Jefferson Airplane’s 1969 “Volunteers” album
“We Can Be Together” was not Jefferson Airplane‘s most popular song, but it’s one of their most controversial. Released in 1969 as the B-side to the better-known “Volunteers” and included on the album of that name, the song is a hippie call to action in the face of the Vietnam War and other oppressive actions of those in power at the time, including Republican President Richard Nixon. Here are some of the lyrics to “We Can Be Together”:
We are all outlaws in the eyes of America
We are obscene, lawless, hideous, dangerous, dirty, violent
And youngWe should be together
Come on all you people standin’ around
Our life’s too fine to let it die
We should be togetherAll your private property is
Target for your enemy
And your enemy is weWe are forces of chaos and anarchy
Everything they say we are, we are
And we are very proud of ourselvesUp against the wall
Up against the wall, motherfuckers!
Tear down the wall
Tear down the wall
The song was a clarion call to young people to come together and stand up against the Vietnam War, police brutality, and the conservative forces of repression that were holding back progress in civil rights, the environment, and many other areas.
After more than 50 years, the most extreme parts of “We Can Come Together” of course have not come true. “Anarchy” did not take hold. There was no leftist “revolution,” as Jefferson Airplane called for on the A-side of this single. Instead, the military, big business, and private property are all alive and well in 2023. Indeed, Republicans are banning books. Gun violence is worse than ever. The planet is overheating to the point where our future is in question. Minorities of all kinds are still fighting for their rights, and even their survival, in the face of Republican hate and oppression.
However, the song has a strong lesson for Democrats of today who are looking at the 2024 elections and the prospect of a fascist dictatorship led by likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and backed by a right wing reactionary U.S. Supreme Court. That lesson is that, as Democrats, we can, and must, come together to defeat the Republicans in 2024.
This means that the destructive Democratic infighting of 2016, where many Democrats and “progressives” attacked leading presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and even the Democratic Party itself, leading to an election loss, must not happen again. This time around, too much is at stake. We have already experienced the nightmare of Donald Trump, including massive COVID deaths, a sharp recession, budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, and a Trump-led insurrection that almost destroyed our democracy. Some of these are things that the Jefferson Airplane band members and their peers could not even dream of in 1969 when they called for unity to fight the forces of darkness. Now, if we don’t come together, we risk not just losing power, but losing our country.
As the last line of “We Can Be Together” indicates, “won’t you try?”
Photo by Dr Umm, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/n8JIfB
