Wednesday, February 21, 2024

For What It’s Worth [How Culture Works]

“For What It’s Worth” was released in December of 1966. I don’t know when I first heard it, but probably soon after it was release. It was an important song, and important to me. It was nominally, but also really, and anti-war song. But it resonated across the land, yes, that’s the phrase, cliché though it is, “across the land.” I protested against the war in Vietnam. Later, I became a Conscientious Objector and worked in the Chaplain’s Office at Johns Hopkins to perform my civilian service. A year or two before that I joined a band, “The Saint Matthew Passion.”

One rehearsal, while we were working up a repertoire and before we had any gigs, we were rehearsing “For What It’s Worth.” The end was a standard vamp fade-out. During the vamp I decided to play some simple horn figures. Somehow the guys in the band thought I was taking a solo – not at all what I had in mind – and so I responded, taking my first improvised solo. That was incorporated into our arrangement of the song and I became an improvising soloist.

That of course is incidental to the general importance of the song and even incidental to its general importance for me. It was an anthem. We need anthems.

It works today. I’m not just thinking about Ukraine or the Middle East, but about the political chaos in America as well, even about the hype and hysteria surrounding AI.

* * * * *

There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

What a field day for the heat (Ooh ooh ooh)
A thousand people in the street (Ooh ooh ooh)
Singing songs and they carrying signs (Ooh ooh ooh)
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side" (Ooh ooh ooh)

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away

We better stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

You better stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

You better stop
Now, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

You better stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

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