I Protest

Annotation

Mac Davis, country artist, born on 21 January 1942 in Lubbock, Texas, USA, and died 29 September 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. This record (Capitol Records # 5554) took a strong anti-protest perspective, mocking protest singers and the anti-war movement on both side. In the song "I Protest", he declared "I protest against you protesters... you're only conforming to non-conformity". The first track especially presented an anti-hippie perspective - criticism of hippie [or hippy] culture. Often presented as a youth movement, related to psychedelic music, drugs use (e.g. LSD and marijuana), long hair (both men & women), jeans, flairs, pop art, free love (sex, love-in), travelling, spirituality: "I won't grow myself a long black beard, wear a pair of grimy sandals which will make me look weird". It contained a patriotic Vietnam-related message: "when I try to go and fight for the right to be free you're lying on your back".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Just because I wear a natural shoulder ivory league jacket / And a buttoned down shirt with a new jacket / Don't mean I'm un-liberated, I protest babe / Just because I won't grow myself a long black beard / Wear a pair of grimy sandals which will make me look weird / Don't mean I'm un-liberated, I protest babe / I protest against you protesters cause you're too blind to see / That you're only conforming to non-conformity / That makes you just as square as me / When I try to go and fight for the right to be free / You're lying on your back on the tracks in front of me... / Just because I won't stand in your picket line / Carrying a sign that looks exactly like the one behind me / That don't mean I'm un-liberated, I protest babe Roaches and spiders, and Russian built fighters / And Alabama night riders, and agitating outsiders / All mean the same to me babe, bad scene / Lying, and cheating, and Ku Klux Klan meetings / And picket line meeting, and segregated seating / All mean the same to me babe, bad scene / Some day I'm going dig hole, and live in until I / Get some soul before I come out, until then.... / I got the right to be a singer for the cause / Until I know what the cause is about / Until then I'll shout, Lord it's a bad scene...

Notes

Capitol 5554, yellow-and-orange swirl labels; "Bad Scene" (M. Davis), 2:28 (45-55390), and "I Protest" (M. Davis), 2:16 (45-55391), both Low-Sal Music, BMI, produced by Joe South; "Mfd. by Capitol Records, Inc., U.S.A." In a white Capitol company sleeve with the repeated "Capitol" logo. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Born Lubbock, Texas, USA (21 January 1942). Currently Los Angeles, California, USA.

Themes

Anti-Protest · Demonstration · Patriotic · Counter-Culture & Hippies

In collections

Civil Rights Songs · Garage Rock Songs · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years]