Wicked Messenger

by Mike Marqusee

  as Augustus Owsley Stanley III, legendary LSD chemist.

  at Geer was blacklisted throughout the fifties but became a national icon in the seventies when he played Grandpa in the television show The Waltons—a liberal but strikingly inauthentic slice of rural Americana.

  au When performing “With God on Our Side” in the late eighties, Dylan sang a new verse:

  In the nineteen sixties came the Vietnam War

  Can somebody tell me what we’re fightin’ for?

  So many young men died

  So many mothers cried

  Now I ask the question

  Was God on our side?

  Dylan inserted the new lyrics—which may have been written by the Neville Brothers for the cover version they recorded about the same time—between the verses on World War II and the nuclear stand-off with the Russians (still ongoing in the late eighties). Though the Vietnam addition lacks the rigor of the original verses, it does fit precisely into the song’s revision of U.S. history.

  av The protesters also sang “Blowin’ in the Wind.” To Allen Ginsberg, who was present, the song came into its own that day: “That song could have been any little boy’s lyric fancy, but when it was played one afternoon during the convention in Grant Park across from the Hilton, it revealed itself as a prophecy all along, because it described what was going on right there on the grass. Crowds of strange children with long hair, who weren’t afraid to have their bodies hit by police phantoms armed with billy clubs, were demanding reality and truth from business-delegates who were walking around in upstairs Hilton rooms scared of the stink of their own karma. Teargassed! That scene was, literally, blowing in the wind. Was it going to be a police state or a liberation from what had been a police state all along?”

  aw In contrast, tickets for the thirtieth anniversary “Woodstock ’99” were $180 each, and the pay-per-view telecast $60. Merchandizing was extensive, and strictly licensed. There was a Woodstock platinum credit card with a $100,000 spending limit. Despite its state-of-the-art security system, the concert ended in chaotic scenes that made the original look cozy and tame. Firefighters battled for hours to put out blazes started by concertgoers at the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ set. Speaker systems were destroyed, tents burned and trucks looted as revelers danced and drummed their way around the flames. The riot police were called in to restore order.

  ax Under the impact of feminism, the Weathermen mutated into the Weather Underground; in late 1970, they issued a new manifesto with a somewhat softened tone under the title New Morning—after the latest Dylan album.

  Copyright © 2003, 2005 by Mike Marqusee.

  Originally published by The New Press as Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan. Revised and expanded for this edition.

  First Seven Stories Press Edition September 2005.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including mechanical, electric, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Marqusee, Mike.

  Wicked messenger : Bob Dylan and the 1960s / Mike Marqusee.—1st pbk. ed. p. cm.

  “Revised and expanded edition”—Prelims.

  Originally published: Chimes of freedom : the politics of Bob Dylan. New York : New Press, 2003.

  Includes bibliographical references, discography, webology, and index.

  eISBN : 978-1-609-80115-1

  1. Dylan, Bob, 1941—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Protest songs—United States—History and criticism. 3. United States—Social conditions—1960-1980. 4. Nineteen sixties. I. Title.

  ML420.D98M167 2003

  782.42164’092—dc22

  2005007728