An American Poet - The Beat of Jim Morrison

"Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding

Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind.

[...]

Indian, Indian what did you die for?

Indian says,                  nothing at all."

An American Poet - The Beat of Jim Morrison




 Few artists have achieved a more legendary status than Jim Morrison. In his short life (1944-1971) he managed to become a musical superstar and a sex symbol, and the success and popularity of his band, The Doors, rivaled that of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. To the iconic lead singer, however, his success was somewhat bitter sweet as he considered himself a poet first and foremost. From an early age Morrison displayed a keen intellectual sense and an interest in and understanding of classical poetry. His poetic inspiration is noticeable throughout the entire Doors repertoire, but was also expressed in a more traditional sense.  Growing up in the time and place that he did, the sixties in California, it would have almost been impossible for Jim Morrison not to be influenced by the leading artistic figures around him. It is often said that Jack Kerouac’s On The Road had a tremendous influence on the young Jim, and that he longed to emulate the lifestyle that Kerouac described. Poets like Allen Ginsberg and Michael McClure also played a part in his development as a poet, with the latter becoming somewhat of a mentor and friend to Morrison.  

In this paper I would like to argue that Jim Morrison’s work, both in poetry and music was very much an exponent of the Beat Generation. To investigate this matter I will observe the manner in which Jim Morrison was influenced by both the writers and the poets of the Beat Generation. I will do this by looking at the general themes of both the Beat Generation and Morrison’s work. Furthermore I will look at several personal aspects of Morrison in order to analyze whether his music and his poetry can be considered “typical” Beat writing.

To come to a comparison between Morrison’s work and the Beat Generation it would probably be necessary to delve deeper into both topics. To find a definition of the Beat Generation, however, is no easy task, as most of the Beats themselves did not agree with each other on what Beat exactly was (or if there even should be a definition). Edward Foster tries to find a compromise between the numerous opinions on what Beat was.  Initially, according to Jack Kerouac, Beat meant “mind-your-own-business,” as in “beat it.” Beat culture was “poor, down and out, deadbeat, sad sleeping in subways.”[1] John Clellon Holmes described it as “more than mere weariness, (implying) the feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness. In short, it means being undramatically pushed up against the wall of oneself.”[2] Later on, Kerouac also mentioned that Beat was derived from the Latin word “beatific.”[3]

The Beat Generation, as foster writes, was “the only rebellion around” and a genre of writing that was responsible for most powerful writing in American at that time. There were four major Beat writers, namely Williams S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Attached to those four there were many Beat associated or Beat affected authors, such as Neal Cassidy, Herbert Huncke, Carl Solomon and John Clellon Holmes, who dealt with similar material and ideas but in a more conservative style.[4] The Beat scene, as it developed, strongly encouraged and influenced each other aesthetically. Most of the writers and poets shared a particular attitude, which was largely urban and Eastern in origin, and ideas about what they felt had gone wrong with America.[5]

And indeed, as Foster continues, one of the main reasons for the Beat genre to come into existence was that it was a reaction to the materialistic and conformist way of life in America in the 1940s. Foster explains that this way of life was an understandable response to economic depression, but also an atmosphere that felt very repressive to a lot of people.[6] According to Jack Kerouac, America had lost its Frontier spirit. American society no longer accepted the “excitable, intense, independent personalities,” which, according to him, were exemplified by frontier America. This decline of the Frontier Myth made the image of the traditional American hero into a juvenile delinquent and had eradicated Kerouac’s idea of America as “…invested with wild self-believing individuality.” With the rise of the Beats, however, Kerouac felt that the traditional America he valued was starting to emerge again.[7] It was because of this fight against the conformist nature of American society at that time that a person like Neil Cassidy served as a catalyst for Ginsberg and Kerouac. It was his distrust for convention, and his “wild self-believing individuality,” that Kerouac saw as American value and which later were turned into the character of Dean Moriarty in On The Road.[8]

            Now, after identifying the groundwork of the Beat Generation it would be necessary to look at the background of Jim Morrison and The Doors. Jim Morrison was born in 1943 in Melbourne, Florida, and was the son of a naval officer. Throughout his youth he moved from California, to Virginia, to Florida, and attended a variety of schools and colleges. Morrison is often described as a student of high intelligence and keen artistic and poetic sense. His strict upbringing and the fact that the family never really settled anywhere are often seen as the seeds for Morrison’s future spirit or rebellion and detachment from society.[9] In 1964 he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he completed the undergraduate program at the University of California Los Angeles’ film school. After graduating UCLA in 1965, Morrison lived at Venice Beach and it was in this period that he formed The Doors, with Ray Manzarak, John Densmore and Robby Krieger.[10]

            The Doors experienced a meteoric rise to popularity and mainstream success. Their 1967 debut album “The Doors” featured classics such as “Light My Fire,” “Break on Trough” and “The End,” and landed the number one spot in the charts. Morrison’s rock and roll behavior played a large part in the bands image. His excessive drinking and drug use, which only increased over the years, made him unpredictable, both on stage and in real life. Doors concerts often were very chaotic and Morrison seemed to take pleasure in trying to start riots and provoking the security and police officers present, both goals in which he succeeded several times. Morrison’s death in 1971, still unexplained but most likely due to a deadly combination of alcohol and heroin, has probably only cemented The Doors legendary status.[11]

In the article "Notes on the Enduring Popularity of a Signature Doors Song" Paul S. Wolfe explains the literary appeal of The Doors as a band and of their break out hit single "Break on Through." One aspect of the music of The Doors that set them apart from other popular bands with the same kind of commercial success, Wolfe explains, was the fact that they were considered to be a truly artistic band. Jim Morrison had often told people that he considered himself a poet first and foremost, and that The Doors was his way to get his poetic message across to people. The name The Doors, which was coined by Morrison, is a reference to a William Blake poem: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, infinite.” The Doors of Perception was also the title of a study endorsing the use of drugs, which was written by writer and poet Aldous Huxley.[12] Morrison’s other artistic inspirations included several classic writers and philosophers, such as Nietzsche, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.[13] This shows that, in essence, the band was something more than a typical commercial rock band. Next to the literary aspect there were also the themes of The Doors’ music that set them apart from other popular bands in their era. While The Doors are often associated with hippie culture and the peace and love movement, thematically they were actually quite the opposite of the typical sixties bands. And while The Doors was indeed a band that thrived on rebellion, theirs was not a peaceful one, but one of chaos and wild, expressive individuality. In fact, several facets of The Doors were more in tune with the Beat Generation and Kerouac’s aforementioned ideas of traditional American values.

One theme that is very present in both Kerouac’s and Morrison’s writings is death, and its implications. In his book Naked Angels, John Tytell attributes Kerouac’s fascination with death to the death of his brother Gerard, who had died at age of four from a rheumatic heart condition. Gerard’s sickbed had been long and painful, and had a traumatic effect on the young Jack. Tytell notes that there is an unusual stress on morality in Kerouac’s fiction, which may stem to some extend from the impact of Gerard’s illness and which reinforced both the religious strain in Kerouac’s character and the bond between him and his mother. [14] Often, Tytell continues, the resolution in Kerouac’s work, as in Burroughs’ and less obviously in Ginsberg’s, is a drive for annihilation and death where traumatic ecstasies of birth will be finally recreated. One example of this can be found in the poem “Hymn:”

                        “Hymn” (appeal to God)

So whatever plan you have for me

                               Splitter of majesty

                               Make it short

                                               brief

                               Make it snappy

                                               bring me home to the Eternal Mother

                                               today

                               At your service anyway,

                                               (and until) [15]

Another example comes from Kerouac’s novel Big Sur, in which the character Duluoz cries out:

“O the sad music of it all, I’ve done it all, seen it all, done everything with everybody’ I say phone in hand ‘the whole world’s coming on like a high school sophomore eager to learn what he calls New things, mind you the same old sing-song truth of death…because the reason I yell death so much is because I’m really yelling life, because you can’t have death without life…” [16]

Death was also a distinct recurring theme in the lyrics of Jim Morrison. Rolling Stone critic Mikal Gilmore wrote that “Morrison seemed to understand that any generation so intent on giving itself permission to go as far as it could [with respect to drug use and sex, for instance] was also giving itself a license for destruction, and he seemed to gain both delight and affirmation from that understanding.”[17] The Doors’ drummer John Densmore notes the difference between Morrison’s lyrics and other contemporary bands: “while many of the [1960’s groups) such as… The Beatles and The Rolling Stones sang about peace and love, [Morrison] sang about life and death.”[18]

            Another very atypical topic in popular music that is very present in The Doors repertoire is that of the relation with parents, and more particular the story of Oedipus Rex. One of the most recognized Doors songs, “The End,” tells of the transformation of Jim Morrison into Oedipus Rex:

“The killer awoke before dawn, He put his boots on

He took a face from the ancient gallery, And walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he

Paid a visit to his brother, and then he

Walked on down the hall

And he came to a door, And he looked inside

Father?

Yes son?

I want to kill you

Mother?

I want to [fuck you]” [19]

Jim Morrison, in real life, also had a troubled relation with his parents. After his graduation at UCLA he broke off the contact with his family and was actually claiming for a long time in interviews that he was an orphan.[20] The Oedipus subject is also very important in Kerouac’s work and his life. In Naked Angels much is made of Kerouac’s rather distorted relation with his overbearing mother, Gabrielle Ange Kerouac. It is generally assumed that she dominated her son, and that much of his need for privacy and his suspicion of institutions can be traced to her influence. According to Tytell the tie between the two became extreme close after father Leo Kerouac died. Kerouac had “internalized an obligation to replace his father as provider and felt immense guilt about not being able to do so.”[21] Throughout his novels it becomes clear that Kerouac was indeed aware of the dysfunctional family relation and the influence his mother had over him. In his novel The Subterraneans, Leo Percipied, after losing Mardou Fox, has a vision of his mother protecting him:

“I saw bending over me the visage of my mother, with impenetrable eyes and moveless lips and round cheekbones and glasses that glinted and hid major parts of her expression which at first I thought was a vision of horror that I might shudder at, but it didn’t make me shudder--“ [22]

In Tristessa he writes:

“I’ve screwed everything up with the mama again, Oedipus Rex, I’ll tear out my eyes in the morning – San Francisco, New York, Padici, Medu, Mantua or anywhere, I’m always the King Sucker, who was made out to be the positional son in woman and man relationships, Ahh-gaaaaa—(Indian howl in the night, to campo-country sweet musica)—“King, bing, I’m aways in the way for momma and poppa—When am I gonna be poppa?”[23]

            A third thematic connection between Jim Morrison and the Beat Generation was their idolization of nature and the wild frontier in general and Native American cultures as shining examples of this. In several Beat (related) works we can find this reference of more traditional lifestyles. In novels like On The Road and Holmes’ Go, the character often talk about traveling to Mexico, and in Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Chief Bromden’s Native American background plays a large role in the story. The idea mostly seems to boil down to a form of the “Noble Savage” idea, respect for traditional ways of life that are closer to nature than we will ever be. Allen Ginsberg, in his article “A Definition of the Beat Generation,” mentions that “respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures” are a typical Beat characteristic. “As proclaimed by Kerouac in his slogan from On The Road: “The Earth is an Indian thing.””[24] Native American culture also plays a large part in Morrison’s work. One story he often told, and which was made into the song “Dawn’s Highway,” tells of how he believes he has a Native American soul inside him.

“Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding. Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind. Me and my -ah- mother and father - and a grandmother and a grandfather - were driving through the desert, at dawn, and a truck load of Indian workers had either hit another car, or just - I don't know what happened - but there were Indians scattered all over the highway, bleeding to death. So the car pulls up and stops. That was the first time I tasted fear. I musta' been about four - like a child is like a flower, his head is just floating in the breeze, man. The reaction I get now thinking about it, looking back - is that the souls of the ghosts of those dead Indians...maybe one or two of 'em...were just running around freaking out, and just leaped into my
soul. And they're still in there.” [25]

Morrison often referred to himself a shaman, and his onstage performance would include shamanistic dances used to induce himself and the public into a state of trance (with the help of drugs). This persona Morrison called the “Lizard King.”

“I am the Lizard King

I can do anything

For seven years I dwelt

In the loose palace of exile

Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth” [26]

The desert had an important place in this image, as this was the place of exile, where one could find himself and attain higher states of awareness.[27]

In his Lizard King persona Morrison seemed to resemble Jack Kerouac on a personal level too. Tytell describes Kerouac as a figure of antithesis and contradiction, much like the both rebellious and poetic image Morrison created for himself. Kerouac fled west searching for the freedom and innocence of the lost frontier and to Mexico, a place distant and different from own culture, in much the same way the Lizard King used the dessert.[28] In several biographies it is noted that Kerouac’s On The Road was one of Morrison’s favorite books and Morrison identified himself strongly with the character of Dean Moriarty. Morrison was often heard citing the books last line: “I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found.” [29] Even in death Kerouac and Morrison seem to resemble each other. It was John Clellon Holmes who, in “The Great Rememberer” wrote: “And suddenly I felt, with a shiver, that Kerouac would not live much beyond forty. Such voracious appetites, such psychic vulnerability, such singleness of purpose, must ream a man out at the end, and the Kerouac I knew was as incapable of turning away from his own consuming consciousness, as he was of living for long once he had been burned out by it.”[30] This sentiment has been echoed by many of those close to Morrison. Michael McClure, for example, wrote: “Jim was a person who lived very intensely, so he was very happy and very unhappy from minute to minute. Just as they say love and hate go together, I would say life and death go together. I mean, accompanying a great awareness of death always goes a great sense of life. I know from talking to him that he never expected to live very long. He never said so directly, but I know those were his feelings.”[31]

When returning to the Ginsberg article mentioned before, “A Definition of the Beat Generation,” we can find a definite link between the characteristics of the Beats and the lyrics of Morrison. Next to the Native American theme, Ginsberg mentions the “liberation of the word from censorship,” a battle that The Doors definitely fought when defending the many allusions to drug use and, for example, the Oedipus part in “The End.” Furthermore, Ginsberg writes of the “evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll as a high art form as evidenced by (…) popular musicians influenced in the late fifties and sixties by Beat generation poets’ and writers’ work.” “Spiritual liberation” was also definitely a theme in Morrison’s music, though “women’s liberation” and “black liberation” probably not so much. In fact, several sources claim that Morrison was somewhat of a “casual” racist, a characteristic that may be traced to his southern roots.[32] Finally, there is the “opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization.” Morrison, probably in a way acting out against his own strict naval officer father, thrived on shocking the establishment.[33] Considering Ginsberg’s opinion on what made the Beat Generation, one can definitely see how Jim Morrison fits into this picture.

 Next to all the thematic similarities, probably both a matter of Morrison being inspired by Kerouac and others and coincidence, there was an actual real life connection between the Beats and Jim Morrison. Morrison befriended author and poet Michael McClure, a prominent member of the Beat Generation. Initially, McClure intended Morrison to be lead in a film adaptation of his controversial play “The Beard.” It was McClure that became interested in Morrison as a poet, and helped him get some of his poems published. Morrison had always strived towards being a poet.[34] McClure mentions: “Jim was very serious about being a poet, and he didn’t want to come in on top of being Jim-Morrison-the-big-rock-singer.” McClure, however, is adamant about the fact that Morrison already was an accomplished poet before McClure got involved with him, and that their relationship was not one of a teacher and student, but of equals. “I think that any two people who know each other closely probably influence each other. If I influenced him, he influenced me as well. It's hard to have a friend whose work you like where there's not some kind of mutual feedback.
It's perfectly obvious in reading this book that Jim already had his own style and that he was already his own person. As to his potential for growth - well, he started out so good that I don't know how much better he could've gotten. He started off like a heavyweight.”[35] When comparing some of both men’s work, one could indeed see that their styles complemented each other. McClure’s focus on nature and the animalistic tendencies in people, like the “animal poems” in the Ghost Tantras, resembles the idea of the Lizard King’s shamanistic performances or the way in which he would often roar out his lyrics or poems. The poem in which McClure describes a peyote trip is also very reminiscent of Morrison’s own drug experimentations and writing style. In the “Peyote Poem” he talks about the drug, form of mescaline that can be found in the Californian desert, and which Jim Morrison also used as a way to expand his mind.

“Clear — the senses bright — sitting in the black chair — Rocker –
the white walls reflecting the color of clouds
moving over the sun. Intimacies! The rooms
not important — but like divisions of all space
of all hideousness and beauty. I hear
the music of myself and write it down
for no one to read. I pass fantasies as they
sing to me with Circe-Voices. I visit
among the peoples of myself and know all
I need to know
I KNOW EVERYTHING! I PASS INTO THE ROOM”[36]

Morrison’s style definitely resembles McClure’s, especially in this case, as Morrison also tackles the subject of drug use:

“I'll tell you this... No eternal reward will forgive us now For wasting the dawn. Back in those days everything was simpler and more confused One summer night, going to the pier I ran into two young girls The blonde one was called Freedom The dark one, Enterprise We talked and they told me this story Now listen to this... I'll tell you about Texas radio and the big beat Soft driven, slow and mad Like some new language Reaching your head with the cold, sudden fury of a divine messenger Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of god Wandering, wandering in hopeless night Out here in the perimeter there are no stars Out here we is stoned Immaculate.”[37]

           

In closing, I believe that there is a definite connection between Jim Morrison and the Beat Generation. Looking at other popular bands in their era, The Doors were certainly in a genre of their own. They were not part of the hippie movement and with unconventional themes in pop music, such as death, Oedipus Rex, and idolization of Native American culture and the desert, they are an exponent of the Beat Generation, and especially of Kerouac’s writing. Like the Beat Generation, The Doors were about rebellion. Jim Morrison represented the wild self-believing individuality of what Kerouac felt was the true American spirit.  And also, when seen through Allen Ginsberg’s ideas on what exactly the Beats were, The Doors are very much part of that genre, with a focus on fighting against censorship, the military complex, and for spiritual liberation and reference of native cultures. Jim Morrison as a person also had several remarkable traits on common with Kerouac, although it of course always remains to be seen how much of this was actually real and how much of it was a constructed image. Morrison for one, has shown to be a master of crafting images for himself (the story about the dead Native Americans on the high way, for example, is considered to be highly embellished by Morrison) and talked about being a fan of On The Road often. There is little denying, however that his drunken, wild man, riot inciting rock star persona had some “Dean Moriarty” to it. And the fact remains that there was a very direct line to the Beat Generation, in the form of friendship with Michael McClure. McClure himself mentions that Morrison already was an accomplished poet before the two met, and that the two had styles which complemented each other.

Bibliography

Davis, Stephen. Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend. Gotham, New York. 2005.

Doors, The. Absolutely Live. Elektra, July 1970.

Doors, The. The Doors. Elektra, January 1967.

Foster, Edward Halsey. Understanding The Beats. University of South Carolina Press, 1992.

Fowlie, Wallace. Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel as Poet. Duke University Press, 1994.

Ginsberg, Allen. “A Definition of the Beat Generation” in Friction, 1 (Winter 1982), p. 50-52.

McClure, Michael. “Michael McClure Recalls an Old Friend” in Rolling Stone (Issue no. 88, August 5, 1971).

McClure, Michael. Peyote Poem. San Francisco: Wallace Berman. 1958.

Morrison, Jim & The Doors.  An American Prayer. Elektra, November 1978.[38]

Tytell, John. Naked Angels: the lives and literature of the Beat Generation. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1976.

Wolfe, Arnold S. “Notes on the Enduring Popularity of a Signature Doors Song” in The Journal of Communication Inquiry, 1999 vol:23 iss:1 p. 37-62.

---

[1] Edward Halsey Foster, Understanding The Beats, University of South Carolina Press, 1992, p.7-8.

[2]Ibid., p.7-8.

[3]Ibid.

[4]Ibid, p. 1.

[5]Foster, Understanding The Beats, p.4-5.

[6]Ibid, p. 2.

[7]Ibid, p. 8-9.

[8]Foster, Understanding The Beats, p. 11.

[9] Stephen Davis, Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, Gotham, New York. 2005, p. 10-11.

[10] Davis, Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend. p. 57.

[11] Ibid. p. 99-125.

[12]Arnold S. Wolfe “Notes on the Enduring Popularity of a Signature Doors Song” in The Journal of Communication Inquiry,( 1999 vol:23 iss:1 p. 37-62) p. 56-57.

[13] Davis, Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, p. 57-60.

[14]John Tytell. Naked Angels: the lives and literature of the Beat Generation. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1976, p. 55.

[15] Ibid., p. 206.

[16] Tytell, Naked Angels, p. 206.

[17] Arnold S. Wolfe “Notes on the Enduring Popularity of a Signature Doors Song,” p. 47.

[18] Ibid, p. 47.

[19] The Doors, “The End” on The Doors (Elektra, January 1967).

[20]Davis, Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, p. 34-35.

[21]Tytell, Naked Angels, p. 54-55.

[22]Ibid, p. 204.

[23]Tytell, Naked Angels,, p. 204.

[24] Allen Ginsberg, “A Definition of the Beat Generation” in Friction, 1 (Winter 1982), p. 50-52.

[25] Jim Morrison & The Doors, “Dawn’s Highway” on An American Prayer (Elektra, November 1978).

[26] The Doors, “The Celebration of the Lizard” on Absolutely Live (Elektra, July 1970).

[27]Wallace Fowlie. Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel as Poet. Duke University Press, 1994, p. 84-85.

[28] Tytell, Naked Angels, p. 52-53.

[29] Davis, Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, p. 89.

[30] Tytell, Naked Angels, p. 206.

[31]Michael McClure. “Michael McClure Recalls an Old Friend” in Rolling Stone (Issue no. 88, August 5, 1971).

[32] Davis, Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, p. 145-146.

[33] Ginsberg, “A Definition of the Beat Generation,” p. 50-52

[34] McClure. “Michael McClure Recalls an Old Friend.”

[35] McClure. “Michael McClure Recalls an Old Friend.”

[36] Michael McClure, Peyote Poem (San Francisco, Wallace Berman, 1958).

[37] Morrison “Stoned Immaculate” on An American Prayer.

[38] An American Prayer was originally just a work of poetry by Jim Morrison. The Audio version that I used was released several years later and included several songs and instrumental background music by The Doors. All original poems remained intact and are present on the audio version. 

Don’t Wanna Be an American Idiot - Anti-Americanism in American Popular Music

Don't wanna be an American idiot

Don't want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria
The subliminal mind fuck America

Well maybe I'm the faggot America
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda
Now everybody do the propaganda
And sing along in the age of paranoia

Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Everything isn't meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We're not the ones who're meant to follow
Well then that's enough to argue

                                 

  -Green Day, “American Idiot”-[i]

Don’t Wanna Be an American Idiot

Anti-Americanism in American Popular Music

With these lyrics the Californian pop/punk band Green Day opens its 2004 “rock opera” album American Idiot. The similar titled song was the first hit single from the multi million selling album, that skyrocketed to the charts in both Europe and the United States and marked a return to mainstream popularity for the band. Ten years earlier Green Day first rose to fame and rock stardom with their album Dookie. In the ten years that passed, however, something seemed to have changed in the band’s attitude. Whereas Dookie dealt with typical teenage topics like angst, boredom and rebellion against parents, American Idiot is an outright politically themed album and not a positive one at that. Not only is American Idiot an attack on president Bush and his politics, it also seems to be an accusation of American life in general. Both the lyrics and the artwork lead the listener to no other conclusion that we are dealing with a very angry and disillusioned American band in 2004. Green Day displays a form of anti-Americanism, which is noticeable all the more because of the fact that something obviously triggered this in both the previously a-political and very American band and its audience.  

            The term anti-Americanism itself is much debated and has been featured prominently in the media over the last years. Both 9/11 and the presidency of George W. Bush seem to have elicited feelings of anti-Americanism in Europe, which became especially obvious after the recent outburst of ecstasy following the election of president Obama. But the emergence of the term anti-Americanism can be traced back to the very beginnings of the United States and is also not limited to the European side of the ocean. Americans themselves have been highly critical of their own country and its place in the world. So when looking for anti-Americanism, America itself is definitely a source to consider. One medium where anti-Americanism can be observed very clearly is popular music, as pop music and pop culture in general have the ability to adept very quickly to its surroundings. In this paper I will investigate the phenomenon of anti-Americanism in general and in American popular music specifically. In doing this, I will focus on pop music produced during the Bush presidency, and try to compare it to the situation during he Vietnam War.  

The first order of business would be to determine what exactly anti-Americanism entails; a question that does not have a clear-cut answer. Rob Kroes considers it an “ism,” or, as he explains, “a set of attitudes that help people to structure their world view and to guide their actions.” Also he feels that it implies “a measure of exaggeration, a feverish over concentration on one particular object of attention and action.”[ii] Kroes suggests that the term can be used in two distinct ways. The first way is to see anti-Americanism as a school of thought against “all things American” in general. The second point of view is to consider it a form of resistance to the phenomenon of “Americanism.” Especially the latter line of thought has been very present in European writings on the topic of the United States. When focusing on the topic on popular culture especially the second notion of the term seems relevant, as to be against “all things American” per se seems to be a somewhat simplistic statement. To be against “Americanism,” on the other hand, appears to be more in line with something considered as “Americanizing” as popular culture.[iii]

Richard Pells delves deeper into the roots of European anti-Americanism, focusing especially on the period after the Second World War. In the wake of WWII the anti-Americanism that was growing in Western-Europe, may have very well been more about reasserting Europe itself as a power than about “hating” America per se. Europe was very much in the shadow of its dominant overseas neighbor. The continent had just been saved by the United States, and the US had an “overwhelming economic, military and cultural presence in Britain and on the Continent.”[iv] European anti-Americanism was therefore steeped in ambivalence. The help offered by the United States was appreciated, the economic assistance was seen as invaluable and the American power used to liberate Europe from the Nazi’s was respected. On the other hand there was always a distrust of America’s true motives, a fear of interference in domestic affairs and a form of envy of its preeminence. “Much of the time,” Pells notes, “(the European) feelings ranged widely from awe to disdain, attraction to repulsion.”[v] It is indeed predominantly in the aftermath of the Second World War that many authors trace the anti-American sentiment that has been present in Europe. The French novelist Pascal Bruckner wrote: “Western Europe knew that, without the help of the Marines, they would purely and simply have been wiped of the map. But some forms of generosity are insulting.” The hostility aimed against America focused mostly on “what America was,” a product of its own perverted nature.[vi] The postwar “anti-Americanism” was probably most notable in European literature and commonly accepted in intellectual circles. In 1963, novelist Henry de Montherlant wrote: “One nation that manages to lower intelligence, morality, human quality on nearly all surface of the earth, such a thing has never been seen before in the existence of the planet. I accuse the United States of being in a permanent state of crime against humankind.”[vii] The quote symbolizes the fear and anger of the European intellectual. It is a fear of “Americanization” of Europe. It is a fear not so much of territorial colonization but of “colonization of the mind,” via Hollywood and later McDonald’s, Disney and Microsoft.[viii] And Americanization was and is taking place successfully. American techniques of mass production were in one way debasing culture, but were, on the other hand, “the greatest tools ever to spreading its benefits.” It was the combination of America’s technological advancement and its ethically primitiveness that made the Europeans intellectuals fear for the survival of their own culture. America seemed to be the future super power of the world, and many believed this power would come at the expense of the European countries that used to be in control.[ix]

Paul Hollander adds a second division to the term anti-Americanism. In his view anti-Americanism can be separated in two distinct versions: a domestic and foreign form. Or, in this case, simply an American and European form. The foreign form of anti-Americanism, according to Hollander, “tends to concentrate, more often than not, on tangible and widely shared grievances such as American economic policies, unfair trade practices, overbearing political dominance, American military presence, insults to national pride, the subversion of cultural traditions by American mass entertainment, rapacious energy policies, and so forth.”[x] A description that is very much in accordance with the aforementioned European anti-Americanism that Pells and others discussed. The domestic version is more focused on the idea or feeling that the social order in America is responsible for a widespread feeling of discontent and many problem in society.[xi] Another difference, according to Hollander, between the domestic and foreign versions is the fact that “American anti-Americanism often seems to be more anguished and animated by a peculiarly intense bitterness and the conviction that the entity rejected is a unique incarnation of unspeakable evil.” The author believes that the reason for this can usually be found in disappointment over unrealized and unrealistically high expectations of the American society.[xii] 

The post-war anti-American attitude in Europe seemed to also reflect in the American form of anti-Americanism. During the 1950s and 1960s the idea of America as an evil and corrupt empire had become standard amongst European intellectuals, but also was taken up and duplicated by American authors. Mostly this criticism focused on the idea of America as a barbaric or perverted society. Susan Sontag wrote of America as an “inorganic, dead, coercive, authoritarian” society. “America is a cancerous society with a runaway rate of productivity that inundates the country with increasingly unnecessary commodities, services, gadgets, images, information.”[xiii] The Vietnam War is often described as being a catalyst for anti-American sentiments in America itself. Michael Lind described that the Vietnam had “uncovered, but did not create, deep divisions in the American body politic.”[xiv] While the protests were aimed mainly at the conflict in Vietnam, the war itself is often described as a rallying point for people who were critical of the “American way of life.” This indeed seems to coincide with the previously mentioned description of American anti-Americanism primarily focusing on social injustices and equalities.

The step from the Vietnam War to Anti-Americanism in popular music is a relatively easy one to make. Few eras have, in the collective mind of the public, a more well known “soundtrack” to it. The Vietnam War had an enormous impact on the American music industry. Both pro- and anti-war songs were produced in large quantities, with the pro-war voices coming mostly from the country western genre and the anti-war sentiment solidly in the camp of the folksingers and rockers (a division of “right-wing” and “left-wing” musicians that still exists to this day). The lyrics to pop music also changed significantly during this period. During the 1950’s almost ninety percent of “top ten music” was about love, romance and courtships. In the 1960’s this was reduced to less than seventy percent and this decade marks the first time that social protest and antiwar lyrics were featured in the American music charts.[xv] Terry H. Anderson gives the example of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” from 1964:

“You fasten the triggers for the others to fire,

Then you sit back and watch, while the death count gets higher.

You hide in your mansions as the young people’s blood,

Flows out o’their bodies and is buried in the mud.”[xvi]

As opposed to, for example, Pat Boone’s “Wish you were here, buddy” from 1966:

            “Well, you just stay home and leave the fighting to us,

                and when the whole damn mess is through,

                I’ll put away my rifle and my uniform,

 and I’ll come lookin’ for you.”[xvii] [xviii]

There is a definite connection to pop music’s reaction to the Vietnam War in the sixties and seventies, and to the American situation in the current decade. There are two major events that heavily influenced contemporary pop music in the United States, namely the election of George W. Bush in 1999 and the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. The initial reaction to the 9/11 tragedy was an immense outpouring of sympathy directed toward the United States and the first musical efforts in its wake were mostly tributes to the victims. Over time though, more critical voices started to sound in.[xix] In the article “Requiems for a City: Popular Music’s Response to 9/11” Christine Lee Genaro uses Bruce Spingsteen’s The Rising (2002) and the Beastie Boys’ To The Five Boroughs (2004) as examples to illustrate the difference in reactions over time. Springsteen was very much in the public eye right after 9/11, for example by performing at the Tribute to Heroes benefit on September 21, and The Rising was created in the direct aftermath of the attacks. The album focuses very much on themes of grief and sadness, heroism and the power of the United States to “rise up” after the events.[xx] The album is a tribute to the city of New York and is not political, but emotional.

“It was dark, too dark to see, you held me in the light you gave
You lay your hand on me, then walked into the darkness of your smoky grave
Up the stairs, into the fire. Up the stairs, into the fire
I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire”[xxi]    

                                    

The Beastie Boys album, also a tribute to NYC, was created three full years after 9/11 and clearly represents the attitude adjustment that had taken place in the meantime. Next to celebrating the city To the Five Boroughs also took an obvious stand against President Bush and urges the listener to work towards politic change.

“So step up to the window and place your bets. Is the US gonna keep breaking necks
Maybe it's time that we impeach Tex. And the military muscle that he wants to flex
By the time Bush is done what will be left. Selling votes like E-pills at the discotheque.
Environmental destruction and the national dept. But plenty of dollars left in the fat war chest
What the real deal why you can't connect. Why you hating people that you never met
Didn't your mama teach you to show some respect? Why not open your mind for a sec?

It takes a second to wreck it, It takes time to build”[xxii]

The differences between two albums show how America experienced 9/11 and changed in the wake of it. After the sadness and grieving, people started to look beyond the initial shock for the reasons behind the attacks. It is no coincidence that President Bush’s popularity rose and plummeted in the same period.

            Next to inspiring artists, 9/11 had another influence on the music industry. Within mere hours after the attack several radio stations put a ban certain songs and artist. The Clear Channel made a list song titles that could possibly offend their listeners of maybe traumatize them. Songs on the list included “Fly Away” (Lenny Kravitz), “Sabotage” (Beastie Boys), “Spirits in the Sky” (Norman Greenbaum), “New York, New York” (Frank Sinatra) and “Disco Inferno” (Trammps). Next to that the station banned songs that were associated with anti-war protest (“Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan), peace movement anthems (“Image” by John Lennon) and songs associated in the public’s mind with the Vietnam War (“We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” by The Animals and “The End” by The Doors). Several bands with an outspoken anti-Bush opinion, such as Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down, were boycotted entirely. [xxiii] On top of that, there was Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly labelling the artists that had participated in the aforementioned Tribute to Heroes, such as Springsteen, Sting, Neil Young and Eddie Vedder, as “phonies” and “selfish people.”[xxiv] One of the most striking examples, however, of the rightwing media lashing out at perceived anti-Americanism by artist was the situation the Dixie Chicks found themselves in. After an offhand comment made by the group, that they were ashamed to hail from the same state as George W. Bush, the Dixie Chicks became the target of “reactionary hate mail, death threats, residential vandalism, retails boycotts, and right-wing talk-radio fatwa’s.”[xxv]

What is very remarkable about the banishment of the Dixie Chicks is that is goes against the general musical divide took place at the time of 9/11. Just like during the Vietnam War, country and western represented the right-wing, pro-establishment part of the country and rock and folk music was the music of protest. Country star Toby Keith produced “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)”, which contained the lyrics:

“You’ll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A.

’cause we’ll put a boot in your ass.

It’s the American way”[xxvi]

This is just one example in an endless line of macho, pro-war country songs, one of the very things the Dixie Chicks were responding to when they made their fateful comments.[xxvii] Where during the Vietnam War, the most anti-American and anti-war/government sound came from the folk musicians, during the Bush presidency it was especially the punk rock genre that lashed out at the political state of affairs. Green Day’s American Idiot, as mentioned in the introduction, was an outright attack on Bush’s politics and marked a large shift in topics for the band itself. The song “Holliday” evens goes as far as to draw parallels to Nazi Germany:

"The representative from California has the floor:

Sieg Heil to the president Gasman, Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers, Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass and, Kill all the fags that don't agree
Trials by fire, setting fire, Is not a way that's meant for me
Just cause, just cause, because we're outlaws yeah!”[xxviii]

Green Day was arguably the most popular band with an clear cut anti-American, message, as they sold over fourteen million copies worldwide (five million sold in the United States), and reached the number one chart position in nineteen countries They were, however, hardly the only band in the genre that attacked “America.” The American punk band NOFX, released its album The War on Errorism in 2003, with the subtitle "Somewhere in Texas there is a village without its idiot.” The website Amazon.com shows an enormous selection of anti-Bush music from around the same period, such as Machine Gun in the Clowns Hands by Jello Biafra, Rock Against Bush and The Last Sucker, by Ministry.[xxix]

The “War on Terrorism” conducted by President Bush met so much resistance in society that bands that had never before taken interest in poltics or spreading a certain message to its listeners suddenly decided that they could stand idle no longer. In many ways it seems that the events of 9/11, and the subsequent bannishment tactics from certain media outlets, have served as a catalyst for social anger in much the same way that the Vietnam War did, decades before. Both events had an enormous influence on contemporary music and led to a division in the music industry between pro- and anti-war and pro and antigovernment camps. In both situations there was a war going on, that was met with groing resistance in society, in both situations their was a Republican president that grew highly unpopular as time went by. It seems that the Anti-American sentiment in pop music, or at least what is perceived by many Americans to Anti-American, is a response that rears its head in certain situations in American society. Bruce S. Thornthon puts forth the idea that the Anti-Americanism in popular culture is actually something typically “American.” He argues that it is a historically phenomenon, that “amidst of the greatest freedom, leisure and material prosperity (…) significant segments of American society have become chronically dissatiefied with the United States and its institutions.” He refers to the very American value of individualism and the romantized idea of rebbelion against opressors as big factors in this process.[xxx] He quotes New York Times collumnist Frank Rich: “the most telling American fables don’t come in the blacks and whites of our current strident political and cultural discourse, which so often devides Americans into either flag-draped heroes and abject traitors. The great American stories, from Huckleberry Finn’s to the Dixie Chicks, have always been nuanced; they can have poetry and the can have darks shadows. They can combine a love of country with an implicit criticism of it.”[xxxi]

In the end then, it seems that both the distinction that were made in forms of anti-Americanism seem to be correct to a certain extend. The negative feelings toward “Americanism” were very much present in postwar Europe, and focused mostly on America’s dominance over the European countries and its perceived lacking of cultural standards. The idea that American anti-Americanism focused more on feelings of social discontent in American society itself, also seems to coincide with the way many musicians expressed themselves and against what they were aiming their music.  In both instances, the Vietnam War and 9/11, this does seem to be the case. Both events served as a catalyst for feelings of social unrest and discontent, and popular music was one way in which these feelings could be displayed. The classic division of country/western as patriotic, right-wing and pro-war has survived the test of time, just as the representation of folk and rock music as left-wing and anti-war. Both during the Vietnam War and the Bush presidency music with an anti-American message took enormous flight, both in quantity and popularity. This anti-American label on certain music, however, also appears to be, in part, constructed by those opposed to the partical type of songs. To be critical of the president’s policy or of the reason to go to war, is anti-American in the eyes of right-wing media. On the other hand, there is a convincing argument to be made for the idea that this anti-Americanism is in fact “American” to its core. To be critical of one’s own society is an American tradition, and by displaying a certain ammount of anti-Americanism pop musicians actually proofs to be as American as apple pie.

Bibliography

                               

Anderson, Terry H. “American Popular Music and the War in Vietnam” in Peace and Change. 11: 1986, 51-65.

Blecha, Peter. Taboo Tunes: a History of Banned Bands & Censored Songs. Backbeat Books: San Francisco, 2004.

Gengaro, Christine Lee. “Requiems for a City: Popular Music’s Response to 9/11” in Popular Music and Society, Vol. 32, No.1, February 2009. p. 25-36.

Hollander, Paul (ed.). Understanding Anti-Americanism: its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad.. Ivan R. Dee: Chicago, 2004.

Kroes, Rob. “Anti-Americanism: A Revisit,” in Contemporary Conflicts. March 26, 2004.

“Music Against George W. Bush” on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Music-against-George-W-Bush/lm/R23ZZIMVZE3PHP.

Pells, Richard. “From Modernism to the Movies” in European Journal of American Culture, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2004. p. 143-155.

Pells, Richard. Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II. Basic Books: New York, 1997.

Rubin, Barry and Judith Colp Rubin. Hating America: a History. Oxford University Press: New York, 2004.

Discography

Beastie Boys. To The Five Boroughs. Capitol Records, 2004.

Boone, Pat. “Wish You Were Here Buddy.” Spoone Music Corporation, 1966.

Dylan, Bob. Freewheelin’. Bob Dylan. Columbia Records, 1963.

Green Day. American Idiot. Reprise Record. September 2004.

Keith, Toby. Unleashed. Dreamworks Nashville, 2002.

Springsteen, Bruce. The Rising, Columbia 2002.

             

---

[i] Green Day, “American Idiot” on American Idiot, (Reprise Record, September 2004).

[ii] Kroes, Rob. “Anti-Americanism: A Revisit,” in Contemporary Conflicts (March 26 2004).

[iii] Ibid.

[iv]Richard Pells. Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II ( Basic Books, New York 1997), p. 156

[v] Ibid. p. 157.

[vi] Roger Kimbal, “Anti-Americanism Then and Now” in Understanding Anti-Americanism: its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad, (Ivan R. Dee, Chicago 2004) p. 240-241.

[vii] James Ceaser, “The Philosophical Origins of Anti-Americanism” in Understanding Anti-Americanism, p 48.

[viii] Ibid. p. 48-49.

[ix]Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, Hating America: a History, (Oxford University Press, New York 2004) p. 59-60.

[x] Paul Hollander, “Introduction: The New Virulence and Popularity” in Understanding Anti-Americanism, p. 5-7.

[xi] Ibid. p. 6.

[xii] Ibid. p. 7.

[xiii] Kimbal, “Anti-Americanism Then and Now,” p. 241.

[xiv] Kimbal, “Anti-Americanism Then and Now,” p. 242.

[xv] Terry H. Anderson, “American Popular Music and the War in Vietnam” in Peace and Change, (11: 1986) p. 51.

[xvi] Bob Dylan, “Master of War” on Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (Columbia Records, 1963).

[xvii] Pat Boone, “Wish You Were Here buddy” (Spoone Music Corporation, 1966).

[xviii] Anderson, “American Popular Music and the War in Vietnam,” p. 53 – 58.

[xix] Richard Pells, “From Modernism to the Movies” in European Journal of American Culture, (Vol. 23, No. 2, p. 143-155), p. 143-144.

[xx]Christine Lee Gengaro, “Requiems for a City: Popular Music’s Response to 9/11” in Popular Music and Society, (Vol. 32, No.1, February 2009, p. 25-36) p. 25-26.

[xxi] Bruce Springsteen, “Into the Fires” on The Rising (Columbia 2002).

[xxii]Beastie Boys, “It Takes Time To Build” on To The Five Boroughs ( Capitol Records, 2004).

[xxiii]Peter Blecha, Taboo Tunes: a History of Banned Bands & Censored Songs, (Backbeat Books, San Francisco 2004) p. 175-176.

[xxiv] Ibid. p. 178-180.

[xxv] Ibid. p. 181.

[xxvi] Toby Keith, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),” on Unleashed. (Dreamworks Nashville, 2002).

[xxvii] Blecha, Taboo Tunes: a History of Banned Bands & Censored Songs, p. 181.

[xxviii] Green Day, “Holliday” on American Idiot.

[xxix] “Music Against George W. Bush” on Amazon.com. ( http://www.amazon.com/Music-against-George-W-Bush/lm/R23ZZIMVZE3PHP).

[xxx] Bruce S. Thornton, “Anti-Americanism and Popular Culture” in Understanding Anti-Americanism, p. 347-348.

[xxxi] Thornton, “Anti-Americanism and Popular Culture,” p. 349.