[Track of confinement] Every day, to survive the confinement linked to the coronavirus epidemic, the Inrocks immerse you in one of their favorite songs. Today, For What It’s Worth, the classic from Buffalo Springfield. To be classified in the category of protest songs.
#OnResteOuvert: Let’s close our doors, not our minds!
An atmosphere of film noir, or thriller à la Thomas Pynchon. Neil Young’s electric guitar plays two repeated notes by way of introduction, and immediately imposes a certain dampness in the room. The danger lurks, the atmosphere is heavy. On the horizon, at the end of the Sunset Strip, the palm trees merge with the reflection of their silhouette in a mirage. As in the Red Right Hand from Nick Cave, the threat that hangs does not say his name: “There’s something happening here / But what it is ain’t exactly clear”, chante Stephen Stills.
We are in Los Angeles, in 1966. The freaks are gathering, Charlie Manson has still not accomplished his evil work (Neil Young will sing the ignominy of the type in his Revolution Blues from 1974, on the album On the Beach), youth scares the old world. The boomers are only about twenty years old.
>> Read also: Baxter Dury: “I am in a micro-politics of my emotions”
Curfew
Became the favorite theme of filmmakers choosing as a space-time framework the LA of the emerging counter-culture, For What It’s Worth synthesizes the schizophrenia of an era crossed by peace speeches, baton blows and riots. The kids, as documented by Joan Didion in his writings at the time, begin to clump and die in the streets of San Francisco, and annoy power, parents, war. The West Coast is, from the establishment’s point of view, the destination of all protesting and parasitic beatniks in society.
Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood becomes, as our collaborator Alexis Hache recalls in his essential book Eagles : Life In the Fast Lane, the epicenter of the folk rock scene: “In the wake of the Byrds, a burgeoning folk rock scene flourishes on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.” Buffalo Springfield is part of this scene and makes Whiskey a Go Go, not far from Château Marmont, its headquarters. But in 1966, time was no longer a mess. To get rid of hippies and other acid eaters, the authorities impose a strict curfew: “This provision will lead to demonstrations and confrontations with the police at the end of 1966 and some artists will even speak of this revolt in song.” This is the case of Buffalo Springfield, who signs here his only real protest song.
The last verse plays on this ambiguity, of never really naming the enemy. One way to make it even more vile and unspeakable. A way also to sublimate the cause.
“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”
Eagles : Life In the Fast Lane, by Alexis Hache (The Word and the rest editions)
Find the previous episodes of the series:
>> Track of containment # 1: “In quarantine”, by Miossec
>> Track of Confinement # 2: “The World of Tomorrow”, by NTM
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