Blasting Caps from the Vault, Part 2

[Steve Plonk]

“Hippie from Mississippi”

By Steve Plonk

Well I’m proud to be a hippie from Mississippi
A state where even freaks can have a ball,
We don’t go out and get a buzz cut
Like the okies from Muskogee do...

We have other things to do on Sunday
“Cause we had to work the whole week through,
Every day is a day we worship
“Cause we try to emulate the Lord
In every little thing we do.

Well, I’m proud to be a hippie from Mississippi
Even though hardly anyone’s a Democrat there
We like to go and vote our preference
We don’t care if the public hates our hair

We try to treat everyone nicely
Even though others might not do the same,
One of these days, we say, a black man will get elected,
All the squares and grits think we’re insane.

But we’re proud to grow our beard & be called weird
We know one day many more folks will do the same
It’s too bad we’re not respected & that we’re rejected,
But there are other places that don’t care how you appear.

One of these days it won’t matter about the length of one’s hair
Nor the color of ones skin or where one is from—they won’t care—
All folks will care about is if one makes a contribution to the nation
So I’m hopeful that one day I’ll be free from tribulation

So all you okies from Muskogee can stop beating your chests
All you Neanderthals someday will let us have some rest
Because we hippies are as American as you
So get over our hair and let us move on through...


Lyrics, Circa Sept. 1970, in response to “Okie from Muskogee”

[saw]

Merle Haggard's song is awfully narrow-minded thereby inviting responses

I remember The Youngbloods did a to parody to balance things, and this poem calls his assertions to task as well......apparently time has mellowed him, and he no longer feels that way.....it's kinds funny he holds up white lightning as a core value given that it is illegal, but hey.....he spoke his mind,
and you spoke yours......god bless america.....good night irene.......ha ha

[Steve Plonk]

Thanks, Saw... My response lyrics were sitting in a notebook for many years and,
after seeing the Kennedy Awards program, I decided to show the lyrics the light of day. Yep, Haggard has changed his tune in 40 years. He was sitting alongside Paul McCartney, etc. getting an award. But, we remember him way back when...

Yep, "Okie from Muskogee" made me write a response song different from the Youngbloods but I think still poignant considering the views expressed. People
used to throw rocks at hippies and try to run them off the road. The country is
still divided along ideological lines but in a different way from 1970.

[Steve Plonk]

“Sacred to the Memory of: Tuli Kupferberg”

By Steve Plonk

From a two story outhouse,
I sing Kyrie eleison,,,
My Lord, my home’s a
Pig wallow,
Barn swallows nest
In my hair,
Yet I sing of memories of
Tuli, my mentor of the muse &
The amuse—
***
My beard has many mats—
When I sleep on my futon,
My head’s full of bats,
Yet I care, yet I cherish
The memory of Tuli—
I am distressed, Kyrie eleison,
May the Great Lord bless &
Keep Tuli’s soul—
***
Though my spirit is broken,
From running these streets,
I sing for a blessing for Tuli—
He paid the toll—
I know I’ve left some stones unturned,
My memory yearns for your joyful noise—
***
My friend & mentor
Tuli Kupferberg—
May G-d’s great gates
Open once again to admit you—
This I pray, my Kyrie eleison,
From my lovable pigs stye...
Rains coming down in sheets...

August & December 2010

[Steve Plonk]

Author's Note:
Hello out there, anyone else recall that Tuli Kupferberg was a founder of the
rock & roll band, "The Fugs"? Tuli was also a regular on "You Tube" with
his astute and zany commentary...

[Steve Plonk]

Also see, for education edification "The Nothing Song" by the Fugs on
the You Tube Video forum...

[creativesoul]

i rode horses in picayune miss with a crew back in 70 s - one of the guys had a rolled tabacco cigarette, and well, out of now where came the police- ripped his cig to shreds, and we rode away-
cant say i went back there- but i had a baby in atlanta, Ga-- more about this later- sweet piece, brings back fond memories of being a hippie in cali- and hawaii etc

[Steve Plonk]

Creativesoul, thanks for your comments. Many years have passed since I
first conceived of and wrote the "Hippie from Mississippi" poem. Hope you
also checked out the "Nothing Song" by The Fugs. If it wasn't for Ed Sanders, &
Tuli Kupferberg of "The Fugs" , Bob Dylan & the Band, the Beatles, the Byrds,
Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger & just a few more, like James Brown, I wouldn't have
thought of writing anything. Folk Rock got into my soul...along with Rhythm & Blues & jazz. I soaked up influences like a sponge in my early teens & young
adulthood. I was also greatly influenced by Martin Luther King, Jr. So, may
God bless you and have a great MLK Day.

[Hollweg]

Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope.

--Tuli Kupferberg

[Steve Plonk]

Thanks for that Tuli quote, Hollweg. Here's another one:

"When patterns are broken, new worlds can emerge..." Tuli Kupferberg

[Steve Plonk]

TRIP TRAP
By Steve Plonk

Trip trap
I'm flipping my flap,
I'm rapping my rap,
I'm running my tongue around
I gotta get the speile said
Before folks all leave town...

They say that you are responsible
For everything you do or say
But I wasn't responsible for the
Day I was born
Or the first haircut I was shorn...

I wasn't responsible for my Grandpa
Dying way back in World War One
I wasn't responsible for the color of my
Skin or eyes or the hair I can grow on my chin
I wasn't responsible for my genetic makeup
Or the family I was born within...

I wasn't responsible for the blizzard we had
Nor when the sun rose to 110
So is it nature or nurture my fairweather friends?
May we prevent every accident we ever were in?
What is it that makes sense of living
When we know we are interdepend?

How many angels may dance on a pin?
How does our speech affect enemies or friends?
Do we have all the answers to make amends?
Do we have strong enough will to stop all wars?
Are we responsible for the air we breathe?
Are we responsible for when we are coming and
When we do leave?
What is it we really believe?
What is responsibility when the lava explodes or
The earthquake strikes, or when the cars crash
Or we fall off our bikes? Many things are beyond
Our control and many things are not to our likes,
What good is responsibility when the tsunami hits?
God has the ultimate response, my friends...
So I keep my ears out for the message which God sends...
Keep an ear to the rail and you may hear the train coming,
But don't keep the ear to the rail too long or you'll get run down,
So keep your ears on when the train comes to town.
Don't pick up a snake that you know is a copperhead,
Because it is certain that it might bite and you might be dead...
God has the ultimate response, my friends...
So I also keep my ears out for the message God sends...
Ziggyboogiedoo!

Also see, "Rant and Rage" forum...this is a reprise, with one small change.

[creativesoul]

love this---

[Steve Plonk]

Glad the poem-rant pleased you. I just had to get jiggy with it.

[Steve Plonk]

WINTER HOLLOW

By Steve Plonk

Twas stormy and the howling wind
Did whistle and rattle tree branches
In the winter hollow--
All cloudy was the winter sky &
The icy stream gurgled loudly,
Blankness of the sky screamed
Out for help in the icy caves...

Winter hollow held its form of death
In barren twigs of trees
Squeaking on the window panes,
Horrid crusty snow & ice cover tree branches,
Frozen like the heat on the lips
Of a dying star,
Tree branches await the spring thaw...

Circa Feb. 1968, Revised Feb. 2011

[Steve Plonk]

Kind folks and gentle people, that was the winter of our country's discontent.
The whole world was watching...Seems to be repeating in other parts of the
world, too. I froze right to the bone that winter of 1968 and I got the flu and
the army is a bad outfit to have the flu in...During the influenza epidemic of 1968... Wasn't as bad as 1918, but it was a pretty bad epidemic...