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It's funny they had to remove your brother from the photo.
("I was never in London in the sixties.") [-X
In the 60's all was comic book & sci-fi pop culture to me.
My two most socially impactful memories were the Moon landing, and walking home with two of my friends from school when a bus passed by and kids yelled "You killed Christ!" at them, and they explained to me that they were Jewish (which meant basically nothing to me beyond a vague genetic lineage) & that the kids thought the Jews were responsible for Christ's murder (which told me then & there that religion was an easily pervertable institution).
:-??
I will dip into that fun, crazy, certainly of-its-time film, The Russians Are Coming! The Russians are Coming! soon, later today. Madcap comedy that lampooned both sides and showed an extreme form of the well, near paranoia that was creeping into America regarding the Soviet Union.
And here is a bit of what I mean; a trailer for it:
Other random memories from then...
"Interesting... but STUPID."- Laugh In
"Fascinating."- Star Trek
"Holy hole in the doughnut!"- Batman
"OOOOHHH! OHHH!"- It's About Time
"Yes Master."- I Dream Of Jeannie
"That does not compute."- you can guess that one.
:P
I think it was because the villain in the story was an only child, and it was quite obvious that we were brothers.
Here's a little quote from Timothy Dalton, on the impact that Dr No had on audiences back in 1962;
"Dr. No created an outrage. Not only for it's violence, but for it's sex. But there's no sex at all in Dr. No, so what were they talking about? What they were actually talking about in '62 - and the sixties didn't really begin until the mid-sixties, so '62 was still the fifties - what they were talking about was Ursula Andress coming out of the waves in a bikini. That was an outrage sexually. As for the violence, the film was given an "A" certificate because Bond down an unarmed, defenseless man. That was considered morally wrong and very violent."
"(Dr. No is) the forefront of innovation. I don't know how old I was when I saw Dr. No for the first time. Fifteen or sixteen. But it was splendid. Dr. No just came and took cinema by the scruff of the neck, and banged it right down into today. It was terrific"
Martinis, Girls and Guns by Martin Sterling and Gary Morecambe.
So true. Dr. No (though I was too young to have seen it in its first run) was startling and different for its time, I do believe that. And yes, the early 60s were such a continuation of the 50s - just look at the music and fashion then. Ursula not only came out of the sea in a bikini; she was wearing a knife. That sends all kinds of messages and probably even more alarm bells for the censors. The censors were mostly likely (I could bet on it) all men and their sensory perceptions must have hit the roof when they watched her. For many reasons. ;)
Bond was different from any other kind of movie at that time. I love that.
I began 1960 as a 4 year old, just a reference point. Since I grew up in Florida, I am starting with that fiasco known as The Bay of Pigs invasion - which ends up reading like a bad comedy movie - and then I will give an outline of the Cuban missile crisis situation, which was genuinely frightening and too close a call. This missile standoff, hand over the launch button situation was very real to me in Florida. Nearly any kind of missile from Cuba could reach us easily. Like in my backyard. And we are talking nuclear weapons here. President Kennedy met this head on and told the American public straight out that we may come under attack in Florida.
Here is some background from the http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/bay-of-pigs-invasion (bolding or underlining is mine, and this is not the entire article)
The Bay of Pigs
On January 1, 1959, a young Cuban nationalist named Fidel Castro (1926-) drove his guerilla army into Havana and overthrew General Fulgencio Batista (1901-1973), the nation’s American-backed president. For the next two years, officials at the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to push Castro from power. Finally, in April 1961, the CIA launched what its leaders believed would be the definitive strike: a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. However, the invasion did not go well: The invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro’s troops, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting.
***
Many Cubans welcomed Fidel Castro’s 1959 overthrow of the dictatorial President Fulgencio Batista, yet the new order on the island just about 100 miles from the United States made American officials nervous. Batista had been a corrupt and repressive dictator, but he was considered to be pro-American and was an ally to U.S. companies. At that time, American corporations and wealthy individuals owned almost half of Cuba’s sugar plantations and the majority of its cattle ranches, mines and utilities. Batista did little to restrict their operations. He was also reliably anticommunist. Castro, by contrast, disapproved of the approach that Americans took to their business and interests in Cuba. It was time, he believed, for Cubans to assume more control of their nation. “Cuba Sí, Yanquis No” became one of his most popular slogans.
***
Almost as soon as he came to power, Castro took steps to reduce American influence on the island. He nationalized American-dominated industries such as sugar and mining, introduced land reform schemes and called on other Latin American governments to act with more autonomy. In response, early in 1960 President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to recruit 1,400 Cuban exiles living in Miami and begin training them to overthrow Castro.
In May 1960, Castro established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and the United States responded by prohibiting the importation of Cuban sugar. To prevent the Cuban economy from collapsing – sugar exports to the United States comprised 80 percent of the country’s total - the USSR agreed to buy the sugar.
In January 1961, the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and stepped up its preparations for an invasion. Some State Department and other advisors to the new American president, John F. Kennedy, maintained that Castro posed no real threat to America, but the new president believed that masterminding the Cuban leader’s removal would show Russia, China and skeptical Americans that he was serious about winning the Cold War.
***
The first part of the plan was to destroy Castro’s tiny air force, making it impossible for his military to resist the invaders. On April 15, 1961, a group of Cuban exiles took off from Nicaragua in a squadron of American B-26 bombers, painted to look like stolen Cuban planes, and conducted a strike against Cuban airfields. However, it turned out that Castro and his advisers knew about the raid and had moved his planes out of harm’s way. Frustrated, Kennedy began to suspect that the plan the CIA had promised would be “both clandestine and successful” might in fact be “too large to be clandestine and too small to be successful.”
***
Almost immediately, the invasion was a disaster. The CIA had wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible, but a radio station on the beach (which the agency’s reconnaissance team had failed to spot) broadcast every detail of the operation to listeners across Cuba.
***
According to many historians, the CIA and the Cuban exile brigade believed that President Kennedy would eventually allow the American military to intervene in Cuba on their behalf. However, the president was resolute: As much as he did not want to “abandon Cuba to the communists,” he said, he would not start a fight that might end in World War III. His efforts to overthrow Castro never flagged–in November 1961, he approved Operation Mongoose, an espionage and sabotage campaign–but never went so far as to provoke an outright war. In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis inflamed American-Cuban-Soviet tensions even further.
The Cuban Missile Crisis (no comedic elements here ...)
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.[/b] In a TV address on October 22, 1962, President John Kennedy (1917-63) notified Americans about the presence of the missiles, explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. Following this news, many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
However, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s (1894-1971) offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.
***
After seizing power in the Caribbean island nation of Cuba in 1959, leftist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro (1926-) aligned himself with the Soviet Union. Under Castro, Cuba grew dependent on the Soviets for military and economic aid. During this time, the U.S. and the Soviets (and their respective allies) were engaged in the Cold War (1945-91), an ongoing series of largely political and economic clashes.
***
The two superpowers plunged into one of their biggest Cold War confrontations after the pilot of an American U-2 spy plane making a high-altitude pass over Cuba on October 14, 1962, photographed a Soviet SS-4 medium-range ballistic missile being assembled for installation.
President Kennedy was briefed about the situation on October 16, and he immediately called together a group of advisors and officials known as the executive committee, or ExCom. For nearly the next two weeks, the president and his team wrestled with a diplomatic crisis of epic proportions, as did their counterparts in the Soviet Union.
***
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had gambled on sending the missiles to Cuba with the specific goal of increasing his nation’s nuclear strike capability. The Soviets had long felt uneasy about the number of nuclear weapons that were targeted at them from sites in Western Europe and Turkey, and they saw the deployment of missiles in Cuba as a way to level the playing field.
***
From the outset of the crisis, Kennedy and ExCom determined that the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba was unacceptable. The challenge facing them was to orchestrate their removal without initiating a wider conflict–and possibly a nuclear war. In deliberations that stretched on for nearly a week, they came up with a variety of options, including a bombing attack on the missile sites and a full-scale invasion of Cuba. But Kennedy ultimately decided on a more measured approach. First, he would employ the U.S. Navy to establish a blockade, or quarantine, of the island to prevent the Soviets from delivering additional missiles and military equipment. Second, he would deliver an ultimatum that the existing missiles be removed.
***
Showdown at Sea
A crucial moment in the unfolding crisis arrived on October 24, when Soviet ships bound for Cuba neared the line of U.S. vessels enforcing the blockade. An attempt by the Soviets to breach the blockade would likely have sparked a military confrontation that could have quickly escalated to a nuclear exchange. But the Soviet ships stopped short of the blockade.
Although the events at sea offered a positive sign that war could be averted, they did nothing to address the problem of the missiles already in Cuba. The tense standoff between the superpowers continued through the week, and on October 27, an American reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba, and a U.S. invasion force was readied in Florida. (The 35-year-old pilot of the downed plane, Major Rudolf Anderson, is considered the sole U.S. combat casualty of the Cuban missile crisis.)
“I thought it was the last Saturday I would ever see,” recalled U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (1916-2009), as quoted by Martin Walker in “The Cold War.” A similar sense of doom was felt by other key players on both sides.
***
A Deal Ends the Standoff
Despite the enormous tension, Soviet and American leaders found a way out of the impasse. During the crisis, the Americans and Soviets had exchanged letters and other communications, and on October 26, Khrushchev sent a message to Kennedy in which he offered to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for a promise by U.S. leaders not to invade Cuba. The following day, the Soviet leader sent a letter proposing that the USSR would dismantle its missiles in Cuba if the Americans removed their missile installations in Turkey.
Officially, the Kennedy administration decided to accept the terms of the first message and ignore the second Khrushchev letter entirely. Privately, however, American officials also agreed to withdraw their nation’s missiles from Turkey. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy (1925-68) personally delivered the message to the Soviet ambassador in Washington, and on October 28, the crisis drew to a close.
***
Both the Americans and Soviets were sobered by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The following year, a direct “hot line” communication link was installed between Washington and Moscow to help defuse similar situations, and the superpowers signed two treaties related to nuclear weapons. The Cold War was far from over, though. In fact, another legacy of the crisis was that it convinced the Soviets to increase their investment in an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. from Soviet territory.
**********
So ... I grew up right there, with the threat of nuclear attack being, for a few weeks, we thought imminent. I remember families in our neighborhood meeting, adults shooing the children outside to play, but we could still hear bits and pieces of conversations throughout those times to know that plenty of somber things were discussed, such as:
- building a bomb shelter in our backyard (not easy, as Florida is built on limestone, sand, coral, and in many places you cannot dig far underground without hitting water)
- hording food and water, gas, batteries, etc.
- buying more radio equipment
- talking to relatives in other parts of America and in my case, Canada, about relocation
- writing wills and feeling incredulous, along with real fear
All of which, as you can imagine, is a nightmare for everybody ... and especially, I think, for parents. Throughout my formative years, my growing up in the 60s, I cannot remember feeling any hatred towards the Russians, the Soviet Union. I was fearful at times, but hate was not part of my family's reaction.
So, our country made it through that. Those two leaders found a way not to press the launch buttons, to not start the next major war. Even though the Cold War was still getting colder.
And then, a little over a year later, President Kennedy was assassinated.
My childhood was compartmentalized, schizophrenic in a way. My parents, teachers, friends from church and our entire neighborhood of families tried hard to give us a good, happy, and safe childhood. They mostly succeeded, in general terms, I must say. Yet ... a very real danger and threat hung over us at times. The shock and despair at having our president killed. Then Martin Luther King. Then Bobby Kennedy. The ongoing feeling that there were two major powers at odds in the world - my country and the Soviet Union. I was too young to understand any of the politics involved. I tried to live my life and trust in life and when the British invasion came along, and not long after that the whole Flower Power countermovement, with a cultural emphasis on live and let live and enjoy life, get it while you can, peace - I welcomed that, oh yes! and naturally fell in with it. All strongly embedded in this 60's child, for sure. But then, I am an optimist by nature.
I'm sure @BeatlesSansEarmuffs can add more and also give us some different insights, since he grew up across the country, far away from me. I have barely touched on the whole Cold War, but I was quite close to the beginnings of nuclear threat that stemmed from the crisis in Cuba, so I wanted to talk about that a bit today.
Any 60s recollection is welcome, from anybody. Including your impressions of the Cold War, the Soviet Union, America, the UK, or any culture during those years.
Thanks for joining us. :)>- (I plan on moving on to the 70's in two days)
And Vietnam & Dominoes had something in common. [-(
We do that here, now, but only because it is an earthquake drill. I haven't experienced a bad earthquake yet (level 4 was the highest and that was truly more than I cared to experience!).
But in elementary school, we did hide under our desks, yes. I vaguely remember that, too.
For me the sixties began one way and ended quite another. 1960 began with bland folk music, fears of atomic destruction, crew cuts, and the like. And in short order along comes Bond films, The Beatles, The British Invasion, Moon landing, Vietnam protests, hippies, and so on. It was a lot to process. But heady and exciting times that led to good things and not-so-good.
I've found very little fiction chronicling those times, but two books I can revisit over and over. 1) Boys Life by Robert McCammon, a stunning work of fiction that captures rural American life in the late 50s and early 60s. 2) Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis story in the novel of the same name that deals with the 60s and early 70s. And there's one other work, an obscure e-book on Amazon called Lydia Biswell Has It In for Me, a very funny boy meets girl story set in the 60s and 70s.
In fact, I have only two real memories of communism (or its effect on my world) in the sixties: duck and cover drills….and the sight of Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev (as portrayed by that great caricaturist, Mort Drucker) in the pages of Mad Magazine…dancing through the halls of the UN in a musical parody, “East Side Story.” This was, of course, a parody of the movie, “West Side Story,” with the commies all striking poses to duplicate those of the actors on screen, as they sing: “When you’re a Red you’re a Red all the way….” And thus it was that I learned one of the great lessons of childhood: if you don’t understand them, make merciless mockery of them instead.
But the duck & cover drills, aka “crouching pointlessly under your table at school,” yes, I remember them well. They were done in the same frame of mind as fire drills: if a disaster happens, this is what you should do. Fire drills made perfect sense: be ready to perform an orderly evacuation in case the school catches fire. But even as a 10 year old, my rational brain saw no point in huddling under our desks in case of an air raid. If those darn commies hit us with conventional bombs, sure, the desks might protect us if the roof fell in. But everybody knew the commies weren’t going to come after us with conventional bombs if indeed they did come after us: it would be with atomic weaponry, and there was no way in the world that those puny desks would protect us from the fallout. Before long the school administrators upped the ante: instead of leaving our desks in their assigned positions, we were to push them all together against one wall under the windows, forming a makeshift bunker of plywood desks, and we would crouch together under the shelter thus constructed. Okay, maybe that might have been a little more effective in protecting the children at Grant Elementary School in Richmond CA from flying glass, but still: the radioactivity released in an exchange of atomic weapons was going to be the biggest danger to the general public. Even a 10 year old (that is to say, ME) knew that. And I knew that our drills were doing nothing of any use to protect me from the possibility of atomic warfare. Once more, cynicism winnows its way into the mind of a child…
When you speak of a form of schizophrenia at work in American society of that time, dear @4Ever, you hit the nail on the head. We were all of us optimistic, and yet each one privately dreading the possibilities at the same time. Perhaps it’s no surprise that we took refuge in rock & roll music and TV sitcoms, in comic books and sports and escapist entertainment of all sorts… because until John told us that “All You Need Is Love,” it truly did look like we were on “The Eve of Destruction.”
The 60s packed a lot of change into that decade, didn't it? You have both summed it up well. Crew cuts and bland folk music to a moon landing and the hippie/rock music scene that truly exploded and defined the last half of the decade. "All You Need is Love." Yes indeed. Big changes: politically, economically, culturally. And CrabKey, I love to read and will definitely check out your recommendations!
I was just reminded of another film, that I cannot believe I have not mentioned yet: Stanley Kubrick's quirky and thought provoking black comedy/satire classic, Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). I have not seen it in ages and now I really want to revisit it again soon. What I remember most is Slim Pickens riding that bomb. Yes, I need to see that soon.
As for the rest of "America vs. Communism" well, let me just say that it was a mandatory course in jr. high school. "Am Com" as we called it, and I cannot recall anything from it really. Oh except my teacher saying something about there being two extremes, and both (capitalism and communism) will over time meet towards the middle. He was a pretty laid back teacher and we liked him. My love of my country and my own growing sense of patriotism was not, thankfully, tinged with huge anti-commy sentiment. I disagreed with communism as I got older, but I did not have a sweeping prejudice or hatred towards communism or the Soviet Union or, importantly, the people who lived there.
How I do love that film, The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! Showcasing the worst possible American hysteria/paranoia with very sharp wit and stellar performances. I highly recommend it to everyone.
So I am wrapping up my 60s main talk today. And I'll begin my finale with a list of some of films I recommend from the 60s, a real mix of kinds of films (as I mentioned in my opening post on the 60s, but I am adding to it a bit today, the additions being listed first, and these are not in chronological or any particular order) -
Two Women
The Parent Trap
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The Manchurian Candidate
To Kill a Mockingbird
Charade
Laurence of Arabia
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Beckett
The Hustler
Walk, Don't Run
Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Zhivago
Pyscho
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
The Birds
Camelot
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Graduate
Alfie
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Lion in Winter
The Italian Job
Once Upon a Time in the West
Cool Hand Luke
The Great Escape
To Sir With Love
Two for the Road
Bonnie and Clyde
~
Father Goose
A Hard Day's Night
Help!
My Fair Lady
The Sound of Music
Oliver!
The Pink Panther
A Shot in the Dark
Georgy Girl
The Dirty Dozen
Romeo and Juliet
True Grit
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
AND - needless to say, all the Bond films! B-)
I'd love for others to mention favorite films, perhaps ones from different countries that I have not seen. For example, I know that This Sporting Life from the UK is highly regarded; I have just not yet seen it. Surely there are other films from the 60s we could list in addition to my own recollections.
And later today I will go see if I can rent MadMen here. I've never seen it, and I'd like to see how they recreate that mad, mad decade I grew up in (even though I was not in New York. ;)
Cheers! :-bd
A few to add:
In the Heat of the Night
The Wild Bunch
Midnight Cowboy
Blow Up
In Cold Blood
4Ever, thanks for this discussion. I wish there were a forum--perhaps there is--where extended discussions about the 60s & 70s could take place.
This is The Originals thread, for people of that age range to discuss darn near anything we want to. :D I think all regular readers here know I am an Original. I do give a main topic for discussion, am always open to suggestions for topics; and, even if not on topic, I welcome any digression that is from an Original that is interesting and well written.
There are two main purposes of this thread, started by SirHenry:
1) The first one is that this is the thread for older fans to hang out, it is their home away from home, and their perspectives really count for the heart of this thread. The topics are open for all members to discuss, of any age. But only Originals' rankings will count for any polls, reviews and the like. So we hope that there will be a handful of Originals taking this ongoing journey with us, on this thread.
2) And the other criteria is that the content stays of similar quality, no spam or heavy handed bashing.
There probably are forums on the internet devoted to just the 60s or 70s for discussion. I feel sure there are. But what I like about that here is that we have Bond woven throughout, too. :>
By the way, very good additions to the list of films! All you listed were influential.
Note:
* SirHenry's Definition of an Original Fan - someone who saw either Connery or Lazenby in the theater during the film's first run.
This one is dedicated to the fans on this Forum who saw their first Bond movie starring Sean Connery in the theater. Fans who saw OHMSS as their first Bond movie in the theater can also join in, as you no doubt saw the Connery films as well during that time. The point of the thread is that it is geared largely to those of us around 50 and older who were the original fans of Bond and have witnessed the changes of lead actor and general direction over the years.
...
We can all suggest various topics, Bond or not, and have some fun giving our views on them. I'll start thinking about my experiences over the years, and hopefully the younger generation of fans will enjoy and learn from what we have seen and done.
*******
This is from his original post, June 2012.
@4Ever I think the spelling is Lawrence of Arabia, not Laurence.
Many of the films you listed I know, and show what quality sometimes was achieved. Especially Once Upon A Tile In The West is a film I'll never forget. From Europe, allthough not strictly sixties (1959) but fitting the atomic craze is 'The Mouse That Roared'. An one you may not overlook as it started aviation history cultivation in a big way was 'The Battle Of Britain' (1969, produced by no other then Harry Saltzman).
The film The Battle of Britain I know of, and I have not seen that in a while either. Thanks for the reminder. I enjoy reading books and seeing films about that part of history.
As for history in school, we had to take American History, World History and somewhere included was Geography but I cannot remember if that was a separate class. Am-Com (to learn why we were against communism and for democracy, basically) was a required class, yes, in jr high school (not earlier). I think it was required because the Cold War was real and on the news so much during the 60s. There was a lot of talk about communism in my world then. I do remember my mom saying that " ...Kruschev told the world that he would bury us." That actually was said in 1956, I have since learned. And I don't remember the rest of the conversation with my mom (probably a dinner table discussion as we often had the nightly news on the tv then). But that was the kind of thing, so out of my ordinary safe and happy childhood, that makes an impression. I always liked history, actually. I pretty much enjoyed all my classes except math.
We definitely had to practice hiding under desks because it was a real threat (at least in Florida, it was far too real and nearly probable) and the school system had to do something. Again, no underground shelters in Florida. Now I get to practice earthquake drills, something that possibly may still be happening in California, too. Is that true, @BeatlesSansEarmuffs? Florida had hurricanes every year (one after the other), but no earthquakes for me until I came to Asia.
So we spin lazily out of the Swingin' Sixties ... spilling right into the Seventies. I'll try to get us started more in depth on that later today or tomorrow, but if @Beatles or any of you would like to hop in to begin our chat about 1970 through 1979, please go right ahead. I'm American, so I remember Nixon well, oh yeah. And much more positive things like a new, incredibly funny tv show called Saturday Night Live. And many great films and music indeed. Flower Power segueing into Hard Rock and Glam Rock and then ... yes, Disco and the early days of Punk. As Bowie put it so memorably: Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes! ;)
The 70's!!
From the startling, crazy, satirical and utterly great film, M*A*S*H to ... well ... Godfathers and Exorcists and French Connections, a Clockwork Orange and a Cuckoos Nest, Taxi Driver, Rocky, Annie Hall, The Sting, Jaws, Star Wars, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, American Graffitti, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Chinatown to Apocalypse Now ... oh I will make a big film list later, for sure. :D
And Bond, James Bond, of course. B-) Sean returning (yay!!!!) in Diamonds are Forever, Bond morphing into a gentleman with a wry smile and his own charm (the inimitable Roger Moore) who said Live and Let Die, and took on a Man With The Golden Gun, became The Spy Who Loved Me, then hit outer space in all kinds of wackiness (but a good score) in Moonraker. :>
Please join us on a trip through the 1970's - all recollections welcome.
Cheers! :-bd
But you may discuss anything, and you do not have to answer all of these - they are just talking points. :)>-
~ For those of you who grew up in the 70's, what is your overall impression of those times? From personal recollection, your own experiences and remembrances. Positive or negative. What was your schooling like? Your neighborhood? In the pre-video/computer game world, what did you do for fun?
~ How did fashion change for you in the 70's?
~ What were the biggest, most impactful, or influential things (people, events, cultural aspects) of that decade?
~ What are some of your favorite songs/albums/musicians from the 60's? Was there any song, or music, that you really could not stand?
~ Specifically , what did you think of Glam Rock/Punk/Disco when they came along?
~ What did you think about Hard Rock as it really expanded in the 70's?
~ How about the ongoing Folk/Rock artists like Don McLean, Jim Croce, Harry Chapin, America, Carole King, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, Cat Stevens? And continuing on from the 60s with Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and others. :)
~ Anybody a country western music fan? I always leave that out somehow, because it is not part of my world really.
~ Basic political happenings in your world during this decade - what do you remember?
~ What TV shows did you enjoy?
~ And of course, as I mentioned some in my recent post, what about films?
You can be brief or lengthy, make a list or give a full account; it is your choice. Thanks for joining us on our 70's journey (which will take at least a full week).
Leaving you with this flashback:
Fashion for airline crews changed too: ;)
1. Lowered the voting age to 18
2. closing days of VietNam
3. Watergate
4. Jimmy Carter in the White House
I was finishing High School and onto College during this fun decade. Some of my favorite TV shows:
All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Partridge Family, the Brady Bunch (WHICH I HATED), MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Welcome Back Kotter, Charlies Angels, Soap, The Love Boat, Incredible Hulk
Films: The French Connection, A Clockwork Orange, Shaft, Superfly, The Godfather (my all time favorite movie)The Exorcist, Jaws, The Sting, The Omen, Marathon Man, Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Grease and finally The Roger Moore Bonds where he finally found his niche.
Disco....
Polyester Rules
Other memories: Early 70's- Bond revival triple features taught me that Connery was way cooler than Moore. Mid 70's- Apes ruled in the Go Ape For A Day 5 movie marathons. Logan's Run taught me how nice Jenny Agutter's chest was. 1979- The Warriors taught me how to have a foul mouth. Moonraker taught me how much Bond had gone wrong. Star Trek: The Motion Picture taught me that persistence counts.
I'll write more later. Just to say:
You named most of my fav TV shows, OHMSS69. I especially loved M*A*S*H and All in the Family. And you named a big favorite of mine, chrisisall: Kung Fu! Loved that show.
And well, for me: The 70's were definitely Bang a Gong, Get It On! ( to this day, that song moves me like almost no other), with a Stairway to Heaven laid out for me, some Woman from Tokyo making me rock out, sharing a Smoke on the Water with some friends, and continuing to Walk This Way with a lot of Rock N Roll Hootchie koo. Oh yeah. I also was very good friends with Jeremiah, even though my Mama Told Me Not To Come; you could say there was a lot of Joy to the World in my life. And Long May you Run was a very timely, lovely part of my life (apt too considering my friends then and now). Also from a Crocodile Rock to a Candle in the Wind, I found Elton to keep popping into my life. I also found One Love with Bob Marley, and fell in love with Motherless Children and a whole lot more about Eric Clapton this decade, starting with the sublime Layla. I loved the song What's Goin' On by that fabulous singer, Marvin Gaye, found a new kind of (and very special) Respect with the Staple Singers, who also sang I'll Take You There and I wanted to go, believe me. And The Stones were very much rocking my world with Brown Sugar, all the way through Some Girls.
True disco ... not so much. Though, truly, Donna's I Feel Love is stellar and I loved to dance to that, along with some other very fun songs during that decade. It was a decade of cutting loose, finding out, a good age of discovery for me.
And, @chrisisall, you totally cracked me up with this: Further Moon landings showed me what we were capable of; the draft made me take French in case I had to move to Canada. Merde.
Merde, indeed. Thank God the Viet Nam war finally came to an end, for so many reasons.
All for now, but I'll be checking back soon. Do keep on keepin' on.
Or as my friend @Birdleson would remind me, I'm sure: just keep truckin' on ... :-bd
Some basic questions, just to get us thinking of things to discuss about The 70's:
But you may discuss anything, and you do not have to answer all of these - they are just talking points. :)>-
~ For those of you who grew up in the 70's, what is your overall impression of those times? From personal recollection, your own experiences and remembrances. Positive or negative. What was your schooling like? Your neighborhood? In the pre-video/computer game world, what did you do for fun?
~ How did fashion change for you in the 70's?
~ What were the biggest, most impactful, or influential things (people, events, cultural aspects) of that decade?
~ What are some of your favorite songs/albums/musicians from the 60's? Was there any song, or music, that you really could not stand?
~ Specifically , what did you think of Glam Rock/Punk/Disco when they came along?
~ What did you think about Hard Rock as it really expanded in the 70's?
~ How about the ongoing Folk/Rock artists like Don McLean, Jim Croce, Harry Chapin, America, Carole King, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, Cat Stevens? And continuing on from the 60s with Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and others. :)
~ Anybody a country western music fan? I always leave that out somehow, because it is not part of my world really.
~ Basic political happenings in your world during this decade - what do you remember?
~ What TV shows did you enjoy?
~ And of course, as I mentioned some in my recent post, what about films?
You can be brief or lengthy, make a list or give a full account; it is your choice. Thanks for joining us on our 70's journey (which will take at least a full week).
Leaving you with this flashback:
Fashion for airline crews changed too: ;)
In the dormitories all the guys were glued to the TV, no not the Watergate hearings but the new Soap Opera, "The Young and the Restless". That show had the cutest chicks. We were all hooked back then.
We did watch our fair share of the Watergate Hearings as well. I remembere the night Nixon fired Prosecutor Archibald Cox and the Atty General resigned. Being on a college campus is the best place to be during political upheaval. Students were screaming "Impeachment" forever and a day. Compared to Congress screwing with Clinton over those silly charges was childs play. The whole country wanted Nixon hung out to dry. I was home for the summer working on the army base and listening to news hourly updates in Aug 1974 as the hour drew near when he would finally step down.
Those disco clubs were so abundant. It was what one did on the weekends. As for music, when I wasn't jamming to Ohio Players, Earth Wind and Fire, I was smoking some whacy tabbacy and listening to Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin. Ian Anderson was my main man. Aqualung, Warchild. dancing with my girl to Al Green's soft melodies. What I really loved about Al Green was that most of his songs were perfect for slow dancing to...
:)
I was in the army during the later part of the decade and every weekend it was drinking, dancing, making the rounds of the disco clubs in that one horse town near the base. One day my buddies and I decided we were tired of the women at the discos and decided we've meet a "nice girl" so we went to church. I'll be damned if all the ladies in the congregation were the same ones we'd met the night before at the clubs. LOL
To be young in the Seventies....
I also just remembered that I never tired of hearing "Killing Me Softly" by Roberta Flack. Another great 70's tune.