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THE 60's ("The Swingin' 60's!")
~ For those of you who grew up in the 60's, what is your overall impression of those times? From personal recollection, your own experiences and remembrances. Positive or negative.
I was only 4 when the 60s ended, but I do have two memories from the 60s.
1. Playing cards (Go Fish) with my great-grandmother. Don't ask why I remember this, but I do. She passed away in 1970. She also lived in a house that had no indoor plumbing.
2. The moon landing. For the longest time as a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. Even at 4, I knew this was an amazing event.
~ Do you feel the 60's were full of change?
Nah, nothing happened in the 60s.
Even I can't pull off that statement.
The 60s paved the way for racial and gender equality, sexual liberation, rock music, not always trusting the government, protests, opposition and the way the news was delivered. The 50s and early 60s seemed sugar coated. Once Vietnam and the counterculture movement kicked in, there was no turning back.
~ What were the biggest, most impactful, or influential things (people, events, cultural aspects) of that decade?
People: Martin Luther King, JFK, Nikita Khrushchev, Walter Cronkite, Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, Bob Dylan
Events: Vietnam, Woodstock, Moon Landing, JFK, RFK, and MLK's assassination, Cuban Missile Crisis and of course Bondmania.
Cultural Aspects: The psychedelic era easily influenced culture and forever changed norms for the most part, the better. I would say drugs were the only negative thing that came out of the counterculture movement. Positive change to race relations, gender equality, care for the environment, eating healthier were among the positives the hippies gave us.
~ What are some of your favorite songs/albums/musicians from the 60's? Is there any one song from that time you can't stand, really never want to hear it again? And how do you remember listening to the music - on the radio? concert? TV? at neighborhood party? Or with the volume turned down low on your record player and towels stuffed under your bedroom door hoping your dad doesn't hear you playing Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" yet again? (Ok, yeah that was me.)
Every time I hear White Rabbit, it is stuck in my head for two days. I do feel that Jimi Hendrix and Cream were very influential in the beginning of hard rock's roots.
~ What are some of your favorite films? And how was it back in the day without video, reruns on TV, dvds, etc. See it at the theater as long as it was in town, and that was it! (hard to fathom, I know; for me, too, even though I lived through that)
Yeah, hard to believe now that if you missed a film in the theatre, you had to wait about two years before you saw it on television.
~ Changes in technology (including cars, planes, rockets to the moon, styles of telephones)
Cars are more fuel efficient. Planes are less fun to fly now. Rockets can go beyond the moon.
I also remember you only had pink plastic phones. And you were on a party line. Phones definitely changed for the better once Ma Bell lost her monopolistic grip.
~ How did you go to school? (bus, walk, bike, skateboard)
The school bus for me.
~ Did you bring your own lunch in a lunchbox? Do you remember your lunch box? Do you remember the school cafeteria ladies? Or any particular school food? (I do!)
I had a lunch box (Hot Wheels in my early formative years, then I eventually bought the school lunch. 65 cents in my senior year.
~ Do you remember your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
Batman and Justice League of America for me. The 70s version seem so cheesy now.
~ What was your favorite food from back then?
Pizza for me. Some things never change.
~ What did you do after school? Hang out, play outdoors until dark, smoke behind the barn, etc.
Mostly had to go straight home and do homework. Wasn't allowed to participate in extra curricular activities until middle school.
~ Anything else under the sun that you'd like to have your say about concerning the 60's. Now is the time to say it!
Kind of wish I was old enough to remember more of the 60s. Would have loved to seen Woodstock and witness the various positive and negative history of the 60s.
@OHMSS69, I will definitely get that Jonny Quest dvd! Thanks for mentioning that. And do I remember and miss the many variety shows of that decade? yes, sort of. I remember Dean Martin's quite well, and Carole Burnett. Hers was hilarious. I have always liked Dino, even as a kid. And how about Laugh-in? I did enjoy it. :)
And I loved the Christmas specials with Bob Hope and Andy Williams! They were a tradition. I looked forward to those every year. Bing has Christmas specials, too, I believe. So of course I adored the wonderful claymation classic: Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer! Still so very special, and I love the songs ("Holly Jolly Christmas", "Silver and Gold").
Our home had a color TV early on; it was considered special. Then we got a big, two ton Tessie console color TV that was the size of a small sofa (not exaggerating).
@Kerim, thanks for giving us your recollections of growing up in the 60's. I agree that most of the change was positive. I do remember Hot Wheels, too! When I think of favorite food, I think of the boxed Kraft macaroni and cheese. I never got into Kool aid; but we had a whole bunch of soda at my house. Fortunately, my mom was a great cook and I also loved fresh fruit and milk, juice, things that were good for me. I did not get into drinking water until late in my teens (except when playing sports, of course). And thanks for mentioning party lines! That seem so ancient now, I swear. Yes, we had a telephone on our wall, all modern stuff for the time, and we had a party line for many years. Weird to think of having now.
I finished my Christmas shopping today, so I am going to crash for a bit. I'll check back later. This discussion is humming along nicely. The 60's is chock-full of things to discuss. See you later, alligator! ;)
TV sort of this size, a bit similar to this one ... (note: the tube was not huge, the whole thing was a big old cabinet with speakers on the sides). This is a 1966 Magnavox. though I think our family had Motorola; I can't remember.
Another big event in the sixties was a family holiday to London (well Surrey really to stay with an aunt, but we did get to London for a day trip) There is a picture of me and my brother feeding pigeons in Trafalgar Square, an image which was used in the UK version of Law & Order a few years back. They cloned out my brother and I became the murder suspect as a small boy!
[img]<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/8845924@N04/15473511993"; title="trafalgar1 merged mini by Mark Jones, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7519/15473511993_f02e4f6e15_s.jpg"; width="75" height="75" alt="trafalgar1 merged mini"></a>[/img]
My grandparents had that TV! The very same model shown here, I remember it well. (Are you sure you've got the date right? I think you meant to call it a 1966 Magnavox, not a 1996 model!) We never had a color TV in the sixties at my parents' home, though, and boy did I envy the people who did! On Saturday mornings I'd go to my grandparents house to watch the Beatles cartoon show in color. Many of the shows mentioned here were favorites of mine as well: Johnny Quest, certainly; Wild Wild West and the Man From U.N.C.L.E. of course; Batman! Nananananana Batman!!! (Stream of consciousness really is the only way to answer these questions it seems to me...) Sorry if the crush of holiday obligations has prevented me from getting into any depth on these topics, there will be lots more coming in a few days, including a thesis paper on Communism that I hope will address @bondjames' request. But right now I'm groovin' on television... I didn't really get into Star Trek until it showed up in daily reruns in the early '70s. One thing I'd really like to recommend is a brief series that showed up on the Disney show ("Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" I think it was called at the time) starring Patrick McGoohan, whom we all remember as Danger Man/Secret Agent and The Prisoner: "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh." This 3 part tale, reminiscent of Disney's well remembered Davy Crocket and Zorro entries, was produced by Sir Lew Grade and shown in the US on the Disney series and it is AWESOME. I think the whole megilla is available on YouTube, and really: check it out! You will be blown away! Oh, and regarding Christmas specials: let's not forget the champion of them all: A Charlie Brown Christmas. Mr Magoo as Ebeneezer Scrooge was certainly a game changer, but Linus reciting Scripture and Vince Guiraldi's jazzy musical score simply cannot be topped for Christmas cartoon goodness!
As I say, the whole thing is available on YouTube, so enjoy!
I remember seeing this at the time and it scared me. I can laugh at it now but at the time I was covering my face whenever he donned his scarecrow outfit. Seeing him riding, his tattered clothes and that laugh....LOL
Honestly, I have been playing the video clip of Joe Cocker singing "With a Little Help from my Friends" (Woodstock) throughout the last couple of days. It is such an anthem for my life. And I wanted to ask for a bit more chat about that iconic music festival, Woodstock (1969 in New York). I was just a bit too young to get there on my own (13) and nobody in my area was going. I am to this day sorry I missed it, though.
So, did any one you actually attend the original Woodstock? If so, please share your memories from that. The musical lineup was genuinely fantastic. I am posting a few photos today, just for fun. Even if, like me, you did not attend it, let's dive in and chat about Woodstock a bit. :)>-
I was just reading about Woodstock and found these interesting bits
(the first 3 are from thedailymail.com)
- The organisers played down the numbers they anticipated, telling the authorities they expected 50,000, while selling 186,000 tickets in advance (costing six dollars for each day) and planning for 200,000. In the end 500,000 attended. Another million had to turn back because of traffic. It was originally advertised as 'A Weekend in the Country.'
- Joni Mitchell wrote the festival's eponymous song, with the lyrics 'We are stardust we are golden', from what she heard of the event from then-boyfriend Graham Nash, ex-Hollies and one quarter of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. But she never made it to Woodstock. Taking the advice of her manager, she chose to guest on the Dick Cavett Show and then watched the festival unfold on TV, tears streaming down her face.
- Hearing there was a shortage of food, a Jewish community centre made sandwiches with 200 loaves of bread, 40 pounds of meat cuts and two gallons of pickles, which were distributed by nuns.
- Though the festival mood was anti-war, ironically the festival would most likely have turned to tragedy without the U.S. Army, who airlifted in food, medical teams and performers. The hippy crowd was told: 'They are with us man, they are not against us. Forty five doctors or more are here without pay because they dig what this is into.'
- the legend of Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young stealing a truck to get to Woodstock ...
Part A) From a radio interview program "On The Record" by Mary Turner in 1979, Neil was asked about what he remembered of Woodstock -- Young: "One of things I remember about Woodstock was trying to get there to play. As it turns out, the charter plane I was on with Jimi Hendrix flew into the wrong airport. We were supposed to be picked by a helicopter. The roads were jammed and there was nobody at the airport, so we had no way to get to the concert.
So we're standing at the airport with Melvin Belli [an attorney] trying to figure out what to do. And Melvin Belli steals this pickup truck parked at the airport.
So it's the three of us in this stolen pickup truck trying to get to the Woodstock concert to play -- Jimi, Melvin & me. That's what I really remember about Woodstock ***
Part B) .Another variation of the story appears in David Zimmer's CROSBY, STILLS & NASH: The Biography with Neil hot-wiring the truck and Elliot Roberts, Young's manager, is driving the pickup truck with Jimi Hendrix on the hood.
Elliot says: 'Jimi Hendrix was a hood ornament! It was insane.'"
As they say, if you remember Woodstock, you weren't there...
(source for that "truck stealing" info is from http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2009/08/jimi-hendrix-and-neil-young-at.html)
(This last photo, although way too young to represent me, captures me in spirit, though.) :)
(below info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock)
*******
Friday, August 15 – Saturday, August 16
Artist Time Notes
Richie Havens 5:07 pm – 7:00 pm
Swami Satchidananda 7:10 pm – 7:20 pm Gave the opening speech/invocation for the festival.
Sweetwater 7:30 pm – 8:10 pm
Bert Sommer 8:20 pm – 9:15 pm
Tim Hardin 9:20 pm – 9:45 pm
Ravi Shankar 10:00 pm – 10:35 pm Played through the rain.
Melanie 10:50 pm – 11:20 pm
Arlo Guthrie 11:55 pm – 12:25 am
Joan Baez 12:55 am – 2:00 am. She was six months pregnant at the time.
Saturday, August 16 – Sunday, August 17
Artist Time Notes
Quill 12:15 pm – 12:45 pm
Country Joe McDonald 1:00 pm – 1:30 pm Joe later performs with Country Joe and the Fish.
Santana 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
John Sebastian 3:30 pm – 3:55 pm Was not on the bill. He was a festival attendee and was recruited to perform while the promoters were waiting for many of the performers to arrive.
Keef Hartley Band 4:45 pm – 5:30 pm
The Incredible String Band 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Canned Heat 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Mountain 9:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Grateful Dead 10:30 pm – 12:05 am Their set was cut short after the stage amps overloaded during "Turn On Your Love Light".
Creedence Clearwater Revival 12:30 am – 1:20 am
Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band 2:00 am – 3:00 am
Sly and the Family Stone 3:30 am – 4:20 am
The Who 5:00 am – 6:05 am Briefly interrupted by Abbie Hoffman.
Jefferson Airplane 8:00 am – 9:40 am Joined onstage by former Jeff Beck Group piano player Nicky Hopkins.
Sunday, August 17 – Monday, August 18
Artist Time Notes
Joe Cocker and The Grease Band 2:00 pm – 3:25 pm After Joe Cocker's set, a thunderstorm disrupted the events for several hours.
Country Joe and the Fish 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm Country Joe McDonald's second performance.
Ten Years After 8:15 pm – 9:15 pm
The Band 10:00 pm – 10:50 pm
Johnny Winter 12:00 am – 1:05 am Winter's brother, Edgar Winter, is featured on three songs.
Blood, Sweat & Tears 1:30 am – 2:30 am
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 3:00 am – 4:00 am An acoustic and electric set were played. Neil Young skipped most of the acoustic set.
Paul Butterfield Blues Band 6:00 am – 6:45 am
Sha Na Na 7:30 am – 8:00 am
Jimi Hendrix / Gypsy Sun & Rainbows 9:00 am – 11:10 am Performed to a considerably smaller crowd of fewer than 200,000 people
*******
Many people had left by the time Jimi took the stage on Sunday morning, to start their slow, traffic clogged way home. This set included his iconic playing of the National Anthem.
The documentary film of Woodstock: (Below is taken from the same webpage)
The documentary film Woodstock, directed by Michael Wadleigh and edited by Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese, was released in 1970.
Artie Kornfeld (one of the promoters of the festival) came to Fred Weintraub, an executive at Warner Bros., and asked for money to film the festival. Previously, Artie had been turned down everywhere else, but against the express wishes of other Warner Bros. executives, Weintraub put his job on the line and gave Kornfeld $100,000 to make the film. Woodstock helped to save Warner Bros at a time when the company was on the verge of going out of business. The book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls details the making of the film.
Wadleigh rounded up a crew of about 100 from the New York film scene. With no money to pay the crew, he agreed to a double-or-nothing scheme, in which the crew would receive double pay if the film succeeded and nothing if it bombed. Wadleigh strove to make the film as much about the hippies as the music, listening to their feelings about compelling events contemporaneous with the festival (such as the Vietnam War), as well as the views of the townspeople.
Woodstock received the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. The film has been deemed culturally significant by the United States Library of Congress. In 1994, Woodstock: The Director's Cut was released and expanded to include Janis Joplin as well as additional performances by Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and Canned Heat not seen in the original version of the film. In 2009, the expanded 40th Anniversary Edition was released on DVD. This release marks the film's first availability on Blu-ray disc.
If you were lucky enough to get close enough to the stage and stay camped out there, you definitely had a real feast for your musical soul. Several artists gave performances that were raved about at the time, and still are decades later. The ones I hear talked about most were: Richie Havens, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, and Crosby Stills and Nash (and Young when he got there). But everybody played well and contributed to the whole unique experience. I mean look some more of the lineup: The Grateful Dead, CCR, Canned Heat, Mountain, Joan Baez (such a strong spokesperson of those times) ... a genuinely superb coming together of talent amidst a sincerity of spirit. It is that authenticity and sincerity that makes this so culturally important and memorable, I believe; along with the outstanding musical performances. There was also Country Joe and the Fish, John Sebastian (whose groovy commentary from the stage gives a definitive flavor to all of it), not to mention that every single act played its part to make this festival special.
Woodstock was the epitome, the ultimate music festival of the decade and set a benchmark for other such events. I do believe that. Although there had been and would be other great music festivals, Woodstock galvanized and celebrated that whole generation more acutely, provided a longer and more memorable experience overall (especially with the local community, volunteer medical professionals, and the U.S. army working together to keep things flowing relatively smoothly and healthfully) ... it was the hippie/flower power movement's crowning achievement, in my opinion (granted, as one who observed from afar). In general, Woodstock was a peaceful, joyful expression of the youth culture that was a resounding success, more than the originators could have even imagined.
And regarding my own attendance at these festivals...no, Woodstock was too far away. I MIGHT have been able to make it to Altamont...but my father put me to work at his shop building fence panels that day, PRECISELY to keep me away from the scene! Considering everything that went down there, I can't say he made a bad decision in this regard...
Is the Festival Express on dvd, @BeatlesSansEarmuffs? I love Janis; I'd dearly love to see it. I like Buddy Guy a lot, by the way, too. Saw him live once; he was wonderful!
Hopefully I can get some time together later tomorrow, to write up a bit about the impressions, ambiance, and overall public attitude in America about the Soviet Union during the 60's. Please those of you in the UK, Canada, and Europe and all other countries, do chime in and talk about the 1960's with us. What was it like in your world? Including perceptions about the Soviet Union. (And if anybody here who grew up in the Soviet Union, that would be very interesting to read about!) I'd really like to hear from more people in different areas about all of that.
I'll just mention now that my family did not build a bomb shelter in our yard during the Bay of Pigs missile crisis, but it was for sure discussed (even though I was not supposed to be listening to that kind of "adult" talk). Cuba was practically in my back yard, so that was definitely a very big deal for us! To say we were relieved that things did not escalate any further during that time is a whopping understatement.
:)>-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Restaurant
Alice's Restaurant Massacree" is a musical monologue by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie released on his 1967 album Alice's Restaurant. The song is one of Guthrie's most prominent works, based on a true incident in his life that began on Thanksgiving Day 1965, and which inspired a 1969 movie of the same name. Apart from the chorus which begins and ends it, the "song" is in fact a spoken monologue, with ragtime guitar backing.
Though the song's official title, as printed on the album, is "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" (pronounced with a long e sound at the end), Guthrie states in the opening line of the song that "This song's called 'Alice's Restaurant'" and that "'Alice's Restaurant'... is just the name of the song;" as such, the shortened title is the one most commonly used for the song today.
In an interview for All Things Considered, Guthrie said the song points out that any American citizen who was convicted of a crime, no matter how minor (in his case, it was littering), could avoid being conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War.
The Alice in the song was restaurant-owner Alice M. Brock, who in 1964 used $2,000 supplied by her mother to purchase a deconsecrated church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where Alice and her husband Ray would live. It was here rather than at the restaurant—which came later—where the song's Thanksgiving dinners were actually held.
The song lasts 18 minutes and 34 seconds, occupying the entire A-side of Guthrie's 1967 debut record album, also titled Alice's Restaurant. Guthrie, in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone leading up to the 50th anniversary of the original incident, noted that such extended monologues were extremely rare in an era when singles were typically less than three minutes in length; because of this, he never expected the song to be released, much less become a Thanksgiving tradition.
It is notable as a satirical, first-person account of 1960s counterculture, in addition to being a hit song in its own right. The final part of the song is an encouragement for the listeners to sing along, to resist the U.S. draft, and to end war, although Guthrie later pointed out that he believes that there are such things as just wars (as rare as they may be) and that his message was targeted at the Vietnam War in particular. Guthrie was inspired by the long-form monologues of Lord Buckley and Bill Cosby when writing the song's lyrics and by a number of different musicians in writing the accompaniment.
```````
Now that is a blast from the past, one I had forgotten about. So happy to have it mentioned again.
At Alice's restaurant (excepting Alice....)
I don't think of Arlo as a rock and roller. He's a folk singer. He is, in fact, the son of Woody Guthrie, one of the greatest American folk singers who ever stomped upon this sweet, swingin' sphere. (I suspect my "Users' Guide to Sixties' Music" may be coming a bit sooner than my thesis on Russian/American relations in the decade under discussion...)
Woody Guthrie
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Pete Seeger
Bob Dylan
The Kingston Trio
Joan Baez
Joni Mitchell
Judy Collins
Simon and Garfunkel
The Mamas and the Papas
Crosby, Stills, Nash/ and also with Young
Buffalo Springfield
Who else needs to go on this list? :)>-
And here is a brief list of just a few of the songs of the 60's that would fall into the category of "folk" or "protest" music:
Where Have All The Flowers Gone
If I Had a Hammer
This Land is Your Land
Blowin' in the Wind
For What It's Worth ("Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's goin' down")
The Times, They Are A-Changin'
Woodstock
I was trying to go with the more folky music above, not getting into the psychedelic songs.
Many, many artists were influenced by folk music.
But hey, I'm going to list a few more songs later today, including the psychedelic and harder rocking songs that I love. Everybody, feel free to add to this list of 60's songs and artists. Anytime you're up to posting your "Users' Guide to Sixties' Music" is great, @BeatlesSansEarmuffs. Today or the next couple of days would be greatly appreciated, if you can sum it up by then. I know you're busy; thanks for your contributions. :-bd
I will get to the U.S./Soviet stuff in the not too distant future. Music still has plenty to be explored, though.
~ For those of you who grew up in the 60's, what is your overall impression of those times? From personal recollection, your own experiences and remembrances. Positive or negative.
Overall, my impression of those times was largely positive. I loved the music of the times, the culture, the optimism…the sense that we were moving from good things to even better ones. How we had that sense of optimism is anybody’s guess, looking back on the assassinations, the riots, the civil unrest and so forth! And yet, somehow we did.
~ Do you feel the 60's were full of change?
Change is good. Change is a constant. Change comes from within. Spare change? That is to say: you betcha!
~ What were the biggest, most impactful, or influential things (people, events, cultural aspects) of that decade?People: JFK, RFK, MLK. LBJ. Richard Nixon, and not in a good way. J. Edgar Hoover., ditto and in spades. Walter Cronkite. Cassius Clay…that, is Muhammad Ali. John, Paul George, and Ringo. Ed Sullivan. Walt Disney. Events: The Assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK. The Viet Nam War, and the protests against it. The Civil Rights campaign. The Beatles’ appearances on the Ed Sullivan show. The riots in the streets of Chicago during the Democratic Convention, with the police clubbing reporters on the street for doing their jobs of reporting the news. The moon landing. Woodstock. Cultural aspects: The music, from the Great Folk Scare of the early sixties to rejuvenation of rock & roll, inspired by the Beatles and the British Invasion…to the birth of heavy metal with the gravity defying rise of Led Zeppelin…and the dawning of the Age of Aquarius with the tribal rock musical, HAIR. On television, we had Hootenanny celebrating folk music in the early sixties, and the Smothers Brothers battling the censors every week in the latter part of the decade. There was Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In birthing the careers of Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn and Flip Wilson and a dozen more. There were cowboys ( Gunsmoke and Bonanza lasted throughout most of the decade) and cops both exotic (Hawaiian Eye and 77 Sunset Strip) and mundane (Dragnet, Adam 12) and let’s not forget the spies! Following the popularity of Bond, there was a Man From U.N.C.L.E. and a Girl From U.N.C.L.E. and Burke’s Law became Amos Burke, Secret Agent…and there were those British imports, the Avengers and Secret Agent (Danger Man in the U.K.) with that zingy Johnny Rivers theme song, “Secret Agent Man.” There was Mission: Impossible in its original incarnation and The Wild, Wild West in ditto. And there was Batman. Which brings me to comic books, and superheroes were at their height in the sixties. Superman, Batman, and their teammates in the Justice League of America got a serious rivalry going with the birth of the Marvel Comics superstars, from the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man to a group of Avengers that somehow didn’t include Diana Rigg. There’s more, lots lots more, but let’s move on for now…
~ What are some of your favorite songs/albums/musicians from the 60's? Is there any one song from that time you can't stand, really never want to hear it again? And how do you remember listening to the music - on the radio? concert? TV? at neighborhood party? Or with the volume turned down low on your record player and towels stuffed under your bedroom door hoping your dad doesn't hear you playing Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" yet again? (Ok, yeah that was me.) ;)
One really important reason for the perception of change on my own part is that I started the sixties at the age of five and finished them at the age of sixteen. So at the early part of the decade I was listening to Bozo the Clown records on a tiny little toy of a record player and ended them listening to the Woodstock sound track on a great big stereo with detachable speakers. My parents listened to a fairly eclectic AM radio station called KSFO, with the legendary Don Sherwood occasionally serving as their DJ when he could find his way into the studio. You could hear everything on that station, from Frank Sinatra to Alan Sherman to the Beatles, and San Francisco Giants baseball games were just another part of the programming mix. By the time the sixties had ended I was listening to hippie music on FM stations like KSAN, where routine parts of the programming were “alternative” health expert Doctor Hip Pocrates (aka Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld, yes, a real doctor for people who might need help coming down from a bad trip or coping with a sexually transmitted disease) and newscaster “Scoop” Nisker, with his signature line, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.”
As ever, there’s more to come…
Thanks @4EverBonded, all are mine (except the 'square' images from the 60s/70s taken by my father), glad you like them. I like to take photos of local live groups as we have quite a healthy live scene considering how small a town I live in.
Reading: I was not into comics, although I did read a few (not often) Archies. I also discovered Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes during this decade, and read all of those. I was constantly reading, to the annoyance of my parents at times ("Not at the dinner table!"). I hated to put down a good book.
Films: I remember one of my parents' favorite films was Doctor Zhivago; and they both loved the gorgeous theme song, "Lara's Theme" (I think it was called that; "Somewhere my love ..."). I also remember It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. As well as (and yes this will get mentioned again whenever I finally get to the American/Soviet Union discussion) The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! It is still one of my favorites; just hilarious.
Songs I could not stand then and never want to hear: basically the ones you mentioned, yes! I had forgotten that awful one, "They're Coming to Take Me Away" -but also "Big Girls Don't Cry". I've always turned that off asap. Like nails on a chalkboard to me (sorry, Frankie, I've just never been a fan). Also, "It's My Party" (and I'll cry if I want to) - ditto Lesley. And I'll add "Camp Franada" to that.
Times in my life I feel like I was actually changed by music, like magic or an electrical charge: The first time I heard The Beatles ("She Loves You") and the moment I first heard the Stones song "Satisfaction". To a slightly lesser degree, but I suppose just to say the music moved me like an epiphany of sorts: Jimi's "Purple Haze" ... Janis's "Get It While You Can"... Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help from My Friends" ... and Led Zep's "Whole Lotta Love." Plenty of other songs that influenced me (including so many by The Beatles; "Hey Jude" for one, and indeed the entire album, Abbey Road!) and so many I loved in various degrees, but those are enough to mention today. :)
And, @Beatles, you said, Records intended to get airplay in the sixties were purposely mixed to be heard decently on the crummy speakers commonly found in car radios, did you know that? No, I truly did not know that! Interesting indeed. I remember listening to music on portable radios and in the car a lot.
So you had a VW Beetle? :D That is so appropriate (even though small for your size).
I learned to drive in a big, boat sized, used Caddy. I didn't learn stick shift until the late 70's (but I do prefer it). My dad would take me to a quiet shopping center parking lot at times and try to teach me to drive. It was often amusing. ;)) Nothing like learning to drive in a car that took up pretty much the entire lane and I could barely see over the steering wheel (I am 5 ft. 1 inch, and that last inch was as a senior in high school). Driving toward a lamp post at a sedate speed and my dad saying "Get over on the left now, not when you up somebody's ass, go on and get in the other lane now ...!" (voice getting irritated in spite of himself). There weren't any proper lanes in the parking lot, but I was to imagine them during our practice at times. At least no accidents resulted. I was driving okay at 16. (And by the way, Judi Dench and I are the same height). :)
I'd love to hear more about growing up in the UK, or any other country, during the 60's. It would be nice to read about. Meanwhile, my breakfast is calling me (not Captain Crunch these days) and I'll check back later. Do carry on. :)>-