A few things are instructive to me about this Side 2 opener for The Fifth Dimension's 1970 platter titled Portrait.
Laura Nyro reportedly wrote and recorded "Save the Country" after the RFK assassination in 1968. The Fifth Dimension was a regular and successful interpretator of Nyro's midtown New York pop, but none of their previous selections was as charged as this one from the prolific East Coast songbird.
In fact, much of this album has an edge to it, with a 10-minute medley on the second side comprising a vocalized rendering of the Declaration of Independence, a Billy Davis Jr. rave-up of Sam Cooke's A Change is Gonna Come and a rousing rendition of The Rascals' People Gotta Be Free. It wasn't Country Joe and the Fish or Curtis Mayfield, but it had some attitude, for sure.
The times warranted it. And commenters on this YouTube posting over the years mentioned how relevant the message "save the country" is -- probably due more to American stagnation than Nyro's prescience, TBH. Save The Country
Folks are all over the map about The Fifth Dimension. Radicals back in the day dismissed their LA hipness as lacking ethnic or racial authenticity -- perfect for Simi Valley but unwelcome in South Central.
Others liked their inclusive tunefulness and lack of stridency. They were decidedly apolitical, like other pop / adult contemporary acts of the day -- Sonny and Cher, Vikki Carr, Tom Jones, among them -- and were rewarded with commercial success for about a decade. Davis and Marilyn McCoo have had a profitable commercial run as a husband/wife duo since leaving the group in the '70s.
It appears there have been numerous versions (if not dimensions) of the group since the founding in '67. They're on the small lounge / county fair circuit. I wonder if they're pulling out "Save the Country" for the good folks in Ames, Iowa?
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