"Old Hippies"

[cosmictraveler]

I remember that where I grew up they only had 2 radio AM stations, no FM were on air then, and they only played certain types of POP music. No music other than country or POP was played back then so I had little choices to what I could listen to. When FM became the newest thing many rock and roll stations were on air but again not much else was available unless you could stay up past midnight to listen to Jazz. It wasn't a very big deal since no one ever heard of it because all they played before was country and POP. Sad that no other choices were available to everyone back then but that's what the good ol" days were like.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

My Generation ? Hey that be on Frag's list . I see it again and I might have to bring it to the band . I owe 2 songs and I have been lagging .

You'd better have a dynamite bassist. I can't play that song! I identify Entwistle's lightning-fast solo in the middle of that song as the point in time when the bass guitar began to be taken seriously. Before that, most people played it like it was a bass viol.

I guess I see listening only to the music you grew up with as being in a rut.

Music does not have the same priority in everyone's life. Some people just don't give it enough of their attention to be able to adapt to newer styles. Although I don't understand why anybody who loved Linda Ronstadt and Janis Ian wouldn't appreciate Sheryl Crow and Sara Bareilles.

What do flower children listen to today?

I was never a true hippie because I always had a home and a job, but I certainly hung with their music. I am not able to appreciate rap, a little hip-hop goes a long way, and when I loyally accompany my friend to see his son's death metal band (Born Of Osiris) we both grimace. But other than that I have pretty much followed right along with the evolution of popular music. I still listen to Black Sabbath and Roxy Music (although strangely I never put on Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly from my high school days, I think it's because I can run those songs perfectly note-for-note through my head), but in the past couple of years I've gone to see Seether, Natasha Bedingfield, Apocalyptica, Lissie, Snow Patrol and Kate Voegele, and my calendar for the rest of the year includes Within Temptation, Dream Theater and Over The Rhine. I also go to a lot of symphony and chamber music performances--there's a free one every Sunday evening at the Smithsonian, one of the many reasons I love Washington. One of my friends is a composer and pianist, and when he puts together a new program he invites a few friends to his house to preview it. That is really special.

My parents listened to country

I loved it back in the 1950s. My parents didn't allow feelings in our house so the raw emotions of country music lyrics were a real escape valve for me. I still do Hank Williams at karaoke. I've been told that I could probably get a steady gig in a Hank Williams tribute band. Unfortunately I have a rule about not performing in clubs with chicken wire around the bandstand.

 

[Emil]

Deep Purple-Child in Time

1970 - 1995 - 2002

 

[Tiassa]

A latter-day hippie

I might be a latter-day hippie, being in my late thirties, but I would add a couple of bands and tracks to the longer consideration.

From the era itself come The Seeds, including "Nine Hundred Million People Daily (All Makin' Love)".

Or 13th Floor Elevators. "Levitation" is good for the psychedelia.

Patti Smith came later, debuting in 1975, but might well have ended up with Blue Oyster Cult if things had gone differently. Her "Babelogue" recalls Janis Joplin's "Vamp on Time" monologue, albeit with a less refined or restrained energy, and connects the hippies of the sixties to the punks of the seventies.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of tracks, though Fraggle Rocker and others have covered a good range of artists. I'll have to think about it, though; Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary" comes to mind, but the thing is that I picked all of this up after the fact. In the early '80s, I was a pop child, only discovering after the fact that "I'm Still Standing" was not Elton John's first hit single.

Yeah, I'm of that era. "Mr. Roboto", by Styx, was the first pop phenomenon my brother and I took part in. Before that we were Bee Gees addicts, and that's the disco era. I didn't hear "New York Mining Disaster (1941)", which, actually, is one of my daughter's favorite songs, until the twenty-first century. I used to dream "Spirits Having Flown" while my mind recycled our fascination with ufos.

No, really. "Spirits Having Flown", for a superficial interpretation of the line about fire in the sky, became my ufo/EBE song.

In the late eighties and early nineties, I was a metalhead. It was the late nineties before my brother and I were absolved of our childhood love for the Beach Boys and Bee Gees. And as I went on a worldbeat kick that lasted for several years, I started reclaiming a lot of the music I had been ignoring for social reasons—i.e., there was nobody around to get high and listen to these tunes with. And that included Joanne Rand, who I had seen at a festival in college; turns out she was with Full Tilt Boogie Band at some point in her career.

For the younger hippies, I have to admit that the arrival of Radiohead's O.K. Computer was a godsend. It marked a fundamental transformation for how many of my generation—at least in my corner of the Universe—related to the popular culture; Radiohead, like Pearl Jam, electrified the artistic conscience.

I can't tell you what the old hippies felt in their day, but the image has risen above tie-dye, patchouli, and awful beards. Indeed, that is the most part of what my generation recognizes about hippies of old, yet there are many among us who would carry the banner forward if only we could remember where we put it.

(I would also note, aside to Emil, that Pink Floyd covers at least two separate versions of hippie; under Roger Waters, they played an increasingly grandiose style determined to drive the point home until they just couldn't deal with one another anymore; under Syd, though? The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is one of the greatest albums—rock and roll, psychedelic, hippie, or otherwise—ever recorded.)

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

I might be a latter-day hippie, being in my late thirties. . . .

Well yeah! In order to have been a hippie, I submit that one must have been old enough to notice what was going on, consciously and with at least minimal discrimination, during "the Sixties," which is actually the misnamed twelve-year period starting with the first Beatles hit in 1963 and ending with the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. Even if you're 39, I'm not sure how much of a conscious impression the music of 1975 made on you at the time, much less the rest of the counterculture which was not so easy to experience passively.

. . . but I would add a couple of bands and tracks to the longer consideration.

Nonetheless, post away! Strictly speaking the hippies were Baby Boomers, and just as you were born too late to be one, I was born too early. Nonetheless, I was conscious and discriminating during their era. There weren't enough War Babies to form a cohort, so we had to choose between allying ourselves with the Depression Babies or the Baby Boomers. For me the choice came down to the music--Benny Goodman or Chuck Berry?--and it was a no-brainer.

Patti Smith came later, debuting in 1975, but might well have ended up with Blue Oyster Cult if things had gone differently.

Didn't she sing on a track on their sellout album--the one on which they stopped being the American Black Sabbath and got "Don't Fear the Reaper" on AM radio?

"Radio Ethiopia" is one of my all-time favorite albums. I just didn't include it because it was a little late to qualify as hippie music, and also because she's still regarded as the High Priestess of Punk. Punk rock was the first style of rock and roll that the hippies actually loathed, rather than simply rolling their eyes like disco. Although that album was a lot deeper than most of the punk oeuvre. "Poppies" is a landmark. The only authentic hippies or hippie-fellow-travelers like me among my acquaintances who actually liked/like that album were/are, like me, musicians.

In the early '80s, I was a pop child, only discovering after the fact that "I'm Still Standing" was not Elton John's first hit single.

I saw him on his first tour. "Your Song" was one of my standards back when I was a singer, and I still do it in karaoke although my current Celtic-rock band can't quite fit it into our set list.

Yeah, I'm of that era. "Mr. Roboto", by Styx, was the first pop phenomenon my brother and I took part in.

Saw that tour too, with the current and permanent Mrs. Fraggle. Nice tune, also "Too Much Time on My Hands" from the same album. But their earlier music was more "hippie." We need more songs like "Don't Sit Down on the Plexiglass Toilet."

Before that we were Bee Gees addicts, and that's the disco era.

The Bee Gees were Beatles clones before "Saturday Night Fever." Some of their early songs were quite nice, not to gainsay the exceptionally high quality of their dance music. As I noted, the hippies were willing to dance to that stuff. Even our idol David Bowie put out a couple of disco albums.

In the late eighties and early nineties, I was a metalhead.

Too bad you missed Black Sabbath in their Ozzy decade, not to mention BÖC, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, etc. Surely you did not miss "Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida," I think it's still playing.

And don't forget Rush. In a way they were the quintessential band of that intellectually oriented era. People actually sat there in rapt attention and tapped their feet in 11/4 time.

It was the late nineties before my brother and I were absolved of our childhood love for the Beach Boys and Bee Gees.

Nothin' wrong with the Beach Boys. Surf music predated the hippies but they wrote some exquisite songs. Jan & Dean's music was a little more bonehead, but we also appreciated their paeans to surfing (which none of us future scientists and engineers were into) and hot rods (which we were) and girls (which we tried to be).

I can't tell you what the old hippies felt in their day, but the image has risen above tie-dye, patchouli, and awful beards.

Only a couple of us in my group had beards, only the girls were into patchouli and other scents, and tie-dye was just one of many fashions that we occasionally picked up on a shopping trip.

For us it was really about the crusades: Civil rights and pacifism. I guess accomplishing one out of two ain't bad, once we recognized that a crusade like civil rights was not going to be completed in one or even two or even three generations. Regardless of how we may feel individually about President Obama (a topic for another thread), I think every American born between 1946 and 1964 (and those of us who are naturalized citizens of that generation) can't help feeling a twinge of pride and accomplishment every time we see those two words in print.

. . . . Pink Floyd covers at least two separate versions of hippie; under Roger Waters, they played an increasingly grandiose style determined to drive the point home until they just couldn't deal with one another anymore; under Syd, though? The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is one of the greatest albums—rock and roll, psychedelic, hippie, or otherwise—ever recorded.)

Nonetheless, "Dark Side of the Moon" is one of the compositions of the hippie era that is in a class with Tchaikovsky and Bach: People will still be listening to it in 500 years. Billboard had to make a special rule to stop it from still showing up in the Top 100 every week!

 

[Emil]

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is one of the greatest albums—rock and roll, psychedelic, hippie, or otherwise—ever recorded.)

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:bawl:

Genesis - The Knife
Phil Collins - Against All Odds
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
Phil Collins - Another Day In Paradise
Peter Gabriel - Here Comes The Flood
Phil Collins - Going Back

 

[siledre]

I never considered myself a hippie but I hung out with plenty of them, I listened to a lot of Pink Floyd, Eagles and Supertramp and got a lot of contact highs. the 60's and 70's were fun to grow up in. Lots and lots of good music too.