Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 23:20:57 -0600 From: "John R. Weikart" (jweikart@MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU) Subject: Re: weathermen wesley@interaccess.com wrote: > my history text states that the weathermen took their name from dylan's > line in SHB, i had always believed that dylan had used the line to object > to the weathermen and their proposed methods, and imply to the world to > think for yourself of revolution that was going on in the world, it > seemed to fit perfectly. though the text states the weathermen did not > come about intil '68 which seems to back up their version since SHB was > written before then. please somebody clear this up for me via email > or post, if you can document your proof to either side of the arguement. > drew. The book I happen to have on my shelf that explains the origin of the name is "Destructive Generation" by Peter Collier and David Horowotz. They explain how a radical wing of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) went about finding a title for a major manifesto they wrote in 1969: "Terry Robbins suggested the idea of using a line from a Dylan song for the title: 'You Don't Need a Weatherman to Tell Which Way the Wind Blows.' The others agreed. Almost immediately after distributing the document to the SDS convention cadres, the group began to be called Weatherman." Peter Collier & David Horowitz, Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts about the '60s, (New York: Summit Books, 1989), p. 81. So there you have it. It's "Weatherman" not "the weathermen" although individually they did become known as that. And it was 1969, so they definitely took their name from the song, despite misquoting the line. In 1965, SDS was still far from the extreme radicalism of Weatherman. Not to be confused with another late '60s radical, Weberman. -John jweikart@mail.utexas.edu
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 10:41:59 EDT From: Ron Jacobs (RJACOBS@THYME.UVM.EDU) Subject: You don't need a weatherman... The Weatherman organization was officially formed in 1969 during the SDS convention in Chicago. They took their name from their founding statement entitled "You Don't Need a Weatherman...." which they inturn borrowed from Dylan's song Subterranean Homesick Blues. The split was the result of differences in the SDS organization over the questions of youth culture, the Black Panthers role in the revolution, and support of the National LIberation Front in Vietnam. (among other things). After the Flint War Council in Flint Michigan in Dec. 1969, Weather man began going underground and hastened the process after the deaths of three of its members in the New York city townhouse explosion on March 6, 1970. They became the Weather Undergound Organization shortly thereafter. By the way, one of those killed in the March 6 explosion was Diana OUghton who had a song written about her by Jefferson Starship--it's on their SUNFIGHTER album. - Ron Jacobs\\\\\\\\\\\\\"You don't decide something is Bailey/Howe Library\\\\\\\\\absurd, you recognize that Univ ty of Vermont\\\\\\\\it is..." -W.C. Fields rjacobs@thyme.uvm.edu\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ zzzz
