18. The Battle of City and Country Culture in the School Assembly
The Memory: I don't remember many impromptu performances in my public school. It was a controlled environment, with a daily assembly that included a prayer, a bible reading, a pledge of allegiance to our Head of State, Queen Elizabeth. I remember 'assembling' at the begining of school, after a fairly quiet bus ride from home accompanied by many other sleep-deprived children, after early morning pre-class 'recess,' after removing our winter coats and warming up. We stood in the small 'gymnatorium' arranged by class. I remember this as a daily ritual; but I do remember exceptions.
One of these was a kind of impromptu 'talent' show open to various students. For all I remember this only happened once, because I only remember one example; and perhaps it was an idea that failed, because I don't recall that the open expression of popular culture of any kind was encouraged. And I remember this one instance because there were two very different performances.
The first was of a young man, newly arrived to our country school from the city, new to the school. He went onto the stage and stood alone, in his street clothes--slacks, plain-coloured shirt, short hair well-coifed (I remember this)--and with a guitar. He stood center-stage front, strummed the basic chords necessary for his performance, and sang the folk standard 'Waterloo.' I remember his singing the refrain--and I could sing the tune as well:
Waterloo-oo. Waterloo-oo.
Everybody's got to meet their Waterloo-oo.
I remember the audience reception. I remember quite well that it didn't go over well. The boys around me muttered, snickered, and possibly booed. I don't know if they did this openly, loudly, but it was noticeable to me. This may have been a local response, from my position about two-thirds of the way back in the room, surrounded by my class. But I don't think so; I think it was received 'poorly,' as compared with the other act performed that morning.
This other act was performed by two students who were a year or two older than me, and in the grade above me. They were both born and raised in the area, and related, one way or another, to many of the families who had settled the area a hundred years earlier. These two young men got onto the stage in what at the time was well-known as a 'hillbilly' costume--torn flannel shirts, overalls, and broken straw or felt hats. If they had instruments, I don't remember them; but I'm fairly certain they would not have played any instruments they held. They may have had jugs--a standard prop for this costume. They sang a novelty country song, and I remember the words from this performance, and the tune:
'So you think you got troubles.
So you think the world don't care.
So you think you got troubles.
Well, brother, you ain't seen nothin' yet....
Somebody put a bar in my car--
I drove myself to dri-ink!'
I remember words and music, though I'm quite certain I have never heard these words again, from that performance to my writing this.
And the crowd loved it. I remember that the audience shouted and clapped and stamped and hollered and just generally responded to this performance enthusiastically. I may have embellished the response, of course--I am aware that I mis-remember enthusiasm. But I believe I have the 'gist' of this right.
One performance was greeted with silence or worse, the other with enjoyment or better.
The Context: It makes sense that these two performances were 'reviewed' by the audience in such different ways.
The first performer was new to the area, a 'city' family that had re-settled in a country area at a time when this phenomenon was just beginning. I know this, because my family was an early example, and though we were 'early enough' that we were (finally) accepted, and though I was born after that move, it was still quite evident that my family was 'from away'--as they say in some other areas of this country. The response of the local community to any new neighbours very much depended on the attitude of the family moving in. There was resentment; though to be honest, thinking back, any resentment was entirely appropriate. Farms were losing money and being sold, a hundred years of local history was fast disappearing, a generation was realizing that farming and farm ownership was not going to be their legacy.
So the audience for this first performance was primarily a close-knit community, watching an example, on stage, of a change they were only half-aware was going to alter their lives forever. The second performance, in contrast, was like a family gathering, really, by well-known figures, cousins to some, friends to many others.
This difference in 'origin' is obvious in the difference in song. This was somewhere in the early 1960s. The first song was from the folk movement, which had been round since the 1950s, and a significant cultural influence, on radio, in popular music everywhere; but the other was from the long tradition of country-and-western music. As I remember those years, the two kinds of music, and the cultural traditions that went with them, were still quite separate, playing on different radio stations, with different artists and listeners. In my experience the difference in audience was just as obvious as you no doubt realize from these two performances. I had a small record player in my room at home, that played Simon and Garfunkel. I was introduced to any country artists--Johnny Cash the best remembered--at my neighbour's house next door. I was new-settler to the area, my neighbour was old-settler, his cousin one of the performers described above. There was, then, a reason to respond negatively to the music played on stage, as well as the musician.
But why do I remember this at all? Who would care to remember this? Why me? But then, as I think this through, I think the answer is embedded above. The fact is that I was a part of two cultures. My family was from the city, I was invested in it, and I listened to that music. I probably liked the rendition of 'Waterloo,' until I sensed the negative response around me. But I also liked--yes, loved--the irreverence of the second performance, which not only mocked country music (as hillbilly songs often did), but flew in the face of any school protocols, particularly with its reference to alcohol. Like any performance, it was done before those in control could stop it.
One final question--what music is missing from this story? Folk and Country were both popular, and at this point still more-or-less separate. But Rock and Roll had been around for years, and had already invaded all air-waves, and already tied together these genres. Dylan may have just electrified, Cash would soon have a very popular cross-over television program. Everyone listened to Rock and Roll. Everyone listened to the Beatles.
These were the great levellers-to-come. But they hadn't arrived just yet, where I lived.
