simultaneously in America: Vietnam . . .  Black civil rights . . and women’s rights. Many [people]. . . started writing songs that addressed these pressing, controversial topics by recording music that promoted hope, empowerment, love, and encouragement to press on for change. Top 40 radio provided an outlet for artists to reach large audiences with concerns that many Americans shared . . .” (Emphasis added)

Excerpts from this article:  “The protest songs of the ‘70s were more than musical milestones — they were rallying cries that empowered millions. . . . the 1970s protest songbook gave voice to generations demanding change. . . . these anthems soundtracked social movements and shook the status quo.” (Emphasis added)

In this post I’m sharing some of the music that gave life to that revolution, which still reverberates in our culture now. Please listen to these songs. Can you hear and feel the energy that transformed our world?

These songs roughly group into two kinds: (1) songs expressing the compelling, inspiring dream and vision and (2) songs of anger and protest. Together these two kinds of songs “moved the movement” and changed the world.

The Woodstock Music Festival  was a galvanizing event and catalyst that captured the zeitgeist at that time:

“The Woodstock Music Festival began on August 15, 1969, as half a million people waited on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, for the three-day music festival to start. Billed as “An Aquarian Experience: 3 Days of Peace and Music,” the epic event would later be known simply as Woodstock and become synonymous with the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Woodstock was a success, but the massive concert didn’t come off without a hitch: Last-minute venue changes, bad weather and the hordes of attendees caused major headaches. Still, despite—or because of—a lot of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and rain, Woodstock was a peaceful celebration and earned its hallowed place in pop culture history.

“. . . As an estimated one million people descended on Woodstock, its organizers scrambled to add more facilities. Highways and local roads came to a standstill and many concert-goers simply abandoned their cars and trekked the rest of the way on foot. Eventually, about half a million people reached the venue.

“In 1969, the country was deep into the controversial Vietnam War, a conflict that many young people vehemently opposed. It was also the era of the civil rights movement, a period of great protest and unrest. Woodstock was an opportunity for people to escape into music and spread a message of unity and peace.

“Although the crowd at Woodstock experienced bad weather, muddy conditions and a lack of food, water and adequate sanitation, the overall vibe there was harmonious. . . . living out their mantra of “making love, not war.”

The song Woodstock (lyrics here) became an icon. These lines were especially meaningful for me:  

“I’m going to try and get my soul free . . . And we’ve got to get ourselves . . . Back to the garden.”    

Some of my other personal favorites:

Ohio (lyrics here)—Crosby, Stills Nash & Young

“Ohio” is a protest song . . . in reaction to the Kent State University shootings on May 4, 1970. . . . The incident took place on May 4, 1970 and became a sociopolitical symbolization during the Vietnam War. The sequence of events led to a nationwide anti-establishment student strike, forcing hundreds of colleges and universities to close.”

(Image: 14-year-old Mary Vecchio kneeling over Jeffrey Miller’s dead body crying for help)

Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (lyrics here)--The 5th Dimension

This song became an informal anthem for the countercultural revolution, including these lyrics:

". . . Harmony and understanding,

Sympathy and trust abounding,

No more falsehoods or derisions,

Golden living dreams of visions

Mystic crystal revelation,

And the mind's true liberation . . ."

7 O'clock News / Silent Night (lyrics here)—Simon & Garfunkel

Well worth listening to! This is an overdubbing of two contrasting recordings: a simple arrangement of the Christmas carol “Silent Night”, and a simulated “7 O'Clock News” bulletin of the actual events of August 3, 1966. Here’s an excerpt:

"Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday into the Chicago suburb of Cicero. Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held . . .

"In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American activities continued its probe into anti-Vietnam war protests. Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans. . .

"Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Vietnam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war. In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S."

I lived those times! Revisiting this song, I can feel a knot in my stomach. With some changes in specific details, this mirrors what’s happening now.

San Francisco (lyrics here)-- Scott McKenzie

This song became the anthem of the 1967 Summer of Love and came to symbolize the hippie and flower power movements, with these lyrics as part of it:

“. . . All across the nation, such a strange vibration . . . there’s a whole generation, with a new explanation . . .”

Fortunate Son (lyrics here)--Creedence Clearwater Revival

The unforgettable video clip with this song brings home what the protests were about in a visceral way.

Big Yellow Taxi (lyrics here)--Joni Mitchell

These lines still speak to me:  

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, with a pink hotel, boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot . . .Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot . . .”

For What It’s Worth (lyrics here)—Buffalo Springfield

Do these lyrics sound like what we’re seeing now?

"There's battle lines being drawn

And nobody's right if everybody's wrong . . . "

Blowin’ In The Wind (lyrics here)--Bob Dylan

One Tin Soldier  (lyrics here)

We see current examples of these lines:

“Go ahead and hate your neighbor

Go ahead and cheat a friend

Do it in the name of heaven

You can justify it in the end . . .”

Abraham, Martin and John (with lyrics)--Dion  

Eve of Destruction (with lyrics)--Barry McGuire

Revolution (lyrics here)--The Beatles

Imagine (lyrics here)--John Lennon

We Shall Overcome (lyrics here)--Joan Baez

Give Peace a Chance (lyrics here)--John Lennon

There were hundreds, probably thousands, of these kinds of songs.

Another critical element in that revolution were the coffeehouses—NOT coffee “shops” like we have today that are all about the product, “turning over” customers to maximize profit, and seeing people and product as “commodities” to be consumed.

Coffeehouses were comfortable social gathering places of real welcoming hospitality for people to come in and hang out together, listen to this kind of music, make meaningful and often serendipitous connections with others, have engaging conversations, and have a good “cuppa” as part of that. They were a crucial part of the ecosystem that facilitated this movement.

During that revolution, we knew we were “gonna change the world.” As I look back at the 50+ years since then, we did change the world, just not in the ways we had imagined or expected. That’s how life unfolds, right?  Among other things, it stimulated:

• an immense amount of inner individual personal/emotional/spiritual development, e.g. meditation, yoga, and many other forms of personal growth

• an immense amount of outer development, e.g. innovations, technology, new ways of relating to the earth with regenerative agriculture and others

What was the larger, higher, deeper purpose of all this inner and outer work? As I see it, we’ve been creating a new cultural narrative that is aligned with Source/Spirit/the Mystery.

Love, peace, freedom, and brother/sisterhood are certainly not new dreams or visions! However, our current situation increasingly shows us the disconnect and discrepancy between who we believe and say we are, vs. what our behavior says we are. The discrepancy is becoming so insistent and visible that we can’t keep “sweeping it under the rug”.  

I’m sensing an increasing and very uncomfortable realization among many people that the “business as usual” mindset that got us where we are won’t get us where we want to go.

That mindset, that narrative, that consciousness has been part of our human evolutionary development during our current empire culture for the past 6,000+ years. We’re outgrowing that evolutionary developmental phase. It cannot take us to more aliveness. This is why our structures and systems are crumbling.

It’s a normal, natural, and necessary process of releasing what we’ve outgrown in order to allow new life to come in.  We can’t put new wine in old wine skins, so to speak, or force the leaves to stay green on the trees past the point where it’s time for them to fall.  

So this is an initiation. This (poly)crisis is our chrysalis to take us from ego-driven to soul-inspired and life-aligned. It’s requires a consciousness upgrade, including:

• consciously integrating our individual/personal work with our socio-cultural work,

• consciously integrating healthy masculine and healthy feminine energies, and

• shifting our narrative, e.g.: “Our job, our responsibility, as many native peoples know, is about how we learn to have peace with Earth. Not peace on Earth, but peace with Earth.” — Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota

  
  

We could think of it as our 4 R’s: “Respect, Reverence, and Right Relationships”.

This is our growth edge. How we might do that is a topic for another time. One thing I know for sure is that it will take strong, deep clarity, commitment, and courage to live it, just as it did for us in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s revolution.

As I’ve revisited these songs and the powerful energy they carried, I’m struck by how relevant they still are today and how much more powerful music is instead of just words.

Where are the folk singers, the songs, the music that we need for these times now???

If you experienced the ‘60’s and ‘70’s revolution, I’d love to hear from you about the songs or other aspects that were potent for you. If you didn’t experience it and want to know more, I’d be glad to share what I can.

Just hit reply and let me know!