There's a Monster On the Loose

Protest Music For the Current Crisis, Part Four.

I've been working and walking and protesting with a lot of folks my age lately who were doing the same kinds of things in the late sixties and early seventies. Now we ourselves are in our late sixties and early seventies.

Most of us are puzzled by how few young people at our protests. "When I was a kid," I heard myself say last night, "Protests were fun."

The civil rights and anti-war protests of the sixties were not really fun. They were efforts to make serious social change, and there was often a lot of ugliness involved. Granted, a lot of kids were in the streets because they themselves faced the threat of being sent off to an unjust war, or one of their friends or family members would be. And there was a larger cultural shift taking place. For a time, it looked like those protests were successful. Civil rights laws were passed. The Viet Nam war ended. And Nixon was forced out of office.

Boomers can't believe it.

But here we are again, asking ourselves how much progress we've really made.

Culturally we were in a different place in 1969. We listened to music on AM radio stations. Underground FM stations were just taking hold. The playlists on these AM stations were broad, mixing rock, country and soul with treacly pop music. Frequently, a powerful protest anthem would slip onto the charts.

MONSTER/SUICIDE/AMERICA - Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf, a Canadian-American band named after a trendy Herman Hesse novel, found fame with songs that still play repeatedly over supermarket sound systems (Born to Be Wild, Magic Carpet Ride, Rock Me), and as soundtracks for consumer products on TV ads. Born to Be Wild roared to fame as the title credit them for Easy Rider, the film where many heard the song first.

The song Monster/Suicide/America, appeared on the band's fourth album, of the same name. The album was a political statement and Monster/Suicide/America was its centerpiece. The band share songwriting credits (John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Nick St. Nicholas, Larry Byrom), but Kay is most often credited with writing the lyrics for the group's songs.

Interesting to note that Kay was born in East Prussia, Germany, now part of Russia. He fled with his family first to East Germany, then to the West, and Hanover, and a British occupation zone where he first heard American rock and roll, and one of his early heroes, Little Richard. His family spent time in Toronto before moving to Buffalo where they became American citizens.

Monster/Suicide/America was hailed, and dismissed, as blunt instrument. It was an anti-Viet Nam War song, but it resonates, even today, as a thumbnail historic anthem that hits on themes of imperialism, isolationism, genocide, political corruption and a country teetering on the brink of fascism.

Some notably insensitive lines that might have been acceptable in 1969, will be considered distasteful today. Kay refers to native Americans as "the redman," and notes that "the cities have turned into jungles."

The Vietnam war only gets a cursory nod in a line that notes "now we are fighting a war over there," which considering America's never-ending appetite for conflict still seems perfectly accurate in the decades since.

But it's the history, encapsulated in brutal couplets that some critics dismissed as turgid, that give the song its power. "Like good Christians some would burn the witches. Later some got slaves to gather riches," crams three centuries of domination into a paternalistic history where women and enslaved people are the ciphers of white progress. "They babble about law and order/But it's all just an echo of what they've been told," fortells the transformation of the Republican party into an autocratic cult fueled by the lies of a cable echo chamber that hadn't even been dreamed of when the song was writtten.

Musically, the song rises from finger-picked balladry, travels through a dense, bluesy bridge and rises to a chanted plea that has none of Simon and Garfunkel's subtle sense of national despair ("We've all come to look for America,), and all of the anthemic power we need to motivate us during Trump's tenure - "America, where are you now? Don't you care about your sons and daughters? Don't you know we need you now? We can't fight alone against the monster."

Top 40 protest.

A single 45 rpm version of the song pared back from it's full nine minute length to a more radio friendly four minutes actually made it into America's top forty, and could be heard blasting from the tiny speakers broadcasting AM radio to America's teens searching for meaning and relief as they cruised the country's roadways.

Once the religious, the hunted and weary

Chasing the promise of freedom and hope

Came to this country to build a new vision

Far from the reaches of Kingdom and pope

Like good Christians some would burn the witches

Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America

They came by thousands, to court the wild

But she just patiently smiled and bore a child

To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken

Westward in saddle and wagon it went

And till the railroad linked ocean to ocean

Many the lives which had come to an end

While we bullied, stole and bought a homeland

We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America

They came by thousands to court the wild

But she just patiently smiled and bore a child

To be their spirit and guiding light

The Blue and Grey they stomped it

They kicked it just like a dog

And when the war was over

They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has its share of injustice

Kind was the spirit in many a way

But its protectors and friends have been sleeping

Now it's a monster and will not obey

The spirit was freedom and justice

And its keepers seemed generous and kind

Its leaders were supposed to serve the country

But now they won't pay it no mind

Cause the people grew fat and got lazy

Now their vote is a meaningless joke

They babble about law and order

But it's all just an echo of what they've been told

Yeah, there's a monster on the loose

It's got our heads into the noose

And it just sits there watchin'

The cities have turned into jungles

And corruption is stranglin' the land

The police force is watching the people

And the people just can't understand

We don't know how to mind our own business

'Cause the whole world's got to be just like us

Now we are fighting a war over there

No matter who's the winner we can't pay the cost

'Cause there's a monster on the loose

It's got our heads into the noose

And it just sits there watchin'

America, where are you now

Don't you care about your sons and daughters

Don't you know we need you now

We can't fight alone against the monster