"Plastic Fantastic Lover"

"She Has Funny Cars"

"Don't you need somebody to love?"

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky!"

"Is the microphone on?"...

"Yes, I know I missed a verse...don't worry about!

Yea, but did you miss the '60s?

fjp, I wasn't commenting on your quote, I really love that song on Rainbow Bridge, Hey Baby and at the beginning of it, you can hear him ask if the microphone is on. I did put that lp on my shelf at work but I haven't bought it yet as it is a steep $5.98. It has Dolly Dagger on it too.

patrask, they say that if you remember the sixties that you weren't there...

Patrask,

quote:

Originally posted by patrask:
Yea, but did you miss the '60s?

Many of us who made it through the '60s sort of, uh, MISSED them...

Sorry to say, due to the timing of my birth I missed most of the significant events of the '60s.

John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations--I remember nothing about these whatsoever.

Robert F. Kennedy assassination--I assume we learned about it when we received the paper, which I say only because it happened at night, and it was a morning paper. I vaguely remember feeling a sense of disappointment on seeing it in print, and that it seemed a little more "official" in _Time_ and _Newsweek_ when they arrived, but no "flashbulb moment" of shock. I also remember watching footage of the funeral train on TV.

Moon Landing--I remember months of buildup, followed by...nothing. We moved house that day. My parents claim the TV was set up--no furniture, so we sat on the bare floor and watched the moon landing. I remember other events of that day, but not that. Had it occurred any other day in the year I think I'd remember it. I do remember the moon landing the next year.

Woodstock--I don't know anything about this except a couple of years later Snoopy started hanging out with a bird of that name. Learned more about it when I saw the film, years later, in college!

rocket, right! I knew of which you spoke. My come back is per his (JH's) live cover of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" when he comments to the members of the band to stay with him (no big deal, so I missed a version). Another great comment (he had so many "asides"), "No buttons to push!" An allusion to his finally being out of the studio and back out on stage (and free of the demands of the record company's focus on churning out more radio-play songs). Electric Lady Land was a monumental LP because of the direction in which he was going and the style of music it covered, from electric blues to jazzy moods found only beneath earth's oceans or on distant Venus and Jupiter.

patrask - 60's: I was in grade 5 when JFK was shot. Everyone in our small school was called into the hallway and informed by the principal of the assassination. We all wept and then were sent home. A moment etched in a small boy's psyche.

16 during Woodstock. I had friends that made the trek (a few hours due south of home). I had to tend to the family store since it was summer and the peak season for tourists in the islands and mountains surrounding us.

Watched the small step for (a) man / large step for mankind on our b&w Zenith. (Now they blog it never happened - is there any real hope!!!??? I need to read F451 again.)

I vividly remember the images of RFK lying on the floor in the hotel. Chaos. Roosevelt Grier, a huge football player for the LA Rams coming to his aid and subduing Sirhan, the assailant.

So, I caught all the 60's action and, unlike others who may not remember "being there" (a great novel by Jerzy Kozinski, BTW), I do recall what was happening. Shortly after, in '72, my "168" draft number kept me just out of harms way as I was in college, though I would have gone if the letter had been received. Things were starting to wind down also by then.

Hendrix, Jefferson Starship, CSN&Y, King Crimson, Ray, Zappa, Otis, Cream, Chicago, Bowie, Sly, Ike and Tina, Dylan, Taj Mahal, Janis, the Band, Doors, anything Motown...what great listening.

Happy New Year!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

fjp, that was an exceptional post! Thanks for sharing. Electric Ladyland!(nuff said!) I concur on all points. You were there way more so than I, enamored as I am with the sixties/seventies. Don't you think that every decade or time has its own distinctive feel and style about it which includes everything from automobiles to music to fashion. Whether or not you partook of psychotropic substances during this epochic period, you would have to agree that these substances helped spur radical change that permiated everything and transformed what was quite a black and white blase period, post war fifties, into the technicolored psychedelic sixties/seventies, including my moms olive and orange and yellow kitchen. But it wasn't that alone I know, it was a thousand or maybe a million different things coming together all at once, a very rare ocurrence. Sorry to go on, I love studying about that time period. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....

Rocket-san
(been watching a lot of Kurosawa movies lately),
People's perception of an era they weren't part of always amuses me. We are, are we not, prone to what someone (C.S. Lewis?) called "chronological snobbery", i.e. every generation supposing itself to be more "aware" or "enlightened" than its predecessor. The '60s did (in my opinion) bring some changes to our country; many, I fear not salubrious and from which we may never recover.
Also, last night, after playing very good jazz 'til midnight, seeing some of what passes these days for "music" and "talent" on the bar television depressed me quite a bit; as there seemed to be so many thousands of young people who really thought "Fergie" and "Ludicrous" (or however these are spelled) really were musicians! The only reason I was exposed to it was I was contracted to be there 'til 1:00 a.m.

Anyway, I hope 2007 brings us all joy, peace, growth,and more Ray Bradbury stories!

Things I remember from the '60's:
Delivering mail in the lobby of the Hilton in Beverly Hills just as JFK was telling the TV audience about the missiles in Cuba. We were very dumbstuck that morning.

Sitting at home due to a cold while hearing the announcement of the JFK assination with Dan Rather from Dallas.

Seeing the RFK footage over and over again from the Ambassador Hotel in LA.

MLK's assassination - they got them all.

This broke the back of the spirit of the '60's in ways we did not understand until much later. They were still in charge, who ever "They" are. Then, much later learning about the real JFK and his indiscressions, Marilyn Monroe's death etc. Camelot was dead.

Free love finally died with the AIDS scare, who knows, maybe "they" had something to do with that as well. The only recent thing that comes close was the killing of Diana. That one was just too contrived for me to believe other that "they" got her as well.

We are Free in this country only as long as we stand up to the "they"s of each generation and make our voices heard. We probably cannot alter the current for long, but the people can move the course of the river if they truly care enought to try.

The final irony is the present Bush visitng our former enemy of all the free world, Viet Nam, and acting as though nothing had happened over there? I did not have to go in the '60s, I was 4F, but had I gone, I know I would not have returned, I am just mad enough to loose it and get killed, for what? So we can purchase goods from a country that will sell themn to us cheaper than we can make them at home? For this I might have died for my country. "They" always win.

Somehow, a TV news clip for the 1960's has stayed in my mind forever. It showed a man shouting out at the top of his voice, "That's it. The ending of the world is happening." I recall he was totally exasperated. And what was he hollaring at? The Beatles!
It was all a shock to everyone. Maybe the guy had something.