U.S. Blues
http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs07062008.html
By RON JACOBS
July 5 / 6, 2008
I walked into the Vets Liquor bar about twenty miles outside of DC
back in 1976. It was July the 3rd. The Bicentennial was going on in
downtown DC and I was heading to the Smoke-In where a few thousand of
us Yippees and hippies were going to get together and celebrate our
freedom by smoking lots of that devil weed and listening to a variety
of rock and roll bands. The government, meanwhile, had its own big
show going on with the Beach Boys (or whatever remained of them) and
Johnny Cash. And fireworks and military bands.
Anyhow, the jukebox was playing "Okie From Muskogee" and the men and
women sitting at the bar were taking the lyrics quite serious as they
cast glances my way. My long hair and beard made me look, well,
conspicuous. Of course, the upside down US flag sewn on to the back
of my jeans (hey it made a great patch) might not have been the
friendliest of message to those folks, either. I bought a pack of
cigarettes and left without taking my change. Time to get back to
friendlier environs.
My thumb went out on Route 1 and I got a ride almost instantly. It
was a couple buddies of mine heading out to another suburb which
happened to be where I was heading to also. By the end of the day I
was in DC smoking some weed with some suburbanites that wasn't doing
much and hoping for something better. A group of hippies from West
Virginia were sitting about ten feet from me drinking some shine and
doing some picking on their guitars and banjo. Nothing too
recognizable at first, but they eventually got around to doing a fair
version of the Grateful Dead's "Cumberland Blues." I moved into
their circle and pulled out a couple joints of some gold-colored weed
I'd stashed for a special kind of occasion. The shine made the scene
special somehow. Lit one up and passed it on. Can you guys play "US
Blues?" They did their best.
But this isn't about smoking weed or even about July 4th. It's about
a couple songs from the popular music of the 1960s and afterwards
that have the United States as their theme. Like the majority of the
folks at the smoke-in, most of these types of tunes share a belief
that the United States is essentially a good place which has lost its
way. Like too many of the folks going to see the
government-sponsored fireworks that year (and stay as far away from
the yippees as possible), many other songs of the period are
unabashedly nationalistic rallying cries to war and
empire. Steppenwolf's "Monster" is perhaps the most pointed of the
former from the so-called Sixties, while Lee Greenwood's "God Bless
the USA" is certainly one of the most pointed of the latter. Some,
like Springsteen's "Born In the USA" are of the former but have often
been confused by the apologists for war and empire as a part of the
latter's songbook. Then again, some are just celebrations of life in
the USA. Chuck Berry's "Livin' In the USA" and James Brown's "Livin'
in America." come to mind. On the surface mere apolitical romps, the
mere celebration of US life without comment becomes a commentary of its own.
"Monster" by Steppenwolf appears on their 1970 album of the same
name. An essentially libertarian anthem, John Kay and his bandmates
trace the history of the United States utilizing the previously
mentioned template of freedom betrayed. "America," the song asks,
"where are you now?" It is about America as a political Frankenstein
that has destroyed the nation's original intent. There are no
culprits named, but the implicit message is that the politicians and
the corporations they serve are the ones who must be removed, since
it is their wars we are forced to fight. A present-day expression of
this song can arguably be found in James McMurtry's "We Can't Make it
Here Anymore"--a song that paints and impressionistic picture of a
town and the lives therein destroyed by corporate callousness made
possible by politicians without conscience. "Monster" differs in
that it expands the scenario into the nation's history. Although
this promise is a promise for the colonists and not the natives, the
destruction of those peoples and the incorporation of slavery are
part of the destruction wrought to the promise.
David Lynn Jones "Living In the Promised Land" sung most famously by
Willie Nelson is a song that represents another look at the myth
that makes the nation. It is a tale of America from the immigrant's
view that promises room for everyone. The United States as the great
melting pot. Idealized, for sure, the song does not mention the
slaves who came unwillingly bound in ships in conditions worse than
sheep and forced to work for the rich white men whose interactions
with the native people ended up in the latter's genocide. Yet, it
presents a nation formed by immigrants and invites in more while
acknowledging there are those already here who have forgotten their
own history. When Willie sings "Is there no love anymore/Living in
the promised land?" he is reminding the listener that they too come
from other lands . Consequently, they should be more than willing to
share the hope their ancestors found on America's shores with the
newest immigrants. Of course, we know this has rarely been the case.
The Dead's tune "US Blues" is a slightly different take on the US of
A. Uncle Sam is, in essence, a con-man. PT Barnum and the pot
dealer join the medicine man hucksters wearing Carl Perkins blue
suede shoes in a rock and roll traveling show. Unlike the hard-luck
working class protagonist of "Born In the USA," the characters of "US
Blues" are independent operators whose lives have somehow remained
untouched by the miseries of war and the factory. In the concert
movie The Grateful Dead Movie, there is an animated sequence that
opens the film and features this song. It plays while Uncle Sam is
arrested and thrown into jail by a pig-face cop. A cop that looked a
lot like some of those on the line that July 4th back in 1976. Cops
just waiting for a pot smoking freak to light one up in his face. I
recall seeing the Dead in January 1980 at a benefit for Cambodian
refugees (that also featured the Beach Boys, among others) where the
lyric "Shake the hand that shook the hand of P.T. Barnum and Charlie
Chan" was changed to "Shake the hand that shook the hand of P.T.
Barnum and the Shah of Iran." This was obviously an ironic
reference to the end of that ill-fated relationship in the wake of
the Iranian revolution then going on--a revolution Washington is
still trying to figure out how to deal with.
I ended up inviting the West Virginia pickers back to my house. On
the way home we got pulled over by the county cops. They talked to
us for about half an hour, searched the West Virginians' truck and
found nothing. While they tossed stuff out of the truck, they
half-jokingly asked the guitarist to play a song. He wisely chose
Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." The lead cop told us how much he liked
that song. Then he told us to get the hell home before he decided to
look harder. We took his advice. I'm going to be with family up in
Maryland this Fourth of July. There will be chicken, burgers,
conversation, beer, and music.
Two songs I know I will hear are "Born In the USA" and "God Bless the
USA." The irony of the former will be lost on some of my relatives
while the complete lack of irony of the latter will be barely
tolerated by the rest of us.
--
Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the
Weather Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs'
essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's collection on
music, art and sex, Serpents in the Garden. His first novel, Short
Order Frame Up, is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at:
rjacobs3625@charter.net
.
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