And whoever else was significant
at the time…
Various artists:
A ragbag?
My list for today
• Dylan, Cohen: The chroniclers, „poets of
pessimism” – and perception
• Folk singer Joan Baez
• Steppenwolf
• Simon and Garfunkel
• Britain’s The Who
• Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair
Bob Dylan
•
•
•
•
Hero of a generation, a little older than
most
Initially part of the American folk music
revival
Extremely ambitious
The Times They are a-changin’
– Archetypal protest song
– Soon „out of date”
– One of the anthems of the civil rights and
anti-war movements
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqvUz0
HrNKY
•
Like a rolling stone
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Kt2vPN9A
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll
sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who that it's
namin'
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
The Times They are A-changin’
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside and it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows and rattle
your walls
For the times they are a-changin'
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one if you can't
lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin‘
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
Joan Baez
• A first class folk singer in
her own right
• Relationship with Dylan
remembered in Diamonds
and Rust, 1975
– With lyrics
• https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=1ST9TZBb9v8
• Heavy Metal Judas
Priest’s cover from the
1970s
– https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=vLDazyvMMGw
Leonard Cohen
• From Montreal, Canada
• Poet, writer, painter with a sole
guitar and a „droning voice”
• „Portraits of a world dominated
by love and lust, rage and need,
compassion and betrayal…”
• Bird on the Wire
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=K8fT7rnRotY
• So Long, Marianne
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=cZI6EdnvH-8
• Cseh Tamás, Sztevanovity Zorán,
• Kern András
Bird on the Wire
Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Like a worm on a hook
Like a knight from some old-fashioned
book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee
If I, if I have been unkind
I hope that you can just let it go by
If I, if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you
For like a baby, stillborn
Like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out
for me
But I swear by this song
And by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden
crutch
He said to me, "you must not ask for so
much"
And a pretty woman leaning in her
darkened door
She cried to me, "hey, why not ask for
more?"
Oh, like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Simon and Garfunkel
• Folk rock duo who also
became counterculture
icons
• Mrs. Robinson, from
Bookends, 1968.
– https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=9C1BCAgu2I8
• Also included in cult film
The Graduate , 1967
starring the very young
Dustin Hoffman.
– Get your maths going!
Mrs. Robinson
We'd like to know
A little bit about you
For our files.
We'd like to help you learn
To help yourself.
Look around you. All you see
Are sympathetic eyes.
Stroll around the grounds
Until you feel at home.
And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Wo wo wo
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson,
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey
Hide it in a hiding place
Where no one ever goes.
Put it in you pantry with your cupcakes.
It's a little secret,
Just the Robinsons' affair.
Most of all, you've got to hide it
from the kids.
Coo coo ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Wo wo wo
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson,
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey
Sitting on a sofa
On a Sunday afternoon,
Going to the candidates' debate,
Laugh about it,
Shout about it,
When you've got to choose,
Every way you look at it you lose.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Ooo ooo ooo.
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
"Joltin' Joe has left and gone away"
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey
Steppenwolf
• Rocketing to stardom, with their
debut album
• Born to be Wild
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=r5_ekvfsGJY
– „heavy metal thunder”
• Pusher
• "The Pusher" „makes a drug
deal, and the viewers see Peter
Fonda stuffing dollar bills into his
Stars & Stripes-clad fuel tank…”
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=r5_ekvfsGJY
• Both songs part of cult film Easy
Rider’s score
The Who from Britain
• Linked with the mod counterculture
(fashion, music, scooters, etc.
subculture), but also with autodistructive art/pop art forms, hence:
– the band’s guitar smashing antics
• Another signature song My
Generation, 1965
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5
94WLzzb3JI
• Quote from songmeanings.com:
„older people should not judge the
youth according to their outdated
standards, but let them live how
they want to”.
– Isn’t it familiar?
• The provocative cover of the Who’s
Next? Album, 1971
My Generation
People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my
generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
Why don't you all f-fade away (Talkin' 'bout my
generation)
Don't try to dig what we all s-s-s-say (Talkin' 'bout my
generation)
I'm not trying to 'cause a big s-s-sensation (Talkin' 'bout
my generation)
I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation (Talkin' 'bout
my generation)
My generation
This is my generation, baby
Why don't you all f-fade away (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
And don't try to d-dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin' 'bout my
generation)
I'm not trying to 'cause a b-big s-s-sensation (Talkin' 'bout
my generation)
I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation (Talkin' 'bout my
generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
My my my generation
People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we g-g-get around (Talkin' 'bout my
generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my
generation)
Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my
generation)
This is my generation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
My generation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
This is my generation, baby (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
This is my generation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)