Following Michelle Obama is no easy task, but the duo of Billy Porter and Stephen Stills stepped up with a virtual performance of ‘For What It’s Worth’ at the opening night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
While Stills first wrote and sang the song – which is perhaps better known by its subtitle, “Stop, hey, what’s that sound?” – as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1967, it has become a generational protest song for times that the world seems to be on top of, for political reasons and otherwise. Between the Trump presidency, coronavirus and Black Lives Matter, there has been a lot of potential use for the song in recent months, and Porter addressed it earlier this year.
“Billy did such a great cover of the song and that was me [originally] sing with him about this for the DNC, ”says Stills Variation of Monday night’s performances (pre-recorded). ‘But then I decided’ Nah, it’s Billy’s record, so let’s fly with it. And also, my wifi is not reliable, “he adds with a laugh,” so I played guitar and sang along. “
More seriously, he goes on to say, “Billy and I first talked about this on the day George Floyd died – he threw furniture in his apartment, he was so angry.”
While the song was first inspired by the November 1966 uprising on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip – which began when police began maintaining a decades-old 10 a.m. clock for people under the age of 18 – it soon became a national anthem. the late 1960s and beyond.
“Like a lot of social commentary, it was pretty spontaneous,” recalls Stills, who was 21 when he wrote the song. ‘I came across Laurel Canyon and I saw this [demonstration], and a whole bunch of dots connected for me, about how much resistance there was against the war and other things. Sam Yorty, the mayor [of Los Angeles at the time], was afraid it was an anti-war riot, and he sent the police into full battle array, and I just responded to it. The song took as long to write as it did to actually sit and write because I still had something bubbling.
‘It just had to be [spontaneous], “He goes on,” because if you try too hard, it becomes pontificate, you know? That’s why I’m careful not to place more than a few protest songs on my albums – I never liked the term, in fact, because then you end up writing, like on eds to limericks, and it gets hackneyed. You have to wait until something really hits you. ”
According to legend, the title of the song came over after Stills presented the song to the band and the founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun, was rather shocked, saying, “Here’s a new song, for what it’s worth is, “but Stills says he” can not confirm narrative. “
While he says he always felt strongly about the song, he did not know how special it was “until we recorded it and they decided to take one of my other songs off the album and replace it with that one” – after it song was recorded, Atlantic quickly re-released Buffalo Springfield’s debut album to record it – and he adds with a laugh, “then everyone in the room wanted a piece of the release!”
Asked how the political climate today compares to the one that inspired the song, Stills says: ‘The swamp is just as deep and the mendacity and hypocrisy is too – although there is much more on the line now.
“I think these elections have certainly brought everyone to the party,” he adds, “and I’m glad I see it.”
