Dancing in the Street.......A Protest Tune

Calling Out Around the World

Little did I know that I was doing the Jerk ...the Bugaloo...the Temptation Walk   to a protest song...a Motown tune no less. I remember it felt good dancing,  moving  and grooving  to anything Motown.   Perhaps  dancing saved me and others of my generation  from going entirely mad. The Sixties was a time of cultural change and upheaval,  and change we have learned  does not often  come easy, nor does  is it  occur over nite.     

Motown broke onto  the airwaves in the early sixties  like a sledgehammer.  The music  was fresh , new and infectious. It was a "brand new beat". Martha and the Vandellas  were in the forefront rallying us all..."calling out  around the world"...to "Dancing in  the Street". Like in any good art, its the subliminal that was at work here. 

 A footnote....   the Beatles landed in the US in 1964 singing a hoard of  sugar-coated puppy-love tunes to ecstatic screaming teenyboppers; songs like    "I want to Hold Your Hand",  "She Loves You" and "Please Please  Me".  At this point in time,  Bob Dylan was already  in the forefront  of the  cultural revolution that was about to  erupt worldwide,  and he was not singing bubblegum.  As early as 1962,  Dylan's genius  was apparent.  Compositions such as  "Blowing in the Wind", "Times are a Changing", "Chimes of Freedom" were tackling and challenging issues like    racism, poverty, and social change .  The Beatles soon there after followed after smoking weed on Dylan's advice...so Ringo says.

The following is a repost from Penguin.com (usa)

Ready For a Brand New Beat 

How 'Dancing in the Street' Became the Anthem for a Changing America

Mark Kurlansky - Author  

Summary of Ready For a Brand New Beat

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Can a song change a nation? In 1964, Marvin Gaye, record producer William “Mickey” Stevenson, and Motown songwriter Ivy Jo Hunter wrote “Dancing in the Street.” The song was recorded at Motown’s Hitsville USA Studio by Martha and the Vandellas, with lead singer Martha Reeves arranging her own vocals. Released on July 31, the song was supposed to be an upbeat dance recording—a precursor to disco, and a song about the joyousness of dance. But events overtook it, and the song became one of the icons of American pop culture.

The Beatles had landed in the U.S. in early 1964. By the summer, the sixties were in full swing. The summer of 1964 was the Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, the beginning of the Vietnam War, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and the lead-up to a dramatic election. As the country grew more radicalized in those few months, “Dancing in the Street” gained currency as an activist anthem. The song took on new meanings, multiple meanings, for many different groups that were all changing as the country changed.

Told by the writer who is legendary for finding the big story in unlikely places, Ready for a Brand New Beat chronicles that extraordinary summer of 1964 and showcases the momentous role that a simple song about dancing played in history.

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