Revolution

Chapter One

Head-bopping, the hair flowing, and the guitar strumming, not to mention the thousands of screaming fans, one thing comes to mind: The Beatles, more specifically The song Revolution. The song Revolution by The Beatles is a seminal Rock song that sympathizes with peace-loving Americans who opposed the Vietnam War. This song propelled itself to be a vehicle of protest, especially as casualties mounted on both sides—ultimately, over 58,000 American soldiers and several million Vietnamese people died in this war. Throughout the song, Revolution, Lennon points out that the way to protest is not through brutality or aggressive indignation, it’s through love and peace. Lennon points out the hypocrisy of protesting violence with violence through his lyrics. Due to his major influence on the public as a musical virtuoso, Lennon was able to project his message through one of the most iconic portrayals of the Summer of Love we have today. According to Thomas Forte, “The general consensus of the American public on Vietnam seems to be that it was an unwinnable war, fought for a questionable cause that ultimately led to nothing but dead Americans and a loss of faith in the U.S. government.” John Lennon was one Individual that particularly protested the violence of the Vietnam War. In the words of John Lennon, “Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.”

During the late sixties, Alan Bendit, a local musician, sound producer, and music teacher shared his firsthand experience as a young man in San Francisco trying to escape the draft while working on his music. He describes his struggle as he enlisted in the Navy, expecting to immediately be given busy work, like scrubbing the deck or cleaning the toilets, not fighting overseas. “I looked like a hippie with a sailor’s outfit,” he recalls, juxtaposing his Navy uniform and his long and wild hair. Reflecting on his time stationed in San Francisco, he describes the people as friendly, always helping him to where he needed to go. He wanted nothing more than to get out of the Navy and pursue his musical career there. When he got orders to go to Vietnam, he was intent on finding any escape, even if that meant being thrown in the psychiatric ward for the following months. As he sat with his papers outside of a psychiatric division to get evaluated for service in Vietnam, he went over possible loopholes to get out of war. When the head of the division arrived, Bendit began to choke him and shout absurdities to make the lieutenant believe he was not in the right mind to fight in the war. The Lieutenant was frightened and convinced enough that he wrote a letter explaining that Bendit was not fit to serve in Vietnam. Bendit’s experience was sadly one many Americans in the 1960s had to face. According to James M. Lindsay from the Council on Foreign Relations, “Much as poetry provides a window into the Allied mood during World War I, anti-war songs provide a window into the mood of the 1960s. It was one of anger, alienation, and defiance” (“The Twenty Best Vietnam Protest Songs”).

Anti-war songs were one of the most common music types during the 1960s, due to the fact that that time period is when radical oppositionist groups began to arise like the hippies, defying and going against what any generation prior did. Anti-war music was one specific sub-rock genre that the 1960s popularized. Anti-war music has retained its relevance today because it’s a shared medium that communities use to protest injustices. Artists of the 1960s created the significant social and political change from which modern music draws heavy influence.