EPISODE

SHOW NOTES

This song first appeared in Broadside, his first. Famously, he was scheduled to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1962 — which had just broke Elvis and would later break the Beatles. He auditioned the song, people loved it, but when it came down to the show, he was told he couldn’t perform because it could be a “libel” against the John Birch Society. He refused to change the song and walked off the set. National attention followed. Sullivan supported him saying the John Birchers shouldn’t be above criticism.

Stodgy Columbia, learning this was scheduled for Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, pulled the song off the record (less than 300 copies of the album went out). Dylan relented and also pulled “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie”and “Rocks and Gravel.” He replaced them with “Bob Dylan’s Dream,” “Talkin’ World War III Blues,” “Girl From the North Country” and “Masters of War.” John Hammond said, quoted in Shelton’s No Direction Home:

The CBS lawyers, not Columbia Records, decided that the reference to Hitler involved every single member of the John Birch Society, therefore it was libelous, or some crap like that. I get away with much worse material with Seeger than was ever on a Dylan album.

I couldn’t find the Freewheelin’ version of the song for this recording but we did listen to the 1963 demo (released officially on TBLS Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos) and the Halloween 1964 performance at the Philharmonic Hall (released on TBLS Vol. 6) in addition to the de facto version off TBLS Vol. 1-3.

Song itself

The song is a classic and still finds resonance today. “Reds,” of course were one in a long line of boogeymen the United States has sought to make the Other. The Birchers are the real threats to freedom of speech when everything uttered is “communist.”

The song is our first rendition of the “talking blues,” which he’d use often in this period with “Talkin’ New York,” “Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues,” Talkin’ World War III Blues” and “I Shall Be Free” to name a few (to say nothing of less-talky “T.V. Talkin' Song” off Under the Red Sky.

To Dave Glover

Before going into the history of the John Birch Society, Daniel read Dylan’s 1963 open letter to his friend Dave Glover:

I keep rememberin the songs we used t sing an play

John Birch Society today

JBS, somehow, still lives on today. It’s main activity in the 1960s, according to Rick Perlstein, “comprised monthly meetings to watch a film by Welch, followed by writing postcards or letters to government officials linking specific policies to the Communist menace” (kind of like watching cable news and then tweeting at perceived menaces!)

It’s stances are incredible, mainly for being on the wrong side of history on nearly every issue across decades: Against Civil Rights Act of 1964. Against Equal Rights Amendment. Obsessed with the 10th Amendment. Against all free-trade agreements/globalization. Anti-interventionist. Believes fluoride is a communist conspiracy – which they deny but, come on. Thought Eisenhower was a communist. Against OSHA. Against diplomatic ties to China. Against transferring Panama Canal over to Panamanians because, you know, communists.

But it’s interesting: Antisemitic, racist, anti-Mormon, anti-Masonic groups criticized the organization’s acceptance of Jews, non-whites, Masons, and Mormons as members. And in a bitterly ironic twist, given today’s world where the Right still worships Ayn Rand, in a 1964 Playboy interview, she said,

I consider the Birch Society futile, because they are not for capitalism but merely against communism … I gather they believe that the disastrous state of today’s world is caused by a communist conspiracy. This is childishly naïve and superficial. No country can be destroyed by a mere conspiracy, it can be destroyed only by ideas.

Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center lists the society as a “‘Patriot’ Group. It believes a “one world government” is coming so it pushes the US to get out of the United Nations. They still want to dismantle the Federal Reserve. It’s currently led by Ray Clark, who has a fake degree from Donsbaugh University School of Nutrition in Huntington Beach, California – and he puts nutrional supplements in every photo of JBS literature. And, if you want a trip, go to their Twitter to see how hard they’re trying to #hashtag their way into the hearts of the youth.

THE EPISODE’S BOOKLET & PLAYLIST

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations. Kelly recommended Nick Drake and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 while Daniel listened to Chris Stapleton From A Room: Volume 1.

ENDINGS

Only 653 songs left.

Kelly guessed #319, which would have been “Bourbon Street” off The Basement Tapes.

It was #642, "God Knows," off 1990's Under the Red Sky.

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