GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

Where are the protest songs now?

After John Lennon released “Give Peace a Chance” in 1969, the song went to #14 on the Billboard charts.

A spontaneous and unvarnished entry in the John Lennon songbook, the refrain became the unofficial anthem of protest over the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. A few months after its release, it was sung by an estimated half-million people at a protest rally in Washington, D.C.

But it wasn’t the only song protesting the war. At Woodstock in the fateful summer of 1969, Country Joe and the Fish performed “Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die” with the chorus, “And it’s 1,2,3, what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, next stop Vietnam.” “Ohio,” a song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young that referenced the shooting deaths on the Kent State campus in 1970, also reached the #14 position on the national charts.

Attitudes change. Consider the fact that in 1966, Sgt. Barry Sadler’s “Ballad of the Green Berets” spent five weeks atop Billboard charts.

Vietnam was a 10-year conflict for the United States that took 58,000 American lives, with anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million Vietnamese killed. Some 2 million Americans were drafted into a war that bitterly divided the nation in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The nation is again divided politically, but where are the songs?

In his second term, President Trump has provided plenty of material for musical consideration. Here are some possibilities:

--“You’ve Got a Friend”—It’s the James Taylor tune, only with verses in French and Spanish, representing border nations Canada and Mexico.

--“We Need a Vacation from All This Inflation.”

--“This Land is Not My Land”—The Woody Guthrie classic with lyrics relating to Greenland.

“White House Ballroom” (to the tune of the “Blue Danube Waltz).

“The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Blues” (in a Dylan vein).

“Long Haul Trucker’s Lament (I Can’t Afford the Fuel)”—Possibly a country song.

“Keep the Lights On (in Cuba).

Oh yes, the Iranian situation—let’s hear “Give Peace a Chance” one more time.”