Nobody’s Right if Everybody’s Wrong – Stephen Stills
When Buffalo Springfield released For What It’s Worth in 1966, I knew the tune but at age 14 and naive with counter-culture clashes (although I do remember parents complaining about the Beatles hairstyle), I hardly knew the reason why Stephen Stills put his lyrics to music.
What became America’s iconic anti-establishment protest songs of the 60s was written after a curfew was enforced on Sunset Boulevard, one intending to reduce the late-night lingering of youth after local businesses had closed. The peaceful gathering of thousands of youths broke out in conflict leading to the arrest of many of the demonstrators. The song protesting a curfew became emblematic of counter-culture clashes American’s experienced during the turbulent 60s, especially the Vietnam War.
Looming large during the volatile 60s were calls for Social Justice as the Civil Rights movement epitomized, as well as the moral issues involved by the War in Vietnam tragically resulted in deadly confrontations.
I can recall sitting up late with my grandfather, Bob Bowden, watching the riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. My grandfather, not known for staying up late, stayed wide-awake with eyes riveted to the tube as cameras caught the conflict between the Yippies[2] and the Establishment (Police and National Guard).
And all this taking place under the shroud of a Cold War where the Americans and Russians threaten each other with nuclear arsenals capable of destroying world population many times over. I never understood how ducking under my desk would protect me from the vaporizing effects of a nuclear blast.
And lest we forget, these days were tragically marred by the assassinations of a President, Presidential Candidate, and Civil Rights leader.[1]
These were uncertain times for sure.
During the social, cultural, struggle Still’s song seemed to capture the essence of the struggle between opposing sides seeking to capture the hearts and minds of Americans. During this confusion and chaos Stills lyrics became definitive of the struggle for mastery of the American Conscience: "There’s battle lines being drawn, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong…"
STILLS IS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR PULLING JESUS into the political and cultural fray, interjecting during a 1970s concert his rendition of 49 Bye Byes/American Children saying, “I don’t know if I want White America to remember or to forget that Jesus Christ was the first non-violent revolutionary. Dig it, oh, dig it, oh, right on, dig it, yeah.”[4]
Regardless of whether Stills thoughts were influenced by the Jesus Movement, an evangelical Christian movement emerging from the American West Coast in the late 60s and early 70s, by interjecting Jesus into the political and moral issues of that day, his thoughts interject a religious element shaping the context of American politics from the mid-seventies until the present.
His words almost prophetically foretell the development of the influences of both the Religious Right and Religious Left in today’s American political arena.
[1] President John F. Kennedy (11/22/1963), Robert Kennedy (6/15/1968), and Martin Luther King, Jr. (4/4/1968).
[2] A political version of Hippies.
[3] “For What It’s Worth,” written by Stephen Stills, released by Buffalo Springfield (1966).
[4] 4 Way Street, recorded live at Fillmore East, New York (June 1970).
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