Music | July 16, 2011 | 12 comments

Richard Nixon: "Give A Damn" not for family hour, "I Don't Give A Damn" for civilian casualties

thedirtman
Spanky and Our Gang was an American 1960s folk-rock band led by Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane. The band derives its name from Hal Roach's popular Our Gang comedies of the 1930s (known to modern audiences as The Little Rascals). McFarlane was nicknamed "Spanky" because one of the band members, perhaps influenced by her last name, said that she resembled Our Gang star George "Spanky" McFarland. The group was known for its vocal harmonies.

"Give a Damn" was released as a single in the summer of 1968. In spite of being banned in several states because of the profanity in its title - and in some cases due to the fact that it was a comment on racial equality that became the theme song for the New York Urban Coalition - the song became a regional hit where released and overall made #43. It was also performed live on an episode of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, resulting in CBS Standards and Practices division receiving numerous complaints about the song's title being used during 'family viewing hours'. One such complaint reportedly came from Richard Nixon (Tom Smothers, 'Geraldo' Interview, 1987).

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NIXON: The only place where you and I disagree ... is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about civilians and I don't give a damn. I don't care.

KISSINGER: I'm concerned about the civilians because I don't want the world to be mobilized against you as a butcher.

-conversation with Henry Kissinger as quoted in Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
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12 comments // Richard Nixon: "Give A Damn" not for family hour, "I Don't Give A Damn" for civilian casualties // Video

  • ReMarker
    • +3
      ReMarker  

    • Thanks dirtman. This post brought back a flood of memories and reminded me of a time when many of us chose to NOT walk the path Republicans, to this day, continue to insist on.

      Nixon and his ilk, many of which are still active politically (Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Pat Buchanan, etc.), have prevented, not helped, America from being that shinning city on the hill Reagan referred to.

      Nixon's administration is responsible for killing college students on college campuses.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7-m919ynU

    • 11 months ago
  • thedirtman
  • Richard_Wyatt
  • thedirtman
  • chew_chew
    • +3
      chew_chew  

    • Peace, love, woodstock, jimi hendrix, blacklight poster. And lava lamp.

      One of the campaign slogans during Mr Nixon's campaign for a second term: "Don't change Dicks in the middle of a screw, vote for Nixon in 72." And apparently, many people did... vote for Mr Nixon, I mean.

    • 11 months ago
  • bailey78
  • thedirtman
  • chew_chew
  • bailey78
  • thedirtman
    • +1
      thedirtman  

    • If you'd take the train with me
      Uptown, thru the misery
      Of ghetto streets in morning light,
      It's always night.
      Take a window seat, put down your Times,
      You can read between the lines,
      Just meet the faces that you meet
      Beyond the window's pane.

      And it might begin to teach you
      How to give a damn about your fellow man.
      And it might begin to teach you
      How to give a damn about your fellow man.

      Or put your girl to sleep sometime
      With rats instead of nursery rhymes,
      With hunger and your other children
      By her side,
      And wonder if you'll share your bed
      With something else which must be fed,
      For fear may lie beside you
      Or it may sleep down the hall.

      And it might begin to teach you
      How to give a damn about your fellow man.
      And it might begin to teach you
      How to give a damn about your fellow man.

      Come and see how well despair
      Is seasoned by the stif'ling air,
      See your ghetto in the good old
      Sizzling summertime.
      Suppose the streets were all on fire
      The flames like tempers leaping higher
      Suppose you'd lived there all your life,
      Do you think that you would mind?

      And it might begin to reach you
      Why I give a damn about my fellow man;
      And it might begin to teach you
      How to give a damn about your fellow man

    • 11 months ago
  • nikonwilly
  • thedirtman
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