We Gotta Get out of This Place!

In this dirty old part of the city.
Where the sun refused to shine.
People tell me it ain't no use in tryin.

~Barry Mann and Cynthia Wiel as performed by Eric Burdon and the Animals~

1965 began - for Americans - with Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union Address, announcing his plan for the "Great Society", but within months that "great society" would witness "Bloody Sunday" where, on March 7, approximately 200 Alabama State Troopers battled over 500 civil rights activists in Selma Alabama. The very next day, this same "great society" sent approximately 3,500 United States Marines to become the first U.S. combat troops in South Vietnam. While the questions of why the U.S. found it necessary to intervene in a civil war in far away lands, the question of civil rights for Black Americans continued to clash with police here at home.

This was a few years before The Summer of Love, before Sgt. Pepper, and before Second Lieutenant William Calley became household names, this was the year of Martin Luther King, Jr., this was the year LBJ enjoyed his own elected term as President, this was the year Bob Dylan freaked out his fan base for having the audacity to play an electric guitar. This was the year of the Watts Riot, the same year that Jefferson Airplane was feeding their head, the same year Tom & Jerry and the Pillsbury Doughboy were born.

This was 1965, and for most of America, the year was closer to its portrayal on Mad Men - where Madison Avenue men in hats chain smoke non-filtered cigarettes while slamming down 12 year old scotch like it was water - than it was that highly romanticized legend of the "Sixties". To be sure, this was the year where the British Invasion reaped the results of their battles fought a few years earlier. The Beatles dominated the charts with their single "Help" keeping The Animals rendition of Mann and Wiel's iconic song that played large part of shaping our view of the "Sixties"; We Gotta Get out of This Place. This was the song that became an anthem for U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, and while 1965 was undeniably a year of Post World War II Economic Expansion, there were visible signs that the vaunted American Dream was reaching its end and angst and dread seethed underneath the veneer of happy industrious Americans. This song was the definitive soundtrack to the U.S. Political Madness that was the 1960's.



My little girl you're so young and pretty,
And one thing I know is true.
You gonna die before your time is due.

Seven years after 1965, long after the "Summer of Love" had come and gone, just a few years after Jimi Hendrix kissed the sky, after Janis Joplin cashed in her cheap thrills for that big sleep, and not even a year after the end came for Jim Morrison who died of a broken heart, the "Sixties" gradually came to an abrupt end, and the tumultuous times of Kennedy/Johnson, Martin Luther King and Civil Rights became the era of Tricky Dick Nixon and a Watergate Scandal. The year Jane Fonda struck curious poses in North Vietnam. This was 1972.

The end of Post World War II Expansionism was the beginning of American corporatism, and as 1972 teetered on stock market crash to come, corporate television created a homogenized version of rock n roll and for one network called that "rock n roll" The Partridge Family . Eric Burdon's rendition that featured a vocal display ranging from a "calm whisper to a primal roar" in offering his "harsh White blues" was replaced by the decidedly milquetoast version sung by David Cassidy. The seething rage of desperation exchanged for teen beat tiger crooning like a Vegas lounge lizard. "Here's your Rock n Roll" said corporate America in 1972; "and it's happy music, not angry music."

In 1965, the national debt was $320,904,110,042.04, but by 1972, that debt had climbed to $449,298,066,119.00, nearly a half a trillion dollars. The cost of a cold war, a Vietnam war, the war on poverty envisioned by Johnson's "great society" ultimately making way for Nixon's war on drugs. all contributed to an age of cynicism. Seemingly gone was the earnestness of Burdon's White man blues outrage and desperation, but as David Cassidy was quickly plummeting towards obscurity, there was an actual earnest Rock n Roll champion still cutting his teeth on tour and at home along the New Jersey shores. While David Cassidy was shilling for "the man" there was a young man crafting his greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., and just to prove that you can't keep a good song down, in those early years, Bruce Springsteen did his penance for the sins of David Cassidy.



See my daddy in bed a-dyin'.
See his hair turnin' grey.
He's been work-in' and slavin' his life away.
I know.

Coming Up Next: Blue Oyster Cults, Ex-Dead Kennedy's and Broken Hearts

Blue Oyster Cults, Ex-Dead Kennedy's and Broken Hearts



See my daddy in bed a-dyin'.
See his hair turnin' grey.
He's been work-in' and slavin' his life away.
I know.

He's been work-in' yeah, everyday slavin his life away.
Have been work-in' baby.
He’s been a work-in' work-in' work-in' work-in'

By 1978, the national debt had spiked to $789,207,000,000.00 A Georgia peanut farmer and former Governor was now the Commander in Chief as the wounds of Vietnam still stung less than softly while Americans licked their freshly opened wounds of a shamed presidency. This was the year that Roman Polanski, who exposed the underbelly of the hellishly hip in Rosemary's Baby a decade earlier, and who had his own wounds to lick after the grizzly murder of his pregnant wife Sharon Tate by the creepy clan of Manson acolytes, but was now fleeing the fray, making like a banana and splitting the scene due to his "consensual" sex with a 13 year old girl. The kind of dark and seedy creepy that refreshes the still near memories of Son of Sam as the final victim of the Hillside Strangler near an abandoned orange Datsun.

Creepy was kind of cool in 1978, and all sorts of creepy things were happening that year. Hustler Magazine's publisher Larry Flint was shot and paralyzed, and agreeing with concerned protestors, Jimmy Carter decided the neutron bomb was way too creepy, postponing deployment. On the world scene, 1978 was the year that Pope John Paul II who succeeded that "September Pope", found dead sitting upright in his room, apparently of a heart attack, but the Vatican's handling of the circumstance was kind of creepy which lead to all sorts of conspiracie theories., and finally in late December the ultra creepy John Wayne Gacy was arrested, so it only made sense that the creepy cool Blue Oyster Cult revisited Mann and Wiel's angst ridden anthem.



We gotta get out of this place If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you, ooh yeah

As time went on, as it waits for no one, suddenly it happened one Sunday and 1989 was upon us. So was a $2,857,430,960,187.32 national debt. The year began with George H.W. Bush following in the footsteps of Ronald Regan into the Oval Office and Presidency, and four days after that Ted Bundy sizzled in Florida. Time, Inc. and Warner Communications pushed the rise of corporatism higher with their announced merger that would form Time Warner. Globally, after the Soviet Union officially ended their war in Afghanistan, the inevitable cracks in the Iron Curtain began to shine a little light in freedom, while tragedy screamed loudly in Beijing that would whimper into the whispers of history; Tiananmen Square massacre blew out a candle lighting the path to freedom. Most Americans couldn't be too concerned with the horrifying and exhilarating world events, they had their own concerns figuring out the joys of Game Boy.


Broken Hearts Continues

Broken Hearts...



In an increasingly globalized world, where even with its "Superpower" status the United States was overshadowed by emerging powers, while at home the long arm of the specters swing of scythe continued to cast its pall upon America. The TSA grew nastier, the FBI put an end to the Liberty Dollar, and while the FDA continued its war with the Amish, the IRS stayed busy spanking Wesley Snipes. This was the post 9-11 era of fear, paranoia, and good old American angst, and the years just flew right on by as we watched our American Dream become an American Nightmare. 2007 was beyond post 9-11, it was post audacity of hope paving the way for the changing of the van guard, nearing the end of the "you're either with us or against us" policies of a war on terror...or so most thought...most hoped...such was their audacity.

See my daddy in bed a-dyin'
See his hair been turnin' grey
He's been work-in' and slavin' his life away Yes
I know

Believe he's been work-in' yeah
Have been work-in' yeah, whoa!
He’s been work-in' work-in' work-in'

That was then and this is now, smack dab in the middle of 2012, where the national debt at the moment of this writing is $15,677,245,791,000 and climbing at a terminal velocity. Unemployment keeps rising, the rich keep getting richer as the poor keep getting poorer, and the man whose audacious hope convinced a war weary nation they would find peace with Bush's replacement, is now a Nobel Peace Prize winning war President, Congress cannot even fathom passing an act of legislation under 2,000 pages, and the world keeps seething, boiling, bubbling over with fear, paranoia, angst and dread...

We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you, whoa baby

Speechless my friend....speechless. A recount of a brief period of history and how the world turns. So many links and information to follow. Excellently written!

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Well there is a lot of information to go through nd will as time permits, who said nothing goes on in a short period of time.

Judging from the links you have provided a whole lot was going on which still affects us today, back to you later.

Excellent presentation.. S&F

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Excellent thread, Mr. Zodeaux! S&F

I'll have to take the time to read this again more closely. It seems as though people have known that we were entering a dark place, yet ran in the wrong direction. That dang rabbit hole gets confusing once you're in it!
It's hard not to believe that we're still trying to get out of this place, but still taking the wrong exit.

having lived through all of this, we sold our souls so cheaply to corporate world. there is only one way out of this place. there are no safe places to go anymore. pity.

Now that's a thread!

*stands up and applauds*

Very nicely organized, friend.
To see the plot from the 60's - present in such a simple way.
Too much to digest at once, so I'll be back later to add better comments.
I don't even think I'll finish it all anytime soon.


Btw...

*S&F*

I can't conceal what I feel, what I know is real
No mistaking the faking, I care
With a prayer in the air I will leave it there
On a note full of hope not despair

Is this Atlantic Monthly?
Quite the piece of writing there JPZ - kinda breezin' through the decades.
Like driving cross country in a convertible only to see the country age a year for every 100 miles you go.
It's a bit terrifying when viewed in fast forward this way - we've dropped so far so fast few would have expected.
Of course Jello Biafra and others were busy trying to warn us of the impending train wreck of rule by corporate banking elites.
Nobody did politically satirical music better than the Dead Kennedys (Frank Zappa excepted!) and some of their lyrics are as true today as they were 30 years ago when legions of punks, skatewanks and lost kids like me were slam dancing their aggressions away.

To wit - Partial lyrics
Dead Kennedys - Stars and stripes of corruption (!985):

Makes me feel so ashamed To be an American
When we're too stuck up to learn from our mistakes
Trying to start another Viet Nam Whilke fiddling while Rome burns at home
The Boss says, "You're laid off. Blame the Japanese"
"America's back," alright At the game it plays the worst
Strip mining the world like a slave plantation
No wonder others hate us And the Hitlers we handpick To bleed their people dry For our evil empire
The drug we're fed To make us like it Is God and country with a bang
People we know who should know better Howl, "America rules. Let's go to war!"
Business scams are what's worth dying for!

Times have changed but Business As Usual hasn't.



In the end the last 50 years feel more like a long amusement park ride than a life.
"You're either with us or perhaps you're sane."
S&F of course!

I don't normally respond to posts, but I just have to say, excellent!!
Very well written and oh, so true. Kudos to you!

If history can be examined through the rose colored glasses of Rock n Roll - and where I come from people are inclined to believe it can - then if we are to better understand the events surrounding the release of The Animals: We Gotta Get out of This Place, as well as the events that followed, we have to first understand the events that led up to this moment in time so definitively captured by song. The Animals were a solid part of that British Invasion that produced so many Young White British musicians who quite clearly adored American Blues which has its origins dating as far back as the turn of the 20th century, or perhaps even earlier. The Blues predate the passage of the 16th Amendment, and the creation of The Federal Reserve, but only by a few years, and arguably the Blues were as much a prophesy of the hard times to come as they were lamentations of the hard times all ready come.

The Blues are the foundation for Rock n Roll, and the Blues may very well be the first wholly indigenous music of the United States. It has its roots in Gospel, and Gospel predates the United States, the gospel based blues, to put it curtly, sho' ain't yo' granpappy's gospel. As Chuck Berry duck walking, while Little Richard "good gollied", and Fats Domino wah-wahed their way to Rock n Roll royalty, between them creating this thing we call Rock n Roll, it ultimately took the reckless abandon of The King assuring White America about Rock n Roll, insisting That's Alright to cement Rock n Roll's rightful place in the pantheon of social evolutionary epochs.

Chuck, Richard, and Fats began in the early 1950's crafting this revolutionary new music. This was also the time that Robert Schuman made his declaration, proposing a pan-European organization that would become an early blue print for the European Union. This was also the time in which North Korean troops crossed the 38th Parallel into South Korea. A time when White South Afrikaners legislated Apartheid. It wasn't all Richie Cunningham's and biker boyz named Fonzie with a heart of gold in these 1950's. In response to the Korean War, Congress passed the Defense Production Act that authorized a budget for military build-up for the next 60 years.

During the early "Fifties", Harry S. Truman - then Commander in Chief just couldn't see eye to eye with General Douglas McArthur. While Holden Caufield flipped his noodle in that charming and always captivating style of stream of consciousness, Ricky started telling Lucy she "had a lot'a 'splainin' to do". By the time Elvis was recording at Sun Studios, everyone liked Ike enough to elect him President, and in 1954 Eisenhower was all ready giving dire warnings about the intervention of Vietnam, which would foreshadow his ominous 1960 Farewell Address where his warnings evolved from single conflicts into warnings of a military industrial complex.

By the time Ike passed the reigns to Kennedy, this military industrial complex was a worthy beast, and the assassination of JFK divided the U.S into two camps: Lone Assassin World View and the Conspiracy Theories World View. Many later players, such as George H.W. Bush, were players on the scene in Dallas at the time of Kennedy's assassination. At that time, Bush Sr. was the head of the CIA. Rumor was that Kennedy's intentions were to withdraw American troops from Vietnam and scrap any plans for intervention. Then he went and got his head blown off, and LBJ replaced him and escalated the Vietnam war as the military industrial complex grew and grew and grew.

Speechless actually.



Seems that History repeats,rinses,repeats again.

Only thing I can add.....................to this wonderful thread.

This post and other post's of this caliber are what I look forward to here on ATS. Well written and put a tear in my eye.

Just thought I would throw this in here. Nice thread. S&F

From the east coast to the west coast
Gotta gotta gotta go
Two sounds of a revolution
Gotta gotta gotta go
In our hearts in our souls
Gotta gotta gotta go
(oi)
United we stand, divided we fall
Gotta gotta go

Can’t keep touch with you or me
Gotta gotta go
Need sense of security
Gotta gotta go
Want to live my life for me
Gotta gotta go
Why can’t they just let me be
Gotta gotta go

Say I’m crazy
Just brain dead
Planting thoughts
Within my head
Can’t believe
What I’ve said
What has become of me
What has become of me

Don’t believe what you’ve been told
Gotta gotta go
Never seen no streets paved in gold
Gotta gotta go
Mindless violence ruined me
Gotta gotta go
No such thing as something free
Gotta gotta go

Say I’m crazy
Just brain dead
Planting thoughts
Within my head
Can’t believe
What I’ve said
What has become of me

A lovely composition and stroll down suicide lane.

Strangely, I lived those times and still relate to them best through videos.

Media has expressed for me that which is inexpressible... but comes close in the sheer existencial horror of Anne Wilson.

Remember, we're all DEVO.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux



thanks JP Z

I I like your Post So much ive book marked it ...


It a great song with the big meaning of the time and through out ...

Ive always thought of these songs in Anti Political Corruption View
By the Temptations !!!

in the 70s During the Corruption of Nixon's Administration

Papa Was A Rolling Stone ( P-WARS )
the temptations-papa was a rollin stone

THE TEMPTATIONS - PAPA WAS A ROLLING STONE.LIVE TV PERFORMANCE 1972


Ball of Confusion
The Temptations - Ball of Confusion



Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)
en.wikipedia.org...

The lyrics list a multitude of problems that were tearing apart the United States in 1970: the Vietnam War, segregation, white flight, drug abuse, crooked politicians, and more. "Round and around and around we go", the Temptations sing, "where the world's headed/nobody knows." The end of each section of the Temptations' lists of woes is punctuated by bass singer Melvin Franklin's line, "And the band played on."

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Awesome Jean Paul... Awesome.

Kudos

I always liked the way Billy Joel said it

"We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on..."

Sadly, without a wave of change deep enough to drown in, we will
see the same. Year after year. On and on and on ......

JP, my friend, as always a masterfully crafted thread.


I could see the imagery running through my mind, the twists and turns our country and our world have taken throughout the last century. It personally makes me realize how much is truly at stake and that instead of "Getting out of this place," we need to fight for it tooth and nail.

I'm bookmarking your thread for when I have more time to give it my full attention.

S&F for you my friend.




-TS