Song of the Day 8/6: Stephen Stills, “4 + 20”

Back in the ’60s, when television was confined to three channels, if the counterculture wanted to confront the establishment, it had to do it in their arena. People we now remember as anti-establishment showed no qualms about taking their message to the masses via some of the squarest talk-show programming around — John and Yoko co-hosted a week of the Mike Douglas Show, to note a famously incongruous example.

The show that leaned most heavily into the counterculture was Dick Cavett’s. Jimi Hendrix appeared several times, and not just to play (back then, people went on talk shows to talk about more than their latest release). Cavett even played a role in music history — Joni Mitchell, who wrote “Woodstock” based on then-boyfriend Graham Nash’s description, skipped the festival because her agent didn’t want her to miss a Cavett appearance scheduled for the next day.

This is part of that appearance. Stills is fresh from the festival — earlier in the interview he shows off the mud on his jeans — and his audience includes Joni Mitchell and members of the Jefferson Airplane (that’s Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady in the reaction shot at 1:57), who did play there. The song wasn’t released on vinyl until “Déjà Vu” hit the stores in March 1970, so this was its public debut.