by Peter Burton

Created on: April 24, 2008

"There's a riot going on, revolutionaries,
rock Stars and the rise and fall of 60s counter-culture" by Peter Doggett'

Peter Doggetts "There's a riot going on, revolutionaries, rock Stars and the rise and fall of 60's counter-culture was one of the best featured books at the recent Aye Write festival in Glasgow .

The book recalls in detail ( its 525 pages) the uneasy relationship between rock stars, political activists and the counter culture in the 8 years between 1965 and 1972.

Doggetts' raison d'etre for the book:-

" In an era when Bono, the hand in glove darling of the global political establishment and Bruce Springsteen, the personification of cosy liberalism, are revered as rock and pop icons, its timely to be reminded of an era when artists were prepared to court popularity ( And worse) for their ideals.

Dogget also attacks some of the myths that have been created by the artists themselves about the period citing the documentary The U.S. against John Lennon' as sanitising the role of an artist who gave both money and publicity to the IRA, Black Panthers , The Vietnam solidarity Committee, Zippies, Yippee and ,not least, the "Dylan Liberation Front ".

The book begins with an account of how a key figure like Jerry Rubin began to channel the Berkley Teach- in - in May 1965 for free speech against the war using artists like Phil Ochs . Rubin also attempts to revive and use a by now disgruntled Dylan through Alan Ginsberg. He describes the role of Ginsberg, Ed Sanders and Tulin Kupferberg and their musical ensemble "The Fugs " exploring the limits of censorship as they travel across America.

Dylans' attitude by 65 is described in discussions with Ginsberg and quotes from Dylan himself. The more Dylan tried to distance himself from the political activists the more they, in turn, tried to reclaim and re-activate him. This took on bizarre proportions as the Dylan obsessive A J Weberman makes it his sole mission to " liberate Dylan " launching a " Dylan liberation Front " campaign . One of the more unsavoury of Weberman' tactics was raking through Dylan's garbage to find incriminating sell-out evidence about the artist.

And Black Panther leaders like Bobby Seale and Huey Newton read coded hidden messages into Dylan's' lyrics on' Bringing it all Back home' and Highway 61 revisited' supposedly telling them what tactics to use in their war against " The Man".

There are recurring chronological accounts of the relations between artists like ,Dylan, Mick Jagger, Jefferson Airplane,

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