Texas Tweezers
1971 · Big Toe Big Toe 1 · USA
- Artist
- Abbie Hoffman
- Title
- Texas Tweezers
- Release
- Wake Up America!
- Year
- 1971
- Label
- Big Toe # Big Toe 1
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Folk · Spoken Word · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
On the track "Texas Tweezers", from the album Wake Up, America (Big Toe Records # 1), Hoffman took a phone call on a radio show. The caller attacked Hoffman for being ignorant, an exhibitionist, and for criticising the country, which, according to the caller, would have got him killed in Russia. Hoffman responded by arguing that the US "killed a million people in Vietnam", which damaged its reputation. He then rhetorically asked the caller "what do you think My Lai was, a god damn Coney Island trip".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Caller: "Mr. Hoffman...I just want to say...you have myopic point of view... / You have no conception of what life is all about / I accuse you of being a fraud, you're an exhibitionist... / If this country were run by people like you... / Society couldn't exist with creatures like you / You show your ignorance of what American is about / Your constant criticism, you wouldn't exist in Russian for five minutes / You'd be on the firing line... / The people in power made this country what it is" Hoffman: "You damn right they did! What the hell is it man? / I mean we killed a million people in Vietnam, don't you think that is damaging the public image of the country? / They killed a million people, what do you think My Lai was / What do you think My Lai was, a god damn Connie Island trip
Notes
Big Toe Records BIG TOE 1, stereo, pink labels, "Big Toe Records, Flat Edward, New York • Made in America", "Music by The Joint Chiefs of Staff". Side 1: Our Nat'l Anthem / Malachy's Bar & Grill / Texas Tweezers / The Drug Co. / Ave Maria / Jesus (total time 25:30); Side 2: Rubin / Flush Cool Water for Nixon / Chicago / Washington at Valley Forge / Religion of Sorts / Out of Doors / God Bless America / The Only Dope Worth Shooting (total time 25:04). The cover, "Abbie Hoffman sings on his friends The Joint Chiefs of Staff...", is a comic-strip drawing signed "p bramley": Hoffman in a stars-and-stripes shirt juggling a top-hatted baby, ringed by panels of a smog-choked city, an astronaut planting a flag on the moon, Uncle Sam with a hippie ("Lids?"), a haloed figure fleeing a boat ("Hey! Hippie!"), a fife-and-drum trio and the Statue of Liberty with a raised fist and a women's symbol.…
About the artist
Abbie Hoffman, born 30 November 1936 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, died 12 April 1989 in New Hope, Pennsylvania, USA. Political and social activist of the 1960s/70s who helped found the Youth International Party (Yippies), and took an active interest in the Vietnam War. Hoffman faced trial in 1969 for inciting riots, as one of the eight people arrested outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago in August 1968 (The Chicago Eight), all high-profile activists - Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin from the hippie movement, the Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, political activists Rennie Davis…
Themes
From the release Wake Up America!
In collections
1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs · My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]