Mucsicans as Activiest

Musicians as Activist

I first got interested in this topic when we briefly talked about musicians being Activist in my Vietnam history class. Back in the 60’s and 70’s some Musician’s were Activist for the Vietnam War and Equal rights. Even today with such thing as high gas prices and the war over in Iraq a lot of Musicians are being political activist. One of the most famous Activists was a member of one of the most popular band’s from the 60’s and 70’s the Beatles. John Lennon, in a 1966 Interview Lennon told the reporter that he felt that he and the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ was to Teenagers. All though that brought a lot of heat with Christian group all bashed him for being Anti-religious but that’s not what Lennon meant all along he just meant that among all of the teenagers he and the Beatles were more popular. So since John was so popular with his music and being on 70’s talk show scene week after week expressing his feelings on the Vietnam War and other problems that were going on at that time. He would appear week after week on the 70’s talk show scene and he would also lead some protest marches in the streets for equal rights and peace love and happiness, and not in support of any type of war. John Lennon was an activist all the way up to his murder; Lennon got shot in December 8th, 1980 in New York City by a deranged fan Mark David Chapman.

Activism to John Lennon meant to speak about how you felt and what you believed in and to express it anyway you could, Lennon didn’t express it as much in his music as someone like Bob Dylan. Also some one like John Lennon wanted to become a singer songwriter first and then used his fame to be a voice as an activist. And some one as Bob Dylan used his voice to vocalize how he felt politically and emotionalize his feelings towards the Vietnam War and other social issues.

Bob Dylan a Folk singer, who was influenced by the Beatles, became a big part of the civil rights movement by 1963. Playing at rallies including the March on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech, trying to spread a strong political influence. And this was when he was first getting a name. In the 70’s when he became an established Singer/Songwriter and recovered from a motorcycle accident in 1966, and once the Vietnam War came he really was full-fledged against it. He had song titles such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and he also played at Vietnam protest rallies. Dylan was also an activist for Ruben “The Hurricane” Carter; who he believed had been wrongfully imprisoned for a triple homicide in Paterson, New Jersey. Dylan visited Carter in jail, Dylan wrote the song “Hurricane” where he sang about Carter’s innocence. The song was Dylan’s most successful protest song, and Dylan played it at every venue he played at in 1975. Dylan's work in the late 1970s and early 1980s was dominated by his becoming, in 1979, a born-again Christian; and he wasn’t as much of an activist after that.

Other bands in the late 60’s and 70’s are Crosby, Steels, Nash, and Young. Who had a big protest Song called Ohio written by Neil Young, The song was written in reaction to the Kent State shootings. When it was released as a single in 1970 it was banned from some radio stations because of the controversial content of the lyrics, about four students getting shot and killed by the United States National Guards. Another controversial band in the 70’s would be CCR “Creedence