A Short Walk through Our Long History

As we mentioned last episode, public opinion was turning strongly against the Vietnam war by the late 1960’s.  President Johnson’s administration was coming under more and more criticism for how it had handled the war, and for the first time in US history, people are going to turn against the soldiers themselves.  For most of US history, soldiers returning from war were treated as heroes.  Soldiers returning from Vietnam were often treated like criminals.  This was a new, horrible thing for the soldiers, coming back to a country that regarded them with suspicion and even hatred. 
And on top of that, the experience of the soldiers while in battle was horrific.
Much of the fighting was at night, at close range, in dense jungle, in horrible weather.

Well, last episode was kind of depressing, talking about JFK being assassinated and the end of American innocence.  And this episode, well, I guess it’s in the same theme, kinda. 

We’re talking about the Vietnam war, which is not the best period of American history.  Divisive, unpleasant, and another turning point in the way America was seen by the world, and how it sees itself.  This was originally going to be just one episode, but it was getting pretty long, so I’ve split it into two.  I guess that makes some sense anyway, since the Vietnam war lasted almost as long as World War 1 and 2 combined, and I did a total of 22 episodes on those two wars.  Kinda hard to condense Vietnam into one 20 minute episode.

In the last couple of episodes, we talked about the birth and rise of rock n roll, and how it shaped the modern world.  The birth of Rock n Roll coincided with a kind of golden age for the United States.  The US emerged from WWII with a booming economy, the most powerful military in the world, and a manufacturing sector that had been kicked into high gear by the war.  So the 1950’s and the early 1960’s were a time of growth and prosperity for the US.  

And of course, after the war, as one of the two world superpowers, the US took a leading role in the politics of the western world, and the politics of containing the other superpower, namely, the Soviet Union.

As I said last episode, a lot of the energy of rock n roll came from youthful rebellion against the culture, values, and politics of the older generation.  This was a big deal in the 1950’s, with Elvis and his dancing, and suggestive songs and bands, but the youthful rebellion thing went to a whole other level in the 1960’s. 

While pop rockers like the Beatles created sort of sappy love songs, there were also a bunch of rock n roll musicians whose music was a more direct and critical rejection of old people culture.

Episode 132 - The Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll

Yes, that intro was the song Subdivisions, by Rush.  My normal intro music is an acoustic clip of that same song.  One of my all time favorite rock 'n roll songs.    

How in the world can I do one podcast episode on the history of rock 'n roll?  There’s just no way.  So I’ve decided to do split it into two reasonably short episodes, and try to work in some of the actual music that I’m talking about, because where’s the fun in talking about rock 'n roll, if you can’t play some of the music?   Also, in this episode, I’m going to talk more about the birth of rock 'n roll, and next episode, talk a bit more about its cultural impact.  (Which, just as a bit of foreshadowing, is going to be huge)