Unusual typed lyrics to the Bob Seger Vietnam protest song ‘2 + 2 = ?’ on an off-white 7 x 8.5 sheet of ‘The Director of Selective Service’ letterhead deriving from the office of United States Army General Lewis Blaine Hershey, signed in the lower right in black ballpoint by Seger, and signed in the upper right in fountain pen by Hershey. The lyrics, with full title, in part: “Two Plus Two Is On My Mind / Yes it's true I am a young man, But I'm old enough to kill. / I don't wanna kill nobody, But I must if you so will.” In very good condition, with overall creasing and intersecting folds.
Accompanied by both original transmittal envelopes (Seger and Hershey), postmarked August and September 1968—with the Seger envelope annotated on the reverse, “Bob Seger System”—and a letter of provenance from the original recipient: “I thought I’d try an experiment. I wrote to the incredibly unpopular...General Lewis Hershey, asking for his signature...sure enough it came through in only a few days...I transcribed the lyrics to 2 + 2 = ? onto this sheet and...soon enough there was an ad on WKBW for a Seger appearance at a night club in the Buffalo area. The venue was called ‘The Inferno’...I sent it off to Seger in care of the club...About three months later this envelope arrived from a Holiday Inn in Columbus, Ohio.”
Routinely considered one of Seger’s most enduring songs, ‘2 + 2 = ?’ is an explicit protest against the United States' role in the Vietnam War and the drafting of its young men; the consignor’s decision to include the autograph of General Hershey, the architect of the controversial Hershey Directive, on his office letterhead, is a terrific jab at military conscription.
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