Reflections On The Golden Era...
    Reflections On The Golden Era
1960s & 70s: AN ERA LIKE NO OTHER IN MODERN TIMES... 😎

We call the 1960s & 70s a 'Golden Era', and celebrate that on this page, with postings that make clear that this was the age of cultural revolution: Classical age of modern culture. And also, that it was the age of social revolution: when Establishment 'norms' of injustice, inequality and bigotry were challenged and set on the road to change...

These postings, and this page; this community, are not about looking back as a bunch of old fuddy-duddies, out of pace with the modern world and clinging to a nostalgia comfort zone... Nope...

We are about drawing attention to the historical importance of this era and all that was achieved in these two decades. We've debated, discussed and recalled an age that we agree that we were lucky to be a part of in our youth. It's an era that I suggest might be described as 'a modern Renaissance period':

These were two decades of social and cultural revolution that changed the world and shook up the Establishment in ways that set in motion the freedoms and equality that are taken for granted by modern generations. These freedoms are still a work in progress, but the door to real equality, justice and freedom from classism, racism, sexism and homophobia, and the promotion of peace and pacifism over war-mongering and gung ho- militarism, was opened by the campaigning and protest of the generations of this era.

Of course, in the past there were protests and campaigns for change, which achieved great things, like the abolition of slavery and votes for women. The difference with the 1960s and 70s revolution is that it was not a campaign coordinated and carried out by only the social elite and the intelligentsia - it was a paradigm shift in the collective psyche of the generations of the time, and all aspects of our culture - especially the music - were used to express our rejection of Establishment conventions and 'norms': right down to the way we dressed, how we wore our hair, and the social commentary and political and philosophical education in the lyrics of the music that we listened to. Our protest was not one of set-piece marches and demos: it was a whole lifestyle, cultural and social revolution...

These days - a time when gung-ho militarism has been re-glamourized and glorified, and greed and self interest are promoted as superior to altruism and social responsibility, modern generations bask in the freedoms mentioned above; and in a freedom of cultural expression. All the while they will too often sneer at - and be encouraged to sneer at - this era: dismissing it as a wasted two decades, peopled by feckless dope zombies, out to wreck civilisation... 😒

...These modern generations seem oblivious to the fact that those freedoms that they bask in were campaigned for and won by OUR generations. The music and other culture that they call their own is, in fact, not new or original - it's just derivative: having its origins in the 1960s & 70s (with homage to the Rock and Roll 1950s, of course..!) - and, not to be too dramatic, I hope - maybe, just maybe, the very fact that they are here and still have a world to live in is down to the courage and social conscience and collective will of our generations in saying NO to the unjust, divisive and aggressive conventions of the Establishment...

These are the reasons for this page... Those of us who are from this era look back with a sense of achievement, and pride - not boastful or arrogant - pride with humility - in what our era achieved ...

Those from generations since: please don't buy the skewed accounts of this era that you are fed by an Establishment that would, clearly, rather avoid such a popular social protest in the future - and so paints the 'revisionist History' picture that it does...

Join us - you're very welcome... :)

©Copyright. MLM Arts 25. 01. 2016. Edited and re-posted: 22. 12. 2016. Edited and re-posted: 07. 08. 2017. Edited and re-posted: 15. 10. 2018

1964: 'THE BRITISH INVASION' - THE YEAR THE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF THE 1960s YOUTH REVOLUTION BEGAN TO COALESCE... 

The 'Chronicles' year by year postings of the events of The Golden Era are periodically reposted - for the purpose of adding to them and upgrading the content. For the latest revisit (currently underway), I've decided that it's necessary to consider 1960 - 1963 as the first phase: the phase before the phenomena of The Beatles global popularity and 'The British Invasion' : two obviously connected phenomena that changed the whole youth popular social and cultural scene worldwide... 

RÉSUMÉ OF 1960 - 1963

Late 1940s Beatnik intellectualising, café culture protest - with a background of Jazz music, was vying with the more recent (mid-late 1950s) high energy, scowling, 'rebels without a cause' Rock and Roll youth subculture, for dominance of the youth scene... 

But during this early 1960s phase, a New Wave fringe was breaking away from the Beatnik scene in the USA: a Folky protest fringe, that looked to earlier Folk singers, like Woody Guthrie, for inspiration. Bands and artists, such as Peter Paul and Mary; Bob Dylan; Joan Baez; and Judy Collins emerged from this fringe - and recorded protest song albums that charted... 

Meanwhile, in the UK, for the first time, British youth didn't just straight up "ape' American youth culture: two very British variations on American youth culture emerged:

The Teddy Boys: who were into American Rock and Roll, but ditched the jeans and leather look for sharp dressing Edwardian style suits (that's why the name 'Teddy': short for Edward.)

And, emerging from the British Beatnik scene: The Mods: a youth culture centred on London, which ditched Beatnik grungy dressing, in favour of sharp suits (inspired, so I've read, by the Teddy Boys: though not dressing the same, Edwardian suits, way: rather, a slick modern look); over which was draped a parka anorak...  To further distinguish themselves as stylish youth, the Mods rode Italian style scooters, rather than Rock and Roll motorbikes... 

Musically, the Mods sound ditched Beatnik Jazz for something more R'n'B / Pop - though the guitar power riffs of bands like The Who and The Kinks might be considered the template for the Heavy / Hard Rock that was to emerge towards the late 1960s... 

ANOTHER VERY INFLUENTIAL SCENE - BUT IN THE BACKGROUND... 

Around the same time, at venues in the western outskirts of London, a separate British youth culture development scene was quietly at work: The Ealing Club, in NW London, is widely recognised as the birthplace of British Blues: young white British guys playing the music of older generation African Americans: music that American youth - white or black - didn't play - or even get to hear much... 

In the western suburb of Richmond, especially at a venue in the area called Eel Pie Island (on the Thames, between Richmond and Twickenham), a mix of culturally evolving Beatniks, Folkies, and Blues players, made a separate and very cool scene; they identified as 'Heads' and 'Freaks': constructing their own, individual, alternative 'reality' in their culture and lifestyle... 

AND - 'UP NORTH'... 

Liverpool - Merseyside - The Cavern Club... Young bands and artists were making music that was influenced by American Rock and Roll - but also by British stars who brought a British twist (no pun intended, considering the American Twist dance craze was big at the time... ) to American music: artists and music like like Lonnie Donegan and Skiffle; and pure Pop... 

The Mersey Beat sound developed out of these influences - but it was distinct. As well as the sound, there was a 'look'; an image... 

1963

In the UK, a Mersey Beat band, called The Beatles, had made a small blip on the UK charts in 1962, with the single 'Love Me Do'; but things warmed up at the beginning of 1963, with the number 2 hit, 'Please Please Me' - and then a UK Pop music phenomenon was well and truly established, when the follow-up, 'From Me To You' reached number 1... 

Mersey Beat caught the attention of the UK public - and other Mersey Beat bands and artists filled the UK singles charts: perhaps most notably, Gerry And The Pacemakers: who made history by becoming the first band to score number 1 UK hits with their first three singles. 

In the same year, North London produced what was called 'The Tottenham Sound' - with the band The Dave Clark Five: a big beat, stomping sound to rival Mersey Beat... 

The British Pop music scene was buzzing with diverse new sounds and ideas... 

EARLY 1964

I've learned from American folks who follow 'Chronicles' (a special shout out to Catherine (Baffa)), that even before The Beatles' ground-breaking appearance on 'The Ed Sullivan Show', in February 1964, which launched both Beatlemania and 'The British Invasion' in the USA, American youth had heard about what was happening in the UK music scene - but it didn't get much airplay on US TV or radio... 

But in January 1964, The Beatles entered the Billboard Hot 100 mid-table - then shot up to the top 5 in a week... 

US TV and radio took note - especially Ed Sullivan, but seems... 

The Beatles' February 1964 performance on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' is now the stuff of legend: it opened the floodgates to British bands and artists to storm to popularity in North America and around the world - from 1964 on through the 1960s and into the 1970s... 

The Beatles - and other Mersey Beat bands and artists; British Blues bands, like The Animals and The Rolling Stones; Mods, like The Who and The Kinks; Pop bands like Herman's Hermits, and Beatnik Folkies, Heads, and Freaks, who'd hung around Eel Pie Island - most notably a young Scottish born wanderer, inspired by Bob Dylan - called Donovan - became huge hits in North America in the early years of 'The British Invasion'. The centre of modern popular culture moved from the USA to the UK, and new British bands and artists continued to thrice world-wide, throughout The Golden Era... 

North American youth - and the world - couldn't get enough of 'British Invasion' sounds... 

THE CAUSE?

I look at things through coolly analytical eyes... 

I suggest that the usual money motivated corporate Interests initially played a big part in youth Pop culture - from the 'invention of' the teenager in the 1950s, with Rock and Roll - right up to 'The British Invasion': all seen as just a lucrative market to get teens to spend their money. 

After Rock and Roll - a next wave, in the early 1960s, needed something new - and significantly different... 

There may also be an element of political cynicism: American youth, via the new Folky protest fringe of the Beatniks, was beginning to get restless and worried about American involvement in the Vietnam War - and about Cold War politics and aggression generally...  Perhaps a major distraction was needed... Something to get this focused youth unfocused and placated by a new craze...??? 

Well, I can't ignore these possible cynical elements.. 

Mind you, that's not to take away from the attraction of the sheer talent, the creativity, the innovation, charisma that also played a big part in 'The British Invasion' phenomenon... 

However, I'd certainly say that it was all just intended as pure entertainment - and commercial interests... 

BUT... 

THE EFFECT...? 

Effects of cynical political and / or commercial plans, tend, I think, to be seen by the planners only through their own narrow lens...  They broadly assume that those that they are targeting are pretty gullible - a bit naïve and, frankly, a bit stupid, in fact: easily manipulated...  They cannot anticipate any other consequences of their plans but the ones they have in mind... 

It's been my suggestion in past 'Chronicles' articles, that the mixing and mingling of intellectualising Beatnik youth / and its American Folky protest fringe - with the raw, but aimless energy of Rock and Rollers - and then that missing ingredient: the organised, long time tradition of 'class war' anti-Establishment protest and resentment of working class and lower middle class British youth: more especially, a 1960s British working class that was the first to benefit from childhood onwards from the very socialist polices of the 1945 - 1951 Labour government: extensive free schooling; the National Health Service; provision for proper nutrition - produced unforeseen effects and consequences of 'The British Invasion'... 

This was a robust, educated, healthy - and energised British youth - well used to the British tradition of protest against injustice and unfairness... 

Mix that in with Beatnik / the emerging Beatnik intellectualising Folky fringe - and Rock and Roll energy... in an increasingly dangerous world, where the Establishment powers seemed internet on bloody and destructive wars - and on pushing and provoking each other closer and closer to the nuclear annihilation of humanity...? 

Well, let me say that I don't think that the Establishment saw the results and consequences coming... 

Over the next two or three years, this youth entertainment became so much more than just entertainment: the ideas, the creative genius, the motivations, the inspirations of the artists involved, produced music that was, in large part, an education: it discussed social and political issues - and informed its audience; and more than that: it created a revolution in TRULY free thinking: by discussing and informing about history, philosophy, world religions, ideologies: a search for a new view of what reality is: a better understanding of it than the accepted view - which had brought humanity to the brink of nuclear annihilation... 

CONCLUSION

In short, 'The British Invasion' was the catalysing element that would bring about a coherent and cohesive youth social and cultural revolution: '...a whole generation - with a new explanation...' (Scott McKenzie, 'San Francisco' (1967))... 

That's my take on the possible deeper causes and effects of the pivotal event in modern history, that we call 'The British Invasion', folks... It needed a special article: 1964 was a very important year in The Golden Era...  (M).

Textual content (and graphic image (other than the Union Flag design rough copy)) © Copyright MLM Arts 20. 08. 2022 

THE LEGENDARY GLASGOW APOLLO THEATRE: WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED AS THE BEST GIG IN BRITAIN... 😎


This graphic shows the inside of The Glasgow Apollo Theatre, seen from high up behind the stage during a sell-out gig by Paul McCartney and Wings (1979). My late, great buddy and co-founder of 'Chronicles', Big D, and I, have written a lot about The Glasgow Apollo, and the renowned Apollo crowd, and how the Apollo gig was widely acknowledged as being easily the best gig in the U.K – because of the crowd - NOT the building, which was a bit of a wreck, inside and out... 😕


To begin with, I'll try to give an idea of just HOW bad the building was... 😳The outside was much like any old theatre building that had been around for decades - people don't / didn't really take much notice...In the foyer and ticket office lighting was always low, and ya didn't spend much time there anyway - so not much notice taken there either...


But in the theatre... 😱


The traditional padded, blue velvety clad seats were colour faded, threadbare, filthy, some broken; and likely (I must suspect) were home to an entire ecosystem of tiny crawling wildlife that would excite David Attenborough himself into making a documentary about any single one of those seats... 😳The dark red carpet had a slightly disturbing sticky quality underfoot (eeewww... 😕).


The toilets... Ah, the toilets... I never, ever used them: I went to them one time during one of my first gigs - but only splashed my way in the door a couple of steps - and quickly about turned and splashed my way back out again... I'd rather hold my water... Frankly, I'd have peed myself if necessary, rather than stand amidst the queue of gig goers in that fetid swamp: it was like a setting from the movie 'Southern Comfort' - recreated in what was supposed to be a theatre's 'Gentleman's Rest Room': a place to refresh ones-self during an evening of entertainment... 😱 😳


I say that I 'splashed' my way in and out of those toilets - because it was indeed a splashing; a wading exercise; the more intoxicated patron, in high spirits and looking on the bright side, might more optimistically call it 'paddling'...


But one really shouldn't be having to paddle or wade into a toilet: that has to be considered a discouraging feature to most people... 🤔 Especially after the unsettling sticky sensation of the carpet en-route to the toilet... 😮And the stench in those toilets was something so intense you could darn near photograph it... 😷


Actually, the distinct, dank 'fragrant bouquet' that just routinely hung around in the theatre itself wasn't exactly something that you'd want to bottle and sell at the perfume counter in stylish department stores...  😳 😣 But that was a smell that was just 'always there' and so we were used to it... 😳 😏


Now let's talk about the walls and pillars - as a link to the reason why we Apollo theatre goers ignored the short-comings of the infrastructure - that is to say, the raw, powerful and electric atmosphere (created BY us, the audience, of course), which is what made The Apollo legendary - the best gig in Britain... 😎The walls and pillars actually sweated during a gig... 😓 😮


This was, of course, just condensation created by the heat if the crowd... But, I mean the walls and pillars actually gave the impression of streaming with sweat... just like the wild, passionate, 'playfully savage' (as a member of Def Leppard once described them) Apollo crowd; like the building itself was alive - like The Apollo was a living creature - and the crowd inside was part of it: the cells; the internal organs that combined to comprise the whole living, breathing, seething, roaring, stomping, clapping, cheering - and raucously singing organism...  😮


That is what a band or artist was playing to at The Apollo: not an audience; n  individual patrons; not a theatre: but a combination of all of that, which became a singular living, raving, but sometimes purring, either way, still always with a feeling of menace - savage creature... 😮


This savage creature could be playful, joyful - like a tame, but all the same ferocious, loyal dragon - if it was pleased by you...  😎 Or a scary monster if it wasn't... 😱The Apollo crowd-creature was not just wild: 'it' / we (I was part of it) clapped, we stomped, we head-banged, and we sang along in full voice – but we were also knowledgeable, well informed and discerning… If sitting and listening was required (for example at acoustic sets, or involved Prog. Rock pieces), then that’s how the crowd reacted; and our listening was intense, and critical…


Acts had to be on top of their game: but they generally were… And got a response that raised them to the heavens…But if the Apollo crowd was displeased with a band or artist – they let them know it…


For example, when, at the fabulous YES gig of 1977, YES announced that they would play their hit single ‘Wondrous Stories’ (the band's first ever UK hit single) - adding that it had gotten them on to the BBC singles chart show 'Top Of The Pops' for the first time - there was an instant chorus of hissing and booing… To explain: if they’d just played the song – no problem; but to associate it with the Bubblegum music of the singles chart...? Not for the serious, album bands purists of the Apollo, no…


One of my great gig memories was a Rick Wakeman and the English Rock Ensemble gig in 1976. Wakeman was one of a few bands and artists who enjoyed 'can do no wrong' near demigod status with the Apollo crowd. This is the only gig that I ever witnessed a genuine encore: by that I mean a call back to the stage that was not the routine, expected part of just about every gig. It was mostly one of those listening, appreciate the music gigs - it was that kind of music... There was a standing ovation at the end... Wakeman and band return to play the beautiful instrumental 'Merlin The Magician' as an encore - the ovation was even more rapturous... And just didn't stop.... The house lights came up - the roadies started to dismantle the equipment... But the crowd stayed and the demands for more intensified... Finally, Wakeman returned to the stage in casual clothes - still towelling his hair dry (presumably he'd had a shower) - and had to order the roadies to stop - reassemble the equipment, get the band on stage and play 'Merlin' again... 😮


But on the savage side... 😕


The worst (and most unfair) mauling I ever saw at The Apollo was the 1976 Deep Purple gig. The great Tommy Bolin had just replaced Ritchie Blackmore as Purple’s lead guitarist. Blackmore was one of a few artists who were worshipped as demi-gods by The Apollo mob, and Bolin didn’t stand a chance, I’m sorry to say… He was built up for his solo by Coverdale, and left on stage himself. Immediately the chants of ‘Ritchie! Ritchie!’ began… Then the booing and heckling… Bolin looked like a rabbit in the headlights, and was reduced to flicking the British ‘V’ sign insult at the mob before storming off stage… I felt bad for him. I was not fair treatment of a great guitarist…

But to be loved at the Apollo was, as I said, to be elevated to demi-god status. Other artists (apart from Blackmore) so ‘deified’ were Led Zeppelin, Rick Wakeman, Uriah Heep, and, perhaps most of all, Status Quo: the Apollo head bangers dream band…

This photo shows most of the Apollo, but misses out the top tier balcony. This balcony used to – LITERALLY – bounce up and down, very visibly, during a head banging Apollo gig. The owners got some engineers in to reinforce it at last. The story goes that when the work was done, the engineer and the Apollo management were discussing a try-out gig. The engineer asked which band would be best to have on to test out the newly reinforced structure. Without a moment’s hesitation the reply was: ‘Quo…’

The crumbling infrastructure - and greater expectations of customer comfort that came in in the 1980s - finally caught up with The Glasgow Apollo - and it was closed in 1984 - and demolished some years later... 😢

So there you have it, folks: an overview - 'warts and all', as the saying goes - of the legendary gig venue that was The Glasgow Apollo... 😎

...On a personal note: in 1979 when me and a couple of buddies of mine were, in our youthfully enthusiastic way, trying to make in-roads into the P.R game in music, and were on The Boomtown Rats backstage pass list for their sell-out U.K tour, the support band, Protex, dedicated their version of T.Rex’s Jeepster to us, during the Apollo gig… What a buzz that was… 😎

(I found this graphic online: my acknowledgement and thanks to whoever took this photograph).

(M).

Textual content:
©Copyright MLM Arts 25. 08. 2014. Edited and re-posted: 13. 09. 2019. Edited and re-posted: 31. 08. 2020

LATE 1970s: GLASGOW APOLLO THEATRE QUEUE: ME'THINKS A TESTOSTERONE FUELED HEADBANGIN' GIG AWAITS...

 

Long queue. Longhairs... Every single one of them a bloke; a geezer; a dude; a guy; a male; and an Alpha Male looking male at that...


This picture popped up on my Facebook feed. I can't remember from which page (sorry - but acknowledgment and thanks). It was labelled as a Glasgow Apollo Theatre queue for tickets - from the 1970s...


To narrow it down, the main clue we have is the Motorhead tour poster: Motorhead was formed in 1977.


I very much doubt if it's a Motorhead gig that the crowd is queuing for tickets for though: much as this looks like a Motorhead audience, Motorhead (in its early stages at least) was never so big as to warrant queues around the block for tickets...


I've only twice been in Glasgow Apollo queues like this one:


1975 for tickets for Led Zeppelin's London Earl's Court gigs: a successful outcome - with 'Willie Wonka  Golden Tickets' (well, that's what it felt like)  joyfully obtained (and without the need to buy a multitude of Scrumdiddilyumptious Bars - thankfully... )


1975 too: The Who tour: queued for hours - round block after block: didn't even get into Renfield Street - where the front of the Apollo Theatre was - before the tickets sold out...


Both of those gigs / bands had a mixed audience: grungy longhair blokes - and Afghan coated, patchouli scented gals - chicks - 'birds' as we used to say in the UK back in the day (but woe betide the chap who uses that term nowaday... )

 

And both were pre-1977...


So... Let's see...


Two bands leap to mind as possibles for the cause of this 'must queue for tickets' assembly of XY chromosomes: headbanger extravaganza bands both:


First and foremost: Status Quo: probably THE band most revered by the notoriously / famously 'playfully savage' (as a member of Def Leopard once described them) - sometimes more savage than playful, if they weren't entertained - Glasgow Apollo Theatre mob...

I may possibly be one of  only a very few guys of my generation who was brought up in Glasgow who never saw Status Quo live at The Glasgow Apollo Theatre...


Or


AC / DC: They too commanded a certain reverence: as a recent viral clip of Scottish / Glasgow football legend - now TV pundit - Ally McCoist declared, when at a football ground awaiting the start of the game and about to give his TV comments:


[Clang! Clang!: in the background - the PA system playing the intro to AC / DCs 'Hell's Bells']: 'That can't be AC / DC...! It is...! Ye cannae beat a bit o' AC / DC man...'  LOL...!


(McCoist has a variation on 'air guitar' in the clip: 'air drums' LOL...!  Here's the clip:


https://youtu.be/VCByekdRdFU?

si=I03Svc2Wq1oDnVwK )


Yes - AC /DC was another major Glasgow Apollo Theatre crowd pleaser...


Those two are my guess. But listen, I know that there will certainly be female fans of both those bands - and likely some at the gig... But it would appear that the hunter gatherer Alpha Males were the ones tasked with hunting and gathering the tickets...

 

What a fascinating and thought provoking picture...


(I found this image online. My acknowledgement and thanks to whoever posted it / owns it (identity unknown to me).)  (M).


Textual content: © Copyright MLM Arts 01. 10. 2024. Edited and re-posted: 03. 10. 2024

EARLY - MID 1970s: A GLASGOW APOLLO THEATRE AUDIENCE: ME'THINKS A HYSTERICAL SCREAM FEST WAS UNDERWAY... 

This is a contrast with a recent post of a late 1970s all male queue for tickets at The Glasgow Apollo Theatre - for what we may suppose to have been a testosterone fueled headbanger gig... 

This is an Osmonds gig - possibly just Donny Osmond (?) - clearly during the peak of 'Osmondmania' - so that's around 1971 - 1973. 

All female... And hysterical... Oh, except that one geezer (bottom right) - who is quite obviously security (two reasons: he's a guy; he's facing the crowd) - who's looking slightly bemused and a tad terrified, by being massively outnumbered by (to paraphrase Scottish reformation preacher, John Knox): '... this monstrous regiment of women...' LOL...! 

Just joking, ladies... Well, let's say half joking: because, speaking freely as a bloke, I can say that it is unnerving to be outnumbered in a crowd of women, especially if you're in a minority of ONE... 

But anyhoo - one, slightly nervy looking, security guy in this picture - and a baying, screaming, hysterical mass of female audience... All seemingly quite prepared to trample underfoot anyone - including each other - and especially any security geezer - if it meant a chance to even get a few yards closer to the beloved Donny... 

It's just a fun - but all the same, interesting and informative - visual archive this; and it shows that, in some cases, audiences were either all - or almost all - female - or male, sometimes... 

I'll qualify that: 'almost all female' audiences were probably more common than 'almost all male' audiences: as Osmond (and the like: 1970s teenybopper boy bands) gigs were aimed at teenybopper girls - attracted to the guys in the band as much or more than to the music...

... Whereas guys went to gigs primarily for the music - but girls went to those gigs too - and primarily for the same reasons. 

Quilifier 2: After the adolescent teenybopper stage was passed, both gals and guys attended gigs for the love of the music. 

I get a feeling that I've dug myself into a hole of blabbing apologetic explaining 'ere - and just making things worse... 

Can I say just: 'Ah look - you know what I mean, folks...?' 


But like I said: fun - and fascinating, nostalgic, interesting historical archive document, this... 
(I found this image online. My acknowledgment and thanks to whoever posted it / owns it (identity unknown to me). ) (M).

Textual content © Copyright MLM Arts 03. 10. 2024

NOVEMBER 5th. IS FIREWORKS NIGHT - BIG D DAY... 😉 

November 5th. in the UK is the night that folks let off fireworks and build bonfires to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night. (There's an article on that in 'Chronicles' 'Reflections on the Era' photo album)...

But it also happens to be the the day, in 2013, that my best buddy, and co-founder of this page, Big D, took his final bow on this stage, and joined the stars in the great gig... Typical of the big fella to go out in a blaze of glory..! LOL..! 😀

Big D passed away in his adopted hometown of Phoenix, Az., with his wife, Pam, by his side...

November 5th. is Big D day on 'Chronicles'' - a celebration of a life and a friendship - a friendship that extended to everyone on this page... 😊

I first met the big fella when I was in my last couple of years at high school and he was a couple of years older and serving his apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. Away from being an apprentice mechanic, he was a poet, a painter - and already an excellent guitarist - who'd saved his meagre apprentice wages to buy a Gibson Les Paul.

His favourite bands were Deep Purple and Uriah Heep; favourite solo artist was Bowie; favourite guitarist's, Ritchie Blackmore, Mick Box, Paul Kossoff, and Mick Ronson...

I met him via other buddies of mine, when Big D joined a band that they were putting together. All things in the mix - including our shared sense of humour - we hit it off straight away and became best buddies... 🙂

Must say though, that part of that dynamic was our on-going Zeppelin (my favourite band) vs. Purple; Page vs. Blackmore debates..! 😀

Here's a memorial in celebration of Big D and our friendship - this is how I’ll remember my old buddy… 🙂

…Like the Tull gig we went to, when Ian Anderson was going through his bowler hat phase? There were red bowlers on sale in the foyer – and Big D bought one. In the gig we were sat pretty much smack in the middle of the stalls. D was the only bowler wearer in sight…

Tull came on – everyone cheered and got up on their feet. Ian Anderson peered through the footlights and joked: ‘Alright, how many of you have actually bought the silly hats..?’ – D… Only D… And he tops out at about 6’3” tall - even taller with the hat on… (LOL!) His face turned redder than the hat – it was like standing next to a distress beacon..! ROFL..!

How about when he was in a ‘play anything’ club band in the early 1980s – to make a bit of cash..? Playing to middle-aged fans of ‘Easy Listening’ music audiences, who would demand the novelty instrumental ‘The Birdie Song’ (a hit single in the U.K in 1981. I think it was 'The Chicken Song' in the USA...???) – to Big Ds great annoyance..?

They’d all get up and do the ‘Birdie Dance’ (cringe…): lots of arm flapping and butt wiggling…

But D made ‘em pay though… He’d just keep playing it – faster and faster… They found it fun at first, but he just wouldn’t stop – and kept getting faster (LOL!) He was like a crazed puppet-master driving them on. The flapping got frantic; the wiggling was just a blur… This was Olympic standard flap-and-wiggle… The guitar was, by now, like Blackmore at his lighting-fast best – and Big D was grinning like a crazy-person and stifling his laughter…. When they'd been 'Birdied' to the point of collapse, desperate yells of: 'STOP! STOP! We cannae keep up, ya big git..!' would be heard... He’d finally free them from the spell – and then look at them like - ‘But I thought you loved that wee tune..?’ LOL!

But Big D never took himself too seriously at any time; fun, good humour and good companionship was always his way. Here’s a story from the man himself, which he posted with this picture…

The picture displayed here, circa 1979, is of yours truly, and it depicts an image of a very confused young man indeed: Tony Iommi moustache, Les McKeown hair-do, all wrapped up neatly in what looks like a waiters uniform - belting out Status Quo…

After failed attempts at stardom in a couple of bands, one a Thin Lizzy covers band and the first one which was like The Sweet meets Bad Company meets the Bay City Rollers, I ended up in a three piece - no not suit( LOL!) - a cool little three piece band. We played the usual clubs and this gave us the chance to rock out. No pressure and a good time was had by all. But someone always throws a spanner into the works, and it came to fruition in the car park of a workingman’s club. I was packing my gear away [at the end of the night], and this guy comes over and asked if I was in the band. I said “Yes” (expecting a compliment) His reply: “You’re the worst band I have ever heard.” Oops - never saw that one coming. The tyre on the van was not the only thing that was flat that night - my ego was so flat I had to scrape it off the pavement... LOL..!

D:)

That sums up the man’s humour and personality… But not the truth of his very considerable talent as a guitarist, I can assure you..! 🙂

Great memories - but just a few of many... 😀

Here's to buddies, especially best buddies - the folks that we build our lives and memories with... 😊

(M)

OLD TELEPHONES CAUSED FAMILY PROBLEMS TOO... (JUST AS MOBLE PHONES DO - ONLY DIFFERENT...)

Big, clunky - not mobile (well, not any farther than the length of the cable it was attached to...); and, yes - even those limited use appliances were the source of many a dispute and domestic disaster... 

The cost was the main source of domestic yelling and raving - from irate parents - who had to foot the bill... 

(The main source - but not the only source - as will be revealed later... )

Calls cost money - charged by the minute. In the UK, a local call was relatively cheap (though, of course, long calls still racked up a big charge... ); but local only meant your own town - a call made to outside of your town was a national call - even if it was not far away - and the cost of them was hiked way up... 

International calls? Only in some kind of emergency; otherwise, they were the preserve of the rich... 

So... I think we all know the scene: teenagers: especially doe-eyed, love-struck teenagers: on the phone... billing and cooing... but to their parents - that'd be just BILLING... 

Ah... Puppy love...  Time just seems to stand still, while dreamy teens purr trivial nonsense to each other down the phone...  Time in reality, however, as we all know - waits for no man... or woman... And it downright gallops like a thoroughbred race horse for a sighing, flirting, heart throbbing teen on the phone... 

Parents would usually allow an understanding half hour or so... Then poke a head around the door, with a wry smile, and tap at their wristwatch as a reminder... 

Another fifteen minutes, and a more agitated head pokes menacingly around the door - the parent this time craning their wrist around to make the watch visible, and prodding the watch aggressively... 

It's been a full hour now... And a face so contorted by rage and a deep sense of panic as to make it almost unrecognisable as human - far less that of good old Mom or Dad, pokes around that door - hideously, but silently, mouthing words of reproach - and even threats of some kind... 

The teen is only now broken from reverie; but pulls a face of his or her own: a face of: 'how DARE you! You're SO insensitive! Your RUINING my relationship...!'  They too use exaggerated silent mouth movements to express: 'Alright! Alright! I won't be long...!' 

A stern look and a wagged finger from the parent demands that they hang up REAL soon... 

Five minutes later... The parent in full (not just the head and gesturing hands) comes out the door with a furious look on their face; now grabbing their head in both hands; now gesturing wildly with flailing arms... 

And, after the only response to this display has been the teenager holding up an index finger to indicate 'One minute...': thereby showing that they totally fail to grasp the urgency; the parent finally cracks and yells:

'Who pays the flippin' (or some other word.... ) BILL...! Get OFF that phone NOW...!'

At last, a bit shaken by this parental angst, the teen starts the long goodbye: '

'(Sigh...) Yeah, yeah, it's my [which ever parent] - you know how it is... Love you! Miss you! Mwaa! Mwaa! [kissy noises] Ohh... Me too... I don't want to stop talking... Mwaa! Mwaa! Friday! - Friday! Don't let me down now...! You KNOW I won't...! Mwaa! Mwaa! Where will we go? Oh...'

By now the parent is literally jumping up and down, grabbing their head again... At the point where plans for Friday begin, they know that a whole NEW hour-plus conversation is starting...  Enough is enough... The parent marches straight to the phone and yells:

'Oi! Lover boy! [or girl] S/he'll see you Friday! A'right?!!...'

- And slams a hand down on the receiver rest: the niche where the receiver goes - with the two little retractable buttons that cut off the call when the receiver is replaced... 

The teen is struck mute and numb... Horrified... She or he stands expressionless for a couple of seconds that seem like eternity...  Then erupts:

'I HATE YOU...!'

And storms out of the house... 

A simmering discontent between the teenager and the parent responsible for this outrage persists for a day or two; usually with the other parent trying to mediate... 

Then all is forgotten and calm restored... 

Untill the next phone call of that type: and then it's 'rinse and repeat'... 

And so it went on - until the teen or teens involved had flown the nest, got married, had kids of their own - and assumed the role of their parents in the same scenario... 

That is, until around the 2000s and beyond, when mobile phones became well established, with monthly contracts and limitless calls included... 

Well, so much for the disputes caused by pricing...

But I, for one, have an example of another issue caused by old style phones... 

I was about 11 years old. My sister was about 17: yep that phase of teenage... 

I'd been out playing football, just around the back of our tenement building. I'm taken with the need to relieve my bladder - but the game's on, so I ignore it - as ya do... But my bladder grows increasingly impatient - and finally starts to scream at me, in the form of stabbing pains (you know the way... )

I excuse myself and run into the building - right to the top floor, where our apartment is. My sister is the only one at home - and I dearly hope that she hadn't gone out in the meantime... 

By the time I reach our door, I - who have never been a dancer - would have won Pulp Fiction's 'Jack Rabbit Slim's Twist Contest' - even against John Travolta...  You know what I'm talking about here: that 'bustin' for a pee' leg distortion... 

I pressed the buzzer and bit my lip... Nothing... 

But I could hear my sister inside in the long hallway. I buzzed; I knocked; I beat on the door desperately... Nothing... 

I peeked through the letter box. There she was - on the phone (which was located on a little shelf, halfway up the hallway). She was nattering... She was gazing dreamily into space; twisting her finger around the coiled receiver cable; then twiddling with her hair... Purring... Sighing... Cooing... 

I knew what that meant: a bloke... 

'Open the freakin' DOOR...!' I screamed through that letterbox communication channel. She was utterly oblivious... 

By this time, if Chubby Checker himself had shown up, he'd be applauding and saying something like:

'You got tha moves, li'l bro! You got tha moves...!' 

I was a quick thinking little fellow - especially in desperate situations. I decided to change my approach, so as to address the situation directly, and break through her hypnotic state: I spoke to the source of her enchantment: the guy himself. I opened the letterbox again - and roared:

'Oi...! Pal...! She hates you! She's seeing another guy! She calls you 'big nose'! 'ugly'! 'halfwit'!...'

It worked. My sister was shocked back to the here and now.

'Whaaat! Don't listen to... YOU LITTLE RAT....! Wait till I...' She stammered - then made for the door, so as to gimme a slap round the ear 'ole... 

She opened the door; she swung her hand to clout me. I ducked under her arm - and was in the door, then sharp left into the toilet - firmly closing the door behind me... 

Sis hammered on the door, and yelled REALLY loud - so that 'lover boy' could hear:

'You lying little rat! I'll wring your neck! You better just LIVE in there from now on - you dare not leave...!'

I was oblivious... The war between my bladder and me was over - peace reigned - or maybe pees rained...  It was joyous... 

There was a hit single high in the charts at the time: 'Yellow River', by a band called Christie. I wasn't into music at the time, but I found myself singing the chorus out loud:

'Yell-ow Ri-ver
Yell-ow Ri-ver...'

My sister was back on the phone - damning me and explaining all to this love of her life... 

I was torn between making up for my outburst and getting in another dig at her, for nearly making me pee myself...  I kinda compromised...  I rushed out of the toilet and opened the front door, and before I left I shouted:

'Hey 'big nose'! - I was only joking! She says she loves you, really - even if you are an ugly halfwit...!' 

Seemed fair enough to me... 

I was off and away and forgot the whole thing - there was football to play, and that was all that was important... 

So there we are folks - the simple old dial up, clunky, bakelite (or whatever they may have been made from in other countries...???) telephone: an everyday, fairly unremarkable object - yet, like everything else, a piece of nostalgia that conjures up stories...  (M).

(My acknowledgment and thanks to the cartoonist, who signs as Deering. )

Textual content: © Copyright MLM Arts 01.10.2021. Edited and re-posted: 22. 11. 2022

MUSIC PHENOMENA FROM THE GOLDEN ERA:


GLAM ROCK (debuted: 1971).

(The Rock style and teenage rebellion that got most of my generation in the U.K – 1970s teens – into music in our own right…)

In the late 1960s the British music scene, or at least the singles charts, needed a spark to ignite the interest of the emerging 'next generation' (my generation). We were the new wave of teenagers. We needed something fresh - something that was for us... And something accessible, in terms of being easy to 'get into' - AND affordability: that meant singles, as albums were too pricey for us at that age, and anyway, took too much 'getting into'... 

Rock music had, by this time, created for itself its own 'Establishment' - and was somewhat self-satisfied and complacent. The Beatles had been at the forefront of Prog. Rock (arguably) since the Sgt. Pepper album, and were not really making music that the next generation could readily get into: Prog. Rock was too abstract and too cerebral for kids of my age at the time (12 years old or so). Heavy Rock, and all that kind of thing, was also a bit too serious and kinda ‘grown-up’ in its subject matter for kids of my age, and we couldn't afford to buy albums anyway... 

The Singles charts seemed full of easy-listening 'singing pullovers' - with bright, smiley faces - warbling cheerfully about how everything was lovely; or gloom laden weirdie-beardies in denim and cheesecloth, droning on about how everything was not even in the ballpark of lovely - and that we were all doomed... Ooo-er... Really? - We're just kids 'ere! Give us something to get rebellious about - and to cheer us up..! 

I recall that my sister (some 5 years older than me) had gone from being into The Beatles, then The Monkees, and then, in the late 60s / early 70s, had gotten into the glitzy American sound of Motown: which was pretty big in the U.K charts at the time. I liked listening to her Motown singles, but still, it was not MY music – not music for us - the ‘next generation’ kids, thanks all the same... 

There was nothing for us… until T.Rex came around...

The hippie, electric 'Folksy' sound of the 1970 T.Rex single 'Ride A White Swan', with its quirky lyrics, caught the attention, and made slow, steady progress up the U.K singles chart - peaking at Number 2. Tyrannosaurus Rex (as T.Rex had formerly been known) fans seemed to wince at Bolan's attracting an audience that was outside of their exclusive Folk Rock underground 'club'; the Rock / Pop 'Establishment' of Hippies, Rockers, Freaks, Heads and emerging 'Proggers' said: 'hmmm, nice...', but didn't get too excited... 

Then... 

In February 1971, (the story goes that) T.Rex front man and leader, Marc Bolan, took some impromptu image tips from her s wife, June, and stuck few spots of glitter under the eyes for a Top of the Pops appearance to promote the follow up single, 'Hot Love'... and they - everyone's, it seemed: from the fans of established bands and artists (including much of Bolan's core Folk Rock fan base); to parents, and the socially conservative Establishment generally - all hated the whole T.Rex 'thing'...  From that moment on, T.Rex was OUR BAND - and GLAM ROCK, a New Wave of music, was born: with Bolan as innovator and king. Every one of us was into T.Rex and Glam Rock: guys and girls - united and delighted by the sneering of the music 'Establishment' and the outrage of our parents... 

There were a few bands / artists who showed up on the Glam Rock scene - as packaged products: fame seeking opportunist - who had their few hits and day in the sun - and went away...

But more substantially, there were also more serious and accomplished bands / artists who had been struggling on the Rock music fringes for some time, and hopped aboard the Glam Rock bandwagon (or in some cases, were PUSHED on board, by management!) to get a break: Bowie, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Queen, Roxy Music, The Sweet, Mott The Hoople, Queen and, of course, Slade, being the most notable.

These accomplished bands and artists rode the wave and had great success in Glam Rock, while it lasted.

The ones that found a successful alternative musical direction when Glam Rock started to fizzle-out around the mid-70s survived and thrived - and remain mega-stars to this day. The ones who didn't, and that, sadly, included Bolan, dropped off the high branches of the stardom tree in a short space of time - between about 1974/75 and 1977; going from assured number 1 or at least top 5 singles, to huffing and puffing into the top 20... to lower 50, or not charting at all... They still popped up with the occasional minor hit single out of the blue for a few years afterwards, but the glory days of U.K Glam Rock were gone...

But Glam Rock lived on, and still lives on today, thanks to U.S superstar band KISS - late comers to the party, in 1973: a band clearly influenced by the U.K Glam Rock scene, and happy to acknowledge Slade, in particular as a big influence (KISS later championed Slade's unsuccessful attempts to break big in the USA).

KISS is the last of the Glam Rock icon bands / artists - still standing and still promoting the Glam Rock make-up and costume image. Some grumble that KISS is now a corporate brand, more than a band - but I'm O.K with that; I think that KISS should be congratulated on keeping the Glam Rock image flying -, and if they've made a buck out of doing that? Well, why not? 

...But the great days of the genre, the glory days when Glam Rock ruled for the 'next generation' of 'Golden Era' youth (at least in the U.K) - the early to mid-1970s - were exciting, rebellious and great fun days indeed - and provided the boost that the U.K music scene, or at least the singles chart scene, desperately needed at the time. -

Glam Rock's own Golden Era: gone - but never forgotten..! 

(I found this graphic online: I don't know who created it, but my acknowledged and thanks to whoever that was.)

(M).

Textual content:
©Copyright MLM Arts 15. 10. 2015. Edited 12. 11. 2016. Edited and re-posted: 24. 03. 2020. Edited and re-posted: 26. 03. 2021

I found this image online, from a site called Wise Sages. I added the caption in yellow text. My acknowledgment and thanks to the aforementioned site. 


Adapted - MLM Arts caption added 01. 09. 2024

OF THE 5 U.S PRESIDENTS APPOINTED* DURING THE GOLDEN ERA - NONE OF THEM COMPLETED TWO FULL TERMS


A SIGN OF THE TURBULENT SOCIAL AND CULTURAL REVOLUTIONARY TIMES...?


(*One of the 5 - President Ford - was not even elected at all: his unusual part in this anomaly is in the circumstance  that he has the dubious distinction of being the only U.S President who was never elected to be either Vice President or President.)The above observation just occured to me - and I had to wonder about the possible significance of this stat in relation to the 1960s and 70s social and cultural revolution.


These  5 U.S Presidents did not complete the maximum allowed two full terms in office. Of course, it is not unusual for a U.S President to complete only oner term in office - but usually it is because they lose the election for the second term - that's a fair and square part of the USA politcal system of Constitutional Republic democracy.


But in either the way that these U.S Presidents left office - and / or in the way that they gained office, only President Carter (1976 - 1980) can be said to have had a convetional tenure: won an elction in 1976; lost his re-election campaign in 1980.


In fact, the 1976 election win for Jimmy Carter, can be said to have had its unusual aspect too: he was competing against the only U.S  President that was never elected as either Vice President (VP) or President of the USA: President Geral Ford.


All of the other 5 U.S Presidents had unusual - or tragic - terms in office:


President John F. Kennedy (Democrat Party): Elected:  November 1960; tragically assassinated on November 22nd. 1963.


To this day, the official line on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is that it was the work of a single, lone operative shooter: Lee Harvey Oswald. But to this day, question marks over that official verdict remain - and will not go away...


Some suggest that big-time organised crime was involved in the assassination; some suggest that U.S  Government agencies were involved in President Kennedy's killing... Some suggest a combination of both...


But the official account remains: and documents related to the crime remain classified...


Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat Party): VP to President J.F Kennedy; succeeded JFK as U.S President in Novermber 1963. President Johnson won the U.S Presidential Election in November 1964: but stepped down in 1968 and declined to run for a second term.


It is not entirely clear why President LBJ declined to run for a second term in office. The initial lead-up  elections to establish his candidature: the 'Primaries' - specifically in New Hampshire - returned disappointing results, after which LBJ withrew from the election.


After his election success in November 1964, President Johnson's tenure in office was shadowed was shadowed by controversy - principally over his breaking of pre-election promises not to escalate U.S involvement in the Vietnam War.  'The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident' in early August 1964, in which it was alleged that South Vietnamese Navy vessels had fired upon U.S Navy vessels, gave LBJ and the pro-war 'Hawks' in the U.S Military the reason that they needed to escalate U.S involvement in the war in Vietnam. It has since been revealed that The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident was a 'false flag' event.


In the course of his presidency, President Johnson came under increasing pressure to end U.S involvement in The Vietnam War: at first from youth activists - and then from high profile celebrities - but, by the late 1960s, also from the news media.


Also damning, was the resignation of LBJ's Defence Secretary, Robert McNamara, in November 1967: McNamara had become disillusioned by the way that the USA was conducting its involvement in the war in Vietnam.


Before the end of his tenure as U.S President, the protest chant / slogan 'Hey, hey LBJ! How many kids have you killed today...?' in protest against President Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War, had become a common refrain. It may be suspected, I suggest, that that 'got to' LBJ - and may have influenced his deciscion to stand down...(?)


President Richard Nixon (Republican Party): Elected: November 1968; won a second term in 1972 (by a landslide): President Nixon was forced to resign in 1974: because of scandals concerning his bugging of The White House - and, most prominently, his alleged involvement on the bugging of Democrat Party offices before the 1972 U.S Presidential Election: recorded in history as the 'Watergate Scandal'.


President Nixon's VP, Spiro Agnew, had been forced to resign in 1973, after media and official investigations into his financial affairs revealed 'irregularities'.


President Gerald Ford (Republican Party): He was appointed VP to President Nixon in  1973 after the forced resignation of VP Sporo Agnew (Ford had previously been the Speaker of the House in the U.S Senate). In 1974 Gerald Ford, as U.S VP, was appointed U.S President after the forced resignation of President Nixon during his second term in office.


The above circumstances made President Ford the only U.S President to come into that office without having been elected as either U.S VP or as U.S President. He was, besides, a U.S President representing a Republican Party tainted by corrupton. This background severely hampered any chance he had of winning the 1976 U.S presidential Election. The election was won by Democrat Party candidate Jimmy Carter.


President Jimmy Carter (Democrat Party): Elected 1976. President Carter took charge of a USA that was shaken by political corruption - and, being on the back foot and having to concern itself more with internal issues than Cold War international relations, this was also a USA that was losing ground in the Cold War.


The President's Foreign Affairs agenda was focused on peaceful solutions. His great and lasting achievement was peace between Egypt and Israel.


However, this was a world that was very well away U.S fragility - and enemies of the USA and the West took advantage of that: particularly the Shi'a revolutionaries in Iran. It became clear that President Carter was not an able U.S President, and was leader of a country lacking in assertiveness in international affairs, when it came to dealing with conflict and confrontation.


The mood in the USA was brewing towards a need for restored national confidence and international assertiveness: a bullish, gung-ho leadership.


Republican, Ronald Reagan - the Governor of California,  known for his right of centre hard line stance - was the candidate that ticked the boxes in the 1980 U.S Presidential Election.


President Carter lost the 1980 U.S Presidential Election to Ronald Reagan. President Reagan went on to win a secod term (by a landslide)., and was in office from January 1981 - January 1989.


There have been three more two term U.S Presidents since:


Bill Clinton (Democrat Party): In office; 1993 - 2001

George W. Bush (Republican Party): In office: 2001 - 2009

Barrack Obama (Democrat Party): In Office: 2009 - 2017


CONCLUSION


Just as, as mentioned above, it is not unusual for U.S Presidents to serve only one term; so too, it is not unusual in U.S politcal history for U.S Presidents to serve and complete the maximum alloted two terms: in fact, a two term presidecy would be the preffered outcome for the country - as it is suggestive of successful governance and politcal and ecomomic stabilty. But during the social and cultural revolution of the 1960s and 70s; which were also the peak and most dangerous years of The Cold War, no U.S President completed two terms in office.


The reasons for this (described in the above) were varied: tragic assassination; stepping down and declining the chance of a second term; forced resignation due to corruption.


For anyone interested in the study of history, this lack of a complete two term U.S presidency during two decades of history must be considered a fascinating anomaly - and very worth investigatng in terms of all the other factors surrounding this era in history... It would be difficult to ignore the likelihood that the social and cultural revolution of the times played a significant - even the MOST significant - part in this political turmoil: but within that possible conclusion, the reasons for that revolution should be explored, and in my opinion, found to be valid and necessary.


Western politics was cleary shaken up during the 1960s and 70s: but I will suggest that it HAD TO be... 

(I found this image online (and edited it down to only the 5 U.S Presidents that I required - and added the bordering and captions); my acknowledgement and thanks to whoever posted it / owns it (identity inknown to me.)) (M).


Textual content: Copyright: MLM Arts 16. 09. 2024. Edited and re-posted: 17. 09. 2024

THE VIETNAM WAR and THE FLOWER POWER PROTEST

Reiterating my overview of the 1960s and 70s era.

I abhor the caricaturing of the 1960 and 70s era by people who look back at it in the comfort of the freedoms which were campaigned for and won by the generations of that era. I detest the dismissal of the whole era as a meaningless, hedonistic drugs and sex orgy, inhabited by unthinking drug zombies simply out to avoid their responsibilities to ‘the Establishment’ and ‘the system’…

This era MUST, I contend, be understood in terms of being a mass demonstration AGAINST the Establishment system. While the populations of North America and Europe cringed under a ‘peace that is no peace’ (George Orwell: 'You and the Atomic Bomb' (1945)), poorer countries in the developing world were ‘used’ by these established powers to slug-out their ideological battles – and to reap the death, destruction and devastation that resulted from that...

While the developed world beat the drum and claimed to be defenders of freedom, the reality was that prejudice, bigotry and oppression were freely practiced against people on the grounds of ethnicity, religion, colour, gender, sexuality and politics.

These were the wrongs that the generations of the 60s and 70s campaigned against. They did not create ‘Utopia’, but they DID succeed, and they set in motion the social and political changes that led to the establishment of many of the freedoms that people enjoy today…

Protesting against war was a major part of this new ideology…

The main war - in all these many wars that were the killing fields of The Cold War – was in Vietnam. This conflict started in 1945 as rebellion against French colonial rule. Almost immediately after Japan’s surrender brought about the ends of WWII, resistance leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent republic. This was rejected by the WWII allies (including the USSR), who supported French rule. They responded by arranging British occupation of South Vietnam (until French troops could be re-armed and deployed), and Chinese occupation of North Vietnam. To cut short the details – this arrangement was changed in 1949 by the USSR backed Chinese People’s Revolution, which led to the establishment of the communist People’s Republic of China. Vietnam descended into civil war: the communist backed North Vietnam was at war with the restored French powers in South Vietnam…

By 1954 the French had quit Vietnam and left it to the South Vietnamese government to resist North Vietnamese territorial ambitions. The North was by now heavily backed by the USSR with finance, military equipment and advisors. The USA backed the (equally undemocratic and despotic) regime in South Vietnam in kind.

It wasn’t until 1965 that – despite election assurances to the contrary in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson – the USA made a full deployment of ground troops. Earlier that year the USA had commenced the blanket bombing of North Vietnamese cities, in an attempt to bomb North Vietnam out of the capability of waging war. The Viet Cong responded by focusing their attacks on U.S air bases in South Vietnam. This was the USA's reason for sending troops: to defend their air bases against intensified attacks. It was later in 1965 that the U.S military remit was extended to one of aggressive action, which resulted in the massive deployment of troops…

(In the year by year ‘Chronicles’ on this page (see photo albums) we highlight the key events of the conflict).

From the early 1960s anti-war protests were active: specifically against the very concept of nuclear war, but they were fairly low key and the preserve of the Beatniks and the educated intelligentsia (of which the Beatniks were, you could say, the youth protest wing).

In the U.K and elsewhere in Europe, Left Wing political parties and Trade Unions became increasingly involved in this struggle, and this added great impetus, but the 'vibe' was that this was political in-fighting within the Establishment fold, rather than a social and cultural paradigm shift: a revolution against Establishment 'normality'.

The USA has never had any organised mass grouping in politics or industrial relations that could be identified as ‘Left Wing’ – and the 1950s political and social persecution of anyone deemed to be sympathetic to socialist or communist politics: a campaign motivated by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin - the so-called ‘McCarthy Witch Hunts’ - saw to it that this would remain so. However, anti-war protest there (and in Australia) was to become particularly focused on the conflict in Vietnam, as it became more and more apparent that the USA would inevitably respond to USSR backing for the communist regime in North Vietnam with a deployment of U.S troops: most of them conscripted youths.

1964 saw the first burning of ‘Draft Cards’ (conscription documents) by American youth. It started small, but escalated into a very proactive and very public protest against the Vietnam War – or at least against U.S involvement. Protests were staged in countries all over the Western world, and the anti-war movement played a major part in finally ending the Vietnam War when U.S troops were withdrawn in 1973.

The rise of the cohesive and coherent youth social and cultural revolution during the 1960s was to be the paradigm shift that challenged Establishment 'normality'...

The Flower Power Protest…

The theme was simple and direct: react against the ugliness, destruction, hate, killing and horror of war with expressions of beauty, love and peace. This was most simply and directly represented by the beauty of nature - and flowers became the main symbol of that.

It combined well with experimenting with psychedelic drugs (mainly LSD), which enhanced perception of colour and texture, and also with the use of cannabis, which was considered a herbal stimulant. It also complimented interest in eastern faiths and philosophies, which understood the nature of corporeal ‘reality’ very differently to the faiths (Judaism and Christianity) most widely practised in the West and upon which Western society (although largely secular) was still based. This was part of the Hippie quest to find an alternative to the Establishment 'reality' that had failed humanity and the world - and had brought the world to the brink of destruction... 🙁

All modern culture expressed Flower Power ideals. High profile figures identified with it in a way that got it across to mainstream society. The Woodstock festival of 1969 was the centrepiece and showcased Flower Power as a movement for peace in a way that captured the imagination. When ‘absorbed’ in conjunction with the televised horrors of the combat zones in Vietnam, Flower Power got into the ‘psyche’ of mainstream America – and the world - and played a very big part in ending the Vietnam War.

One aspect of the anti-Vietnam War protest needs addressing separately: the harassing of troops returning from their tours of duty… This was misguided, unfair – and plain wrong. It was, essentially, at odds with the ideals of ‘Flower Power’: it was neither peaceful nor loving.

The great majority of those called to serve in Vietnam did so. They did so for various reasons – possibly greatest of which being that, for most people, it is very difficult to disobey legally binding orders issued by government: whether or not they agree with them. Others will have felt an honest sense of duty - and belief in what they were doing. For many others military service was an escape from poverty.

They cannot be judged as mindless killers or wanton war mongers. They were simply caught up in a situation – and had to get on with the job, and do their best to survive it. No one has the right judge the actions of people who have been put in a horrific situation not of their own making or choosing, and who have to adapt and endure to survive.

Is that ‘heroic’? I personally say no, it is not. It is obligation; it is adherence to duty; it is compliance. But going armed to the teeth and backed up by hi-tech hardware to kill, or be killed, by others who are similarly (to a greater or lesser extent) armed for the same purpose, is not my idea of heroism.

People who, against adversity, campaign peacefully against injustice and inequality – that is heroic. People who have any disadvantage in life – but who strive and endure and overcome - and make the very best of their lives: that is heroism.

I am in agreement with those who condemn war en-bloc. War is the result of the age old failure of the established system of rule and governance (in all societies) to find an alternative to war and aggression as a means of settling differences.

John Lennon said: ‘Give peace a chance…’ As ever, this was ignored, and Joni Mitchell lamented: ‘That was just a dream some of us had…’ (From the song ‘California’)…

The pictures that goes with this posting (taken in 1967 by Marc Riboud) capture the essence of the best of what ‘Flower Power’ was about – and the attitude of the Establishment against it. U.S National Guard troopers stand firm with tight jawed determination – guns pointed; bayonets fixed (albeit sheathed)… Guarding against what? A peaceful protest fronted by a young woman (Jan Rose Kasmir) who is offering them a flower – and love… And they have no idea how to appropriately react. It’s as though Love itself is the enemy of the Establishment order…

(M).

Textual content:
© Copyright. MLM Arts ‘The Vietnam War and the Flower Power Protest’ 28/ 03/ 2012. Edited: 16/ 12/ & 2012. 21. 01. 2014 & 14. 01. 2015; 17. 09. 2015; 20. 10. 2016. Edited and re-posted: 07. 02. 2018. Edited and re-posted: 09. 02. 2019

'... AND WE'VE GOT TO GET OURSELVES BACK TO THE GARDEN...' ('Woodstock'. Joni Mitchell. (1970)).

Let's put today's issues - and all human created issues - into their proper perspective - by remembering the ideology and ethos of the 1960s youth revolution... :)
This is something to hopefully make us all remember that, actually, there is a whole lot of simple beauty and reasons to smile a bit, all around us, even in these particularly troubled times,

If we can just pause for a while from our material, social-politically artificially created (but nonetheless real and immediate) problems, to look at the natural state of life - of which we are a part, and is, actually, even more real and immediate: it goes on no matter what we do, and always finds a way to overcome the effects of our artificial blundering about in it - then for that moment of pause, we can maybe have a moment of calm and reassurance - that the essence of life; of existence - is something awesome and wonderful - and our artificially created woes will come and go - and the wonder remains...

It's a part of what the 1960s youth ideology was all about... 🙂

Here's a moment that I had that made me remember that...

Flower Power is still alive and well - and EVERYWHERE! - if ya just take care to look and notice it..! This is just a grass verge by the side o' the road, with common old daisies, buttercups, dandelions, clover, and other little flowers that we see just growing all around... :)

I'm going to admit though, that it took a hard-nosed, down to earth cab driver to wake up.my old hippie credentials, and make me notice this... :o

A few years ago, in town near London where I was living at the time, I was in a cab, early morning, on my way to where I was going to be working that day, and the, down to earth, not at all 'Hippie' cab driver enthused: 'See them? Beautiful... Beautiful... I look forward to this time of year, just to see this sight...' I was bewildered, and looked around for what I was missing, but obligingly said: 'Oh... Yeah...yeah ...(???)'

Then he said: 'The daisies, yeah; covering the grass like snow... Beautiful...'

Then I actually looked and saw what he saw: what I, and most people around me saw, everyday at this time of year... saw - but DIDN'T see... 😕

The daisies were - are - beautiful... 🙂

My 'Hippie', youth of the 1960s and 70s cred was humbled... But I've been alive to the sight ever since, and now I share it with you... 😊 🌸 🌻 🌼

(M).

ICONIC FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR THE PHILOSOPHISING, MYSTICALLY MUSING UK GOLDEN ERA YOUTH: OLD MOORE'S ALMANAC (and all associated mystic musing…) 


Old Moore’s Almanac was (and I recently discovered, still IS!) an annual publication of mystical prophesies for the year ahead. It dates back to the 1764. It was published by Irish Classics teacher, mathematician, and astrologer, Theophilus Moore…


I’ve many times described how the Golden Era was era of REAL free thinking: when all and every sort of philosophical, mystical, metaphysical, spiritual, religious – and political, scientific, and sociological thinking was openly, freely and amicably discussed; and, moreover, was expressed in the modern culture that was emerging at the time…


Well – part of that open forum of ideas, was, for many people, a deep interest in all things mystical and paranormal… And Old Moore’s Almanac was very much pored over, as it offered month by month predictions for the year ahead. (I don’t know where the publication got its prophesies from after the Moore passed away, at the end of the 18th Century: I’m guessing from the endless stream of mystics that are ALWAYS out there… )


Anyway, this is a celebration of that side of Golden Era freedom of thought; and especially Old Moore’s Almanac… But also - a lament to what it has now become: because I'm deeply, deeply disappointed with Old Moore’s Almanac… For reasons that I will detail later...


But for now, I’ll say that from  random Web browsing, born out of boredom, I just discovered that Old Moore's Almanac - that respected book of prophesies, dating to the 1700s, is still around... I found the copy of predictions for 2016…

But...


Whereas the Old Moore's that I remember from the 1970s still had grand old archaic and enigmatically worded vague, indecipherable old baloney - sorry, 'prophesies' - that could be twisted and hammered into the shape of anything ya wanted them to mean, this modern version was an affront to that: it was no better than a gossip mag… More on that later...


For now, let’s talk about the Old Moore’s that I remember; with those ‘grand old archaic and enigmatically worded vague, indecipherable old baloney - sorry, 'prophesies' - that could be twisted and hammered into the shape of anything ya wanted them to mean’ things like... Oh, say:


 'The great bear shall feel the chill of the cold breath of the winged nemesis, and the crimson throne  will fall…'


Or…


 'A thing may happen in the land of the towering pine, that will seem not to have happened, but may indeed have happened, or will happen, seeming to  or not; and the flightless bird shall take flight, and the world shall tremble... Or not... Or seem to...'


Or…


‘Woe! Woe unto the people of the dragon lands! For fire shall befall them from the dark clouds of fire…’

Etc., etc., blah-blah, and so on and so forth…

It was great. It was marvellous. It was stimulation for youthful pseudo-intellectual chin stroking contemplation; for the apprentice mystics; for the decipherer of cryptic lore - especially during the Cold War, when we all believed that we were ‘…on 'the eve of destruction'...


Let’s take as these examples listed above – which I  made up off the top of my head. They might been deciphered a bit like this:


Example 1:


‘The great bear’ – well, straight off we KNEW that was Russia: we kinda knew the code – thanks to familiarising ourselves with Nostradamus – that other ‘must study’ mystic: you read ‘bear’: Russia for sure; olive trees: the Holy Land; the eagle: the USA; Cypress tree: Lebanon… And from there we could be free to play around with identifying countries, certain people, catastrophic events and so forth, by arriving at creative the assumptions, based on references to pretty standard and familiar flora and fauna imagery: the pine tree: probably Scotland (it suited us, being Scots – and  it was a major target  for Soviet missiles); the lion: England, most likely -or the UK; the wolf: Germany was favourite… You get the idea…


We’d have had to perform some serious chin-stroking contemplation and mental acrobatics, if Old Moore had gone ‘off script’ and laid something on us like:


‘The duck billed platypus will harass the land of rhubarb…’ or something…


But rest assured, we WOULD have come up with something – and it would certainly have involved the nuclear annihilation of life on Earth… LOL..!

But back to the first ‘prediction’…


‘The Bear’: Russia – ‘will feel the chill breath of the winged nemesis’: well, clearly, a cruise missile, launched from a US submarine in the Arctic…


Example 2:


'A thing may happen in the land of the towering pine, that will seem not to have happened, but may indeed have happened, or will happen, seeming to  or not; and the flightless bird shall take flight, and the world shall tremble... Or not... Or seem to...'


“Ahhh… That’s yer political subterfuge, that is… Wheeling and dealing – behind the scenes… Towering Pine: Scotland – for sure.”


“But what about: ‘flightless bird shall take flight': Erm… Erm… Tricky… Flightless bird – takes flight…??? It’s Thatcher! - and she’s OFF! She’s going to scarper when the trouble starts!”


“Nah..! Don’t be daft! These old mystics wouldn’t refer to a woman as a ‘bird’ – that’s modern slang…”


“Aye… fair enough… Let’s come back to that bit later...”


Example 3:


‘Woe! Woe unto the people of the dragon! For fire shall befall them from the dark clouds of fire…’


“Easy-peasy! – We’re gonna nuke China…”


“Eh?! Don’t sound so freakin’ smug about it, for gawd’s sake! – We’re supposed to be hippie pacifists, right…?!” 


And so it went… Hours of chin-stoking, youthfully pretentious, pseudo-intellectualising, mystical musing… It was all part of that free range thinking that was part of what made The Golden Era – golden…


But NOW...! What was in that 2016 Old Moore’s Almanac, eh? Predictions for 2016 had things like:


‘Beyonce Knowles may give birth this year…’


'Heavy snow will make the news'


'There will be two serious plane crashes...'


Naff off Old Moore! Jeez Louise! I COULD HAVE GUESSED THAT LOAD OF OLD ‘BOVINE RESIDUE’! - and made it more interesting too...!!! I mean – put some effort into it, can’t you?! Leave us some chin-stroking to do; something to feel very wise and clever about…


Here’s how I would have written those same three ‘prophesies’ – but in the grand old mystical style of the traditional Old Moore’s Almanac:


 'She who is beyond the sea and dost know less, may bring forth issue, and there will be great rejoicing among the thick and vacuous...'


 The Oracle shall declare the falling of the sky with the frosted breath of doom; the land shall be hidden ‘neath its deluge; and the men of snow shall be legion...'


 'And once and twice the great silver sky dragons shall hurtle to the earth, and great woe and lamenting shall they cause...'


Old Moore's prophesies? I could churn 'em out in reams... LOL…! 


(I got this graphic image of copies of Old Moore’s Almanac o n-line; my acknowledgement and thanks to  whoever made the image – and to Old Moore’s Almanac, of course…  ) (M).


Textual content: ©Copyright: MLM Arts 10. 02. 2021. Edited: 22. 11. 2022

EARLY TO MID 1970s UK KIDS PASTIMES


Apologies to folks in non-football (soccer) playing countries (or more accurately, I suppose, countries that aren't traditional football counties where guys (and it was ONLY guys back in the day: that's just how it was back then) grew up playing the game in parks or in the street: football today is global). But I know that other sports were played in other countries in this ad hoc / impro manner - so the spirit of the post - capturing a scene from Golden Era childhood - is still the same.


This is a great painting, I think - I don't know who the artist is, but great job. You can tell just by the imagery exactly when it's set: long hair on the guys; flared (bell bottom) trousers; one kid is wearing a parka anorak (they were popular in the early 1970s: even before the Mod revival of around 1979)); and those strategically placed brightly coloured Raleigh Chopper bikes - with their high handlebars and chunky saddle.


I was transported into the picture like Bert the chimney sweep and Mary Poppins in the old movie...


After school - or at the weekends - and most of our time spent during school holidays: come Summer or Winter - rain, snow, hail, or sunshine: football was our thing...


Football: on any big enough patch of grass; jackets or sweaters down for goalposts; if there wasn't enough space or not enough players for a full game between two sides, we'd play a game called 'Three and In' (sometimes called World Cup: as, in the two a side version, teams would choose a country to represent; where I come from, Scotland won a lot World Cups that way... ):


THREE AND IN (or WORLD CUP):


It's one set of goals and a goalkeeper.

Individuals - or for World Cup, teams of two a side - trying to be first to score three goals. The players / team that score three goals, continue to the next round.


Then keep going until there's only one player - or team of two - left without scoring three: they're the losers overall.


The loser (or one of the two losers) is the next one to be goal keeper.


Whether playing the one a side or  two a side version called World Cup, it was round by round: the first player or  team eliminated (because they didn't score three goals) is out - and that would be that. The remaining players /  teams would continue this process is until two players or  teams remained - that was the final.


More details in the picture - for girls - pointed out to me by long time valued 'Chronicles' contributor Mary (Gayda): girls skipping rope.


This was very much a girls pastime. In this picture, it's the long rope - swung by two girls (one at each end, obviously), with one - or more - girls jumping: the faster the rope swung, the more difficult (and dangerous, it must be said!) the skill to keep jumping.


(Us guys wouldn't - couldn't - be seen skipping rope with the girls: it was a girl's thing... But I can tell you now, that we secretly admired the skill and daring involved in that activity. ... And in guarded, secret moments of curiosity we'd sometimes give it a go... And invariably wind up tripping over the rope, stumbling, staggering, tied up, and with red whelt marks all over us from copping whacks from those wretched skip ropes, by our clumsy, unskilled looping and lashing of that out of control 'weapon' in untrained hands... )


My thanks to the above mentioned Mary for the following great addition to this article.


THE GIRLS' PERSPECTIVE


This picture is so evocative of our era. I remember boys putting their jumpers down to be used as goalposts. I bet there were some angry mums!


I loved skipping! We used an old washing line that went from one pavement across the road to the other. We didn’t have to worry about any cars coming down the street, there were very few back then as it was a quiet back street.


I loved skipping on my own too, using a rope with wooden coloured handles at either end. You didn’t want to get hit by those handles!  Ouch! I played for hours with it, doing cross overs and skipping up the garden path. Halcyon days.  '

Thanks, Mary.


I was captivated by this picture and had to post it and do a write up on it. As I said, it was a 'Mary Poppins moment' - and I was transported into the scene... 


(This image showed up on my timeline from a Facebook page called  Away Day Tours. My acknowledgment and thanks to that page; and to the artist - identity unknown to me. ) (M).


Textual content: © Copyright MLM Arts 16. 08. 2024. Edited and re-posted: 17. 08. 2024.  THE GIRLS' PERSPECTIVE addition this article: © Copyright Mary Gayda 17. 08. 2024. Edited and re=posted: 05. 09. 2024

CARNABY STREET: THE PLACE TO FIND DEDICATED FOLLOWERS OF FASHION IN 1960s 'SWINGING LONDON'...

'Everywhere the Carnabetian Army marches on...'

That great pun from the Kinks song 'Dedicated Follower of Fashion', which gently lampoons 1960s 'Swinging London' fashionistas, is a tribute to Carnaby Street.

It's odd, but Carnaby Street is not specifically mentioned in that song as a place where 'they seek him'... I must suppose that's why they did so much seeking and no finding: clearly, they weren't seeking in the most obvious place..! LOL..! ;-)

Carnaby Street is a small backstreet nestled amongst other small backsteets between London's Oxford Street and Regent Street - but where-as you've probably never heard of any of those other streets, almost everyone who knows their 'Swinging 60s', and the centre of that, 'Swinging London', will have heard of Carnaby Street...

(Ahem... best to point out that back then the colloquial term 'swinging' meant kinda hip and happening - fun; groovy - that sort of thing... Not what it more commonly taken to mean today - Oo-err Missus..! :O ).

Anyhow, moving swiftly on...

For that section of 1960s and 70s British youth that was into boutiques and being fashionably 'IT' (as opposed to me and the folks that I knew, who, apart from customary flared jeans, clothe shopped in Indian craft shops, Army Surplus Stores, and charity shops) Carnaby Street was THE place to be - or at least, to have some articles of clothing from...

It was renowned the world over, too - as THE iconic centre of Swinging 60s (and 70s) fashion...

Carnaby Street was one of two London streets where the fashion conscious and trendy shopped for designer clothing: the psychedelic tie-dye; the whacky, multicoloured stripes, hoops, waves and patterns; the shocking; the unconventional; and the risqué (miniskirts, see-through dresses, hot pants and so forth. Oo-err (again!) Missus..! :-o LOL!) in trendy apparel.

The other was King's Road, Chelsea - but that was considered too pricey; too exclusive - and not as 'street cool' as Carnaby Street - which could offer psychedelic style - but a bit of downbeat grunge too - and most of what was in-between...

I think the first shop to start the 'Carnaby Street cool', was the men's boutique Lord John, set up by brothers Warren and David Gold in 1963. It was right on the corner, and when the Psychedelic scene started happening in the mid-1960s, the shop's exterior was redecorated with a psychedelic mural. (Seen in the graphic that goes with this artice; notice too another icon from this era: the Triumph Spitfire sports car..! [Edit: or is it a MG Midget? They are a bit similar, and I'm no expert! 🙄 ]).

Lady Jane was a women's boutique, set up by Harry Fox and Henry Moss in May 1966. It had an unspectacular front, but was popular with trendy female fashionistas.

Some other examples of clothes shops were:

Mates, which was considered very cool and trendy. It is said to have been the first boutique to sell both men's and women's clothing under one roof.

And the shop that caught my attention when researching this - the wonderfully named: I Was Kaiser Wilhelm's Valet (love that name..!), which sold army surplus, including vintage army surplus, clothing. It's the one Carnaby Street shop I might have shopped in myself...

(...Actually, I still buy some of my garb in the same kind of places as I did back in the day. - as the central photo in this graphic shows.

It was taken in Carnaby Street just the other day - when I was met-up with two friends and fellow spiritual questors of mine: Aussie Lorraine (who took the photo) - a world wide traveller, who once lived for some time in the Amazon Rain Forest - :-o - and Merrie (the woman in the photo) - a professional poet and creative writing teacher - :-o

That coat I'm wearing is from an Army Surplus Store; the trousers are charity shop. I still live the life, folks... ;-) )

Today, Carnaby Street is pretty unremarkable. It mostly has the routine shops you'd find in any City Centre backsteet - sports shops and 'the usual suspects' clothes shops - that sort of thing (I guess the Levi's shop there is the only resemblance to something from its 1960's and 70s 'youth cool' heyday - but that's from my 'old Hippie type guy' point of view... ;-) ).

(We found a very nice pub, in a backstreet off Carnaby Street, mind you... :-) ).

But it now has a splendid arch at each end, proclaiming itself: CARNABY STREET - because it remains an attraction for tourists - purely because of its iconic status as a major part of the Classical era of modern culture... :-)
(M).

Textual content: ©Copyright: MLM Arts 29. 09. 2017. (Central photo (of M and Merrie): ©Copyright Lorraine S. 23. 09. 2017). Edited and re-posted: 24. 09. 2018
A RÉSUMÉ OF THE 1960s – AND AN OVERVIEW OF WHAT WAS TO UNFOLD IN THE 1970s:

This page is all about setting the record straight about the how important this era was in changing deeply entrenched Establishment ‘norms’ of social and cultural; behaviour and expectations; how it set in motion the freedoms and equality that are taken for granted today, and and how it is the classical era of modern culture…

But we’ve never been about a ‘rose tinted specs’ perspective, and we’ve never shied away from addressing and debating the things that were, debatably, ‘wrongs’, or that turned out ‘wrong’. (The good thing about this page is that we can – and do – do that with mature, civil and respectful discussion – differing points of view respected, even when disagreed with. 😊 ).

As we now move into chronicling the 1970s, here’s a discussion piece – which offers an overview of the 1960s – and suggestions of the rights and wrongs, and how that affected the mood and collective psyche that unfolded during the 1970s…

1969 had closed the 1960s decade on a triumphant note for the youth social and cultural revolution that had begun to take shape in 1960, when an earthy, Folky fringe started to emerge from the Jazz loving, poetry spouting, aloof and elitist American Beatnik culture, and started to produce protest singers and bands, such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Peter, Paul and Mary - which were starting to get onto vinyl and into the popular mass market record charts… But still, it did not connect with mass, grass roots youth – who were mostly into the purely let-off-steam rebellion of Rock and Roll.

The Rock and Roll youth that had emerged in the mid-1950s snarled, looked malcontent, and raged with great energy – but with no purpose or direction…

UK youth ‘aped’ the American Rock and Roll and Beatnik cultures – but also added its own twist: as well as the grungy, leather jacket Rockers, the UK had sharp suited Teddy Boys as its own Rock and Roll style; and the working class, earthy fringe of the UK Beatniks adopted black American Bluesy / R'n'B music – and then the Teddy Boys’ sharp suits style – with the addition of a parka anorak – and took up the ‘Italian style’ of scooters as transport – as opposed to Greaser motorbikes…

The early 1960s London Mod was born… And at the same time, a similar style of music and dress was taking shape in the north of England: Merseybeat… It was spearheaded by a cocky, wise cracking bunch of Scouse (Liverpudlian) singer songwriters, with a slick manager: The Beatles and Brian Epstein…

These supposedly innovative British bands and artists – which were, really, only putting a British twist on American Blues and Beatnik Folk (in the case of British Folky, Donovan), and exporting it back to the USA – grabbed the attention and the adoration of American 1960s youth. The irony is, that in America Blues was considered a black American culture, even in the more liberal States, and white American youth rarely even heard it, and didn’t give that music a moment’s notice; but exposed to it by these white British guys, it appeared to white America to be a whole new ‘thing’ – and it wowed ‘em… :O

What British youth culture also brought to the USA, was the long tradition of British lefty Bolshiness, and sense of social justice: the class divide and injustice of class privilege was ever a part of British life – and protest and rebellion against it has a very long history.

America was and is (at least in principle) based upon equality and democracy; and equal opportunities for those willing to work hard. It's reasonable to say though (I suggest), that up to the 1960s the truth was that ideal mostly applied to WHITE people – and in particular, white MEN... :O

Moreover, the post-WWII Cold War stand-off between the communist USSR and its allies, and the capitalist USA and its allies, led to a robust persecution of all leftist thinking and thinkers in the USA – which was at its most notorious with the purge of left wing Americans led by Senator Joseph McCarthy between 1947 and 1956, known as the ‘McCarthy Witch Hunts’. Left wing thinking and protest was not only virtually unknown in the USA – it was downright dangerous to practice… :O

The British working-class youth of the 1960s was a new breed of British working-class – thanks to the massive swing to then left in post-WWII British politics, which elected the Socialist Labour government of Clement Atlee by a landslide. That government introduced the National Health Service: healthcare for everyone, paid for by National Insurance payments paid by every working person. It also extended education to all up to the compulsory age of 15, with able students allowed to stay on to 18, to gain accredited qualifications and apply for university or good jobs. Part of that education and health reform was free eye tests, hearing tests and dental checks for kids, and immunisation against common debilitating illness, like polio, rubella and so on. Free school meals were provided for all poorer kids, and every kid got a free quarter pint of milk at school…

The result was, that all debilitating illness, and poverty related frailty, was eliminated in the British working-class within a generation… And access to education made this more vigorous and robust section of society better educated, better informed, and better able to express protest in pursuit of social justice and fairness…

The so-called ‘British [social and cultural] Invasion’ of North America in the 1960s, was bringing with it a Bolshie street-level edge to social attitudes and protest, which would coalesce with the raw rebellious energy of American Rock and Roll youth and the thoughtful intellectualising of the Beatnik Folky fringe – and by the mid-1960s, would lead to a whole new paradigm of social and cultural thinking: ‘…a whole generation, with a new explanation…’ (Scott McKenzie: ‘San Francisco’ (1967))…

Protests in the USA, which were centred on civil rights for the African American community, and against the escalation of American involvement in the Vietnam War, were rooted in a pacifist stance.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. led the Civil Rights Movement on strictly pacifist protest, right up until his assassination in 1968.

Anti-Vietnam protests at first involved marches against the blanket bombing of North Vietnam and the spraying of the South Vietnam jungles with the chemical defoliant Agent Orange. When, in 1964, the feared escalation of U.S troop involvement in Vietnam became a reality, under the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, protests focussed on non-compliance with introduction of conscription into the U.S Military.

Peaceful protests in support of Dr King’s Civil Rights Movement, and against the Vietnam War spread around the world.

In the midst of this, youth was exploring the very meaning and nature; of ‘reality’; of existence – and genuinely seeking a higher understanding of ‘reality’ and existence – to replace the Establishment ‘reality’ that had brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation.

Mystic, religious and philosophical ideas from the Indian traditions, the Native American traditions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity were explored, in conjunction with the controlled use of mind and perception altering drugs, as part of this search. It was genuine and well-intended – but soon spiralled out of control… ☹ (See the article: ‘The Drug Sub-Culture and Psychedelia’, in the: Politics, Society and the Quest for Change’ photo album).

But by the mid-1960s, more aggressive – and in some cases, violent – protest was beginning to emerge. The black separatist organisation called The Nation of Islam (which has no connection to mainstream Islam), became high profile, with a charismatic leader, Elijah Muhammad; spokesperson, Malcom X; and new member – the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Clay).

The Black Panther organization emerged, purporting to be as a protector of the rights of ethnic minorities, but used terrorist tactics and extreme violence. They inspired the setting up of the so-called White Panthers – a small scale, leftist, protest group of white American youth, which also embraced violence.

The slogan and clenched fist demonstration ‘Black Power’ arose: it was not expressly violent, but was aggressively bullish – and, it must be said, essentially racist. Moderate protestors disdained this demonstration, and considered it as distasteful and divisive and racist as the slogan ‘White Supremacy’.

In 1968 the Black Power Protest was used to maximum publicity effect, when two medal winning black American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gave that salute on the medal rostrum during the Mexico Olympics. It dismayed Olympic competitors from all countries, who had banded together in a demonstration of anti-racism and human rights to form the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), and Australian bronze medallist Perter Norman stood on the rostrum displaying that symbol.

The Black Power gesture got a huge publicity response, however… That sent out a signal that the Olympics could be used to promote agendas – and in 1972 that was taken to a horrific extreme, when the paramilitary Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) assassinated Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics… ☹

The PLO campaign was co-ordinated by Yasser Arafat, a hawk, who’d become its leader in 1969 – the same year that the equally hawkish Golda Meyer has been elected Prime Minister of Israel…

The 1970s was to be a decade of escalated conflict throughout the Middle-East. ☹

In America, the growing success of the anti-war movements by peaceful means, resulted in the bullish confidence of the 1969 Moratorium protest in the USA: a planned and co-ordinated ‘suspension of normal activities’ (a less militant and more all-inclusive version of a general strike; a social protest that all of society could take part in)… But it also saw the rise of terror organisation known as The Weather Underground Organisation (WUD), and its campaign of violence, with the slogan: Bring The War Home – and (again) the clenched first symbol.

In the British governed province of Northern Ireland (Ulster), division between the majority Protestant, British loyalist community and the Roman Catholic, Irish republican community dates back to the 1600s, and periodically erupted into armed conflict ever since. In 1968, the republican community, who were, it must be owned, denied many basic human rights, were inspired by Dr. King’s Civil Rights Movement in America to commence a purely peaceful protest for their own human rights. This was met by hostility by the loyalist community, which always feared that the province would be abandoned by Britain and forced back into an Ireland still dominated politically by the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. By 1969 this republican protest was reduced to violence, and by 1970 the Irish Republican Army (IRA) terror group reactivated its campaign in Northern Ireland. Loyalist terror groups responded, and a long terror campaign ensued – with the British Army in the middle, keeping the situation from all-out civil war. The Republican and Loyalist sides both adopted clenched fist symbolism… (See the article: ‘The British / Irish ‘Troubles’, in the: ‘Politics, Society, and The Quest for Change’ photo album).

The clenched fist had been adopted as a symbol of the women’s rights campaign as early as 1964, by the Women’s Liberation Movement. Great advances were being made in the cause of women’s rights throughout the 1960s, without violent protest, and by being inclusive of male support. By 1970 though, it too was acquiring a more confrontational and aggressive edge. Declarations of anger, and anti-male sentiments – such appellations like Male Chauvinist Pig, directed at men in general – became common during the 1970s…

So that was the evolution of protest in this era, up to 1969 – and how it developed into the 1970s: peaceful Folky Beatnik moralising, got the message mainstream, but largely ignored; pro-active, still mainly peaceful anti-war demos; and civil rights demos, became worldwide and began to have an effect, up to the mid-late 1960s… when they started to go mainstream and get the media, politicians and celebrities on board (mist famously, Muhammad Ali, who refused the draft into the US Military, on pacifist grounds, at great cost to himself)…

That confidence brought with it bullishness – and with that, aggression – and, by the late 1960s, the seeds and cultivation of violence… While the peaceful still tried to call for calm…

The 1970s was to be a decade when peace was no longer merely being pleaded for or reasoned for: it was being demanded by some, in in-your-face terms. The music reflected that: Edwin Starr’s ‘War – What Is It Good For..?’ (1970); Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ (1970); and County Joe’s ‘Feels Like I’m Fixing To Die Rag’ – made famous by the 1970 release of the Woodstock Festival soundtrack album.

Protest generally would become bullish: Lennon’s tone had changed from 1969’s ‘Give Peace A Chance’ to the Bolshie ‘Power To The People’ !1970). The Genesis epic, ‘The Knife’ ‘Tespass’ (1970) was a clever construct – almost prophetic even: it’s not really about promoting violence and conflict, more about how easily people are seduced into this course of action. Hawkwind followed up the 1971 abstract, psychedelic mind-bender hit single, with the overtly aggressive anarchistic ‘Urban Guerrilla’ – which was banned by the BBC, as it coincided with extreme terror violence in Northern Ireland. In 1977 Hawkwind released the song ‘Hassan I Sabha’ (‘Quark Strangeness and Charm’) – a celebration of the Medieval sect known as the Hashishin (from which the modern word assassin is derived), and the modern Palestinian terror group known as Black September. Even Paul McCartney got a single banned, for much the same reason, his pro-Irish Republican ‘Give Ireland Back To The Irish’. Mott The Hoople released the proto-Punk song, ‘Violence’ (‘…the only thing that will make you see sense…’) on the album ‘Mott’ (1974).

As the 1970s wore on, peaceful intent still at least tried to prevail – but the 1960s had shown to all areas of society, that in this modern world, popular protest can work… But what did we do with that knowledge..? We did the human thing: the confidence of success by protest, led, instead of greater humility and understanding, to greater bullishness and insistence: pleas became demands… And in some quarters, demands became determination to take by violent force….

The positive, constructive side of humanity gave strength to the negative and destructive side… And our own weakness was, slowly, slowly seduced by that… :/

What causes conflict..? What causes peaceful intent to be corrupted into aggressive demands and ultimately violence and conflict..? Politics? Religion? Power? … Nope, none of those things – those are just the things we are told to conveniently blame… It’s us… US… We keep setting out as individuals with the right intent and motives – but we keep getting seduced and corrupted by appeals to the base side of our nature, and the security blanket of ‘herd thinking’ – and taken-in by the self-serving agendas of an organised few… :/

You know what is possibly the most poignant liner from any Golden Era song..? I think it’s John Lennon shouting on ‘Give Peace A Chance’: ‘You’ll only get bit if ya want it..! And we want it NOW..!’

Did we? Really..? Do we now..? Have we ever..? Really..? :/

The 1970s was to be an increasingly aggressive and violent decade – with terrorism and Cold war conflict rife… Social unrest and disaffection would see late 1970s youth turn to the snarling aggression of Punk - and disdain the Hippie ideal as ‘complacent’ (as Johnny Rotten, frontman of The Sex Pistols, described Hippies).

But what better illustration of how culture had turned more aggressive and turned its back on pacifist ideals, than the fact that the era ended (in the UK) with Pink Floyd at the top of the album and singles Charts – out-Punking the Punks, with the anarchistic album ‘The Wall’, and the anthem: ‘Another Brick In The Wall’: ‘We don’t need no education… Teacher leave those kids alone…’ ..?

It’s a semi-autobiographical concept by Roger Waters, which laments the decline and failure of pacifist ideals – and resigns to the need for more aggressive protest… :/

This is just my personal overview – I’d be interested in other people’s, and, hopefully, an interesting discussion thread… 😊

(M).

Textual content: ©Copyright: MLM Arts 15. 12. 2017. Edited and re-posted: 28. 01. 2019 
BOOTLEGS: THE SHADY SECRET LIFE OF THE VINYL ALBUM RECORD COLLECTOR... LOL! ;-)

I’m pretty sure that the number of folks on this page who don’t know what a bootleg album is, amounts to roughly… none at all… ;) But just in case:

Back in the day a bootleg album was a live album made from an illegal recording made at a gig, by someone using the kind of small, cheapo cassette recorder that could be smuggled in and used without detection. (Most likely, judging by the sound quality). These wise-guys clearly had access to vinyl pressing equipment (I always envision some dark cellar or other seedy place), where they transferred this ropey sounding, not produced or engineered recording onto vinyl, stuck it in what was usually (but not always – some went to the trouble of decent album art) a plain white cardboard sleeve with a shabby photocopied picture pasted on it, gave it a name, and sold it on the Black Market to naïve music buyers at prices up to twice that (sometimes more) of a regular album –. Vinyl album bootleg making was an underground industry back in the day, and, I must assume, quite a lucrative one…

(I should add that cassette format bootlegs didn't really count as much of a big deal, as making cassette copies of music was something that anyone could do: a vinyl album was a proper album!)

I was one of those many naïve album buyers who were attracted by the street cred cool of having something contraband; something ‘a bit dodgy’; something in our album collection that was ‘off the back of a lorry’; albums that our buddies didn’t have, and would covet, enviously, for their rarity and risqué street cred. … LOL! ;)

Ahhh, bootlegs... Those mysterious nudge-nudge, wink-wink, 'wanna buy some hookey sounds, guv'nor?' much sought after, much discussed and marvelled at - some to the point of being legendary items, and sought after almost like a quest for the Holy Grail, by fans of the bands or artists involved - total rip-offs: overpriced, scratchy, echoing, faint sounding recordings, made on cheapo cassette decks smuggled into gigs... A MUST HAVE for the album buying fanatic... LOL!

Yes, I had a few – four, to be exact: four of the ones featured in this graphic, in fact: Led Zeppelin at Earl’s Court; Genesis – The Bedside Yellow Foam; The ELO – Freedom City Pandemonium; Pink Floyd – Welcome To The Machine…

Now, getting hold of a bootleg was not so easy, at least not where I lived (in Scotland, in a smallish town outside Glasgow), because bootleg album selling was a risky business, as it was illegal. There were three ways to get hold of one: somehow get to know a shifty, nudge-nudge, wink-wink ‘dodgy geezer’ Black Market trader who, via their own contacts, could get hold of and sell that kind of merchandise; finding an independent record store that sold them (under the counter), having obtained them via similar contacts to those of the Black Market ‘dodgy geezers’ – but that involved the added difficulty of establishing yourself as a known and trusted customer in the store; or seeing an advert in the small ads. section of one of the music papers.

The Zep Earl's Court bootleg was my first, and was obtained via the small ads. The gig it was recorded at was the very gig I’d been to at Earl’s Court, just a few months before I saw the ad. - I HAD TO have that bootleg…

The seller was asking £8.00 (the price of a regular album then was about £3.50). I wrote to enquire. A week later I got a reply from the twister, saying he’d been offered £9.00, but £10.00 would secure it. Yep, I eagerly upped my bid, and sent the cash. Fair enough, the album arrived soon after, so at least I got the goods… But what goods? The quality was utterly appalling. The music was faint – barely audible… But the sound of someone (evidently close to the recorder) periodically shouting MANCHESTER..! MANCHESTER..! was crystal clear… :/

As I awaited its arrival, I’d convinced myself of the locally believed myth, that a bootleg sound would be ‘just like being in the theatre, at the gig’. Well, it was not at all like that. It was more like being outside the theatre, at distance of some quarter of a mile - just within audio range… Oh, and with some stranger standing next to you, shouting MANCHESTER..! MANCHESTER..! now and then… :/

It contained the long, rambling live version of ‘No Quarter’, which occupied one side; ‘Kashmir’ (I’d hardly have known that if it hadn’t been listed, such was the poor quality); ‘That’s The Way’; ‘Tangerine’ (I think?); and a couple of minutes long segment from the epic live version of ‘Dazed and Confused’: the first verse of the Joni Mitchell classic ‘Woodstock’ - which on this album was a distant, echoing, vague drone, that sounded like a drunk guy singing with his head in a metal bucket… a quarter of a mile way…

But such was the mystique and the street cred of having a bootleg, that I convinced myself that I had a real prize, and, I must say, it did give me bragging rights (I was the first of my buddies to own a bootleg).

The other three bootlegs I got hold of were obtained from one of those aforementioned ‘dodgy geezers’: a Black Market bootleg salesman that me and my best buddy, Big D, chanced to make the acquaintance of – or rather, HE made OUR acquaintance - such was his modus operandi…

It was late 1976 or maybe some time in 1977, I think. Me and the big guy were in the HMV record store in Glasgow city centre. 'The geezer’ in question was in there too. He was kinda noticeable: about 30 years old, so about 10 / 12 years older than us; tall, skinny, wearing baseball boots, punkish drainpipe jeans and a black leather jacket; he had a dark red Bowie, ‘Aladdin Sane’ hair style – and was clutching a heavy looking hold-all bag in his right hand. He seemed to lurk about us as we pored over the Bowie albums. (Big D was a massive Bowie fan – I wasn’t so much at that time).

‘The Geezer’ (as I will henceforth refer to him) followed us out the shop when we left. Our youth and hippie style attire, I guess, made him confident that we were what he considered to be ‘approachable’ types. He attracted our attention with: ‘Bowie fans, lads? Eh? Eh? Bowie fans? Eh?’ We turned, and Big D replied. ‘Yeah. Big time. Why..?’

‘Got sumfin’ for ya, bud… Sumfin’ ya won’t find in there’, the geezer replied, with a jerk of his thumb towards the HMV store front. ‘Have a look in ‘ere, mates…’ he continued, with a glowing smile, a ‘used car salesman’ manner, and quick, furtive glances to left and right, before hunkering down and pulling the hold-all open with one hand, and flicking through its contents with the other…

We gazed inside… It was an Aladdin (Sane?)’s cave of bootleg albums – about 20 - 30; a lot of them were copies of the same Bowie bootleg, but the horde also included copies of bootlegs by other bands and artists too. We were beguiled. None of the artists on offer appealed to me at all, but even so, these were BOOTLEGS! CONTRABAND! The stuff of street-cred ‘cool’! – And besides that, this was a chance to add to that cool, by gaining ‘a contact’: becoming trusted customers of one the legendary ‘Bootleg Barons’.

For a while I struggled with the urge to buy. I swear to you, he could have had something like ‘Donny Osmond Live in Salt Lake City’ or ‘Bing Crosby Croons in the Kasbah’ – anything – and I’d have bought it in that moment, just because it was a bootleg… :O But I resisted. Big D, however, snapped up the Bowie bootleg. The price was, I think, £6.00, maybe £7.00 – when regular albums were still only about £3.50 or £4.00.

A happy ‘Geezer’ then asked us what bootlegs we’d like to order. Well, back then there were two bootlegs that had that ‘Holy Grail’ status more than any others, among the people I knew: Led Zeppelin’s ‘Live at Blueberry Hill’, and Deep Purple’s 1970 bootleg, 'Mandrake Root'. These albums were discussed with awe. The closest any of us ever got to them was hearing people say: ‘I know some who’s got...; I know someone who KNOWS someone who’s got…; or 'I heard a tape recording of…’

I was a massive Zep fan; Big D was a massive Purple fan. In unison we blurted: ‘Blueberry hill!’ and 'Mandrake Root!’

‘Geezer’ did that ‘hand held out flat with fingers spread out wide and tilting from side to side’ thing, and the: ‘Woooo… Now you ask the Earth, lads..!’ bit; followed by: ‘I’ll see what I can do, but they’ll cost ya – more than my usual prices… Meet me here, same time next week. But guys, guys – keep it under yer hats, eh?’

We’d done it… We had our own ‘Bootleg Baron’… We dropped the fact into conversations with buddies, of course, but without mentioning the guys name, and never giving in to pleas to be introduced – true to our promise to ‘keep it under our hats’.

The following Saturday, we met ‘The Geezer’ again – but no 'Mandrake Root’ or ‘Blueberry Hill’. However, in our previous meeting we’d chatted with him and he’d learned our tastes, so that day I picked up the Genesis bootleg, Big D got some album by Uriah Heep, I think it was…(???)

In the course of the next few months we’d meet ‘The Geezer’ again a few times – usually he’d not have anything that appealed – and never 'Mandrake Root' or ‘Blueberry Hill’. I did, however, get the above mentioned ELO and Floyd bootlegs in that time, and Big D got a couple of things too. But after getting these few, at those inflated prices, and always shoddy quality, the novelty wore off, and the idea that the whole thing was just a huge rip-off, for albums that I rarely listened to – because of the naff quality, began to take hold. We stopped looking out for ‘The Geezer’, and that was it as a far as bootleg interest went… Apart from the fascination with tracking down and owning the legendary 'Mandrake Root' and ‘Blueberry Hill’ albums…

It’s no surprise, really, that bands and artists hated bootlegs and bootleggers: they were ripping them off, and ripping off the public too. Besides that, these recordings made the bands and artists sound bad live – and were not a true reflection of their live performance. But, all the same, bootlegs were a big part of the whole youth rebel, risky, defy the system scene, and are now part of the folklore of the 1960s and 70s. I look back on them with the same affection that I look back on all of the youth rebellion and the culture of this era.

Much moving from place to place in my life – including settling in and around London, nearly 30 years ago - has meant that, sadly, most of my 1960s and 70s artefacts have become scattered and lost – my bootlegs among them. For all their poor quality and overprice, I wish I still had them now – purely for the historical, archaeological treasure value of them – it’s the historian in me…

(M).

Textual content: ©Copyright: MLM Arts 18. 01. 2017. Edited and re-posted: 02. 02. 2018. Edited and re-posted: 04. 02. 2019
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