Ladies and gentlemen, please songwriterger Country Joe Mcdonald. [applause] [background chatter] [indiscernible] Country Joe Mcdonald look out yonder in the skies what is that, i pray a bird, a plane, a man in the same it is lbj he is flying high way up in the sky ust like superman i got a little piece of kryptonite back toa bring him land come out linden with your hands held high reach for the sky got you surrounded and you aint got a chance, dennis and you back to texas, make you work on your ranch yeah mmm, yeah yeah superwoman andll super duck it shows him no good i found out why from a russian spy he ate ate nothing but a commie book. Land, have us the brandnew day what is more, i got the fantastic work and spiderman to help him on his way. Ly y, mouth come out ndon with your hands held high got you surrounded and you a got a chance gonna take you back to texas, take you work on your ranch oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah gonna make him an agricultural worker part of his own Property ProgramPoverty Program [applause] lori, lordy. Give me an f. F Country Joe Mcdonald thank you very much, i needed that. Again sam needs help got himself in a terrible jam way down yonder in vietnam gonna have a whole lot of fun it is fun what are we fighting for dont ask me, i dont give a damn next stop is vietnam 5, 6, 7 open up the pearly gates we are all gonna die come on wall street, dont be slow man goes to work, go, go plenty of money to be made, what deal are you going to trade drop it on the viet cong t is time to go what are we fighting for dont ask me, i think give a damn open up the pearly gates a no time to wonder we all been a die come on generals no take chances now you can go out and get those reds the only good commie is one that is dead they gonna come till kingdom come 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for dont ask me, i dont give a damn next stop is vietnam 5, 6, 7, open up the pearly gates we are all gonna die come on mothers, pack your boys off to vietnam come on fathers, dont hesitate center dot is off before it is too late send your daughters off before it is too late 1, 2, 3 what are we fighting for next stop is vietnam 5, 6, 7, open up the pearly gates [applause] ountry joe mcdonald [applause] please welcome to the stage mr. Peter yarrow singersongwriter and political , activist and the executive director of the Grammy Museum at l. A. Live, joining mr. Country joe mcdonald for our next panel. [applause] bob santelli well, joe, on behalf of everyone here, i want to thank you for exercising your freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Thank you very much. [applause] 50 years. And boy for those of us who were , alive back then and remember that song and remember those days, that was one song that could always get a call and response going, and it did even here. Interesting, huh . Look, every generation has a sound track. Every historical era has a sound track. Every historical moment. Every movement. Music has played a vital part in americas history. Its been there from the revolutionary times, and it goes right through our history even today. And almost always, the music was creative, expressive, and sometimes controversial. And certainly in the 1960s, the music was controversial, because for the very first time, american pop music embraced the idea that a song could act as an agent of social and political conquest. It could do something that allowed change in our world and in our time. It could do something to rally people to a particular point of view. And when, in the 1960s, this became something of import, many, many artists from country joe and peter, paul and mary on down took to the microphone, picked up guitars, and began to present a point of view. And sometimes, that point of view was positive. For some people, and negative for others, and sometimes it was just different. However, what happens is by the late 1960s, its very clear that rock n roll, pop music , folk music, soul music, funk music, all kinds of music has embraced the political point of view thanks in large measure to vietnam. So id like to discuss with my colleagues today and really begin with peter, if you will since you go back to the early 1960s with this. We said on an earlier panel i believe it was yesterday or the day before that many of the ideas of the Antiwar Movement sprouted from the Civil Rights Movement. And you of course were very much involved in the Civil Rights Movement and the Antiwar Movement. Is that an accurate statement . And if so, how did it happen . Peter yarrow yes. That is the case. And im not sure that my microphone is on. All right yes, there we are. , ok. Can you hear me . Yes. Peter yarrow alright, good. The Civil Rights Movement was very important in terms of the Antiwar Movement in many ways. Number one, we were looking at what we, we who were a part of the Civil Rights Movement, peter paul, and mary sang at the march in washington in 1963 where Martin Luther king delivered his i have a dream speech, and we sang two songs at that gathering. One of them was if i had a hammer and the other was blowing in the wind. And if i had a hammer had become a very big hit. Everything everybody knew it, and blowing in the wind, it was the first exposure of america to the work of bob dylan. And that song peeked on the charts before the august 28 march on washington in 1963. So we sang it, but we didnt sing it alone. We were not singing two people, just as you just sang with joe. The people held hands, and what they said together with that expression of singing together was our hearts are united. And we are united in doing something that is considered by many to be unamerican, by many to be unpatriotic. We were not following the rule of law. The rule of law supported at that time lynchings for which there was no possibility of some kind of legal recourse, no prosecutions. You go to washington, d. C. , if you were a person of color, you could not use a bathroom or a Public Public bathroom or a , public water fountain, unless it said for colored only. What we were supporting was the point of view that challenged the law. It challenged what doing you do your duty. You follow this law. No. For the first time, we said, as moral citizens, we have to do what is right for our country. Our country is not always right. Our country is but our job as citizens is to be engaged in that dialogue. So that set the stage for saying what our country if youre a you are patriotic to us, you have to stop a war that we all felt was killing our young men. Peter, paul and mary sang in the v. A. Hospitals. We honored the troops. We prayed for the troops. We loved the troops. We loved that they did what they could and put their lives on the line for us. But we opposed the war, and ultimately, we did what we felt was a patriotic thing, which was to contravene a policy that was being pursued, that was faulted extraordinarily on many levels. Number one, it was based on a tissue of lies. We know that from the pentagon papers. From mcnamaras the westmoreland. But at the time, we also knew it , and we said, how can, as john kerry said, and i worked with john kerry at Vietnam Veterans against the war, and i saw them suffer, suffer not only for what they experienced but for their being excoriated when they opposed the war. What we learned, what we could do was as americans, love america by opposing what we felt was a war that, as i said, did not, did not have a legitimate purpose. And today, as i speak of this, now i am throwing it back to you, had we really fully embraced what youre trying to do here today at the center , which is to form the basis of healing, is exactly what was said in the last Discussion Panel discussion which was, we , have to have a clear purpose, know that we are in jeopardy. We have to we have to know that , thats the case. Or we go open and do it, again, as we did, from my point of view when we went into iraq. , and if we can heal and hate the war, and not divide between chose who say, you were unpatriotic. No you were unpatriotic and say , we love those who put their lives, and there were people who resisted the war, went to jail, left their lives. We have to honor them. We have to honor those who put their lives on the line for the country in the service of trying to do what they could in their patriotic view. And if we can do that, there can be some healing. Thats what we need to do. [applause] bob santelli joe, one of your songs has become one of the signature songs of the Antiwar Movement. It is an interesting story how you wrote it, and then also its incredible spontaneous role in the woodstock music festival. Can you tell us how first you came to write it and second how you came to perform it at woodstock. Country joe mcdonald well, i was in the navy during the civil rights pretty much, and i came back, went to college. They didnt tell me about the gi bill. I dropped out. My parents were radical leftists so i grew up with communism. , but i didnt like communism. They didnt help us in any way. But i didnt hate communists, my parents were communists. [laughter] and you know, i had a good time in the military. And because of the personal experience with my parents and my father losing his be job, losing his job, that is another thing. I didnt like i didnt trust the left wing. I didnt like civilians. I think that when youre in the military, god bless civilians, but really they dont know whats going on. [laughter] but i really and that song just popped into my head because it was about the military and the unique thing about that song is that it doesnt blame soldiers. And it traveled so many maces. Places. I mean, i could not believe where that song went. But i work with Vietnam Veterans against the war. I just love those guys, man. They were so good. I learned so much about the war. Coming here this summer freaked me out because i just opened up that wound, and man, it was just horrible, horrible stuff. But i was telling you earlier today, about 15 years ago, i attended of yet a viet veterans for peace conference in san francisco. I live in berkeley, california. And one of the speakers there was phil butler, who spent seven years in hanoi hilton. And he came up to me and he said, joe, when we were in hanoi hilton, and i had read the book called love and war is it . About when he was a prisoner and his wife struggled to communicate with him and everything. I knew all about hanoi hilton. And he came over to me and he said, when we were in the compound they used to play hanoi hilton hannah. They would play American Music to us to demoralize us, you know. And make us home sick and everything. But every time we heard that song it boosted our morale. ,[laughter] amd i thought, those godd french educated vietnamese commanders could probably not understand american humor that , would be, we are all going to die would make them feel good. [laughter] we were all going to die to make them feel good. So you know, but americans were unique people. So he said, i never dreamed that i would live long enough to hear you sing that song in person, and we just started crying and hugged each other. I mean, i get so emotional just thinking about it right now. Bob santelli and the song you sang at woodstock. Country joe mcdonald and i played it at woodstock, yeah. Wasnt supposed to play it at woodstock. I mean, it wasnt a big deal, but they wanted me to fill in time for the audience because santana band couldnt get there. And i hadnt been playing acoustic music. And they told me youve got to , save us. Youve got to do something. I told them i dont want to do , it. They said i said, i dont have a guitar. So they grabbed a cheap yamaha guitar and handed it to me. I said, i dont have a guitar strap, so they cut a strap and pushed me out there. I sang for about a half hour. Nobody knew who the hell i was. They were just talking. It was like woodstock was like a , giant family picnic really. People just talking, schmoozing and laughing and stuff. And i walked off stage, and i said to my partner, who was moonlighting there on the staff, i said, can i do the cheer . Because i mean, i was saving it for the band later on when the band played. And he said, nobody is paying any attention to you. What difference does it make what you do . [laughter] i said, ok, and i walked out and i yelled, give me an f. And they all stopped talking and looked at me and yelled f and i thought, oh, my god. Here we go. Got made into a movie and made any career, enabled me to pay the rent, ill tell you that. And maybe, made some people feel good. Im so glad. But you know, i had a guy tell me his buddy died in nam, bled to death in his arms, and the last word he said is, were going to die. I mean, this is serious stuff. When i first learned i was coming to this summit, i got so sad. Then i got angry. And here i am. [laughter] [applause] bob santelli one of the interesting things about the war is there were pop songs that were written that really didnt do say anything about the war itself that werent meant to be antiwar this or that or anything. And im thinking about a song like leaving on a jet plane, which then became a song which you and peter, paul and mary your number one hit song and i believe in 1970 and that was embraced by a lot of soldiers, simply because of the fact that it was leaving on a jet plane. When you heard that, that this was a popular song over in vietnam, what did you think . Peter yarrow well let me , respond in this way. Over the years with peter, paul and mary, when we would perform this song, it was not unusual for a vietnam vet, who at that point was significantly older, to come over to us, and peter and said, you know that song , was my link to home. I know you opposed the war, but it meant so much to me. And then theyd break down in tears, and wed hold them and hug them and thank them for their service, because they put their lives on the linfor us. And so the songs that was a link to their home, but when we sang at the v. A. Hospital, they wanted not only to hear that, they wanted to hear where have all the flowers gone, which is the [applause] which calls not for the commitment to disagree with somebody with a different point of view. It calls for an end to the real evil here, which is the war itself. Now, i would have fought in the second world war. Im not a bottom line pacifist. So im not saying Woody Guthrie served in the second world war. But what the music did in the case of leaving on a jet plane, it was it certainly was a link. And when somebody would say im leaving on a jet plane i dont know when ill be back again it was very painful. And i still sing it now with that. But the songs that united the people who said, we have to stop the war. Were not trying to we do not think this is a legitimate war, as john kerry said. How can you ask somebody to be the last person to die for a war nobody wants . When we would sing those songs, and i would sing the great mandela, which was an anthem of sorts. It is about a young man, and this is an interesting story. A young man who goes to jail rather than serve in a war. He cannot serve in this war. And then he goes on a hunger strike. And then he dies. And outside, the people who are opposing him say, ok, hes dead, we dont have to endure his accusations. We can kill now. We can hate now. We can now end the world. And then it cautions, take your place on the great mandela. The prayer wheel of life as it moves through your brief moment of time. Win or lose, now, you must choose, and if you lose, youre only losing your life. Now, when i was at the Washington Cathedral with pete seiger, and we were pointed in four Different Directions acknowledging the individuals in the war, this was not a body count. That each human life was sacred. Indeed on both sides. When i did that, after i sang that song, they played taps, and during taps, there was the sound of a woman wailing. And that juxtaposition was overwhelming and painful beyond painful. We didnt know what it was about, but she was brought to me. She said, my son was serving in vietnam, and when he said, if i am to die there, i want the words to that song engraved on my tombstone. And i did so. I engraved the words to that song. So you have to understand how deeply these songs permeated the culture then. Unlike today when its the nature of music has become so superficial compared to that era when that was the real heart and , soul of our conscience that was being expressed in the way that you just experienced it when joe talked about it and when you sang his song. Bob santelli joe, you of course are in the bay area during the mid and late 1960s at a time when america experiences a counter culture, the rise of the hippie. As a matter of fact, next year will be the 50th anniversary of something we called the summer of love. And by and large, that counter Cultural Movement was the social movement. And even by some degree a philosophical movement, certainly a musical movement, but not so much a political movement, except for one band that truly stood out amongst all the other ones, and that was country joe and the fish, which basically i remember reading someone saying it provided the political aspects of what the counterculture should be doing and the way it should be acting. Yet sometimes, when i look back it seemed like country joe and , the fish basically stood out all by itself that the rest of the bands, the grateful dead, credence clear water revival, to a certain degree, quicksilver, any of these great bands from that period didnt get so involved politically, not like you did. How come . Country joe mcdonald i dont know bob. ,[laughter] well, when i was coming to the conference, i thought, well,obody knew what to do with us and people didnt know what to do with me. There were 22 songs about the homem war from welcome to asian combat, all kinds of songs. I want to tell a story. Bob santelli ur. Country joe mcdonald we are on the david frost show a long time ago. Charles ross and Lyndon Johnson were on that show also, engaged to beere married. The people phoned in to the david frost show. And there were they were saying goes bearded filthy creeps should be sent back to russia. None of them had beards, [laughter] a letter said, dear mr. Frost, why did you have that horrible rock band and that song about vietnam when those lovely people, Lyndon Johnson and the other were talking about the war . I dont think i will ever talk about this show again. I have thought about those letters over the years, and i thought, how weird is it that can here i am at the lbj library , thanks to you. I hope i havent disappointed anybody. [laughter] bob santelli you didnt answer my question, but that is ok. Country joe mcdonald joking aside. Bob santelli there were other bands like the mc five and others in new york doing rascal things in music and political as well. In the end, i think too many got the Antiwar Movement confused with the Hippie Movement when oftentimes, they went parallel, occasionally overlapped. Peter, when you were in the midst of this in 1966, 1967, there was, i am sure, a crossroads in your career where you were folk stars and pop stars as well, and by committing to a political platform in your music that you were certainly going to alienate a sizeable number perhaps of your audience and people thinking less of you, not buying your records. How did you handle that in terms of your career . How did you endure and say, you know what . Were going to be above this. And were going to push on. Peter yarrow well in the civil said,ts movement, as i you know, that was the first time that we stepped out and became proponents of a point of view that was highly, highly controversial, although in the north, there was not a lot of controversy about it. But when we did sing at these the summer montgomery march, that was the end of our selling records in the southern states. And weve been warned by Warner Brothers that that would happen. But we were, as mary would have called us, seagers raiders. We were pete seigers children in a way. He had paved the way to say, if you use your music to express your ethical perspective, and you unite that, then youre giving a great gift to yourself and following in the tradition of these songs that many of them certainly came from the labor union movement. But when we were in the Antiwar Movement itself, for me, i was a musician on one hand, and youre quite right, there was the hippie point of view, which was about the spirit and love and caring, and then there were the consequences that we were dealing with. Bob santelli yeah. Peter yarrow my other part of my life was as an organizer. In the Antiwar Movement, and we kept a low profile because there was a nixon enemies list, and i organized with a woman by the name of cora wise, a march on washington in 1969 that, that march, coupled with the march against death, and it was called the celebration of life, was attended by 500,000 people. And that is generally credited as the moment where the public sentiment turned against the war. Now, in that gathering, my job was to mobilize the performers , which included pete seager and mitch one of the really diverse kind of music to express that sense. Not antiwar so much as let us bring peace. And we had john denver singing last night, i had the strangest dream and mitch miller and the cast of hair and the String Quartet from the cleveland Symphony Orchestra and earl , scruggs from Country Music and of course peter, paul and mary and on and on. , and that event was 90 music, and yet, it is credited it followed the march against death where, all night in a candlelight procession, people with their candles put the name of an american soldier who was killed into a coffin, and then those coffins were borne to the pentagon. That was the march against death followed by the celebration of life which as i said was i mean, that is true that folk , music, but other kinds of 1972,i later organized in something at shea stadium where we did have janis joplin, where we did have credence, where we did have where we did have we had i called and mobilized by talking to them, whether it was paul and at Madison Square garden, i organized something with jimi hendrix and with blood , sweat, and tears. So there was an involvement, but not in the sense of their picking up the banner the way country joe did and writing songs and walking the walk in that particular way. They simply got on stage. But before they did, in all cases, as was true in the Civil Rights Movement, we got together , and i said, were not here to knock people out with our songs and perform. Were here to make a statement that will help us to move society to a place where were going to have greater equity and peace. So whatever you do, that has to be your intention, and you need to say some words that let people know that thats where you are standing. And when people have it in their hearts, i dont care if theyre singing lemon tree or whatever, if the message is, we are going to live in peace, people feel that. And that was true in all of these events. Bob santelli you know, for the sake of truth and the reality of it all, the Antiwar Movement certainly embraced popular music to get its message across, you but if truth be told there was also many, many country artists who were expressing the other side of the viewpoint of the war. Many of us remember the balance beretsad of the green that came out in 1966, 1967 that showed a completely heroic story or song narrative. And many in the country world had written songs. Its just that those songs back then in the late 1960s, Country Music hadnt isnt what it is today. It was pretty much here texas, the south, southwest, et cetera. It didnt infiltrate as much up north into cities like berkeley or new york as it does now. But there were other songs. There were other artists taking other positions and using song as the vehicle to express those opinions. Peter yarrow i have to underscore that that is the case, but it was the most minute group that did that, whereas categorically throughout folk music and the beatles and all we are saying is give peace a chance, the massive thrust of the music business embraced the Civil Rights Movement, embraced the peace movement. Not to say that there werent others who have a different point of view. But we have to, if were going to be accurate, we have to know that the scale was minute in the country field. Bob santelli exactly. I am conscious of our time, and i want to make sure that since we began with a song and joe that i leave time for you to , take us out in song. So im going to end it here. Thank you for coming. Thank you all for the opportunity to do this. [applause] im going to turn it over to you. Peter yarrow now, im going to stand in front of these. But you can hear me from this microphone too if you like. This is a song that i sing now. My prayer, my hope. And i think linda and lucy and chuck. All of you. Ok. Its good. Good. My prayer is that by gathering together and expressing what we feel, we find that there are ways for us to love each other and embrace those who feel differently from the way we do. I left my capo over there. Chalk it up to the years, folks. Here it is. I went to vietnam three times, focused around the issue of gent orange and the damage that it did. And i have a lot of footage, and i hope to i made an hour piece on, it but im going to extend it. The day that i arrived there i went to the Friendship House where half of the kids there ere we knew had the kind of halidomide disabilities that were almost impossible to ndure and see. You know, i dont want to describe it because its so terrible. And it gets in the blood it ets in the genetic system. Nd its inherited. Nd so the because after you cant identify if somebody got it, the disability, from agent orange or not because after eight years its no longer there. And i was singing with these kids and holding these kids with you know, not with eyes hat i cant even say. And i went to the hanoi opera house where i was singing its just like the paris opera house. I was singing a concert. And i was so troubled by what i saw. And realized what we had done, it didnt matter at that moment the kind of discussion about whether or not we what you know, president carter saying you can come back and thats not the issue. We have to love each other and accept each other and let that pain and not try and justify our pain by saying we were right or wrong. Because if we dont look at hat weve done and accept what we did terrible things, notwithstanding whatever was done to us, notwithstanding the pain of our friends and comrades who died or lived in misery and as p. O. W. S. Yes. But how do we get beyond that . Well, one of the ways we can do it is by having this kind of symposium. And one of the ways is by sing a song together that affirms something thats important no matter what position you took. And this song, when i came to the point of singing this at the hanoi opera house, i said i want to sing this song but i cant. I cant do it until i tell you how i feel. I saw those kids. I saw those kids. I cant i have to let you know as one american. Im not saying things werent done back and forth. As one american how deeply sorry i am for what we did to your country. 3 million dead. Yes, we lost 58,000 men. And more than that committed suicide because of the pain they endured after they came home. And my heart breaks for them. And afterwards, you know what the vietnamese said to me . And they would say this to anybody. They said, you dont have to apologize. We just want to have our country and live in peace. And now were their major ally and trading partner. How do we build peace . We build it by taking down those walls. Id like everybody to sing this song that was a great nthem. And its not about the soldiers or the protesters. Its about properly putting our ommitment into ending war. And particularly not going into war unless its a just war. And then with the heaviest of earts. So id like you to please stand up. I know for some of you its difficult to stand up. Or me too. It comes with the years. And just join our hands, put our arms around each other all day, and sing. For all of us. And for our childrens children. Where have all the flowers gone long time passing here have all the flowers gone ong time ago where have all the flowers gone young girls have picked them every one when will they ever learn hen will they ever learn where have all the young girls gone where have all the young girls gone ong time passing where have all the young girls gone, long time ago where have all the young girls gone theyve gone for young men everyone when will they ever learn hen will they ever learn and where have all the young men gone let me hear you now. Where have all the young men gone long time. Long time passing where have all the young men gone long time ago. Long time ago where have all the young men gone theyve gone for soldiers, everyone hen will they ever learn hen will they ever learn and very solemnly and prayerfully, for all those who were injured and killed and ounded and maimed. Where have all the soldiers gone. Many not to the graveyards but to lives of great, great espair and difficulty. Where have all the soldiers gonewgone gone, with solemnity. Where have all the soldiers gone ong time passing where have all the soldiers gone ong time ago where have all the soldiers gone gone to graveyards, everyone hen will they ever learn hen will they ever learn where have all the graveyards gone long time passing let me hear you. Where have all the graveyards gone long time ago. Long time ago where have all the graveyards. Where have all the graveyards gone gone to flowers, every one hen will they ever learn hen will they ever learn when will we ever learn. And we sing when will we ever learn hen will we ever learn and then we sing where have all the flowers gone and the irony and the pain of the endless cycle. When will we ever learn . We do know that when we can love each other and say were sorry and we forgive each other were taking the right tep. Im so sorry for anything that i did that brought the war or any war unjust war. Where have all the flowers gone, together softly. Where have all the flowers gone ong time passing where have all the flowers gone long time ago. Long time ago where have all the flowers gone. Where have all the flowers gone young girls have picked them every one hen will they ever learn hen will they ever learn when will we ever learn. Last time. When will we ever learn when will we ever learn [applause] joe macdonald. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corop. 2016] announcer interested in American History tv . A it our web site, watch recent program, at cspan. Org history. All weekend, history tv is featuring las vegas, nevada. Cspan staff recently visited m many sites showcasing the history of las vegas. Learn more here on American History tv. There are a lot of theories about why gambling is so polarizing the people say people that are gamblers didnt really earn it. And if you do a lot of it, it can be very dangerous financially. Gambling in las vegas goes back to the very beginning the las vegas was established by what ask now the une pacific railroad,