Thought I’d share this little Bob Dylan song. It’s called Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues and was originally recorded for Dylan’s Second album The Freewheelin Bob Dylan. However, the song was replaced after some controversy over a Television Show censorship a few weeks before the album was due to be released.
Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues
The song was recorded for Bob Dylan’s Second Studio Album ‘The Freewheelin Bob Dylan‘. It was due to be released in May 1963. In fact, a limited amount of copies were made with this song on it. But these were soon recalled and destroyed by Columbia Records after some controversy over the song.
Song Lyrics
Well, I was feelin’ sad and kinda blue
I didn’t know what I was gonna do
The communists was a-comin’ around
They was in the air
They was on the ground
They was all over
So I run down most hurriedly
And joined up with the John Birch Society
I got me a secret membership card
I went back home to the yard
Started looking on the sidewalk
Under the hedges
Well, I got up in the mornin’ I looked under my bed
I was lookin’ every places for them gol-darned Reds
Looked behind the sink, and under the floor
Looked in the glove compartment of my car
Couldn’t find any
Look behind the cloths, behind the chair
Lookin’ for them Reds everywhere
I looked way up my chimney hole
Even looked deep inside my toilet bowl
They got away
I heard some footsteps by the front porch door
I grabbed my shotgun from the floor
Snuck around the house with a huff and a hiss
“Saying hands up you communist”
It was the mail man, he punched me out
Well, I was sittin’ home an’ started to sweat
I figured they was in my T.V. set
I peeked behind the picture frame
Got a shock from my feet, right up in the brain
Them reds did it
Hooting in the television
Well, I quit my job, so I could work alone
Got a magnifying glass like Sherlock Holmes
Followed some clues from my detective bag
And discovered red stripes on the American flag
Betty Ross
Now Eisenhower, he’s a Russian spy
Lincoln, and Jefferson and then Roosevelt guy
To my knowledge, there’s just one man
That’s really and truly an American
That’s George Lincoln Rockwell
I know for a fact he hates Commies
‘Cause he picketed the movie Exodus
Well, I finally started thinkin’ straight
When I run outta things to investigate
I couldn’t imagine nothin’ else
So now I’m home investigatin’ myself
Hope I don’t find out too much, good God
The Ed Sullivan Show
On May the 12th, 1963, Just a few weeks before the Freewheelin album was due to be released, Bob Dylan was scheduled to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. When asked what songs he’d be playing on the show, Dylan told Ed Sullivan that he would be playing ‘Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues’. However the ‘Head of Program Practices’ at CBS Studios refused to let him play the song, fearing Libel lawsuits from The John Birch Society. So they asked Bob to play another song instead.
But Dylan was having none of it. What was the point in putting effort into writing a protest song just to have it rejected and play something else? No way! He would either play the song on the show or he wouldn’t play the show at all.
Who Pulled the Plug?
Alternative Releases
Although the song never made it’s originally Intended place on the Freewheelin album, it has still been released
Who was John Birch?
John Birch was a Military Intelligence Captain in the United states Air Force. He was posthumously awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal after being Killed on duty in China by Chinese Communist forces on the 25th of August, 1945. This was just 10 days after World War II Ended. He is often considered the very first casualty of The Cold War and considered a Martyr by some. In Robert E Welch fonded the Anti Communist advocacy Group The John Birch Society in commemoration of the officer.
Birch was born in India to Missionary parents but returned with his parents to America when we was Two Years old. He grew up in New Jersey and later Georgia. Here he grew up a Zealot and was always quite militant in his strong Christian beleifs. One example of this was at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia where he levelled charges of Heresy at some of the lecturers and spent a whole day in the classroom conducting a mock trial of the teachers.
At age 11, Birch decided he wanted to be a Missionary and he enrolled in J. Frank Norris’ Fundamental Baptist Bible Institute in Fort Worth, Texas. He had visited China before and with the Sino-Japanese War taking it’s toll on China, Birch couldnt wait to get in there again and preach the gospel and making converts. Norris explained they went “fully informed as to the dangers that await them, but they go like the Apostle Paul when he knew that it meant death at Jerusalem.”
In July of 1940, he landed in Shanghai and was soon posted to Hangzhou in the far North Eastern part of the Zhejiang province. However, by 1942, the ceaseless attacks by the Japanese made life pretty grim for Birch and he considered leaving the Missionary work and joining the army. But when he took a leading part in smuggling agroup of bailed U.S Airforce crew out of the Japanese occupied area nd back behind the lines to safety, Birch was automatically commissioned to the United States Air Force as Second Luitenant in Chongqing on July the 5th, 1942. He fought in the 23rd fighter group throughout the War until March 1943 when the regiment changed to the Fourteenth Air Force.
By 1945, Birch had risen to Captain and was transferred to the U.S Office of Strategical Services. Although the War was over and hostilities had ceased, there was still plenty of work yet to be done in China. The Japanese army had been advised to hold their positions until they were able to officially surrender them to Chinese National Authorities. But with the countries leadership being in dissarray, this led to some confusion. Chinese Communist forces sought to rid the country of all remnants of Japanese Imperial rule including American Forces.
The John Birch Society
The John Birch society is a Right Wing American Anti-Communist political advocacy group. It was founded in by Robert E. Welch and was named after Martyr’d U.S Airforce officer John Birch who was killed by Communist Forces in China.
What do you think?
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