Original subtitles

How did you make music? Cause you carry a star.

Well, God help the true, but all who tries to be a star.

Go on and play the chords of love, my friend.

Of course he had these terrific conflicts between what was good for his

career and what was good for his conscience.

And with most artists in America, I'd say with 99% of the artists, this

conflict gets easily solved very early by agents and managers and producers and

sycophants that hang around them and everybody goes for the bucks. And if

Phil wanted to take that route, there's no doubt in my mind that he had the

talent to pull in millions of dollars.

but his conscience always threw him back to the streets.

And his politics always threw him, you know, closer and closer to the movements

he believed in.

In a building of gold which is untold Is the family on which the country

was founded And the merchants of style With their vain velvet smiles

were there

thing that i could say about phil was that he was there really that he was

there whenever you needed him whenever some little no matter how small the

group or big the group whenever anybody asked i can never remember him turning

down anybody any benefit any chance to uh to sing for a cause he believed and

he really he phil hoax was was there the ice cubes would cling as they freshen

their dreams wet their minds in bitter

You know, he was really one of the founders, guiding spirits of the

Yippies. He understood that instinctively.

When was this, about 66,

67? Yeah, it would be, I guess, around the rising of the Pentagon.

In October of 1967,

about 50,000 of us.

were able to lift the Pentagon off the ground and exercise it of its evil

spirit. Could you explain that in a little more detail? Well, you had to be

there to see it, you know. I don't know if I can really explain these kind of

things, but how it worked, you mean?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, at that point we had, I think there were a number of us, Ed

Sanders, Jerry Rubin, Bill Oaks, Ginsburg to some extent, poets.

artists, committed radicals, people that didn't believe in art for art's sake,

but art for a good sake, for a higher sake, who felt that the combining of

a cultural revolution with a political revolution would be an extremely

powerful ingredient to bring the message to masses and masses of people.

I declare, along with thousands of other Americans, the war is over.

If you think you're surprised to hear the war is over, imagine how the

administration's going to feel when they hear about it. See, Phil was really a

singer for the masses. That was one of his great frustrations.

And, of course, his great idol was Elvis Presley. He always wished that he could

have his mind inside almost the body of Elvis Presley so that he could bring to

millions and millions of people what he felt in his heart. If they don't have

the courage of their reality to declare this war on, we should at least have the

courage of our imaginations to declare it over.

So do your duty, boys, and join with pride.

Serve your country in her suicide.

Find a flag so you can wave goodbye.

But just before the end, even treason might be worth a try.

This country is too young to die.

it was interesting how the uh war is over phenomenon came about phil got the

idea that we should put together a demonstration to declare the war is over

and he ran around frantic he'd get very when he got onto an idea he got as manic

as most of the other creative artists that you know and he designed posters,

and he got the World War II poster of the sale of Kissings.

We were going to make it a reality.

And we all gathered in Washington Square Park, and of course he sang the song,

and about 5,000 people just went streaming up the boulevard, you know,

into all the stores and every, hugging people, the war is over, the war is

over. And it was quite effective because in that moment they had to say, well,

what would it be like if it was over?

The battle in America is between the child and the machine.

Jerry Rubin and I conducted a proxy debate for several years, usually

through Phil. I kept telling Phil that Jerry was a bad influence on him, and

Jerry kept telling Phil that I was a backward liberal influence on him. I

don't want the system to survive.

You do. In the 60s, myself and the people that I worked with, we were very

self-confident about our position, that we were right and everyone else was

wrong. To me, America...

And so therefore, even though Phil was just a little bit to the right of us,

shall we say, you know, we would have these huge arguments. I remember at one

Washington demonstration, he ended a song by saying, okay, when you protest

today, be sure to protest with dignity.

And I remember we getting so upset about that because what right does Phil have?

to preach to us about dignity when the United States is undignifyingly dropping

bombs on the Vietnamese.

In any way, is dignity really going to end the war? What's going to end the war

is total outrageousness. And that was kind of my difference with Phil. Phil

believed in reason. He thought that reason would finally end the war.

Our national honor.

Stop the bombing and stop the war.

In October of 1967, Kennedy was going to give his first

full-dress speech against the Vietnam War on the floor of the United States

Senate. And Phil came with me, and he sat in the press gallery as Kennedy gave

a speech, which was a very emotional and moving denunciation of the war policy

and the bombing of North Vietnam.

And after the speech, Kennedy flew back to New York on the shuttle, and Phil and

I flew back with him.

And on the plane, Phil, without a guitar, sung

Crucifixion for Robert.

And I think midway through the song, Robert Kennedy understood that

Crucifixion was partly about his brother, John Kennedy, and he was

absolutely wiped out.

by this rendition of Phil singing Crucifixion, just tapping his feet on

the back of the Eastern Airline shuttle on the day that Robert Kennedy finally

liberated himself from his brother's mistake in Vietnam.

I am announcing today my candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

I run because it is now unmistakably clear that we can change these

disastrous, divisive policies only by changing the men who are now making

them.

I shall not see, and I will not accept.

The nomination of my party for another term as your president.

I just want to do God's will.

And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain.

And I've looked over.

And I've seen the promised land.

No one, no matter where he lives or what he does, can be certain who

next will suffer from some senseless act.

a bloodshed and yet it goes on and on and on

in this country of ours why in 1968 i was a very

active supporter of robert kennedy campaign for the democratic nomination

and most most of my friends were active supporters of gene mccarthy including

phil and i felt very strongly that while mccarthy had the courage to run for

president and and was very good on the issue of the Vietnam War.

He was indifferent to the cause of poor people and indifferent to the problem of

racism. On the Saturday before Kennedy was assassinated, Phil and I flew

together from New York to Los Angeles, and I think in the course of that five

-and-a-half-hour flight, I made all these arguments to Phil, and I think

that did convince Phil in the final hours of the California primary to

change his affections from McCarthy to Kennedy.

It was as traumatic for Phil as it was for many people, I think. Phil had a

weakness for apocalyptic events, and for him to be in Los Angeles on the night of

such an apocalyptic event as Kennedy's assassination, I think it did have an

effect on his politics and his view of the world.

Bill was one of the few singers to participate politically in the Festival

of Light. We had conceived of this whole alternative in the park by presenting a

kind of Woodstock.

But Mayor Daley didn't give us any permits, so just a few brave souls that

came, and just about everybody chickened out.

Bill was basically down deep, probably a liberal in a sense. You know, a liberal

who liked Che Guevara. You explain it, I don't know.

He would go up and sing with Gene McCarthy.

and then come and hang out with people who were totally opposed to Gene

McCarthy because he was so outraged by American imperialism, which motivated

Phil.

The speakers at Grant Park tried to prevent riotous behavior so that

demonstrations would not be broken up by police.

Protest singer Phil Oakes spoke against any violence regarding the

demonstrations. His pet phrase was, quote, keep your cool, unquote.

He believed that outraging the country was not the way to go. But at the same

time... He liked the yippy sense of theater.

For example, Phil was arrested in the pig-assist demonstration.

The first day of the convention in Chicago, we brought a pig to the Civic

Center, and we said the Democrats are running a pig, the Republicans are

running a pig, and here's our candidate. Why should we be any different? Our

candidate's garbage. And Phil was one of the six people arrested.

We went out, my little band, Jerry and I was fat and had some friction at that

time, and I went out and got this pig, you know, and we paid good money.

for the pig we did a lot of good bargaining we got the pig in the back of

the car we brought the pig back we put it there and ruben came in and said the

pig's no good it's not it's not ugly enough it's not big enough but i said

this is our candidate it's not supposed to be ugly and big this is the pig we

love and the party split and they went out and they got their own pig you see

so so phil was trying to uh mediate between us the two pig

factions at the same time talked to the McCarthyites trying to bring the Hubert

Humphrey people together and try to cool out Mayor Daley.

He was playing... I don't know if he had a chance to sing a lot of songs those

few days in Chicago, but he was in a mighty peculiar role.

And with George McGovern as President of the United States, we wouldn't have to

have Gestapo sataxis in the streets of Chicago.

National Guard

After Chicago, Phil was very disillusioned. He could not believe what

actually happened in Chicago.

Because basically he was a social democrat.

And when he saw Democracy in Action in Chicago, he really was honestly shocked.

And when he came back, he got the idea for the rehearsals for Retirement Album,

which was basically that he had died in Chicago, that the American ideals had

died in Chicago.

The whole idea of democracy had died in Chicago.

And so that's why he put the tombstone on the cover of the rehearsals for

Retirement Album.

And he wrote a bunch of songs spurred on by the Chicago incident.

And then after that, that album didn't do that well.

After that, he started searching again for another direction. And there was no

Stimuli anymore.

Now, I'm a topical singer.

I'm not a folk singer per se. I'm a topical singer. And after nine years of

being a political singer, I definitely do have a reaction against the

counterculture. I think that the whole idea of having a freak counterculture is

a disaster.

I think that in order to have a real revolution, you have to have one

country.

To have this freak counterculture is isolationist, and Nixon is using it

against it. Nixon is very definitely...

uh conducting his campaign and essentially using the line uh no matter

what you might think of me i i'm straight i'm a regular guy and if you

don't have me you're going to have some hippie freak who's going to have dope in

the streets and destroying the country and he's using that line very very

effectively every everything is uh quite a bit harder than i

realized this was a song that

It always made me a little bit sad when I'd hear him sing it.

Because Phil was always talking about immortality and, you know, like, this

was great and this one was great.

He had a very historical sense of everything. Anything that moved down the

street had some kind of historical value to it.

So I always loved this tune.

It's called When I'm Gone.

There's no place...

In this world where I belong when I'm gone.

I won't know the right from the wrong when I'm gone.

You won't find me singing on this song when I'm gone.

So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here.

And the pleasures of love won't be mine when I'm

gone.

My pen won't pour a lyric rhyme when I'm gone.

So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm gone.

Won't see the golden of the sun when I'm gone.

And evenings and the mornings will be one when I'm gone.

Can't be singing louder than the guns when I'm gone.

So I guess I'll have to do it.

there's no place in this world where i belong when i'm gone

and i won't know the right from the wrong when

i'm gone you won't find me singing on this song

when i'm gone so i guess i'll have to do it

i guess i'll have to do it

I guess I'll have to do.

When you combine Chicago with Kent State, that pretty much killed the

movement. And so without that, Phil was at a temporary loss.

And then he started coming up with this weird idea that since we all grew up on

early rock and roll, that he thought basically for a revolution to work in

this country, you'd have to get somebody that had the persona of an Albus Presley

in the mind of a Che Guevara.

And so he said, wouldn't that be great if he did that on stage?

You know, like if Presley became politicized, if Presley would actually

come out for something. I mean, just think of the impact that would have.

And he said, well, since President, well, what a night.

I've been living up in Hollywood, California for the last couple of years.

I don't think it's had any effect on me.

I'd like to do a song now that was first recorded by someone who was very near

and dear to my heart way back in the 1950s.

Could this be the generation gap?

As you know, I died in Chicago in 1968.

And I got to go to heaven because I was a very, very good boy and I wrote a very

lyrical song.

And while I was up in heaven, I spoke to God.

God said to me, Phil, you know, it's almost over down there on Earth.

Just a couple of days left.

But you can go back and you can be anybody you want to be.

So I thought, now, who would I want to be?

And then it hit me.

The person that I would like to be most is the king of pop, the king of music,

Elvis.

Well, since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell.

Mostly you hear about the first show, which was a disaster.

But I was at the second show, playing no more songs with him at the end.

And people wouldn't let him off. He really freaked out at that concert

because the first show bombed so much that a couple of his fans asked him for

his money back.

The ticket booth wasn't cooperating with him, so I put his fist through the

window.

Cut his thumb up pretty bad.

I just fell out and played that set.

It's completely different than the first show because Phil, after he cut his

tongue, who was kind of in a state of shock, opened up to the audience.

If your baby leaves you, you've got a tale to tell.

Well, take a walk down Lonely Street. At the end of the show, we got standing

ovations, and the people wouldn't let them off, and so they actually turned

off the power. Phil started chanting, give us the power, give us the power,

and everybody was up on their feet chanting, give us the power.

Oh,

let's not be narrow-minded Americans about this now.

I think what we're doing up here is music.

I think it deserves to be heard.

I am America.

I am gold.

I am money.

I am hip.

I am moral.

I am America.

I didn't personally think he was a good performer and told him that.

But there's something interesting. He was very determined to make it in this

business and to make it in a commercial way.

He was extremely jealous, I think, of Bob Dylan, who was a contemporary of

his, and vowed to me at one time that he's going to be much more popular and

bigger than Bob Dylan.

Of course, this never happened.

I think one of the big problems that he had over the years is this compulsion to

make it, that is, to make it commercially. He had certainly

recognition in the folk music field as a very good writer and would have been

able certainly to make a reasonably good living.

But he wanted to reach the top, and this was never achieved.

And, well, as we know, the situation when he then became imitative of Presley

was a thing that many of us just scoffed at.

Outside of a small circle of friends Outside of a small circle of friends

Outside of a small circle of friends

Now, me, I go way

back to the time of the students.

When the students were striking over, if you'll excuse the expression, political

issues.

The purpose of the 60s was to educate.

Not just America, but the world.

And that succeeded.

These people sitting up in Vermont growing vegetables, they know what's

going on.

They're not the same crew they were back in the 1950s.

And they're going to make a comeback at just the right moment.

But if they misjudge the right moment, we'll all be dead.

Seems bitter.

Show me the whiskey stains on

the floor Show me the drunkard

as he stumbles out the door

And I'll show you a young man

with so many...

Where bombs had to fall.

potentially a tragic figure and became a tragic figure and the song is the

personification of the way in which people reach out to one another because

they see the pain and the inequity in life and if that is not the turning

point for the kind of activism and human connection that characterized the 1960s

then for me looking back on it I really don't know what is

File number 100441378.

Returned from Europe and Africa.