OPINION: RUBY: Music and History
Aug. 10—A few weeks ago I started researching summer songs. I may get to that article at some point, but this morning I woke up singing " . . . and I don't like anybody very much."
Now don't take that literally; it's part of the lyrics of a 1950s protest song. But it got me to thinking about what we now call the Folk Rock Era and how those songs shaped my "coming of age."
My older sister was a big fan of The Kingston Trio; I have several of her albums, if I need a memory refresher.
Their songs included all sorts of protests, but the lyrics that bombarded my head this morning were from their "Merry Little Minuet" (1958).
Upon checking it, I also found "There's hurricanes in Florida/and Texas needs rain . . .The whole world is festering/With unhappy souls . . ."
The song's satire doesn't mask the point it made then, and it resonates in today's political climate, too.
Protest songs, particularly in the 1960's, targeted the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. Some, like Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" (1965), were banned by radio stations (not where I lived, though). Listening to it today, you can see why; it's pretty straightforward about a war that we "had no right to protest."
Performers like Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul, and Mary offered thoughtful and sometimes provocative songs like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" (1955), "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963), and "Turn, Turn, Turn" (a 1959 Seeger song later popularized by The Byrds).
Even Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Waters (1969)," which can relate to any troubled times we may face, originally referred to the Vietnam War.
In following my inspiration, I found a helpful website at firstammendmentmuseum.org/protest music.
It traces this history from 1774-2021.
Dating back to that beginning, "Free America!" was written by Dr. Joseph Warren, who died a year later in the American retreat from Bunker Hill.
I realized when I scrolled to the 1960's that some songs were completely unfamiliar, even though it was "my era."