Original subtitles

1968 it was a year of living

dangerous and dying tragically Martin

Luther King 20 minutes ago

died a year when Americans witnessed The

Summer of Love turn into the days of

Rage America was a totalitarian state

and we were the enemy and popular music

led the sound of a

revolution

a lot of us were living out Bob Dylan

lyrics you know we're living out Rolling

Stone songs we lived in extremely

interesting times we reacted to it you

know it was a year of astonishing

extremes for pain and for pleasure sex

became more than sex music became more

than music uh people became more than

people was a stupid violent ugly

thoughtless selfish era during which I

had a really good time

a year when America itself seemed to

Teeter on the brink of self-destruction

there were so many divisions in 1968 you

couldn't even add them up and a year

when a younger generation's fondest

dreams and darkest nightmares all came

true that's the power of Youth to have

the nerve to think that we could change

the world we could change the world what

an idea tonight

1968 the year that shook the world and

the music that rocked

it

if I were to pick a time in the whole

history of man in which to live and the

place in which to live i' pick the

United States of America 1968 this is

the place this is the time and never

forget

[Music]

it United States aircraft have resumed

action in North

[Music]

Vietnam now the time is

we have AER doctor in the

house the events of 1968 tore Across

America with the force of a

hurricane and popular music was at the

eye of every

storm for every headline there was a

song from artists like James Brown artha

Franklin the Jefferson Airplane and the

Beatles we definitely wanted to write

about things that meant something to

somebody and that could possibly helped

them in in this completely mad chaotic

world that America was at that

time Young American soldiers were

fighting in a civil war Halfway Around

the World in a country called Vietnam

and paying a heavy price nearly 10,000

US troops had died there in

1967 and in ' 68 things would only get

worse we got get out

[Music]

of the number one an of all the troops

when I was there was Eric Burton and the

Animals we got to get out of this place

anytime that we were in the rear and

that song was played or came on everyone

would stop everyone would join in at the

top of their lungs it was just the best

best

[Music]

son by January 1968 Vietnam Civil War

had become America's civil

crisis by law every man between the ages

of 18 and 25 was required to register

for the draft but the poor were always

the first to go it was very much as

though the sergeant had come up to the

front of the group and said everybody

who's dad made more than $20,000 a year

and who's been to college get over here

you're out you know everybody who's dad

made less than $20,000 a year who didn't

go to college over here you're in I mean

it was like a series of events that

would all come true in my mind I'll be

drafted I'll most certainly go in the

army I'll most certainly be sent to

Vietnam and I will most certainly be

killed John F was drafted in

1966 he didn't go to Vietnam but he did

serve 2 years in the Army there he says

he witnessed the inequality of the draft

firsthand in ' 68 Fogerty was fronting a

band called Credence Clearwater Revival

writing songs which would later become

anti-war

an when you ask

how the only

answer one day I got in my mind the idea

of Fortunate Son sort of a Twist or a

flip on the phrase favorite son I don't

I don't know how I went from one to the

other but once I thought in terms of a

Fortunate Son I mean all my Venom came

[Music]

out until early 1968 political and

military leaders insisted that the war

was going well

well but more and more Americans were

having their doubts they would tell you

we lost 12 guys and we they would tell

you the other side lost 2,000 guys

pretty soon it seemed like the other

guys have lost 10 million guys and we've

lost 30 yet you're seeing these news

reel of Devastation and our army is

being pushed back and not doing very

well then on January 30th 1968 North

Vietnamese and communist backed Guerilla

forces in South Vietnam launched the Ted

offensive the North Vietnamese and the

Viet Kong attack every single American

military installation simultaneously in

Vietnam and penetrate the perimeter of

the American Embassy in Saigon and

basically all hell breaks

loose and this causes an almost

overnight revolution in the way America

thinks about this war

[Music]

Ted offensive finally convinced most

Americans that the war was UNL and the

music became more and more a part of the

anti-war movement as a result I

[Music]

think the strange Delirious undertones

of new music by bands like the doors

Jimmy Hendrick and the Jefferson plane

resonated in the jungles of Vietnam and

swept across college campuses where

students were exploring the links

between mind altering drugs and

spiritual Paths of knowledge

oneill

you and

one psychedelia acid uh provided a

certain Outlaw capacity to the people

who took it but more importantly it gave

them a view of life that they hadn't had

before

to The Counter Culture the Vietnam War

wasn't just dangerous it was absurd and

a military veteran and protest singer

named Country Joe McDonald wrote a song

that seemed to capture that dark

[Music]

vision well to be perfectly blunt the

message of the song is you you Mr

President you Department of Defense you

commander-in Chiefs all you people you

want me to go out and die for something

and you won't even explain it to me you

won't tell me what to do uh you know

just the tune is called the I feel like

I'm fixing to die Rag and in 68 you'd

hear it

everywhere music like country Joe's uh

helped us to stay sane

[Music]

Philip Butler was a fighter pilot who

was shot down over North Vietnam by 1968

he'd been a prisoner of war for 3 years

and would endure five more before he was

released he was Shackled with his fellow

PS at an Infamous prison called the

Hanoi Hilton it was there he first heard

the fixing to die rag on a via Kong

radio program of anti-war propaganda

it's a very compelling tune and has

great Rhythm and it has a nice black GI

humor to it whoopy we're all going to

die is uh is pretty funny when you're

sitting there in a situation like that

it it rings very true for you after the

Ted offense of the anti-war movement

gathered momentum two senators Eugene

McCarthy and Robert Kennedy signed on

and openly challenge President lynon

Johnson for the 1968 Democratic

nomination good evening my fellow

Americans then on March 31st in a

televised speech watched by 70 million

people Lyndon Johnson announced that he

was withdrawing from from the race I

shall not

see and I will not

accept the nomination of my party for

another term as your president Mass

anti-war protests had helped bring about

the demise of a once popular president

and music had fueled The

Crusade for a few precious hours the

peace movement savored their Victory no

one imagined The Firestorm about to

break

nothing's going

to everything still remain the

same I can't do what people tell me to

do so I guess I

the next a revered leader is killed and

a dream Goes Up in

[Music]

Flames

during the mid-60s the Civil Rights

Movement had become a powerful

instrument for social change and by' 68

songs like Curtis Mayfield's we're a

winner were being played on radio

stations across the

[Music]

country black folks needed to hear that

and it helped I suppose in this own way

with the struggle and it wasn't even so

much the depth of lyric but we're moving

on up Lord have mercy we're moving

up in ' 68 it seemed music was building

a bridge across the racial divide what

was so exciting about 1968 was you

really felt like because there were

these black and white artists playing

together and who we all worshiped

together you felt for this tiny moment

that there was the possibility of

genuine racial and sexual equality In

America which was something which we

achieved on the radio but never really

achieved for any lasting moment anywhere

else let us be willing to turn the other

cheek with the realization that it is

better to go through life with a scar up

body than with a scar up

Soul as the war in Vietnam dragged on

Martin Luther King exerted his influence

on behalf of the peace movement more

than any other National figure he exuded

A Spiritual Authority which transcended

politics generations and

[Music]

race it's easy to forget that a lot of

what 1968 was about was being

anti-materialistic Martin Luther King

said it's time for us to move from being

a thing oriented Society to a person

oriented Society in a country that's

seemed to be splitting at the seams King

was that rare figure who was still

struggling to keep it together so I'm

happy tonight I'm not wor it about

anything I'm not fearing any man my eyes

have seen the glory of the coming of the

[Applause]

[Music]

Lord then on April 4th 1968 while

standing on a motel balcony in Memphis

Martin Luther King was shot by a white

man named James Earl Ray at 7:10 this

evening evening Martin Luther King was

shot in

Tennessee Martin Luther King 20 minutes

ago

[Music]

died as news of the assassination spread

expressions of Anguish and sorrow gave

way to a violent

[Music]

Fury after Martin Luther King is

assassinated you have the worst riots in

modern American history stre you have

machine gun nests on the uh steps of the

capital you have federal troops guarding

the lawn of the white house within 48

Hours of King's death 130 cities Across

America were scarred by looting an

arson then Aretha Franklin admonished

everyone to think deeply disturbed by Dr

King's death and the destruction which

followed artha wrote a song to bring a

community back

together

let mind go be

fre you have to stand up and be counted

for uh things that you believe in and

what you feel is right

[Music]

um and that's what I did

[Music]

M public confrontations were becoming

the order of the day on April 26th

200,000 high school and college students

across the US boycotted class to protest

the Vietnam

[Music]

War these were the children of the most

privileged classes in America and they

were revolting against the system and

this was much more terrifying in a way

to white middle class America to see

people just like themselves fighting

with the

police Beyond America passion and

protest raged in the streets of Paris

London Mexico City and Prague young

people everywhere were challenging

Authority and the status quo MC Jagger

and the Rolling Stones captured that

heady Spirit of rebellion in Street

Fighting

[Applause]

[Music]

Man that line is Street Fighting Man

everywhere I hear the sound of marching

charge's feet that was going on all

around the world Jagger went to a lot of

Street rallies in England at the time

there was a March 1968 rally at the

American Embassy English kids outraged

at uh the Prov iess of US foreign policy

in the world and the Quagmire that was

Vietnam and this kind of a thing and

Jagger was at that

rally with Martin Luther King gone

Robert Kennedy's bid for president

acquired a more emotional even desperate

Aura for many Kennedy was the country's

last hope he appealed to lower class

white people as well as blacks as well

as middle class whs he really had the

capacity to build a kind of

coalition

late in the evening of June 4th at The

Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles

supporters were celebrating Robert

Kennedy's victory in the crucial

California presidential primary my

thanks to all of you and now it's on to

Chicago and let's win

there but moments after he finished

speaking Kennedy was shot in the head

from Point Blank Range by a man named

Siran Siran if there's a doctor in the

house I want to see him right here

everybody else please stay back please

stay back hours later he was dead there

a doctor in the

house after his funeral in New York

Robert Kennedy's body was carried by

train to Washington where he would be

laid to rest near the grave of his slain

brother John tens of thousands of

admirers lined the tracks to say goodbye

now with both Robert Kennedy and Martin

Luther King gone it seemed there was no

one left to pick up the torch didn't you

love things that they

stood didn't they try to find

some it was only June but 1968 was

already one of the most tumultuous years

in US history the murders of Martin

Luther King and Robert Kennedy unleash

shock waves of grief and

fury you

the creation but by summer another kind

of wave was rolling across the American

Heartland a tribal movement bound

together by sex drugs and rock and roll

they were called hippies in bands like

the Jefferson Airplane the Grateful Dead

and big brother and the holding company

were their musical

Messengers what was significant about

the year 1968 was that the entire

Counter Culture became known to people

across the country it started around 64

or 65 in San Francisco and it slowly

just reached out like this uh pool of

water racing Across the Nation if you're

going to San franisco

be sure to

wear some flowers in

your we went to I think grenell college

in Iowa once in maybe' 67 and all the

people came to the show in like prom

gowns and tuxedos and then we came back

to grenell the next year and they were

having like nude lovein and mud bath

parties and acid freakouts and all this

sort of thing you in one in just one

year listen while I

play my Green

[Music]

Tambourine in Vietnam Young American

soldiers were fighting for their

lives in America their friends were

having the time of their lives the

contrast was

staggering at the time I was 28y old

rock and roll star so I was selfish and

concerned with who I could get into bed

uh who how there the record was doing

where we were going on the road isn't

this fun and how many drugs I could

take so there's a lot of selfish

Hedonism going on at the same time on a

different level you do care about how

the country is going and about how the

world's going but I'd have to say there

an awful lot of um what's in it for

me in reality it was politics not rock

and roll that gave the revolution its

sub

but music did give it

style the Regal Elegance of artha

Franklin the icy authority of Grace

Slick and the wrenching Blues of Janice

Joplin were redefining the role of

[Music]

women 1968 marked the beginning of a

feminist Revolution and not just in

music Grace Slick and Janice joffin and

ARA Franklin are really contributing to

the feminist movement indirectly because

they are just as famous and just as

important as any male rock and roll star

so you see real artistic equality

between men and women as well as between

blacks and whites Grace Slick and artha

Franklin sang songs that demanded

Liberation and respect Janice went one

step further she lived come

[Music]

on hone

[Music]

if the women were on the verge of just

kind of trying to move right up there to

the fence and see what was going on then

Janice was big enough formidable enough

to say it can be done it's okay come on

over you know so I think that she helped

in that

[Music]

sense zon this is the American forces

Vietnam Network where the hits just keep

on com oh I could in Vietnam soldiers

were staging a musical rebellion of

their own the Armed Forces Radio Network

was tightly controlled so troops created

their own Bandit radio stations this is

a dedication to the United States Army

Army

sucks even on the front line soldiers

could send out requests for songs the

Army didn't approve of I just spun the

dials lo and behold here's midnight Jack

broadcasting midnight Jack

I'm deep in the jungle oh bad news Moone

Ry says what can I play for you man how

about some Jimmy henricks he's gone for

about 30 seconds I imagine he's putting

a real real tape on you know and here

comes uh Jimmy

[Music]

Hendrick in the summer of 68 fighting in

Vietnam was

intensified back home in America's

Heartland the state age was set for

another battle it was August and

Democrats were gathering in a convention

hall in

Chicago on the third night of the

democratic convention August 28th all

the tensions and conflicts which had

been simmering in America that summer

boiled over when anti-war protesters

tried to March to the convention hall

Chicago's police launched a riot of

Their

[Music]

Own night of the nomination of the

democratic party was just a free-for-all

on worldwide television with young

people and others just being bloody

senseless these police officers were

lashing out in their own blind rage the

traditional answer is if uh you disagree

with me then I'll beat your

ass and that's what that's the solution

they were using of course the issues at

play here were way bigger than the

policemen in the

protest

[Music]

the actual fighting that happened in

Chicago in 1968 uh was uh class Warfare

but not of the kind that we thought that

that we were conducting we thought we

were upholding the the the impoverished

and the downod in America in fact the

impoverished and the downtrodden had

gotten jobs at the police department

were busting us over the

head not only hippies were getting beat

up but reporters like Dan Rather and

Mike Wallace were getting beat up by by

daily security people on the floor of

the Chicago

[Music]

convention in one wild night a

generation's Romantic Dreams of sweeping

aside the old order came crashing down

in a hard rain of terror and tear gas

there was a sense that the brutality in

Vietnam was coming home and that what we

were seeing in the streets of Saigon we

were now seeing uh in in the streets of

the city of

[Music]

Chicago craw America's mood was turning

darker and so with the

music next the movement loses momentum

[Music]

it's a summer's worth of hippie dreams

had curdled into a nightmare of violence

at the Democratic Convention in

Chicago now came a season of growing

discontent with pop hits that reflected

a souring climate of anxiety and

mistrust Martin Luther King was shot

Bobby Kennedy was shot it's a hard time

to have faith in the dream or hope in

the dream because they keep picking off

the leaders the music just got darker

got darker across the board now the time

has Time Has Come Today by the Chambers

Brothers you know it sounded like it was

you know your last chance to make a

decision in terms of where you stood you

know Time Has Come Today you know young

hearts must go their way you can't put

it off another day you know you had to

[Applause]

decide I'm

a man the presidential campaign turned

bitter and joyless and Republican

candidate Richard Nixon took dead aim at

the counter Culture by promising a

return of old-fashioned values of Law

and Order Election Day November 5th 1968

poll showed the two leading presidential

candidates in a dead heat but when all

the results were in Richard Nixon had

been elected president of the United

[Music]

States in his victory speech Nixon

promised to bring the country back

together but after all that had happened

in 1968 his Triumph was a bitter pill

for some to swallow I could not help but

be pissed off that was the whole my

America rer wrong gang saying dick Nixon

he'll fix it for us dick Nixon couldn't

fix a cleen Xbox and what they were

saying was we're not backing out of this

[Music]

war

reolution

well you know just weeks after Nixon's

Victory The Beatles released a two-

reccord set known as The White Album

filled with music as wide ranging and

undefinable as the year itself it

included a song called Revolution but

instead of a call to Arms John lennin

Sang of putting politics aside to work

on more personal issues the song incited

a firestorm of

controversy

I haven't s the

wing I'm so

[Music]

tired on the the social and political

earthquakes of 1968 produced plenty of

aftershocks demonstrations against the

war in Vietnam grew larger the protests

often turned violent and sometimes

deadly don't what to do but there would

never be another year quite like 1968

you really have to remember that 1968 is

the only year since the depression when

people really felt as if America could

fall apart I think there was a real

Revolution I think there was a real

violent

revolution but after all the smoke from

that revolution had cleared it was hard

to know who won and who

lost the Vietnam War lasted seven more

years and to this day Dr Martin Luther

King's visions of justice and racial

Harmony have yet to be

fulfilled but back in 68 many

songwriters and their fans believe that

music would change the world in

a with

curtains

station others have grown cynical and

reject the notion that music ever

mattered strobe lights

Beam creat Dreams the main thing about'

60s music were reflected attitude was

its self-importance and by 1968 or 1969

it thought it was a method of achieving

spiritual truth and poetical Justice

around the world this is vaudville this

is Vaudeville jugglers don't save the

world fire eaters don't save the world

people who make parakeet disappear in

handkerchief don't save the world why

would guitar players save the world but

if the music of 1968 had only a glance

ing impact on the dramatic events of the

day its Legacy still lingers in the

hearts and minds of a generation we did

make a dream come true for ourselves and

the dream was not about money and it was

not about style it was about your heart

and the way you live and society and the

way we all live

together we have left

[Music]

go in late December 1968 three American

astronauts were launched into space

aboard Apollo 8 Apollo 8 Houston you are

go for staging then on Christmas Eve the

crew of Apollo 8 turned their camera

toward the

[Music]

Earth 500 million people tuned in to see

our world like we had never seen it

before the V up here it makes you

realize just what you have back there