http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5M_Ttstbgs
This song was written during Vietnam. You can hear, like in some of the other early protest songs, a kind of folksy sound.
I liked the lyrics:
"There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind"
I thought that what the Simon Frith article from this week said on this song was interesting: "LA's great 60s hit, Buffalo Springfield's 'For What It's Worth,' seemed less to protest the youth-police battles along Sunset Strip than to celebrate them as style wars" (64). It seems like a more laid-back - although not to necessarily say lacking in passion - listening of the song. But indeed, I hear a calm, pleasant, and "folksy," as Molly described, sound.
ReplyDeleteI haven't really seen Forest Gump but I believe "For What It's Worth" is in it, and it'd be interesting to see how it is used in the film. I do know, however, that the Vietnam-flick satire Tropic Thunder featured the piece, and whether it is mocking the music of the time as well or interpreting it on a whole other level, I'd like to try to determine after another viewing of the film. Although, of course, it might be difficult to take Tropic Thunder very seriously.