Purple Toupee

This is a song about a stupid guy who barely remembers any of the history of the 60's, despite the fact that he grew up in the decade.

All sorts of famous events are sort of mushed together and remebered incorrectly. Like he refers to "Selma and some blacks" obviously a confused memory of the famed civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.

Other things he mentions: Johnson's wax, which was a brand of glue, and not the ear wax of President Lyndon Johnson. The book depository, the place from where Oswald allegedly shot President Kennedy. There is no "King of Cuba" but there is President-for-life Castro, who came to power around the same time.

Chinese people fighting in the park is probably a reference to the riots in the "People's Park" in California, which has a sort of Communist-sounding name. Martin X is obviously supposed to be Malcom X, a guy who was concerned with black power, not bell bottoms.

And the Expo 67 was a horrible fair they had in Canada, not some sort of rebel group, like the Chicago Seven.

I am not quite sure what purple toupee means, though...

I agree with J.J. that the song is about mixed up memories of the Sixties, but I think it's about a kid's memories. The first line: "I remember the year I went to camp" probably refers to a summer camp that kids went to. John and John would have been kids around that time, so this seems to fit. I would guess it's what they perceived was going on in the world back when they were kids. Now that they are older, they thought back on that time and realized how funny it was. So why not make that into a song?

This is similar to those song lyrics you never really understood so you put in words you knew. Then "bad moon on the rise" became "bathroom on the right", and "Don't it make my brown eyes, blue" became "Donuts make my brown eyes, blue", etc. I'm sure you can think of more examples and how silly you felt after you realized what the real lyrics were.

I'm waiting for the mis-heard lyrics song. ;-)

I think everyone is on point about the song being sung from someone who doesn't have a very clear memory of the 60's. But is there any chance the "purple toupee and gold lame" might be connecting the two eras through homosexuality? Perhaps that is farfetched, but one of the critical issues of the 60's was race (along with war). In the late 80's racial issues were still big, but discrimination against homosexuality (especially after AIDS started becoming prevalent) was an even bigger equality issue.

The irony is the narrator doesn't have a strong knowledge of the previous related movements (race equality, hippies). The final line is about the fight for equality continuing.

But I also think the angle of the narrator going from hippie to yuppie is a strong possibility.

I think it is a statement about rivisionist history and how events that are very important and significant to one generation becomes just a bunch of disconnected facts to that generations children.

Additionally I think the purple toupee and gold lame referrence is to the selling out of the progressive 60 movements to modern consumerism and fashion obsession.

It seems to have an undertone of uninformed activism.

Good points, all.

Other things, interesting: Chinese People Fighting in the Park is probably a reference to Vietnam, "we tried to help them out, no one appreciated that." I heard somewhere that it could also be a reference to Tai Chi -- the meditative stretching exercises, that kind of look like martial arts. Obviously, anyone trying to "help out" someone doing Tai Chi is going to upset them.

The King of Cuba could be a reference to the theories that Castro put the hit out on Kennedy -- after Kennedy had tried to assassinate Castro a couple times. That action cemented Castro in his leadership roll - ie. crowned him the King (as opposed to President -- a president leaves office, whereas a king stays until he's dead).

Could "the camp" in the first line be Boot Camp? A reference to the draft?

I think the Purple Toupee and Gold Lame is a ref. to styles -- the whole "hippy" culture, be free, conform to our non-conformity. To support this, "we're on some kind of mission," almost sounds like the author has no idea why he's protesting or dressing up - its just "some kind of mission," but whatever the reason, he's obligated to do so.

On second thought, I think maybe those last three lines sum up the song. Its about a former 60's protestor who is so burnt out, that he has no idea why he was even protesting at all -- and he can't even get the events right. But it was a mission...

I think the lyrics in this song are ingenious. The speaker seems to be a Boomer who sold out in the eighties and isn't really clear on what his generation was all about. I love the befuddled understatements referring to life-shattering events ("Martin X was mad," "Chinese people were fighting," etc). My favorite is the Kennedy line: "Someone put their finger in the president's ear..." I get the mental picture of Oswald playing a child's game with a thumb and index finger: "bang, you're dead."

the purple toupee is NOT a hippie style. back in the 60's there was a group of people called the "purple beret" group (believe they were war veterans i don't really remember) and they were wearing purple berets not toupees. another ref to J.J. it is about a guy who doesn't remember the sixties very much.

I love "Martin X was mad when they outlawed bell bottoms." When I was little I got MLK and Malcolm X mixed up as well XD