Bridport writer Dave Mort author of the classic slice of provincial mayhem MONEY FOR OLD ROPE has written a new book 'Play it Again Uncle Sam' The story is woven around political events in America from the Korean War and the witch-hunts of the early fifties to the Watergate scandal of the seventies, and therefore charts the rise of the civil rights and anti-war movements in America.

It is related through 60 tracks on Uncle Sam’s jukebox that run chronologically from “If I Had a Hammer” to “American Pie,” songs that have come to represent those turbulent times. On the jukebox are such artists as Sam Cooke, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, who wrote songs of such poignancy, their lyrics would come to define the era and following on from them were the bands, the Byrds, the Doors, Grateful Dead, CSN’Y and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, all creating albums that would capture the rise and fall of counter-culture. 

Forty years ago Country Joe and the Fish sang

“Come all you big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again,
He’s got himself in a hell of a jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam,” Laos, Cambodia,
Cuba, Chile, Iraq, Iran"

The list just goes on and on doesn’t it? We’ve been here before as George Santayana concluded
“Those who don’t remember the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them,”           
 
So if you think it’s time to put a stop to this madness and working on the principal that Victor Hugo outlined
“music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent,”
perhaps its time resurrect the counter culture music of the sixties.
 And you if love a conspiratorial plot line, especially one centred on the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, then you’ll want to read Play it Again Uncle Sam.

So go to the website (www.playitagainunclesam.com) click on the jukebox, check out the tracks, read the background info to each song and get a feel for the book. You can download the story behind the first three tracks for free and if you like what you read you can download the whole book for a fiver.