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Billy Holiday releases "Strange Fruit"
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bit -
Feminine Mystique is published
Betty Friedan's ground-breaking work The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963 after Friedan sent a questionnaire to other women in her 1942 Smith College graduating class. Friedan and her classmates all indicated a general dissatisfaction with their lives. This led Friedan to conduct more detailed research into "the problem that has no name"—the Feminine Mystique. She defined this "mystique" as the worthlessness women feel in roles that require them to be financi -
Leslie Gore's "You Don't Own Me" reaches number 1
You don't own me, I'm not just one of your many toys
You don't own me, don't say I can't go with other boys And don't tell me what to do
And don't tell me what to say
And please, when I go out with you
Don't put me on display, 'cause You don't own me, don't try to change me in any way
You don't own me, don't tie me down 'cause I'd never stay Oh, I don't tell you what to say
I don't tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That's all I ask of you I'm young and I love to be young
I'm free -
Jeffferson Airplane releases pyschedelic masterpiece "White Rabbit" which explores the hippie fascination with mind altering drugs
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know When logic and propor -
Johnny Cash performs at Folsum Prison in California. His most requested song is "John Henry's Hammer"
John Henry's Pappy woke him up one midnight
He said before the sheriff comes I wanna tell you, said listen boy,
Learn to hoist a jack, and learn to lay a track, learn to pick and shovel too, and take that hammer, it'll do anything you tell it to John Henry's mammy had about a dozen babies; John Henry's pappy broke jail a dozen times
The babies all got sick and when the doctor wanted money, he said I’ll pay you a quarter at a time, startin’ tomorrow, that’s the pay for a steel driver on this lin -
The same year as the Tet Offensive and the top year for the draft, Credence Clearwater Revival releases "Fortunate Son"
Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
ooh, they're red, white and blue.
And when the band plays "Hail To The Chief",
oh, they point the cannon at you, Lord, It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no senator's son,
It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no fortunate one, no, Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don't they help themselves? oh.
But when the taxman come to the door,
Lord, the house look a like a rummage sale, yes, It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no millionaire's son, no, -
National Guard open fire on students protesting at Kent State
Three weeks later Crosby, Still, and Nash release "Ohio", which quickly rises to number 1.
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio. Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know? Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the g -
John Lennon releases Imagine
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Shar -
Bob Marley writes Redemption Song
Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill ou -
Reagan elected, promising to bring America back to its' conservative roots
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Paranoia about nuclear war is at an all time high. "99 Red Balloons reaches #2 in the US"
You and I, and a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, "Some thing's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic lads, it's a red alert
There's something here from somewhere else The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Ninety-nine -
Public Enemy releases "Fight the Power" today considered one of the 100 best songs of all time
1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hittin' your heart cause I know you got sould
(Brothers and sisters hey)
Listen if you're missin' y'all
Swingin' while I'm singin'
Givin' whatcha gettin'
Knowin' what I know
While the Black bands sweatin'
And the rhythm rhymes rollin'
Got to give us what we want
Gotta give us what we need
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power Chorus As the rhythm -
Protests in Seattle against the WTO turn violent. For the first time in 30 years police are called out to subdue a crowd of protesters
Through the best of times,
Through the worst of times,
Through Nixon and through Bush,
Do you remember '36?
We went our seperate ways.
You fought for Stalin.
I fought for freedom.
You believe in authority.
I believe in myself.
I'm a molotov cocktail.
You're Dom Perignon.
Baby, what's that confused look in your eyes?
What I'm trying to say is that
I burn down buildings
While you sit on a shelf inside of them.
You call the cops
On the looters and piethrowers.
They call it class war,
I call it co-c