Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out

Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out

The 1960’s was a time of peace, love, and rock n’ roll, and with those traits in a generation comes a phrase that encompasses everything that they thought and how they acted. The 1960’s was a time for political outcry and anti-military stands at college campuses around the nation, as well as free drug use and sex. Timothy Leary was standing in his shower when this phrase that could define the ideas and acts of the time he was living in came to him, and that phrase has continually come up when talking about the 60’s. The phrase, “tune in, turn on, drop out” has always been interpreted differently, but I find it to be a metaphor for being against the Vietnam War.

Folk singers had been the preeminent leaders in the fight against the war, with the likes of Bob Dylan and The Beatles John Lennon also joining to keep the war cold and the peoples’ feelings hot. By using lyrics that said such statements as, “Imagine there's no countries

it isn't hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too, imagine all the people, living life in peace,” by John Lennon, a strong feeling was created that could help with rallying the people to put an end to the war. But these musicians also felt very strongly about the use of drugs to enhance the mind and to allow the body to be in harmony with the earth. Thus the phrase, �tune in, turn on, drop out” gave even more life to the anti-war call.

This era had given new life to the U.S., but had also brought many problems, the Kent State shooting to name one, and with the tragedies came even more and more prevalent drug use and the phrase that I have mentioned became a social religion, so my question poses an answer that can be interpreted many ways. How did the use of anti-war songs in harmony with drug use and this new “social religion” help preserve the young Americans’ sense of freedom and patriotism in the 1960’s?

“Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie, details his

Alice's Restaurant

By Arlo Guthrie

This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the

restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant,

that's just the name of the song, and that's why I called the song Alice's

Restaurant.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Walk right in it's around the back

Just a half a mile from the railroad track

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on

Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the

restaurant, but Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the

church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and

Fasha the dog. And livin' in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of

room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Havin' all that room,

seein' as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't

have to take out their garbage for a long time.

We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it'd be

a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So

we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW

microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed

on toward the city dump.

Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the

dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving." And we had never heard of a dump

closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off

into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.

We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the

side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the

cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile

is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we

decided to throw our's down.

That's what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving

dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the

next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, "Kid,

we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of

garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And

I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope

under that garbage."

After speaking to Obie for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we

finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down

and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the

police officer's station. So we got in the red VW microbus with the

shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the

police officer's station.