The 60's and 70's, what you liked and disliked

[Enid]

If P.E. members would post how they feel about the 60's and 70's in all areas of the lifestyle and the music, I would greatly appreciate that. I would appreciate other people's viewpoints, personal stories, and opinions on the music. I would like to know people's viewpoints ..people from every generation living today. This could start a debate...but no need to get heated over another person's comments. Maybe we could learn something from what we all disagree with in the end.



1964-1969: I listened to the 50's Elvis, American Blues Masters, British Invasion, Folk, Classical, Jazz, Art Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Electronic, Avant-Garde, Motown, R and B, Soul, and Bubblegum music. Between '64 and '65 the British Invasion was so incredibly hyped up and produced chaotic behaviour in the youth. I was a seven year old with a hobby that required collecting every Beatles single along with every album. I was a disappointed kid when I rudely discovered through a record store owner that the British Beatle albums contained more tracks and that the flow of their early albums had little to do with singles. I then realized that what the British kids were hearing was a total different representation of The Beatles music. Those albums contained some British versions of American Rock N' Roll and Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison songs which clearly didn't have to be represented along with singles in order to enjoy the album itself. Anyone else being a child in '65 ....a British Invasion fanatic and feeling a bit cheated by that?



The British Invasion was a very strange and shocking revelation. Girls screaming and trying to use physical force on the band's. Some girls threw themselves off balconies according to Charlie Watts. But my favorite band was The Kinks because they were so rebellious and very real projecting an "I don't give a shit attitude" on national television. Dave Davies had really long hair in '65 and played a "Flying V". Kids in music class were entirely enthusiastic about him. All these fads in the fashion world became overwhelming in the sense that it was vast and relentless for parents. So profound from every aspect but the word "Invasion" applied to how controlling it became over the youth.


In the late 60's began collecting Psychedelic Rock and British Blues albums that I heard from my sister's hippie friends. I loved Mike Bloomfield and Johnny Winter and then I'd be off listening to Wendy Carlos, Mort Garson, and Beaver and Krause. It was a very eclectic time for music and to a larger degree, record companies were giving the musicians the freedom to do whatever they wanted to do. Just being yourself and creating art....and reaching a crowd on a vast level was an awesome experience. Everything was up for grabs and nothing was really compartmentalized.


The Occult

In the 60's and 70's a theory existed which basically explained to observant intelligent people that drugs were the side of the coin face up , but if you flipped it over there was the occult. I don't know if I agree on that totally?? I know that the occult was a fashion statement and a farce subject for Hollywood movies in the 60's and 70's ...but it was quite debating that a Satan worshippers sect would be concerned with any of that. In the town I grew up in there were occultism related atrocities and there are several documented cases. I believe the drugs added to the sensation of being programmed by a cult leader. Several cult leaders that grew up in the 1950's disliked drugs. The only thing consistent with their agenda was smoothly operating against someone's will if they were on drugs. This I gather from personal experience as I was abused by a cult.


This is a huge debate because there isn't proof of a sect or cult abuse existing in real life. Cults do not murder and leave fascinating clues in front of your eyes to solve a mystery. You get what you get.....a body with no marks or signs of struggle. You have to investigate their belief system, ( if you can figure that out), and scope the grounds where the body was discovered. You won't nail the sect by rehearsing with the fringe evidence they purposely leave behind. Unless you're dealing with some idiots from the "Satanic Panic" era who killed someone for fame and fortune. I'm not sure if both sides of the coin can be referred to anything other than a sign of the times. People who belong to sects and have wealth and power in the community do not make drugs a priority.




Drugs


When I experienced witnessing the drug scene of the 70's I took into consideration that much of the experimentation originally derived from Dr. Timothy Leary's ideology on LSD. I gathered that he promoted LSD as being good for everybody. Although evidence of this not being true was scattered everywhere. My emphasis is not on characters like Syd Barrett and Peter Green but more importantly all the people who took it only once and never came back. Several of my friends that took it only once, could not handle it and ended up in a mental hospital acting very delusional . People do in fact make decisions on their own, but the 60's and 70's had persuasion to influence you to try anything at least once. It was a ridiculously vast environment and people in general seemed naturally keen to try something new without hardly questioning anything at all.

[the winter tree]

Even as a young kid in the 60s, I could feel the the excitement in the air - that anything was possible and that the world was changing. That kind of fizzled out by the early 70s, but it was a very real feeling.

[Vic2012]

I'll tell you what I love about the 60s.....Bobbie Gentry. Ode To Billy Joe.

[rcarlberg]

I was born in '54, so the sixties were mostly cartoons and breakfast cereal for me. Around '67-8 I became aware that "the times they were a changin' " and I discovered Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, and a gazillion other groundbreaking artists. The Beatles and Rolling Stones and Who and Doors were stuff my older sisters listened to, but it all seemed like pop music to me after discovering the above artists.

The years 1967-1974 were a time of intense discovery, of massive experimentation, of unbelievable wealth in ideas and execution. I am still exploring those seven years and discovering new things I missed at the time.

By 1972 I was out on my own, and the rigors of setting up a life together with my GF meant I could not devote as much time to music & culture as I would've liked.

Also, around 1974 things began to sour, in my view. You had the naked exploitation of music by big money interests, you had Nixon, you had gas rationing, you had The Gong Show. The dreams of a better world promised by the hippie movement began to fall apart.

There was still some good music produced after '74... but there was also disco. Punk. Hooked-on. The good stuff never caught on, and the utter dreck became all the rage.

"I guess I just wasn't made for this time..."

[Enid]

I was born in '54, so the sixties were mostly cartoons and breakfast cereal for me. Around '67-8 I became aware that "the times they were a changin' " and I discovered Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, and a gazillion other groundbreaking artists. The Beatles and Rolling Stones and Who and Doors were stuff my older sisters listened to, but it all seemed like pop music to me after discovering the above artists.

The years 1967-1974 were a time of intense discovery, of massive experimentation, of unbelievable wealth in ideas and execution. I am still exploring those seven years and discovering new things I missed at the time.

By 1972 I was out on my own, and the rigors of setting up a life together with my GF meant I could not devote as much time to music & culture as I would've liked.

Also, around 1974 things began to sour, in my view. You had the naked exploitation of music by big money interests, you had Nixon, you had gas rationing, you had The Gong Show. The dreams of a better world promised by the hippie movement began to fall apart.

There was still some good music produced after '74... but there was also disco. Punk. Hooked-on. The good stuff never caught on, and the utter dreck became all the rage.

"I guess I just wasn't made for this time..."

Beautiful writing...great story

[Vic2012]

I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964. I saw A Hard Day's Night in 1964. I remember the Civil Rights movement. I remember JFK being assasinated.

[Enid]

I was a huge fan of Laura Nyro. She was a huge influence on Todd Rundgren. Many of the chord progressions in Todd Rundgren 's songs are a direct adaption of Laura Nyro 's chemistry. So I liked Laura Nyro for years. When I picked up Rubber Soul at the record store, I remember staring at the cover as I walked down the sidewalk and I knew The Beatles had changed. That was a strange revelation to people in the 60's. Like the first time certain people heard "I've Just Seen A Face" (on the American release) or "The Word" ....some people questioned about the band sounding different.


One time around 1968 I was playing the Rolling Stones song "Mother's Little Helper" ...very loud.,..on a three channel stereo in the living room when my parents were home. My mother came walking in and said..."What is Mick Jagger trying to say in that song?" I said..."He's trying to say that if you don't stop taking diet pills...you'll die mom"


Riots took place at the High School in the early 70's. Sometimes the National Guard were called and teachers and security guards would escort us to buses to be driven home. "Disco Boy....run to the toilet honey comb your hair" became a national anthem for the rockers whenever the disco people were around.

[klothos]

70s: best period for popular electric music....Reasoning: A good bulk of the 70s and a good bulk of the industry in the 70s was still geared to music as "artistry". In the 70s, many musicians and groups that came up in the industry from the 60s had really grown and matured as performers and songwriters, regardless if they were old, ugly, or hairy (if looks mattered, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band or Dr. Hook would have never gotten a recording deal). Unfortunately, by the late 70s, Robert Stigwood's merging of schmaltzy show-biz started changing things from artistry-to-image and the arrival of MTV in the 80s cemented that.......Remember, the early 70s is the only time that Prog was "mainstream", and it wasn't uncommon for teenagers, both male and female, to have some Yes, Floyd, Tull, or Moody Blues mixed in with their Led Zeppelin and BTO albums.

Not all Disco was bad: Schmaltzy corporate disco sucked, as well as many indie disco artists that were trying to cash-in, but Disco-Funk bands (an actual sub-genre) like GQ and A taste of Honey, were pretty good

I know some people here hate AOR rock, but I like it and it was a great period for that

and, of course, Funk was at its apex and - like Rock stylings - it will never see another era like that again, either

[rcarlberg]

I remember JFK being assassinated.

I remember it too, but I was too young to understand what it meant. We were sent home early from school, and I remember the teachers and bus drivers crying. Over the next few days the nation mourned, in shock, in an outpouring of grief not seen again until 9/11 -- another morning I'll never forget.

[mogrooves]

Even as a young kid in the 60s, I could feel the the excitement in the air - that anything was possible and that the world was changing. That kind of fizzled out by the early 70s, but it was a very real feeling.

This was my experience as well, and, as you imply, the spirit was gone by '71 or so.

[rcarlberg]

Funk was at its apex and - like Rock stylings - it will never see another era like that again

Sly & The Family Stone were tearing up the airwaves. James Brown was known in the Black community, but us white folk mostly listened to Aretha, Booker T., Sam & Dave, Sam Cooke, Harry Belafonte and Sammy Davis Jr.

Not all disco was bad

Apostacy!

[Vic2012]

I remember it too, but I was too young to understand what it meant. We were sent home early from school, and I remember the teachers and bus drivers crying. Over the next few days the nation mourned, in shock, in an outpouring of grief not seen again until 9/11 -- another morning I'll never forget.

I was 5. I remember everyone was crying.

[AncientChord]

To me the end of America started with the Kennedy assassination. I was 9 years old at the time but remember the day as clear as it was yesterday. And several days later I saw Lee Harvey Oswald get assassinated on the TV live. America was in a state of Doom and Gloom for quite a while until February 1964 when the Beatles arrived in New York and played live on the Ed Sullivan Show. America then woke up from their Melancholy feelings and the Beatles changed the world,
Including mine. Electricity was certainly in the air from that point forward and into the development of the British Invasion. I was certainly into many of the British groups that merged the Blues with rock. Then around 1965 psychedelia began to sprout on both the west coast of the US and in swinging London simultaneously. Original British Invasion bands like The Yardbirds were imnovators that went from being a blues based band 2 psychedelic and of course was the birthing ground for three of England's greatest rock guitarists, Eric Clapton Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. And Donovan who went from being a folk singer to a psychedelic / Celtic Pied Piper. I did like what was developing over in San Francisco but not as much as what was happening in England. And then came Jimi Hendrix, who blew me and my friends completely away. I was very lucky to see him and the experience perform four months before my 15th birthday, something I will never forget. I also saw groups like Ten Years After and the West Coast group Spirit which in my opinion was one of the best LA groups of that period. But as the music evolved the biggest shock in my musical experience came in October 1969 with the release of the first King Crimson album. At the time no one heard anything like it and it was very otherworldly. Even Hendrix at the time called them the greatest band in the world. From that point forward I went into full progressive rock mode and have never looked back. I still enjoy the classic rock of my youth and early and current prog. could probably go into 2 or 3 pages about all the groups I saw from all the periods. You asked what I didn't like about the sixties and seventies and I can tell you that Vietnam and ultra conservatism was a real bummer. The lofty ideas of the hippies quickly faded in the early seventies and the era of Nixon and the downgrading of the American middle class began. But there certainly was electricity in the air during the sixties and early seventies and I believe it was mainly due to the progression of music itself. Even if the human race only evolved slightly the music definitely exploded and that's why I was glad to be alive during that period. We wouldn't have such a great world Archive of music if it wasn't for that magical period in history.

[SteveSly]

Interesting question. I was born in 61, so was just a kid in the 60’s and not really aware of what was going on around me. The only really distinct memory I have from a pop culture standpoint was watching the moon landing in 1969 on my parents black and white TV. I did not really start getting into music until the late 70’s, thus the whole heyday of progressive rock had already passed by for the most part. I first got into prog via gateway bands like Queen, Styx, and Kansas mainly in the waning days of the 70’s. As Kothos mentioned, AOR was the soundtrack of my life in high school and although I don’t like all of it, there are a lot of bands from that era that I do like, and it sure beat the hell out of disco. I even worked on an AOR radio station for a time in the early 80’s. It was about this time that I went back and discovered bands from the 60’s like The Who, Stones, Airplane, Doors, and of course The Beatles. It is interesting you mention The Kinks. Other than “You Really Got Me”, I had no clue about them until the live “One More For The Road” came out in 1980. They were another band that I backtracked to discover their 60’s era stuff.

Of course by the late 70’s I had also begun to realize what an enormous cultural shift had happened in the 60’s as well with Vietnam, the civil rights movement, the hippie movement, and of course rock n roll. To this day I still consider the 1960’s to be the most culturally significant decade of my lifetime. Everything changed during that time period and nothing was ever the same. Other than the proliferation of the Internet in the 90’s, I can’t think of anything that really compares to the shifts that took place in the 60’s. The 70’s for me were my teenage years. For anyone who has seen the uncut version of “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”, that is a pretty accurate description of what my high school was like (with more of a Midwest vibe). I knew people pretty much like every character in that film.

Regarding the occult, I have no clue. It was nothing that I was ever aware of other than in movies and some music, but it all kind of seemed like a joke at the time.

Regarding drugs. When I graduated from high school in 79, drugs were everywhere. I lived in a college dorm in the fall of 79 and basically if you went to a party, alcohol, pot, LSD, Coke, Crystal Meth were all very common. Other than alcohol and pot I did not actually try most of it until up into the 80’s, but it was all around me at the time.

[Trane]

I spent all of my 60's in Western Europe, not necessarily aware that we were living a golden age, despite the cold war. I was just a ruin-of-the-mill kid, older than my two brothers.

I started really being appreciate my middle-class surroundings around age 8 in 71, but it wasn't until we moved to Canada (Mtl first, then Toronto in 73) that I became fairly conscious of what a fucked-up world we lived in (Canada had nothing to do with that, but the Paki A-bomb blowing did strike us kids in the worse way possible) and I became somewhat rebellious (despite playing to the football team and getting cheerleaders on their knees in front of me) , partly because of my discovery of Supertramp's Crime Of The Century (I was almost Rudy), but I never thought that the hippie dream stopped at Altamont. There were plenty of cool people (at least on the surface) until the punk years started in Toronto and the Disco years started in Montreal, and I started toking at 14 (in 77), but I'd had gotten drunk a few times before.

I wxazs never much a cartoon fan on either side of the Pond, and I didn't take up to US comics, concentrating on European stuff (we had the main three weeklies - Tintin, Spirou and Pilote - via the diplomatic mail), but I must say that those half-hour sitcoms did play an important role (if only for perfecting our accent), beit Happy Days, WKRP, One Day At A Time (Valerie Bertinelli ), etc... Not much into 70's movies (too young to go to the silver screen until 78 or so) so in terms of movies, I'm much more of an 80's man, though I've caught up my backlog. Actually, it seems that 66-67 is also a hinge era in Hollywood as I really never cared for those old-type pre-65 movies done by old geezers (and for old geezers).

Compared to nowadays, the 60's & 70's were certainly quite safe (despite the absence of seatbelt), and I delivered newspaper without a worry from age 11 to 17 (nowadays, there are no newspaper boys anymore ) so safety (or lack of) has become an issue nowadays.

One of the weird thing is that this 60-70's "golden era" was already an era of processed food with bland tomatoes and industrial-fed cattle meat and fucked-up extremist consumerism (that last point hasn't changed much), but we regard everything so fondly (I'm usually not nearly prone to nostalgia as others), but then again, we didn't know any better.

[StevegSr]

Musically, the growth of rock in the late sixties and it's growth progression into the early seventies is the absolute standout that my music listening is based upon up to the present day. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy modern prog as I was just listening to Knifeworld this morning, but I will always, at some point, backtrack into old Floyd, Beatles, etc.

To paraphrase the opening line from A Tale Of Two Cities, the Sixties and Seventies were the best of times and the worst of times. I try to remember the best and forget the worst.

[Lopez]

60s - hated high school; loved the music (esp. San Fran sound)
70s - hated disco; loved college (Philly in the early 70s was magic; all the great bands came through)

[Enid]

[QUOTE=Steve Sly

Regarding the occult, I have no clue. It was nothing that I was ever aware of other than in movies and some music, but it all kind of seemed like a joke at the time. (Quote)


It was a joke regarding the way it was presented through the media. It was just the most ridiculous thing on earth to me. I never saw a table fly and what most people defined as the supernatural I had no belief in. The media presentation of it was cheesy and the hocus pocus mentality was to make teenagers feel as if they were doing something special.


Then there was the disturbing side to it. Which....at the time ...for me was real because there had been a ritualistic killing in my hometown, sightings of devil worship, kids who had experienced ritual abuse but were too afraid to report it to the police. There was a lot of corruption in my hometown regarding crimes of this nature in the 60's and 70's.


According to the police the corruption existed in our town because a sect was programming youths. Of course there were kids who thought the occult was cool and they wanted to showboat it to impress other kids. Of course that existed but the real deal was underneath it all and there are documented cases of cult abuse in Vineland N.J. to prove it.



Imagine being a 15 year old , in school, and called down to the office and questioned about your friends who supposedly were involved with a coven. In '71 I practiced with a Rock band that played a few colleges and across the street lived Michael Newell who was murdered by a Satan cult. It was all documented and the newspapers were hitting the pavement. There had previously been a ritual killing in Vineland in 1957 and sightings of different cults reported to the police. All documented and the reason given for these tragic deaths were true.


The following year ....1972... Jeannette DePalma was supposedly murdered by a cult in Springfield N.J. and her body was discovered on the cliff of "Devil's Tooth" after a dog retrieved part of her arm. Her body was found surrounded by sticks shaped like crosses and there was much speculation based on The Watchung Reservation being the breeding ground for devil worship.



But in '71 when Mike Newell's body was discovered in "Clear Pond" at Menantico sandwash , two boys openly admitted right away to the killing. Although one of the perpetrators said that Michael belonged to a Satan worshippers sect and that gave police a reason to investigate for two years. We all knew something was dreadfully wrong when the church up the street was converting teenage devil worshippers to Christianity. Again....this was all documented through the publications industry.


What really sucked was that I and a bunch of friends were all aware of who these people were and we couldn't prove it. Michael had performed this ritual that had taken place in Vineland N.J. one hundred years before. It became known as the "one hundred year ritual". It was supposedly in a newspaper dating back to the late 1800's and I never bothered visiting the public library to confirm that.



Then the whole thing ridiculously escalated into several cults in the Cumberland County attempting the ritual outside where people walking through the woods sighted the incidents and called the police. This occurred through out the 70's and 80's where Mike's reputation became a monkey on a chain. It made little sense as the one hundred year ritual was now turning into a yearly practice.



Neighbors would often spot these sightings and report it to the police and describe to me what a cult would be doing to people ....such as having them tied and bound and proceeding to push them into a body of water. The neighbors acted pissed off about the fact that these people were in our area and often got macho about it threatening that they would shoot them if they didn't stay away. It was just pure corruption man....and I can't settle for any other word to define it. It was very real! We all knew that, but it was next to impossible to bloody prove it! And that was the basis for the on going frustration. People would think...."Well if it's in the newspapers and a body was discovered with traces of witchcraft dealings then why can't we bring justice to the cause??". Years and years before the Satanic Panic hype began and these incidents in Vineland were more mysterious in nature. They were difficult to trace because they were more secretive to begin with. After James Maddox discovered Mike's body, the cat wasn't quite let out of the bag, but it was pretty damn evident to the community as to what precisely was going on and that's when the shit hit the fan.



Hi ho silver....and away! They began their investigation and laid new rules down for us in the school. They never proved a damn thing. But yet....what several of us witnessed in our youth surely revealed absolute truth to the cops suspicion. I look upon this whole entire episode of my life as pure corruption. It got way out of hand....when compared to other isolated incidents of cult killings ....one or two in some stick town in the U.S. It certainly couldn't be compared to that. I'm sorry but it could not. It was ridiculously vast in my hometown. Very strange times for me.

[Enid]

The stories rendered on this thread are awesome and I love the insight ! People have a lot to offer and it makes a good read. It's more hands on and reveals the realistic side to the 60's and 70's with many observations that are not mentioned as reference in a book based on the subject matter itself.


Back to the occult dribble for a few minutes......I find the news coverage on what I and a bunch of friends lived through to be a flippin' lie. The first day we read the headlines we all said...."This is not true!" "That's not what the hell happened!".....and so when Michael's body was discovered it was apparent to many of us that they wanted to lean more towards a different theory that wasn't only completely untrue, but insulting to us as well.



Weird N.J. magazine has a ridiculous characteristic to it. it's based on liars sending in bogus stories and the premise of that magazine ...to a degree...revolves around people taking pictures of haunted mental institutions and abandoned mansions. I remember getting a phone call from an old friend that was abused by a cult and he told me...."You have to pick up issue # 20 because Steve Jubalou has written an article on the '71 cult killing incident". When I finally did read the article ...I was reminded of a few details which were based on the personal experience of myself and others.



Steve began in detail discussing how he ran across the cult at Menantico . He said he was camping with his brother and they heard sing song chanting that became increasingly vile sounding and developed into screaming along with someone banging on 55 gallon oil cans. This is very true because I heard this several times...only in other wooded areas of Vineland and not Menantico. The cult that brutally attacked us had not a damn thing to do with Michael....the victim's cult.



I called my friend back and discussed this aspect to Steve's story and we both concluded that he shouldn't have had Weird N.J. print the story. We both thought...."No one is going to believe him anyway, but surely they won't believe any inside truth to the cult killing at all based merely on the fact that the article appeared in Weird N.J. This happened 45 years ago when Satan cult killings were more mysterious and of a completely different nature than garbage from the Satanic Panic era.



One time I read a comment posted by a so called Satan cult member who also made claim to being a witch. She commented: "I love you so much....you are the sun to my moon and we can dance in my shadow till the dawn of time" I recall running into a few girls in the woods who acted interested in me. Interestingly enough they came across poetically reciting the same cosmic dribble and then I'd notice a pentagram hanging from their neck. They all looked very programmed to me. This occurred in the early 70's when it finally dawned on me that the important thing to do was to stay out of the woods.Lol!


Today there is all this analysis on S.R.A. abuse and it has its abundance from the opposing side for sure. If you're abused by a cult it is a little different from the common traits of a everyday molester. But these statements about all S.R.A. victims ONLY being abused by a cult that is their family or derived from...is complete bullshit, one hundred percent bullshit , and the concept of judging what a majority of cases spell out and ruling that to have been abused by a cult, it must be connected to your own family and your upbringing is just ignorant and a lie. A real false claim that is! I don't care if it comes from David Icke or some psychologist who specializes in the area of S.R.A. therapy. That's complete garbage.



Obviously I lived in a town where occult related crimes were vast..,for some reason????? I did read about ritual killings in other towns of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but it was nowhere near as vast as it was in Vineland. Vineland in the 60's and 70's was a real breeding ground for the ultimate occultism environment. In the 1971 "Miami Times" article the journalist came across like...."Well, Vineland now has this problem and guess what they've done to correct it??" "They deprogrammed 80 teenage devil worshippers by converting them to Christianity" Then the "New York Times" made a real circus out of the story by displaying a picture of Michael and the two perpetrators and titling it "Rosemary's Babies". I mean....how much more moronic can you be than that?


I know my story sounds crazy....but if you're ever into researching this stuff....keep in mind that "so called" facts written by authors and journalists are opposing to the skeptics view and cult victims view...both! They are meant to confuse the reader and can be very deceiving. You have to understand everybody's position and their defense. There's a lot of leg work. The library, testimonies from some victims that I knew, police reports....etc.....things that you certainly will not uncover by reading a newspaper article on the internet. These types of murder cases are not set up for the average person to conceive anyway. There is a wall of false information that is often recognized as the truth and it's completely unjust in many cases.



I do believe to an extent....( and based on personal experiences of mine in the early 70's), that some young teenage cult members are connected to a sect. I also believe that how the media presentation on the occult can often be attributed to the selfishness of a journalist to sensationalize it for profits. I mean....just because you were a teenager in 1970 when the first Black Sabbath album was out doesn't mean it laid the entire foundation for you to join a Satan cult. Just because Charles Mansion had established popularity or that Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" became legendary had little background to observe what a real sect was all about and in fact some of the horrific corruption at hand in Vineland during the 60's and 70's.

[Enid]

To me the end of America started with the Kennedy assassination. I was 9 years old at the time but remember the day as clear as it was yesterday. And several days later I saw Lee Harvey Oswald get assassinated on the TV live. America was in a state of Doom and Gloom for quite a while until February 1964 when the Beatles arrived in New York and played live on the Ed Sullivan Show. America then woke up from their Melancholy feelings and the Beatles changed the world,
Including mine. Electricity was certainly in the air from that point forward and into the development of the British Invasion. I was certainly into many of the British groups that merged the Blues with rock. Then around 1965 psychedelia began to sprout on both the west coast of the US and in swinging London simultaneously. Original British Invasion bands like The Yardbirds were imnovators that went from being a blues based band 2 psychedelic and of course was the birthing ground for three of England's greatest rock guitarists, Eric Clapton Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. And Donovan who went from being a folk singer to a psychedelic / Celtic Pied Piper. I did like what was developing over in San Francisco but not as much as what was happening in England. And then came Jimi Hendrix, who blew me and my friends completely away. I was very lucky to see him and the experience perform four months before my 15th birthday, something I will never forget. I also saw groups like Ten Years After and the West Coast group Spirit which in my opinion was one of the best LA groups of that period. But as the music evolved the biggest shock in my musical experience came in October 1969 with the release of the first King Crimson album. At the time no one heard anything like it and it was very otherworldly. Even Hendrix at the time called them the greatest band in the world. From that point forward I went into full progressive rock mode and have never looked back. I still enjoy the classic rock of my youth and early and current prog. could probably go into 2 or 3 pages about all the groups I saw from all the periods. You asked what I didn't like about the sixties and seventies and I can tell you that Vietnam and ultra conservatism was a real bummer. The lofty ideas of the hippies quickly faded in the early seventies and the era of Nixon and the downgrading of the American middle class began. But there certainly was electricity in the air during the sixties and early seventies and I believe it was mainly due to the progression of music itself. Even if the human race only evolved slightly the music definitely exploded and that's why I was glad to be alive during that period. We wouldn't have such a great world Archive of music if it wasn't for that magical period in history.

Great story!

[Enid]

I spent all of my 60's in Western Europe, not necessarily aware that we were living a golden age, despite the cold war. I was just a ruin-of-the-mill kid, older than my two brothers.

I started really being appreciate my middle-class surroundings around age 8 in 71, but it wasn't until we moved to Canada (Mtl first, then Toronto in 73) that I became fairly conscious of what a fucked-up world we lived in (Canada had nothing to do with that, but the Paki A-bomb blowing did strike us kids in the worse way possible) and I became somewhat rebellious (despite playing to the football team and getting cheerleaders on their knees in front of me) , partly because of my discovery of Supertramp's Crime Of The Century (I was almost Rudy), but I never thought that the hippie dream stopped at Altamont. There were plenty of cool people (at least on the surface) until the punk years started in Toronto and the Disco years started in Montreal, and I started toking at 14 (in 77), but I'd had gotten drunk a few times before.

I wxazs never much a cartoon fan on either side of the Pond, and I didn't take up to US comics, concentrating on European stuff (we had the main three weeklies - Tintin, Spirou and Pilote - via the diplomatic mail), but I must say that those half-hour sitcoms did play an important role (if only for perfecting our accent), beit Happy Days, WKRP, One Day At A Time (Valerie Bertinelli ), etc... Not much into 70's movies (too young to go to the silver screen until 78 or so) so in terms of movies, I'm much more of an 80's man, though I've caught up my backlog. Actually, it seems that 66-67 is also a hinge era in Hollywood as I really never cared for those old-type pre-65 movies done by old geezers (and for old geezers).

Compared to nowadays, the 60's & 70's were certainly quite safe (despite the absence of seatbelt), and I delivered newspaper without a worry from age 11 to 17 (nowadays, there are no newspaper boys anymore ) so safety (or lack of) has become an issue nowadays.

One of the weird thing is that this 60-70's "golden era" was already an era of processed food with bland tomatoes and industrial-fed cattle meat and fucked-up extremist consumerism (that last point hasn't changed much), but we regard everything so fondly (I'm usually not nearly prone to nostalgia as others), but then again, we didn't know any better.

Interesting perspective

[Enid]

Interesting question. I was born in 61, so was just a kid in the 60’s and not really aware of what was going on around me. The only really distinct memory I have from a pop culture standpoint was watching the moon landing in 1969 on my parents black and white TV. I did not really start getting into music until the late 70’s, thus the whole heyday of progressive rock had already passed by for the most part. I first got into prog via gateway bands like Queen, Styx, and Kansas mainly in the waning days of the 70’s. As Kothos mentioned, AOR was the soundtrack of my life in high school and although I don’t like all of it, there are a lot of bands from that era that I do like, and it sure beat the hell out of disco. I even worked on an AOR radio station for a time in the early 80’s. It was about this time that I went back and discovered bands from the 60’s like The Who, Stones, Airplane, Doors, and of course The Beatles. It is interesting you mention The Kinks. Other than “You Really Got Me”, I had no clue about them until the live “One More For The Road” came out in 1980. They were another band that I backtracked to discover their 60’s era stuff.

Of course by the late 70’s I had also begun to realize what an enormous cultural shift had happened in the 60’s as well with Vietnam, the civil rights movement, the hippie movement, and of course rock n roll. To this day I still consider the 1960’s to be the most culturally significant decade of my lifetime. Everything changed during that time period and nothing was ever the same. Other than the proliferation of the Internet in the 90’s, I can’t think of anything that really compares to the shifts that took place in the 60’s. The 70’s for me were my teenage years. For anyone who has seen the uncut version of “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”, that is a pretty accurate description of what my high school was like (with more of a Midwest vibe). I knew people pretty much like every character in that film.

Regarding the occult, I have no clue. It was nothing that I was ever aware of other than in movies and some music, but it all kind of seemed like a joke at the time.

Regarding drugs. When I graduated from high school in 79, drugs were everywhere. I lived in a college dorm in the fall of 79 and basically if you went to a party, alcohol, pot, LSD, Coke, Crystal Meth were all very common. Other than alcohol and pot I did not actually try most of it until up into the 80’s, but it was all around me at the time.

From age 8 to 15....I sometimes rode a bike around reciting Ray Davies lyricism to myself. I took his view in life to heart and it enormously appealed to me. I looked at people the way he did in his songs. His background being from England was very relevant to how I felt about society in America. Bob Dylan had expressed the touch and go chaos of society in his songs, but Ray Davies pointed out different details about people in the world that weren't quite relevant enough for the average person to consider an unjust problem.

[rcarlberg]

One thing I know I remember, and period TV clips confirm, everyone was convinced then, as now, that the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Politicians were corrupt, the environment was being destroyed, the military had too much power, police were targeting minorities.

Some things never change.

[Trane]

The stories rendered on this thread are awesome and I love the insight ! People have a lot to offer and it makes a good read. It's more hands on and reveals the realistic side to the 60's and 70's with many observations that are not mentioned as reference in a book based on the subject matter itself.

Interesting perspective

Well, TBH, I had to cut it short (reading the other posts as well) because of lack of time to expand and reflect... But it is indeed the better thread of this (professionally very busy) week... Hopefully, I'll have time for it and not lose out (like for the Morricone thread >> I'm so far out of date with that thread, that I've kind of abandoned it)

[Enid]

Well, TBH, I had to cut it short (reading the other posts as well) because of lack of time to expand and reflect... But it is indeed the better thread of this (professionally very busy) week... Hopefully, I'll have time for it and not lose out (like for the Morricone thread >> I'm so far out of date with that thread, that I've kind of abandoned it)

I hope to hear from you. I've been following your posts for the purpose of getting educated and I must say that I am very impressed with your offerings . I would love to meet the majority of people on P.E. in person at a Prog gathering and listen to their stories , their personal history on Prog. Although I am more likely to be brave when typing on a keyboard than conversing in public, I am overwhelmed by the information rendered by everyone on here. Sometimes in public I feel like a beach ball sweating inside a furnace