Chris HIllman, No longer the kind of guy Gram Parsons would hang with...
T.
Ventura's Chris Hillman helped write the counterculture soundtrack in
the '60s; now, at 58, he sings a conservative tune
By Charles Levin , cle...@insidevc.com
September 11, 2003
When Chris Hillman played with The Byrds in the 1960s, he believed in
the liberal values of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.
Today the 58-year-old musician, a Ventura resident since the early
1980s, is more apt to quote Ronald Reagan.
"Traditional family values (have) worked for thousands of years,"
Hillman said last week. "And I think a lot of people my age are
embracing a more conservative outlook on things. Once they've actually
been married and have (had) children, they say, 'Wait a minute, Mom
and Dad weren't wrong.' "
The times they are a-changing. And so has Hillman, who performs
Saturday with duo partner Herb Pedersen at a benefit concert for the
Ventura Hillsides Conservancy. Closely cropped graying hair has
replaced the once curly blonde locks. A political shift from liberal
to conservative ideals arrived with the onset of family
responsibilities.
Hillman's makeover is all the more interesting given the times that
gave birth to The Byrds.
The 1960s were marked by equal parts joy and turbulence. Timothy Leary
urged followers to "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out." Political activists
talked of bucking the establishment. Hippies embraced the mantra "Make
Love, Not War."
Civil rights, Vietnam, Woodstock and the Kennedy and Martin Luther
King Jr. assassinations all defined the so-called countercultural
generation.
In 1965 Hillman and The Byrds vaulted into the public eye,
electrifying Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and ushering in the
folk-rock era with its "jingle-jangle" sound.
In "Eight Miles High," the band fused folk-rock with John Coltrane's
jazz and Ravi Shankar's sitar sounds. "Draft Morning" (co-written by
Hillman and fellow Byrds Roger McGuinn and David Crosby) put a human
face on the Vietnam War with its chilling portrayal of soldiers in the
field. "So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star" (co-written by McGuinn
and Hillman) chided the music industry for manufacturing The Monkees,
a knockoff Beatles-Byrds wannabe band.
In short, The Byrds supplied the musical soundtrack for this
revolution, said Ben Fong-Torres, former editor of Rolling Stone
magazine.
"They stood for the kind of experimental nature and openness of the
times," said Fong-Torres, who wrote "Hickory Wind: The Life and Times
of Gram Parsons." "They were like many very young and impressionable
musicians, absorbing many elements, including social and political
protests, drugs, the sexual revolution, and they parlayed that into a
listenable music that changed from album to album."
Parsons played with The Byrds from December 1967 to October 1968.
Along with Hillman, Parsons helped push the band toward country-rock
with the album "Sweetheart of the Rodeo." Both left in late 1968 to
found The Flying Burrito Brothers.
"To put it in base terms, I was a very lucky kid to be a part of
that," Hillman said, seated in the downstairs office of his Ventura
home, which is decorated with gold and platinum records, photos of
Hillman with Dylan and the late bluegrass legend Bill Monroe and a
large Byrds concert poster from 1966 -- ticket price, $2.50.
"The thing I'm proudest of in The Byrds is that most of the material
stands up 40 years later," he said, crediting that to then-manager Jim
Dickson. "He said, 'Go for substance. Go for depth. Let's not go for
the boy-girl love song.' "
Indeed, they were heady times.
The group played benefits for Robert Kennedy three months before his
assassination in 1968. "He was probably the best of the Kennedy
family," Hillman said. "He was a fighter. He went after Hoffa and
organized crime, and he was a principled man."
Hillman maintains that Vietnam was a tragic mistake. "It was a bad,
bad move because we didn't learn from the French," he said. "We didn't
see what was going on. We had no business there, but it was the
mindset at the time."
Civil rights, too, was a just cause, Hillman said. But today, he feels
that a liberal agenda mutated King's message, punctuated by the famous
"I have a dream" speech.
"Did it really accomplish what it started out to?" Hillman asked. "I'm
not sure, because the race card is constantly played and at this point
in time, we should be colorblind."
As for his political shift, Hillman quoted Reagan: "I didn't leave the
Democratic Party. It left me."
Hillman voted for Bill Clinton in 1992. But he became "disillusioned"
after Clinton made gays in the military a priority shortly after
taking office.
"I love David (Crosby)," Hillman said of his old Byrds bandmate, who
went on to found Crosby, Stills and Nash. "But he's the epitome of
that (liberal) mindset."
Crosby donated sperm for singer Melissa Etheridge and then-partner
Julie Cypher to have two children. Etheridge identified Crosby as the
father in a June 2000 Rolling Stone article.
"What kind of message does that send?" Hillman said of putting the
story on the magazine's cover. "Gay marriage? Get out of here. It's
not meant to be. Two dads? Two moms? It's a mortal sin. I defend their
right to do that, but don't politicize it."
Hillman has little patience for the practice of throwing taxpayer
dollars at public schools and government social programs, saying it
will not cure society's ills. "All of that comes out of this liberal
bent of 'Everybody gets a fair deal,' " he said. "It just borders on
bad socialism to me."
Hillman also credits his rightward shift in politics and social values
to parenthood and a firm grounding in faith. He converted to the Greek
Orthodox Church about eight years ago after spending time with the
Protestant evangelical movement.
With a marriage nearing 24 years, a daughter in college and a son in
high school, Hillman believes the countercultural generation -- his
generation -- behaved like "spoiled brats" when they rejected
"traditional family values" in the 1960s.
"The school does not raise your child," he continued. "You do. It's
down to parenting. And I believe in a strong Judeo-Christian ethic to
raise a family and to keep a family together."
Hillman, however, is quick to say that conservatives don't address all
his concerns. "I don't think any party has all the right answers," he
said, adding that both Republicans and Democrats, liberals and
conservatives, have become mired in slogans and special interests. As
a result, "nobody's getting anything done," he said.
Conservative thinkers, however, put more emphasis on the family, while
liberals victimize people with social programs and handouts, he said.
"We are not a strict class structure," Hillman said. "This is not
19th-century England. You can do what you want if you work hard
enough."
Friend Steven Perren, a state appellate court judge and Ventura
resident, often engages in friendly sparring with Hillman over
politics and social issues at a local health club. Perren, 61,
describes himself as a moderate. "And even at that, I'm way off to the
left of where he sits," Perren said.
Debates often ignite after Hillman has read the paper. "And then he
comes over to me at the gym and says, 'There you guys go again,' "
Perren said of their friendly banter.
Perren said he sang Byrds tunes at hootenannies while attending
University of California, Los Angeles. But he never realized Hillman
belonged to the group. "When someone told me who he was, I must say my
hero worship and idolatry kicked in and I had to meet him," Perren
said. "But our friendship has left that in the dust."
Perren said Hillman has "a wonderful social conscience ...(whose)
passion for good family and upbringing is unbounded.
"I have never seen a better father more dedicated to raising his
children," Perren said.
Hillman said he enjoys the banter at the club. "And, yes, I do call
him a commie, and he calls me Mussolini," Hillman said with a laugh.
Hillman said he respects Perren, calling him one of the most
intelligent, fair-minded and humble jurists he's ever known.
Hillman said playing Saturday's benefit -- which also features Jackson
Browne, Jack Johnson and Keb' Mo' --was an easy decision. For one
thing, he said, the concert was not a partisan cause but an example of
the political system working for a change.
"It's people that care about their community on a grassroots level and
saying, 'This doesn't look right,' " Hillman said.
What didn't look right to Hillman and wife Connie was Measure A, the
failed 2002 referendum to build 1,390 homes in Ventura's hillsides.
The Hillman's Mediterranean-style home sits near the top of the hills
above Poli Street. Across the street is an unspoiled view of a
chapparral-covered canyon.
Had Measure A passed, traffic would have rolled right down their block
to and from the development. During a meet-and-greet with landowners,
Connie Hillman said no one would answer critical questions about fire
access on the narrow hillside roads.
The impact to roads and schools wasn't carefully studied, Chris
Hillman said. "The Measure A guys were promising the world, but they
didn't address the infrastructure," he said.
Besides, he added, developers planned to build only luxury homes in
the hills while Ventura needs more low- and middle-income housing,
preferably along the city's West Ventura Avenue neighborhoods.
Saturday's show will help raise money to buy the land. Estimates,
depending on who you speak with, range from $20 million to $80
million. The concert's take, estimated at $80,000, won't scratch the
surface toward that goal, "but it will be a start," Hillman said.
"I've watched this state become fodder for developers," said Hillman,
acknowledging his tenure as a third-generation Californian. Growth and
development in California are inevitable, he said. "So let's do it
right."
On the Net: www.chrishillman.com.
Mind The Gap!
if your not a liberal when your young you have no heart and if your not a
conservative when your old you have no head... <g>
"T." <easywri...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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