The Who's Hoffman?

August 16^th – Timing is everything, as is your band’s or your activist movement’s credibility to the cause. My mind drifts back to the 60’s…screen goes wobbly and haze creeps in from stage left…oooooowwwweeeeeoooooo…

Right, pin back, lots of facts for you to pick up then immediately forget; We’re all familiar with the term hippies and their core beliefs; peace, pot and poetry…but not necessarily in that order. Well, in an effort to give this loose affiliation greater credibility (affiliation as I hesitate to use the word movement) in an effort to give this loose affiliation greater credibility, a more formal splinter group with a political objective and with openly declared aims was the yippie movement. This Youth International Party was a collection of intellectual activists formed in the face of a growing militarism in the U.S. Student protests had been forcibly put down, the black population was undergoing greater subjugation and the Vietnam War was on the cusp of sucking in multi thousands of America’s youth to die in the jungle. Amongst the kick-starters of this political movement was one Abbie Hoffman. His previous credentials included involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee which was heavily involved with the Civil Rights Movement and also with the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Along with a group that became known as The Chicago Eight, Mr. Hoffman was arrested on charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot and stood trial in ‘68’; the judge, whose name was also Hoffman (J) but was of no relation, was of the same religion. Hoffman (A) lampooned the judge, grandstanding for the reporters with his critical comments:

‘You are a ‘shande fur de Goyim’ (Yiddish for, a disgrace in front of the gentiles). You would have served Hitler better.’

Adding,

‘Your idea of justice is the only obscenity in this room.’

So, it’s obvious that Mr. Hoffman (A) walked in fear of no reprisal, and you only have to look at how the police treated student protest back then to realise the risk he was taking…but he also had his critics within the movement. Described as a media junkie, Mr. Hoffman (A) was deeply criticised over his opportunism when he published a book with (sin of all sins as far as the movement was concerned) his picture on the front cover, containing details of all the various free scams available to non-workers who wanted to rook the system…not the best way to win friends and influence people, particularly government people. It has to be said that he remained almost universally true to the cause; it was just that he also had an eye on what media-money and self-publicity could do for him. Nowt wrong with that, I guess, I mean, a guy’s gotta eat. I can offer no better response to those who denigrate him than to quote Mr. Hoffman (A’s) own words when he replied to question in an interview in 1987, so just two years before he died:

‘You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a CIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.’

He could be talking about the USA today…and the UK today for that matter.

The Who; with street credentials such as theirs they were a perfect act to book for the original, 1969, Woodstock Festival. Billed as a celebration of peace and love with an overlay of political challenge and a rebalancing of the status quo, the festival promised much, and The Who were a perfect megaphone for spreading the ideologies of youth. Giving a voice to the young people of Great Britain with musical offerings such as ‘The Kids Are Alright’, ‘My Generation’, ‘A Quick One While He’s Away’ and ‘Tommy’. Of the four individuals in the band, Pete Townshend was probably the most socially aware, certainly his writings testified to that assumption (remember yesterday’s chat? About taking things and people at face value…?)

On this day in 1969, The Who were on stage at Woodstock for their set, tuning up and such between numbers when Abbie Hoffman came onto the stage, took the microphone and said;

‘I think this is a pile of shit while John Sinclair’ (one of The Chicago Eight, a peace activist and staunch supporter of the cause) ‘rots in prison…’

That’s as far as he got ‘cos Mr. Townshend took exception to this interruption and knocked Mr. Hoffman (A) off’f the stage with his guitar saying that he found it intolerable that someone was prepared to, in his words;

‘Violate the sanctity of the stage.’

And that, whilst he agreed with Mr. Hoffman (A) about Mr. Sinclair’s imprisonment, that did not justify Mr. Hoffman (A) breaking the code of; ‘The right of the band to perform uninterrupted by distractions not relevant to the actual show.’ Now, I don’t know about you but I always thought the Woodstock Festival was precisely about facing down the status quo, and quite where Mr. Townshend got this ‘sanctity of the stage’ hogwash from is beyond me: sounds like luvvie-talk to me, not like the words of the front man for the band that recorded, Won’t Get Fooled Again…