What was it like in the 60's and 70's?
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Topic: What was it like in the 60's and 70's?
Posted By: Jake Kobrin
Subject: What was it like in the 60's and 70's?
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 13:35
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I've been talking with some older guys about what music was like in the 60's and 70's and it's very interesting to me. I really wonder what it'd be like to have lived back then. This is what I've heard: The first thing is that supposedly the time that a record would spend on the shelves was very limited. As opposed to nowadays where you can go into a record store and find albums that span a bands entire career, it was like by the time Red was released, you couldn't find ITCOTCK in stores anywhere. When it came to obscure albums on less successful labels, it was even more exaggerated. Original albums by bands like Capability Brown (just as a for example) are so rare because their albums were taken off of the shelf only weeks after the album was released, and not stocked in many stores to begin with. And after they'd been removed, it isn't likely that you'd ever hear about the record in the first place, or be able to order it. And the radio was similar. By 1970 you'd never hear a song from Sgt Peppers or something because 3 years was considered "old." There was also a supposed gap in band audiences. The guys that listened to Black Sabbath weren't the same people that listened to The Beatles, for example (though this wasn't true for everyone, I'm sure.) Also I'm pretty sure it was very divided by country, so getting stuff like Amon Duul II in the states would have been very difficult. I'm pretty sure if I lived back then, I'd end up buying every album I saw that seemed like prog, psych, or heavy music. We have it so easy nowadays to be able to get any album we want with barely moving a muscle, and to receive such a huge amount of recommendations when it comes to what we listen to. And then not to mention concert tickets. Nowadays we all buy them online, but I think that people rarely bought tickets in advanced except for arena shows and for those arena shows, they had to wait in line for hours and hours to get a good seat. Also supposedly people didn't buy actual LPs until well into the 60's. It was very much the norm to listen to 45's. But that's just what I've heard. I wasn't there so I'm not sure. If anyone has any stories about what it was like back then, I'd be very interested to hear.
------------- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Neil-Kobrin/244687105562746" rel="nofollow - SUPPORT MY FATHER AND BECOME A FAN Jacob Kobrin Illustration |
Replies:
Posted By: Earendil
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 13:50
| I can't really help you there, but I look forward to what people have to say. Great post idea. |
Posted By: ghost_of_morphy
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 13:53
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1. I bought Yes's whole back catalog on 8-track extremely cheap when they were being phased out. It got to the point where you could pick up an album for 50 cents.
2. Just like now, most stores only stocked things that were from proven groups or which were well promoted. If a store had something old or off the beaten path, it was because they couldn't move it. Groups had smaller back catalogs then.
3. Radio stations were much more varied back then. I remember a local station that had three hours of pure Beatles programming a week until the mid '70's. Another specialized in prog (and the DJ loved to play Yes -- The Remembering.) Programming was done by real people not corporate executives studying statistics.
4. Imports were hard to come by unless you had a store that specialized in them in your area. That's how I first found Caravan.
5. Genres were very different back then. Prog (Art Rock was the popular term back then) was limited to things like Yes, Genesis, King Crimson and ELP. Pink Floyd, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa et al., were not considered to bear any relationship to the genre.
6. 45's had a lot more weight back then. Charting a single meant something more than brainwashing a Clearchannel executive.
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Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 13:55
Some interesting thoughts - good thread I'm going to have to sign off in a minute, so a couple of very quick thoughts. Undoubtedly, new technology has made the buying process for the dedicated fan a whole lot easier, and, of course, just to listen via Spotify or Last FM. When I was young in the period we only had Radio 1 or Radio Luxembourg, and after 1974, prog on the radio was a relative rarity, especially after Peel "discovered" punk. However, one of the sheer pleasures then was to walk into your local record shop, flick through the lovely vinyl covers, and discover some great music, or they would personally order it for you. Such shops are becoming a bit of a rarity these days, and that is a shame. So, like just about any other era, there was good & bad. I wouldn't change anything for the world, but I will say that I find discovering new music now just as, or even more, exciting as I did then. ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: Dancing Lemming
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 14:42
It's a disturbing thought that I could have been around when Amon Düül II were beginning, and not ever discover them. 
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Posted By: Tony R
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 14:50
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It's a rather bizarre notion but in those days people would buy albums based on the cover art. Hence why some cover artists became famous in their own right.
I had problems getting a lot of albums from America and Canada. In those days stuff like Rush, Gentle Giant et al were only available "on import", which basically meant that your local record store would get one or two copies imported from the country of origin and if they had sold out you had to order a copy. That could take two or three to arrive if you were lucky. For example, the first Rush album released in the UK at the same time as in N.America was A Farewell To Kings, the others weren't officially released here until later, you had to get them imported. |
Posted By: wandererfromtx
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 15:09
This is true, I remember people buying albums by the cover art alone. The album cover art and the information that accompanied the record were just as important as the music. ------------- Cloud Hidden Whereabouts Unknown |
Tony R wrote:Posted By: javier0889
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 15:13
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Sometimes I ask my dad (who was 16 in 1973) how it was to live in the same time of all our beloved classic bands. The best way he could find to describe that is laying next to the bass drum, high as a kite, while the band of his best friend at school was playing War Pigs, which happened to be one of the most popular rock songs at that particular time. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/javier0889 |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 15:42
Back then kids who were fans of yucky Top 40 artists picked up on ELP big time. Also fans of "Hard Rock" such as Sabbath thought highly of ELP because for them it was like attending a great theatrical "Rock Show" I would see underground prog bands like PFM opening for Rory Gallagher. The difference back then was this"......Prog bands from the underground scene were lined up to do shows with mainstream rockers. Nothing was compartmentalized in any sense whatsoever. All the bands were lumped together at concert bookings. There was no specific prog crowd there to see YES, ELP, or Jethro Tull It was a mixed crowd that added a large population of Hard Rock fans who found certain things about prog that controlled them. Thousands of them bought prog albums, but mostly enjoyed straight up Rock. Kids who bought Machine Head by Deep Purple or Black Sabbath were calling it Hard Rock. The term Heavy Metal had yet to be invented. Most kids in high school age 15 in 1970...that bought the first Sabbath album usually had older brothers and sisters who were hippies. Many of the young Hard Rock fans were introduced to the early King Crimson by them. Music was more handed down during that time. I remember many Americans buying YES albums because they thought their vocals sounded like Crosby, Stills, and Nash. There was that dominet force of harmony vocal in YES which at first ....that seemed to attract the last hippies or the hippie wanna-be culture. Then as time went on people in general formed small groups or crowds in the 70's that followed strictly prog or jazz/fusion. This became full force from the mid to late 70's in music college. Then the attitude changed. This is my music...kind of deal. Why listen to 4 chord rock when we have progressive from European shores?
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Posted By: wjohnd
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 15:43
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My teens were in the 70s so I can offer my own thoughts... I think that's one of the reasons why I have deeper connection with some of those albums (and also why I hardly play them now). 2. No internet, no tv shows that showcased 'album' bands (except old grey whistle test and it was a rare treat to be allowed to watch it) hardly any radio play (Tommy Vance on a Friday night) and the press mostly hated prog/classic rock. So sleeves were the best way to tell what was in an album, unless you knew the guy in the record store and could persuade him to put on a track or two. I bought Point of Know Return and Van Halen I on the basis of their sleeves. 3. Word of mouth. Cassette tape machines were a new fangled thing. Thank god for older sisters boyfriends, and friends older brothers who spread the word - so that i discovered Led Zep, Rush, Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. 4. It was a bit clannish - Beatles or Stones. Led Zep or the Who, I remember a guy at school being horrified that Live in Leeds was filed under 'rock'. |
Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 16:55
AAAAH!! the good old days, when just looking at the cover would tell you a lot about the music. In Central America in particular, getting anything that's considered prog these days was a real ordeal, what to speak of knowing about the release of a new album by any band or artist, and there were not many people who where into that kind of music. I had a friend who would travel to the US quite often, and I would get him to find me some new albums by Tull, Yes, Genesis, etc. Still just by looking at the cover, you could tell a lot about the record content.
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Posted By: Thkasabrk
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 17:19
I went through my teens in the 70s. Back then, before the advent of online and satellite radio, FM radio stations would actually play prog rock, and long prog at that. It wasn't unusual to hear a section of Thick as a Brick or Passion Play, or some of the longer Genesis songs. In fact, I remember hearing Dance on a Volcano and Los Endos on one station, and running out to buy Seconds Out at the local Wherehouse in the mall. Ah, those were the days 
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Posted By: scandosch
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 17:31
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I'm 50. So I grew up listening to the music of the seventies. I must have been on another planet, because I dont agree with most of what I read hereby, really. Maybe US was another planet then (but I doubt it having seen several films about the era...) but here in Europe the situation was not that! First of all: in the seventies no TV show, no rock magazine was making choices. The market was! I mean, if a band or artist was selling hard, it was on display everywhere. And that happened because the record companies based band selection on the quality of the concerts, THEN a band was allowed to make records! So the ones who got into a studio were absolute quality bands. Talent selection was the key to every company. Today record companies just buy finished records, dont take risk, just put on the market everything, hoping that enough people will buy to cover the cost. Back then to record music cost millions. So as an adolescent I was happy to see every week end a concert of Yes, of Genesis, or Deep Purple, or Styx (you pick) and discover new music. The very same bands came in concert in near cities and venues of HUNDREDS of sitting places, for the price of a record. And the record were not expensive...If you consider the production cost of a vinyl and those of cds, the latter should cost MAX 10 dollars each new, situation reached only in the last 4-5 years. Was it difficult to get records of less known bands? Maybe, but not impossible. What was really difficult was to get bootlegs, usually japan ones, because illegal and very very expensive. But the most important thing: not every day you had new records coming out. So when a band was publishing a new LP it was an event. I remember many many evening spent with friends in my tiny room listening to the new Banco, tha last Santana or the magical double (DOUBLE) album of Genesis. So a record was playing for months, not days like today. This is probably the worst limit of Prog Archives: lack of historical sight. But hey, music is just music, so a matter of taste. Personally, having become a musician myself, I recall with the same pathos the first time I heard "Burn" , "Foxtrot", "Aqualung", "Atom heart mother", but also the first Asia, the first Dream Theater, not to mention when I saw at cinema show "The song remains the same" or singing all togheter Red on the beach with my girlfriend, and all other listening. I was lucky. 71 to 76 was the best music period ever for rock, and back then rack was only rock, against jazz, classic and country (for old people...) Scandy/Shakary |
Posted By: Earendil
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 18:08
| What I'm getting here is that people were much more open-minded musically back then. I'm sure not everyone listened to Red on the beach, but today if you play the modern equivalent of that, people would freak out. Part of the problem is that I live in Indiana (not exactly a liberal state), but I've never actually met anyone that likes "weirder" music than I do, or even close to the variety I like. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 18:53
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it was pretty much like it is now, just with better music and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation .. it is true that many records - and a lot of other things - simply weren't available, and there was no medium by which to locate them other than going to the source |
Posted By: jammun
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 19:29
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Funny, I agree with the idea that we'd buy an album based strictly on it's cover. Found a lot of great (and not so great) music that way. The great stuff included that first KC album. When I was a senior in high school I remember going to a record store (they had those back then) and buying The Yes Album for no other reason than the cover. Once I heard the music, well it was all over. I'd buy albums just because someone said they were good, which is how I came to know The Nice, so of course I'd pick up that first ELP album. I lived in a small town in Wyoming; we had to drive to Boulder, CO to get imports. We generally bought some other stuff (music enhancement herbs...) while we were there. It was a different time...I was young and very foolish. But I knew good music when it hit me in the head. ------------- Can you tell me where we're headin'? Lincoln County Road or Armageddon. |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 19:59
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In the 70's kids who studied classical piano and were from Philadelphia or N.Y. .....and how Julliard of me to say this....were serious minded and devoted to the max. Many of them studied with teachers in the Philadelphia area who were high priced and had played with Orchestras. The kids I'm making reference to were teens in the 70's and Keith Emerson was really huge at that time. I can't possibly recall how many bands I played in ..but many I did and these keyboardists would show for auditions setting up a rack of keyboards like the rig of Emerson. Many of them had mastered Tarkus. Imagine growing up around the world of musicians. College musicians, studio players,etc and watching them take on the role of prog was mind blowing to me. Eventually musicians from the New England states and borderline Canada down to Florida were mastering prog and performing it live making solid bucks. I was making a thousand dollars a week and sometimes less....but 6 nights a week up and down the east coast playing prog. It was insane and is unheard of today. Although today we have prog tribute bands and I don't know too much about their financial status. But in the 70's to be making that much money playing music which is today for most people unknown? I really miss doing that. It's another lifetime.
Most musicians eventually became aware of the underground prog scene in Europe. American musicians began buying Van Der Graff Generator, Goblin. Gong, Vangelis, Steve Hillage, National Health,...Oh God....the underground prog was played on WXPN out of Philadelphia. Those were great times! Jade Warrior's Island period was even praised. Not just musicians because there is no sense in being big-headed about the reality. People in the world were interested in this prog movement because NO.1...they had just survived the 60's and that decade had expressed to everyone that it was possible to play what would be defined as progressive elements in music. This is back when Top 40 hit bands like Lovin' Spoonful were adding strange progressive hooks in their music. And so by the 70's it had become a full composition in musical approach. No.2....people in the world then were conditioned to appreciate musicianship in music. They wanted to hear and know the musician's abilities even if it were present in hit songs. You could never re-live that because of it's magnitude. It's source and all the thousands of people making effort to reach out to it, purchase the records, live and breath it just almost like the musicians themselves. Think about it? How could that environment ever develop and reach that plateau again?
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Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 20:49
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GREAT thread! My story: I'm 56, so I was about 13 in 1969 in the Chicago, IL area of USA. I always hung out with older kids & their formative rock bands, so I had early exposure to the music of a lot of bands including the Who, Sabbath, Yes,Tull, Wishbone Ash, etc. Lots of music going on in my neighborhood! I started on bass when I was about 12. The biggest band in our area when I was getting into rock was Alice Cooper (just listened to a bunch recently, amazing how great the production was on LPs like "Killer" and "School's Out!!") Prog was everywhere on the AM radio band...."Fragile," "ITCOTCK," "Hocus Pocus," "From the Beginning", "Small Beginnings" etc. were all huge radio hits. FM radio had even more. Chicago was a regional music capital ("home of the blues" you know), so we had many record stores that catered to imports, jazz and avant garde music. I had no trouble getting my hands on the whole KC catalog when I was about 16 years old, and my musician buddies turned me onto "Poseidan," "Cirkus" etc. I owned Amon Duul's "Wolf City" in 1972, the year it came out, and it was an American release. Chicago also had a rather amazing "underground" radio scene, and the undisputed leader was Triad Radio. They have a fascinating website, see http://pages.ripco.net/~saxmania/triad.html" rel="nofollow - http://pages.ripco.net/~saxmania/triad.html In retrospect, I'm very glad to have lived here during those years! The first band I ever saw live was Captain Beyond, who backed up Alice Cooper on the "School's Out" tour, July 28, 1972. Chicago was known as the "space-rock capital of the world" for a while, with local synth bands & regular visits by the Germans. Virtually everybody toured through Chicago...I saw amazing shows by LTIA era KC, CTTE era Yes, etc. etc. Wish I could convert my memories into video! The hippies in downtown Chicago selling underground newspapers, the head shops selling hash pipes, the record stores, the bra-less chicks!! Loved it!
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Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 20:57
come to S.F., that's daily life (well there are also bra-less men, but that's another story) |
Posted By: Jake Kobrin
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 21:08
Yes exactly. Record stores and headshops galore! ------------- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Neil-Kobrin/244687105562746" rel="nofollow - SUPPORT MY FATHER AND BECOME A FAN Jacob Kobrin Illustration |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 21:24
Nah, been there, done that! We have plenty of hippies selling tie-dyed tee shirts in Madison, WI! What made it cool was the tension about Viet Nam & Nixon, the F-You in-your-face counter-culture attitude, and pushing the envelope in general! Being hippie is too mainstream now, even for serious adherents to the culture....the drivers just aren't there. Medical marijuana, dude. "The Seed" was our local hippie paper, check it out!! http://www.areachicago.org/p/issues/6808/chicago-seed/" rel="nofollow - http://www.areachicago.org/p/issues/6808/chicago-seed/ It all made for tremendous eye-candy for this impressionable high school freshman!!
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Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 21:57
| I can remember being about 4 yrs old in Dolores park watching people chase-down some poor slob in a rubber Nixon mask |
Posted By: Mellotron Storm
Date Posted: August 28 2011 at 22:39
Nice to read your thoughts Scandy and by the way i really enjoy your "The Last Summer" album,it's quite meanigful to me.I kind of missed the seventies music-wise.Well i started to really get into music in the late seventies but missed the prog era.I do remember LPs in the department stores which have long ago been replaced by cds.Personally i never bought an album based on the cover.Money was the issue so if i heard a song i really liked or if a friend recommended an album then i would take the plunge.So different from today though with the internet.I grew up in a tourist town so my memories of the seventies are mostly of the motor cycle gangs and those muscle cars which were everywhere back then.Everyone had long hair including almost all of my school mates even though i was only in grade six.I remember the bell bottomed pants,often striped and platform shoes.Yes i had both back in the day. ------------- "The wind is slowly tearing her apart" "Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 05:15
This  . Digging inside the covers was a great pleasure. I have bought a lot of good and crap albums just looking at the covers.Each shop was used to have a "discount" section with low price albums, just because they were trying to clear ouf their stock. I have found copies of Bo Hansson's Lord of The Rings, Black Sabbath's Sabotage and Waters-Geesin's Music from the Body and the mono vinyl of the Electric Prunes' debut in a shop like this, but also some "John Lodge" bought only because the cover was like a YES album that I've never been able to listen to a whole side. None of the shops I was used to go still exists. A good moment was at the end of the 80s, when the market was converted to CD. Some lucky guys had the possibility to buy boxes full of vinyls (without looking inside the boxes) for few money. Imagine a box containing 100 discs, you throw 80 of them in the bin but you may find an original Thick as a Brick inside.....I have purchased the whole Private Parts and Pieces by Ant Phillips in that period. The bad...in my country (Italy) private networks started to be allowed at the end of the 70s, and the national network was ruled by politicians, so you couldn't expect to hear Aqualung on the radio because it was not liked by the Vatican. Knowing new bands and artists was a question of friends and home made tape copies. ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: yanch
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 07:09
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Nice thread. Here's my input. I'm 52 so the 70's were a huge part of musical development. The things I remember growing up in NYC: 1-The FM radio stations played everything. I got my first listens of Gentle Giant, Genesis, ELP, Crack the Sky, King Crimson from the radio. 2-There were lots of small record stores that had very eclectic catalogs-some leaned more toward mainstream-Beatles, Stones, Etc. Others toward jazz and others toward-art-rock-Yes, Genesis, Floyd, etc. You could walk in and find much of what you were looking for. As mentioned, if things didn't sell well and you were patient, you could get vinyl very cheap at times. 3-Concerts galore and affordable! When I was in high school-1973-1977-I went to many shows every year because you could afford to. My first Jethro Tull concert cost me $15 dollars and I had very nice seats. You also had so many venues from small clubs (Saw Peter Gabriel in a 300 person club) to Madison Square Garden and Shea Stadium. It was a great time and for me a great place to be a teenager getting into the kind of music I have come to love.
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Posted By: topographicbroadways
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 07:50
Like this -------------  
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Posted By: ergaster
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 08:37
Great topic! We old farts do like to reminisce.  I was in my late teens/early 20s in the 70s. To echo someone else, back then FM radio would play albums in their entirety, and a lot of prog got played. Pink Floyd (pre-Dark Side) was common. Zappa and Beefheart could be heard. I was a bit luckier than most people I suppose, when it came to hearing and getting my hands on music, because I was closely connected to a rather well-known record store in Toronto that routinely stocked a lot of what we would call "prog" today*. (It wasn't called progressive back then, I'm not sure it was called anything in particular but that could be failure of memory. Genre distinctions were not so fine back then anyway.) Most of the main prog bands had Canadian labels, and they always had a large selection of imports and odd stuff from everywhere. So I could hear it, and then get it at a discount (I have to confess that when the orders came in, especially the imports, a lot of those albums never made it to the front of the store for the general public.....) Along with easy access to the music was also easy access to concerts--I went to SO many free concerts back in the day, including VdGG in 1976....sigh..... However, even at that, one often took a chance because there wasn't the opportunity to hear really new music as easily as today, even with the more adventurous radio stations. I still have some dogs in my vinyl collection that I bought after hearing one or two cuts that never went beyond those one or two cuts. There was also more of a tendency to buy new releases from favourite artists without hearing them first, on the strength of the catalogue. That could be a mistake too, sometimes. At any rate, it sure was a great time for music, but my experience was not typical I suspect. I only bought based on cover if the cover was by Roger Dean. Some notion of collecting all the Dean covers, I think. *One of the "interview questions" that would be asked of hopeful employees was "Who is the drummer for Magma?" ------------- We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty. Captain Malcolm Reynolds Reality rules, Honor the truth Chemist99a R.I.P. |
Posted By: jean-marie
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 10:09
Was 13 on 1968 when i got my first 45 rpm, Mainly pop singles but in fact everything english singing was called pop music, here in France at the time I did dirty little jobs like working for a scrap merchant, after the school, to win a little money for getting records.I remember i got second hand singles coming from jukeboxes for more or less half one euro....It's the way i got Procol, Aphrodite's child, Creedence clearwater revival, Bee gees, Beatles, Moody blues, Canned heat, Shocking blue and a few others, i used to listen to them around 20 times a day  My first lps have been Pink floyd More soundtrack, Iron butterfly Live (and it's been disapointing at first listening because the drums phasing effects were not there on stage) Aphrodite's child It's five o clock and Creedence Cosmos factory...It was a magical time and i still feel very nostalgic 
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Posted By: jean-marie
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 12:06
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Posted By: ghost_of_morphy
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 13:08
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I can't put enough stress on how different radio was back in the day. Here in America, DJ's ruled. If they liked it they played it. If the owners didnt' like it, they got another DJ. What that ended up meaning was that depending on your market, you might hear a lot prog mixed in with the hits of the day, Or you might hear a lot of R&B or whatever. It just depended on the market, the DJ and the station. Anyhow, depending on where you lived, you could still get a strong prog station up until the very early '80's. Nowadays, all radio stations (even ones that pupport to play randomly) follow a pre-approved playlist, and prog has a very minimal profile.
Of course that's just for America. If you grew up in the UK, things were very very different. -------------
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Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 14:11
In the UK, radio stations have always had a pre-approved playlist, even the so-called pirates. We had a few "eccentric" DJs, such as Peel, who played what they liked, but they were an exception, rather than the rule. ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: ClemofNazareth
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 14:16
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I went through my teens in the 70s in Montana, so in addition to no computers (or internet), we didn't have much access to live music or music communities like folks in Chicago, New York or other big cities. Radio was a critical music source. Back then most local radio stations were actually local, meaning instead of programmed song rotations there was an actual DJ sitting behind a microphone and a couple of turntables spinning records, even at night. Stations tended to be a bit less restrictive about the kinds of music they played, and almost all of them took phone-in requests so you could always call in if you had some band you wanted to hear and they would usually play something of theirs. Also, many FM stations would have 'extended plays' in the evenings, and often played entire albums.
There were also late-night music shows like The Midnight Special, the Sonny & Cher Hour, and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Those shows were all on network TV and were a great way to see bands perform live (and sometimes early music videos), especially in places like Montana where none of those bands were ever going to tour. I first saw acts like David Bowie, Kansas, Queen, Mountain, T. Rex, ELO and Elton John on those shows. I'll never forget Annie Wilson singing "Magic Man" and "Crazy on You" live on the Midnight Special in 1977. It was practically a religious experience.
And there were a lot more record stores in the seventies then there are now of course. There had to be since that was about the only way to buy music. I tended to buy 8-tracks since you could play them in a car, although I did know some people who had turntables in their cars. Car stereos were big, and many of us spent a lot of money pimping out our cars with huge amps and speakers.
I spent a lot of time in record stores just trolling through the stacks looking for something new and yes, often buying something I'd never heard of just based on the cover art or the name of some musician I knew of in the liner notes. Some record stores had previewing rooms where you could play an album before buying it, and others would put a record on the PA system and play it if you asked nicely. Every record store had a copy of this huge book with yellow pages that got updated every month or so. Can't remember what that thing was called, but it supposedly listed every record from any label with U.S. distribution that was still in print. If a store didn't have one you could usually order a copy, but sometimes you had to put down a deposit or even prepay for the album. And it might take weeks before the thing came in because a lot of times the stores would wait until they had enough special orders to justify the shipping costs. Imports were very expensive so I usually would call into a radio station with European band requests and hope they would play something.
It's certainly a lot easier to get music today than it was back then. Sometimes I miss the record stores though, especially the used ones, because there was usually someone either working there or just hanging out who would be happy to recommend something or just shoot the breeze about music they knew that you didn't, or tell you about some great concert they'd been to somewhere exotic (everywhere was exotic compared to Montana). Hard to find that kind of inside information today...
------------- "Peace is the only battle worth waging." Albert Camus |
Posted By: ghost_of_morphy
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 14:44
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Yep, radio stations were way different then. And let's not forget the huge influence of The King Biscuit Flower Hour. I grew up in the heart of Appalachia, Clem. Only had one local record store that thought outside the box. -------------
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Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 14:46
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The road was strange in the 70's. and the 80's. I was basically living in Holiday Inns, transported by limos and buses, paid extremely well for rehearsing and performing. This was a corporation and my head was in the clouds. I was a 23 year old mixed up kid. Upon arriving to the first show,,,I step out of the limo and see that the workers are taking down the sign which read Steve Hackett. His bookings that year and only for 4 to 5 months were directly a week ahead of us. I was freaking out on the inside. The bodyguards would not allow many of us musicians to mingle. The corporation had some pretty twisted ideas for criminal activity. There were pay offs and mofia around me at times and I became extremely nervous. As time went on I met strange people. A few record executives, managers, agents, roadies and bodyguards. Mostly all of the roadies and bodyguards were into martial arts. For traveling years on end I became used to the protection. Groupies killed the Blues supposedly but I steered clear and found the idea yuck! revolting! It was laughable when they followed us from one state to the next. Sexual promiscuity was vast and in the high numbers. It was a diseased community that held the act of sex over the hiring of talent. I had many musician buddies who lost their big time break because they refused to sleep with someone on the staff. Drugs were always handed to us whether we wanted them or not. It wasn't often that you could ask questions. This was a wealthy empire. It wasn't a healthy experience because people told me I was great every night, bought me expensive gifts, offered me drugs, offered me sex and you are thinking in your head...."I don't know what the H is going on?" Peter Banks experienced the same extremes in the biz. Back in the 70's the music industry was out-right evil. Larry Magid concert promoter who eventually controlled "Electric Factory Concerts" threatened his competitors with violence tatics and manyof them in Philadelphia backed down. This coordinates with his evil plan to obtain ownership for the Tower Theatre and among other end of result disasters he created was the famous WHO concert in In Ohio where a hundred thousand kids converged on 2 doors of an arena resulting in 11 people crushed to death. The press was keen to blame the Who and it was Larry being too cheap to hire enough security to open all the doors of the staduim. He was an evil guy and he treated musicians badly. He had this idea based off the Woodstock festival. He figured if he gave it a shot with all his financial backing he could attempt to book bands in stadiums So that particular aspect of the large gathering at Woodstock is what made the lightbulb go off in his pea brain head. So now you had Stadium Rock. This was when the musician was placed on a high stage in front of a huge audience. It caused nut cases to worship you like a God because in their small minds...you are too far away for them to touch....so you see? It's the pollution of the sexual promiscuity repeated once again.In the 60's when Hendrix or Jefferson Airplane performed in small theaters it was more of a close connection between audience and band in the spiritual sense. They were no doubt rock stars with maybe a few props, fancy stage clothes (especially Hendrix).....but the communication regarding space between audience and artist was demolished forever when Magid took over Electric Factory Concert Bookings. The hippies who cut their hair and became record executives decided against doing 20 minute epics in the studio and to attempt to shorten most songs. Prog was taken out of the media over a slow course of events. Promotion was no longer in the interest of the arts. Instead it was about going commercial. Magid was part of this caper as well.
From the mid to late 70's bands like U.K, Dixie Dregs, Triumvirat, played mostly theatres but were trying to carry the torch for the sake of art. After Magid and the industry's decision to put their plan in motion....prog started a slow death. In the 80's you might be able to check out Bruford's band in a small club or even Gong. But those days of PFM opening for a mainstream band were gone. The disintegration of prog is what I recall in the 70's as being the most disturbing experience for musicians. You had all these great jazz musicians who actually played prog and hailed from N.Y. or Philadelphia and when the nightmare started they wanted to put a gun to their head. Everything was about what Magid wanted ...so it seems.
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Posted By: Big Jim
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 15:06
| In the 70's we almost all smoked pot and drank so our music taste reflected it.Here in the Seattle area we had AM radio and they played mostly pop rock,country rock and soft folk rock which if you think about it is sill much better than the pop music of today.Some of those Am ststions played funk,R&B and dance music for the city wimps and still that wasnt all bad.Most of us stoners and drinkers listened to FM radio for album oriented hard rock which included hard blues rock,metal,psycedelic rock and of course our favorite progressive rock.I grew up listening to my fathers country music like George Jones,Waylen Jennings,Johnny Cash and many others which I still love to this day.I started smoking weed and drinking in 1976 and I started listening to Tha Allman Brothers Band,Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ top first because of my country roots.My stoner friends started playing Pink Floyd and it blew my mind.I listened to side one of Wish You Where Here and I was never the same.Next thing you know I was listening to Yes,Jethro Tull,ELP,Nektar,Kansas,Styx,Early Genesis and Gentle Giant.My drinker buddies turned me on to Black Sabbath,Deep Purple,Led Zep,Aerosmith,Humble Pie,Judas Priest and that became my musical taste thank to the 70's which was a much more liberial time with no drug testing and sexual freedom.Ronald Regan ruined all this and the 1980's turned music into a plastic pop world.The only good music that prospered was metal.Prog rock was taken over by Neo Prog which wasnt all bad but Yes,Genesis and Roxy music all went pop.And of course the end of the 80's brought us Rap.What a freaken gift that was. |
Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 21:48
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Some of the reminiscences here reflect my own experiences, but here is what it was like for me: Used record stores were a godsend for buying older and more obscure releases. I bought my first albums by King Crimson and Jade Warrior, Renaissance too, in those kinds of places. We had one in the next town over called Portable Madness Records. I was a dork and the owner was a bit of a jerk to me, but he had some really cool offerings. Sometimes we would go into Berkeley and go crazy buying records and books we could not find in our boring small town out on the fringes of civilization. At my first concert, The Tubes, me and my buddy were astounded that everybody was getting high before the show except for us. Then a neighbor handed over a doob and we felt much better. In more ways than one. I was 16. Radio stations played Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, Hendrix, Beatles, Kinks, etc. regularly and frequently, and not just the same one or two songs that supposed classic rock radio plays. The King Biscuit Flour Hour was on weekly (or was that monthly?) and they had many interesting bands - not just the most popular. Today, they provide a good reccord of what was being performed at the time. The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert were also on weekly and offered a wide variety - that's when I first heard Steeleye Span (I hated them at the time, but a couple of years later they became one of my favorites). And you haven't lived until you see Roy Wood dressed as a jester with multi-colored face paint play an electric ukelele that looked like a miniature Strat. I was shocked when I had to pay $12.00 to see Led Zeppelin, along with Derenger and Judas Priest - so expensive! Zeppelin was great merely because they were Zeppelin, but if the playing field was level, Derenger stole the show and Priest totally kicked ass. Growing up near San Francisco in the 70s, the counter culture scene loomed very large. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, were all local bands to us, as were The Doobie Brothers and Journey. Oh yeah, also Creedence, and Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin). Later on there were The Residents if you were W.E.I.R.D. The Tubes were local too. Towards the end of the seventies I was going to a concert monthly: Tull, Yes, Hackett, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, UK, Queen, Kansas, Styx, Weather Report, Frampton, Skynyrd, Outlaws, Foghat. Lots of good times, yes, but also lots of problems as well. It is easy to see the past through rose-tinted glasses where reality is softened and blurred. Lots of what are now considered Prog bands I was only vaguely aware of and their albums were almost impossible to find. There are so many more offerings available now. I have been in the process of discovering a lot of those bands, such as Gentle Giant, Eloy, Camel, Gong, Caravan, etc. over the last few years. Their albums are so much easier to find than they were back then. In that way, our current era is better, but note that these are still mainly 70s bands. I stopped even trying to remain current years ago. I you like it, what does it matter when it was created? ------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 21:56
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Buncha old hippies, reminiscing! Great stories, it is fun to read about how the experiences were different throughout the world!! Ah, pot....when we saw concerts in the early '70's in Chicago, you could cut the air with a knife! I remember a Focus gig, the smoke was BILLOWING in huge clouds! Foghat was also on the bill, and Lonesome Dave played his shiny aluminum Veleno guitar, which reflected the stage spotlights right back onto the crowd! One of the best lightshows I ever saw! It's sure not like that anymore!!
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Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 22:28
Really cool that someone mentioned Jade Warrior. I've hardly crossed paths with anyone in the world who knows of them. This post brings back some visuals for me. .
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Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: August 29 2011 at 23:19
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Great thread ------------- |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 00:58
| Let's see if you remember this.........Playing clubs up and down the strip..sometimes Disco clubs would be on one side of the street and Rock clubs on the other. Rock audiences were angered about Disco and thought it would over throw the Rock music world and so they picked fights with each other in the street. Rock vs. Disco was what it was all about in the mid to late 70's.....man! and these kids would be beating the crap out of each other as I'd be walking into the venue. It's really strange thinking of it now. It seems ridiculous now, but back then it was the real world. They dressed with different codes and hated each other. Girls who were into Rock would get drunk and throw whatever they could find....at them. In the 70's an audience that watched or danced to a cover band would give a standing ovation just for a decent guitar solo. By 1984 it was progressing the other way. Now it felt like the audience couldn't give a hoot if you were standing on stage playing like Larry Carlton or Steve Howe. Most people weren't interested anymore. Then there was this resurgence of Stevie Ray Vaughn bringing lead guitar back into the scene along with the speed demon players in Metal, but it didn't have the same magnitude of the early 70's when everyone it seemed was drinking, getting high and waiting to see a decent Rock guitarist. I can only speak for the east coast. It may have been different in the midwest or west coast. Nevertheless it would appear now that all of those realities did change. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 01:01
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or how about house parties, cool ones with tons of mellow people and good drugs, and after you left one you'd go to (crash) another |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 01:21
They were everywhere in the 70's. It was vast! There were also plenty of Jesus freak homes. The label "Jesus Freak" was everywhere and they would approach you and make attempts to convert you based on the corruption of the times we were living in. Some of them were cults and I used to pretend I had a hearing problem and walk in the other direction. I never liked dealing with people who were trying to sell me something. I realized the world was screwed up as I was in the music business for Christ sake! I witnessed people overdose all the time and blood and violence for 30 years. As you grow older and being in the thicket of that....you start thinking and acting anti-social and just wanting to escape. The audience was working in the daytime and living the simple life. They would show to gigs and support you witnessing themselves the occasional drug overdose or knife fight. You are up on stage 6 nights a week with 1 week off a year....and witnessing that crap 24/7 ...I think that is crazy.
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Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 01:36
I don't remember any real fights, but there was a lot of animosity between rockers and disco-dorks in California. Maybe we were just a little more mellow than the East coast back then. You can guess which side I was on. I was really excited at the end of the 80s because there was a lot of great guitar around. Not just Stevie Ray, but Vai, Satch, Johnson, Healy. And then Grunge happened and nobody cared again. ------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 01:39
Greetings from one Jade Warrior freak to another!  ------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 01:52
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What was it like in the 60's and 70's in Vineland N.J.? George Dayner had built the "Palace of Depression" in Vineland N.J and it attracted witches and Satan worshippers to the town for decades. One sect in particular had revolted against Anton's Church of Satan on the west coast and they settled in Vineland. In 1971 police handcuffed kids in our classrooms who were brainwashed by the sect. A young man age 21 who tutored students in our school was sacrificed in a Satan ritual. Charles Pangburn conducted a 2 year investigation and found evidence of an underground sect. There was the brutal murder of Roger Carletto in 1957 by the hand of Juan Rivera Aponte who performed a Black Magic ritual on the boy. The 3rd generation Watchtower society was channeling demons through a young girl in Mill Woods. She later confessed that she was abused by the cult. Four doctors and one nurse gave the girl's father Rx's and she was drug induced for rituals. Satan cults held gatherings in wooded areas and if you were camping you could hear the sing song chanting which later developed into screams and cries. All through the 80's as well. Vampire cults, Satan cults, corrupted JW's and you name it. That is why I left for the road at age 18. Satan was in the media during the 70's, but fads had little to do with reason or cause then. The "Satanic Panic" of the 80's brought on the interest of "Heavy Metal" youth, but this was different. We had no such terms and no such realities. Vineland sects were controlled mainly by elderly and wealthy members and Satan cults that met in the woods were just a cheap extension of that. I think the entire place was a bit like the "Dark Shadows" series.
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Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 05:03
Wow, wild stuff!! New England always seemed to be fascinated with witches, Satanists etc. In Chicago, we had guys who were with the "Church of the Process," whatever that was! I read their literature once, it didn't make a whole lot of sense....it mixed Christ, Satan, etc. in some kind of weird philosophy. However, they added to the color of the street scene! Did they like prog? Jeez, who knows?
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Posted By: darkshade
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 10:03
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Very cool read, guys. Didn't you older folks light up cigarette lighters during a slower song at a show?  Everyone now uses their cell phone light.The best thing Ive gotten from this thread is that listening to music with a group of friends was an activity in itself. Nowadays, if you want to listen to music with friends, there needs to be some other activity going on, because someone will yell "I'm bored". ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/MysticBoogy" rel="nofollow - My Last.fm 
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Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 10:34
In the old days "other activity" was usually involving lighters and rizla. Nobody was bored and all were listening to the music very carefully  ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 10:54
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Perhaps I was luckier than most. I grew up a short bus ride from Harvard Square. We had The Harvard Coop, Discount Records, Minuteman Records, and a slew of used record stores. It was pretty much a given that if it was in print, you could get it in Harvard Square.
Prog was everywhere. Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, Focus were all over AM radio. When FM became popular, there were commercial free-form stations where anything could be heard.
Concerts were usually $3 to $5. The air was thick with pot smoke. Joints were freely passed everywhere.
<ominous music> Then came disco and punk. And record label executive discovered that this music could be made cheaply and easily, and sold to an unwary public....</ominous music> ------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Posted By: darkshade
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 11:01
Oh, don't get me wrong, that other activity will be going on too. But even THAT's not enough (unless it's something even more... er.... 'potent'.) Someone needs to be on their cellphone bothering others to look at their new app or something. Or play videos on Youtube that others don't really care to see. I wish I could have been in my late teens/early 20s before smart phones came out. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/MysticBoogy" rel="nofollow - My Last.fm
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Posted By: fandrews
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 11:05
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I am a new member. I have been accessing this site for years. This discussion finally did it for me I just had to post. I am 53 and I do remember buying LPs for the artwork. We did not have a lot of ways to help us decide what to buy. In the 70s I lived in Ansbach, Germany (72-76). My father was stationed at 1st Armored Division, in Ansbach. Okay so I was a "Army brat." We had radio but the Armed forces radio played mostly top forty stuff and the German radio wasn't much better. I think one of the ways to find new music was by reading "rolling Stone". The best was to go to parties and listen. We would sit and pass the pipe for hours listening to music. I went to many concerts back then. Before we moved to Germany, we lived in Ft. leavenworth, Kansas for a year and I had a portable record player and listened to mostly the Beatles and the rolling stnes. Then we moved to Germany. My first concerts were Joe Cocker and Paul McCartney. My first rock fest was at the Radstadiom in Frankfurt. 2 days of fantastic music --Spencer Davis group, Rod Stewart (Faces), Nazereth, Rory Gallager, Tempest, Chuck Berry. I went to Deep Purple and Uriah Heep concerts regularly. in 73 I saw Led Zeppelin and went backstage after the concert and got Robert Plant and Jimi page's autograph. In 75, I saw Genesis in Nurnburg for 12 marks. They were doing the Lamb Lies Down of Broadway -they handed out "L" at the door on the way in. in 75 I also went to "A Golden Summernight Concert." there I saw Climax Blues Band, Ike and Tina, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Wishbone Ash, and Soft Machine. Also possibly, Nektar, Ozark mountain Dare devils, and Renaissance. But I don't remember if the last bunch was there. What was advertised and who actually showed up for a concert back then were two different things. Also I was in pretty bad shape for some of the concerts. Back then they didn't separate the Prog bands for the rock bands. In Germany in the early 70's was what I think it was like for the 60s in the USA. You could get access to new music in local music store (one store only in Ansbach, but it was expensive. The very first day of school (american high school in Germany) we skipped class, went downtown to the local record store and one of the guys ripped off a bunch of cassettes. I remember on was "look at yourself" and "fireball."We got a weeks suspension for that!! The next time I went to that record store all the cassettes were locked up. I have a million stories of those times --I should write a book!
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Posted By: darkshade
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 11:06
Very cool. And welcome!!! ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/MysticBoogy" rel="nofollow - My Last.fm
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Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 11:20
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Posted By: wandererfromtx
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 11:22
House parties were great, we had full size kegs, and everyone shared alcohol and drugs. I remember watching shows on TV like CHiPs, with the sound turn off and something like ELP or Zep jamming on the stereo, while we made up voice overs. Lots of people wandering in and out of the party ------------- Cloud Hidden Whereabouts Unknown |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 11:26
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In the early 70's kids in my neighbourhood would save money to buy an album. For example Thick as a Brick. Which ever one of us bought the album first ...would be the person to call and round up everyone for the weekend. We would go into the backyard, set up the stereo, have a party and listen to the album over and over. Kids would take turns passing around the album cover reading the credits, the lyrics, etc. That's basically how I remember kids getting into music then. |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 12:09
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Sometime in 76' (I think?), I saw YES with Patrick Moraz at the J.F.K. Stadium. Mostly material that night from Relayer and Topographic. They were very good and extremely tighter as a unit from what you hear on Yesssongs where maybe Alan White produces some bloopers and the band is un-sure of themselves. At age 17 I was listening to Topographic and Relayer everyday and enjoying it , but in my sub-con I still longed for the return of The Yes Album, Fragile, and C.T.T.E. However as sour of a Yes fan I was at times......they were very solid and very very tight as a unit. When they played "Soundchaser" it was utterly mind blowing! They were different this time round because they were more schizoid nature with material on Relayer and softness of Topographic. During "Ritual" I noticed a row of seats were on fire. The wind was blowing and the fire spread rapidly covering half of the stadium. But YES played on and the kids tripping on acid screaming .....jumping up and down. The Fire department took about 5 minutes to arrive and controlled the situation well.
In late 70's I saw a band called Sea Level open for Jefferson Starship. It was a seated concert at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Sea Level played this kind of soft melodic jazz/fusion that built up to higher volumes with intense playing.
Spooky Tooth I saw open for Frampton's Camel and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Spooky Tooth entered the stage playing new material from "The Mirror" and music from previous albums. They were dark and not a typical 70's rock band.
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Posted By: Jake Kobrin
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 13:52
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Reading through this thread reminded me how important it is for me to support my local record stores! They're a rarity nowadays. I was just wondering, were there used record stores back in the 70's? So if you couldn't get a record used you could still find it used at one of those stores? ------------- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Neil-Kobrin/244687105562746" rel="nofollow - SUPPORT MY FATHER AND BECOME A FAN Jacob Kobrin Illustration |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 14:57
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Of course in the 70s there were used records stores, but currently I'm not aware of any. I live in Rome (Italy). No used records stores in a city of 5 millions people. ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 15:04
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Harvard Square had at least five used record stores in the seventies, probably more.
------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Posted By: fandrews
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 15:18
| I think it was '73 and we took a vacation with another family that lived close by. We went to Remini, italy for a week. One of the great memories of the trip include going to a very crowded open air market downtown. I remember it being so crowded I turned around and a one of those funny looking very tiny cars ran right over my foot. The car was so small it just pinched me. We looked around and right away people kept trying to sell us gold for some reason --they could tell easily that we were american. I remember looking at hundreds of bootleg cassette tapes and seeing Dark Side of the Moon. I had not heard it yet and was blown away. I had a cheap cassette recorder with me at the time and even on that crappy machine I was hooked on the floyd after that. We bought other tapes but I don't remember any of them except for of course the Pink Floyd tape. I have been recently thinking about that time because i recently got in touch with one of the guys that went with us on the trip through facebook. Hard to believe emailing someone I went to school with from Ansbach Germany 38 years ago. |
Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 16:03
Anton Le Vay started the First Church of Satan in San Francisco in the either the 60s or 70s, I can't remember which. He was a pretty creepy dude, and the church was a house where everything was painted black.  There were also cults in SoCal who sacrificed black cats on Halloween.------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: wjohnd
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 16:03
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I like this thread... The USA with all its radio stations was obviously very different from a small town in Scotland, but it still makes me realise i am among friends. ------------- 
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Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 16:10
I don't remember any used record stores in the early 70's....I grew up in Southern California, grew up on 8track tapes and vinyl LP's.....I remember in the 6th grade I did very well and my father bought me a (I think) Superscope cassette deck, which I connected to my Montgomery Ward stereo system.....it was so bitchin!!!
Then a month later our house was broken into and all my stuff was gone......I know it was neighborhood kids. A month later dad bought me a better stereo system from Pacific Stereo and a new cassette deck with Dolby NR. What?!?.. it was sick.
All my vinyl back then was bought at Warehouse Records & Tapes, Tower Records, GEMCO and I think Federated Stereo was another one that had vinyl for sale as well as audio equipment.
I also used to tape so much stuff off the FM radio, especially after midnight, a lot of the stations would play full album sides uninterupted, with 4-5 second quite time before 1st track and after last....They knew it was for the home recordist. I clearly remember recording Pink Floyd Meddle in this manner and Genesis Nursery Cryme.
I do remember going to swap meets with my father as he used to love digging for old engine parts and stuff, and there were always people selling used 8tracks, cassettes and LPs......This is the only place I recall buying old music, never at a store though. -------------   
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Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 17:40
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Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 18:55
Yeah, there are always variants with these sort of things. One might even say deviations.  ------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 19:34
Not exactly true.
In Southern California, we had our trusty sites that had pretty much everything and you could get it. Tower on the Strip was very good until they decided they wanted to be come top ten sellers at/around 1985. They became another idiot rock shop after that. The Warehouse in Westwood was magnificent and had EVERYTHING you could think of. And for imports, the real problem with Moby Disk was? ... wtf am I going to get ... and all this was within an hour and 15 minutes of a nice, relaxed and fun drive ... with Ventura Highway on the dial for Guy Guden and myself!
In Santa Barbara, a smaller town, it was a bit different ... it was about having to be "cool" when the radio signlas from KMET, KLOS and KPFK can reach you all day long ... which would take away from the local flavor and such ... but it added to the mix, because Santa Barbara was not quite an "unknown" for a lot of people in the "business".
The stores in SB would have one copy or two and usually would not reload anything after those copies sold, and sometimes (later) you found it at the used album bins at Morninglory Music ... and I got a lot of things from there to fill out the collection, specially for American and English stuff, as there was no sense in buying it new in LA, when it came around sooner or later ... but you were not going to find Peter Hammill, or Van Der Graaf Generator in Santa Barbara ... but at Moby Disk? ... EVERYTHING. When Guy Guden started doing some weekly nights at Rockpile, some more albums that Guy also played were made available, but I can not tell you how well that went, as I had already left SB in the fall of 1982.
San Francisco was good too, and Rasputin was the greatest heaven send for music you ever saw, and I can not speak for them in the last 15 years ... but needless to say that rock/pop section was so big you got a headache when you walked in ... and if you didn't find anything, it was because you were not looking, or you lost your way in the madness of quantity!
The Pacific Northwest? Not worth the discussion. I got a few things from Tower Record in Portland, but they stunk, and Tower in Seattle was even worse, and I had to depend on used record stores a lot for the rest of the 80's and 90's.
As soon as the internet hit in the 90's, my problems with acquiring music ended.
It was not an issue when you already knew where to go and get these things. Your local sh*t&dip store was not intelligent enough to order things, and you already knew where to go spend your dollars!
I bought the album sight unseen and sight unheard because of the cover of the VOICE album, and to this day is one of my most prized and appreciated albums I have ever heard! No review or thoughts have ever come close to the love and care and beauty of those vocals and music!
The main difference was ... that you stopped asking radio, newspaper, your sister, or someone else to tell you to go listen to something or you weren't cool. Once you "found" your way, the rest disappears.
WRONG. The early FM stations from LA specially, like KMET and KLOS, were really big on longer cuts and the Beatles were excellent fodder to light up the air waves with "hip-ness" when a hot shot DJ wanted to make a point. Even Jim Ladd used to think that a segway from "A Day in Life" to Side 2 of the Moody Blues "Days of Future Passed" was heavy, and would follow it up with some Jethro Tull ... no big deal at all. However, I do not remember Jim, or those stations, ever playing King Crimson ... at all! But he was big on ELP. KNAC I never heard, but is known to have had, and played, the absolute greatest array of imports and music from Europe and Japan, you could possibly ever have heard!
At the time, I would say 1970, 1971 and 1972, it was the hey day of FM radio ... and its biggest thing was long cuts, as a total rejection of the AM radio formats. The by-product of that was ... that you had a lot of longer cuts and far out stuff, because there were no "hits" defined by f_______ billboard, or p___________________ves ... and it was an amazing amalgamation of music that was far out ... you would hear a 10 minute Bob Dylan, followed by Willie Nelson, then Outlaws, then Flying Burrito Brothers, then Moody Blues, then Simon and Garfunkel, then some Deep Purple, then some Rolling Stones, then some Lola (Kinks -- big LA favorite due to one song!), then Black Sabbath, then some Pink Floyd, then Iron Butterfly, then Led Zeppelin, then some Grateful Dead ... and you had a nice couple of hours and then some ... and opppsss ... forgot ... you had to have one Crosby Stills and Nash and maybe some Joni Mitchell, so you were being hip and cool ... and not ostracized for not being with it!
It was when FM radio hit it big time, since at first all the famous and big name AM radio pewople were making fun of it and saying things like ... you call that radio? ... and one day the FM radio ratings started soaring over the AM stations, and they all lost their millions in the next 5 years ... and by 1980 .. FM radio was just another crappy radio station and it's been the same thing all the way through 2000 when the Satelite thing came around ... which now was just another corporate affair paying the rich boys and girls and nothing else ... it was not about the music!
Btw, for the record ... most radio was NEVER about the music, and if you think it was, you are full of it and never really listened to it. Based on my experiences, radio was all about getting the girls, free drinks and food ... and the free music ... the rest ?? ... who cares! ... but it was fun! ... and the girls? ... even more fun, compared to the rest of the girls out there!
So yeah ... radio was ...
Got my first AD2 album in 1972 in the used bin at Morninglory Music in Santa Barbara ... the cover of the album looked cool and we thought it might be worth a listen. And it wasn't a problem after that, after Guy got on the air and blasted out all those foreign bands.
Doubt it. When you are young you don't have that much money to go around and you have to get selective sometimes.
Extremelly ... and it's way easier to access and know what is going on, and I'm glad there is no radio for it, and I don't even use PA for suggestions. Nothing personal, but when you made your living being an artist, and you know your muse, asking someone else for the muse is redundant, stupid and bizarre. ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 19:59
And sometimes I think that these three people deserve more credit for developing "progressive music" than any definition anyone could come up with, that ProgArchives is not capable of discussing, checking and chasing ... because some of these people are real pioneers, and much more so than a lot of the musicians themselves!
But in those days, it was "imports" ... not "progressive" for us all in America.
Archie is still the eccentric turkey he ever was ... and son of a gun, I still can't afford to buy anything from him! But Archie has the most amazing selection the world over, not just one place, that no one else has the balls to check out and listen to! He KNOWS more music from more countries than all the folks together in this board! And his catalogue is insane and probably a great portion of it is not even reviewed here!
Jem was originally associated with Nektar and Passport I think.
Steve and Wayside, for some reason, never had stuff that I could get into or appreciate ... I was more into the rock styles and I think he went for the jazzier stuff.
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 20:25
Hahahaha!!!
Except I'm not from Indiana! And you do not have weirder music than I do ... and if you don't have Bernard Herrman Soundtracks you are definitly missing out!
No more and no less open minded than today.
No more and no less social hunkers than yesterday or today.
The biggest issue today, is that places like this website, have a tendency to create a world order and tell people what to think, which in the end hurts the music appreciation and the state of the art. And unffortunately for the people that do that, is that they are not accepting that it was a part of the revolution of the 60's ... to create change ... and one of the biggest changes that everyone wanted? ... told what they were and weren't ... and lose your individuality ... and sites like this hurt the artist concept more than they help.
It doesn't help that the over abuncance of comments -- everyone has something to say -- tends to also destroy everyone's ability to decide for themselves what they like and what they want to listen to. What scares me here the most? ... people saying they are tired of this or that ... and mostly it is the genre that they got stuck on ... we didn't get stuck on genre's in those days ... we had "more choices" ... and a board like this, which has more choices than anyone, actually tends to suggest less than it can ... and it does so by separating the items so hard (and harshly) to the point where the appreciation of the music is rendered worthless.
We might have gotten that in the top ten radio (AM radio) in those days, but FM radio did not have a top ten for 10 years until it was bought out by all the record companies ... dig this ... the major conglomerate that distributes music in America owns the single largest number of FM stations in the country ... do you wonder why I do not listen to FM radio anymore? ... they only play the "artists" they deliver to all the stores, and nothing else, and don't even follow the required rules that the FCC had requested for these stations in the big city ... the requirements of which are being filled out by PSA's.
It is good for commercial music, and everyone loves the top ten of course! Even here!
But in those days, it was totally against the wind and the top ten ... and it meant something ... until some media f**kers gave us Woodstock to make us all seemed totally stupid, drunk, and not appreciative of a lot of music and arts that our generation created ... and killed it ... by showing us a national anthem right in front of GARBAGE. The music was meaningless and the acid was sh*t ...
To be honest with you there are many times I find a parallel between that image and this board! Great place to get stoned, but it doesn't mean anything to most people and their life! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: ergaster
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 21:02
Yep, a sea of Bics. The group listening with my friends was generally with herbal enhancement, so nobody wanted to do any other activity. Changing the record was tough enough.... ------------- We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty. Captain Malcolm Reynolds Reality rules, Honor the truth Chemist99a R.I.P. |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 22:04
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Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 22:16
Their cell phone? No that's just wrong; I will not, upon hearing 'Hells Bells' at my next AC/DC show, raise my cell phone. I'd be beaten to a pulp and set afire by everyone holding their lighters, and rightly so. |
Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 22:26
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Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 30 2011 at 23:36
Hah! More like "a sea of lit joints!!" And, yes, getting buzzed and listening to hours & hours of Yes, KC, ELP etc. with the buds was (and remains) an essential component of growing up in those times. Good point about the challenge of flipping the vinyl platter over, too!
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Posted By: brainstormer
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 00:40
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I grew up on Long Island and I was 12 in 1975. I think underground Prog was called simply called "Imports" back then, because that's what all of it was. Long Island radio was awesome. I would hear a lot of Tangerine Dream, Nectar, Synergy, and of course very early Peter Gabriel. I saw Hammill twice in NYC, I think it was between 1978 to 1980. The vibes were so conducive to young people that I could understand the value of someone like Hammill when I wasn't even out of High School. I was definitely helped out by the older people around me. At my hometown library, they had a copy of Trilogy and Trespass. This must have been around 1976. They also had Einstein on the Beach right when it came out, like a five album set. I was a synthhead and bought my first synth (a PAIA kit) in 1975. My sister got me the first Synergy album when it came out, met Genesis on the road around 1975 or so. Practically everyone in my high school that I knew, jocks, everyone who overheard us talk in class, knew Brain Salad Surgery. The jocks at parties used to sing, "Welcome back my friends...." Was kind of weird! ------------- -- Robert Pearson Regenerative Music http://www.regenerativemusic.net Telical Books http://www.telicalbooks.com ParaMind Brainstorming Software http://www.paramind.net |
Posted By: wjohnd
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 09:40
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When i was at high school, our music teacher played the class ELP - Pictures at an Exhibition. It was a misguided attempt to get us 'kids' interested in classical music by playing some 'popular rock'.... Doubly misguided as the Sex Pistols ' Never Mind the bollocks' was the talk of the class by then -------------
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Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 10:20
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I bought my first album in 74 (Crime Of The Century) at age 12... So I was 17 when the 70's ended, but by that time I owned probably well over 900 records and had sold back some more 700 (to finance new acquisitions) and had bought a fairlyexpensive Yamaha hi-fi in 77 (being a newspaper boy until roughly 17, I made my own pocket money on top of getting some parental allowances)....
I used to discover mostly by buying second-hand vinyls (sometimes 1/3 of the price of the new ones), based on mostly on my instinct (3 hints... Artworks,....line-up & instruments ... track lengths), because I had no big brothers and was in some ways somewhat of a bit of a musical trend-setter among some of my buddies... Imports were found azt more consequent prices in second-hand shops, but we also had a special import store at hand as well.
So in terms of word-spreader, I was right in the middle of things and yes, cassettes were regularly exchanged... we had also very cool radios (CHOM-FM, for ex), but by the end of the decade, they basically weren't the shadow of their former selves.
I had an English teacher in Montreal that tought us some English through some of the Beatles' albums (Sgt pepper and Abbey road, mainly).... Learned the language ..... in seconds flat
One female chemestry teacher (cute too) once spent a whole class discussing the merits of the Zep Clan, the Floyd Faction, the Stones Club, the Rush crowd and the AC/DC throng... We adopted her... and never gave her bullsh*t or trouble... ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 11:56
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Maaaan, it was horrible, we all had to grow long hair, smoke a lot of dope, call each other "man", wear tie-die t-shirts and bell-bottom blue jeans.
------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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Posted By: wjohnd
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 12:06
bummer -------------
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Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 12:30
Yep, same here. My art teacher at secondary modern would play Yes, genesis, ELP, Dylan to us, whilst all the rest of the class wanted to listen to The Pistols, Clash & etc. I got a few beatings for being the only one who appreciated what he put on! ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: wandererfromtx
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 12:39
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I received an A in a English Lit class for playing The Revealing Science Of God and projecting the words off the album cover with a overhead projector. The English Lit teacher was a former Nun, she was enthralled. ------------- Cloud Hidden Whereabouts Unknown |
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 12:40
Fantastic story! Perhaps we should make a separate thread for these stories? ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: jean-marie
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 13:03
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Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 13:25
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Totally agree with moshkito, especially with the bit on FM radio in SoCal......KMET 94.7 was the dial spot for longer, prog type material. KLOS 95.5 was more mainstream hard rock, BTW I still have a bunch of the KLOS rainbow stickers they would give out at concerts.....I have Rush, Styx, Scorpions from KMET.....and a few from the US Festival '83. Below KMET and Rush stickers from I think the Moving Pictures tour at the LA Forum 1981.  -------------
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Posted By: wjohnd
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 13:39
aye... at least we can laugh about it now
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Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 14:46
Oh God I hated that stuff. Except for the hair. I didn't mind having long hair in the early 70's. However the Baptist did. During the 70's they created a vision of Hell for me. Hell was the place you went if you had long hair, smoked weed, and listened to what was better known then as "Hard Rock". The gist of this lies in the concept of adapting to scripture in the Bible and applying it within relation to modern times. There was a vast amount of hippies being picked on by greasers and rednecks. There was this large anti-hippie crowd and they were about violence. If my parents had issues with me then...I would desire that instead of greasers and rednecks from 71'.
I used to run away from home and walk Landis Ave in Vineland. Landis Ave in 69' had music on the streets, small clubs with psychedelic, Blues, and Hard Rock bands. Todd Rundgren, during the time he was in Woody's Truckstop used to visit my guitar playing friend Steve Laury. I was really into this scene and my mother would call the police to find me. So I was really a punk kid trying to investigate it all. I had long hair , but didn't fit n with hippies too much....like Ray Davies for example. The greasers would ride by in their soup up hot rods and throw garbage at you and the rednecks would either be in the military or off the farm. They had short haircuts and displayed physical violence toward those with long hair.People who are defined as rednecks that I met in the south or further to West Virginia seemed hospitable and were not like this. They would jump you even if you were 12 years old....so it was scary. In the late 70's rednecks had long hair and beards like ZZ TOP...and I thought that was very twisted.
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Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 15:45
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I had a major problem with religion as a teenager in the 70's. I collected a few 20th Century composer type things and I would often play Penderecki's sacred choral works. Religious people were always around my parents house attempting to convert me. It was insulting to me due to the way they would write off music derived from many cultures as a threat to the scriptures. Religion was too in my face during the 70's and it made me bitter at a young age. Religions abused my friends in the 70's turning them into zombies. Whether it was a Satan cult or JW's it made little difference to me. Kids I grew up with and had laughs with were now preaching this dribble about the end times and that the hippie drug age was bringing on the end times more than anything. Perhaps they thought the hippie age to be like the dark times. During that time there were all these jokes about your mother. It's all annoying now to think of the street lingo and fads. Fringe talk. They had good points to their nature and the music was of course special. They were never to return after Glitter Rock began in the early 70's.The tragic incident at Altamont led many to believe this would be the closing of hippie culture. Larry Magid during this time was putting the plan in motion for bands to play stadiums. I felt like death to music. There was no more "Electric Ladyland' or Crown of Creation. This all worked out very well for prog, but it placed a kind of cheapness in rock. Instead of hearing a beautiful rock guitar tone like Peter Green and Mike Bloomfield ....the A-hole button was turned up and the guitar sounded cheap. Hendrix never utilized distortion that way. He was way more creative and plus you gotta consider....they were just turning up the volume. Everything else was kind of cheap. The guitar no longer had creative purpose in rock for quite a few years and with that much volume it gives way and covers up mistakes. In 76' Frampton Comes Alive made Frampton a pop star and the sugar bowl was empty folks. You can truly hear his level of playing on "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" from Humble Pie's Rockin' the Fillmore. It was all about selling out in those days. |
Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 15:54
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Posted By: jean-marie
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 16:10
abit like this.....
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Posted By: wandererfromtx
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 16:14
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In 75 or 76 I can't remember which, we had the band Ethos play at our High School dance. It was great being able to sit almost on the stage, and then meet the band after the show. Several of my friends and I helped them pack up the equipment. http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=547 ------------- Cloud Hidden Whereabouts Unknown |
Posted By: wandererfromtx
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 16:23
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Wow, I like this thread, it has brought back so many great memories.
------------- Cloud Hidden Whereabouts Unknown |
Posted By: Jake Kobrin
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 17:57
------------- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Neil-Kobrin/244687105562746" rel="nofollow - SUPPORT MY FATHER AND BECOME A FAN Jacob Kobrin Illustration |
Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 20:08
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fascinating thread! thanks to all of you for your stories I'm 48, so was too young to really connect with things in the sixties and early to mid seventies-as i was growing up, i was faced with things like disco,punk and new wave-all of which continue to turn my stomach even just being reminded of them as i expanded my experience of music, i developed an affinity with the early to mid seventies period, which has never left me-first the heavy rock, then jazz rock and progressive rock i like to think of myself as "58", when it comes to musical taste, and in rock or jazz type music, i am still mainly in the early to mid seventies-don't need the fashion or the drugs, man, it is the great music that counts! saw some great and memorable concerts in the mid to late seventies in my high school and in the Ottawa Civic Center, but would have preferred to have been a bit older to take in the early seventies it is great how even really obscure and foreign recordings are within reach, and i listen to a lot of seventies music that i had not known of then |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 20:17
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From a music and prog standpoint, I didn't really get started until the later '70's. Actually about the time prog was going into a bit of decline, but it was a good time to do so because there was plenty that had been recorded out there to explore. Some prog did actually make it's way to commercial radio: Round About, Carry On Wayward Son, Hocus Pocus, etc. and that lead people into prog. A lot of it was also spread by word of mouth and going into a record store and hearing something interesting being played. It was pretty much an LP and cassette world for me. The LP being the touchstone and cassette copies bringing the portability. 8 tracks were well on their way out. 78's went before that. You had your reel to reel enthusiasts. We had a brief flirtation with quad, the forerunner of surround sound. There were LPs made for that format. ------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 20:36
Thanks Catch ...
I updated the information on my post ... I forgot Led Zep ... the darling of both KMET and KLOS ... both fighting to get interviews all the time!
Would love to tell you a joke about Mary Turner, from Joe Collins ... (he was in Santa Barbara also at KTYD doing a jazz show on Sunday Nights that prefaced Space Pirate Radio for at least 6 years!) ... thread on SPR is on another section in this board although it got sad for a few paragraphs. ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 20:51
It was not really that bad ... and I think that Slart was having fun with the image, which I like to do as well. And yep ... I'm 60 and proud of it and my legacy is trying to legitimize the Woodstock generation as not a bunch of frunken and stoned idiots that can only go ... far out man ... and go see music because they are stoned, and it doesn't mean sh*t to them!
But you already know that part!
And in many ways all this is no different today when one has to aggree with the voting in this board? ... yeah ... still have to be a part of the "inn" crowd!
Let's see ... long hair ... I cut mine when we arrived in California in the fall of 1971 from Madison, Wisconsin ... long hair was a fad in California and I didn't like socialist fads!
The tie-die t-shirts ... there is a lady here at work that has done me a bunch of them on long sleeve t-shirts and I wear those ... modified tie-die, not as bright but still very cool looking and very me.
Bell bottoms I miss a lot ...they were nice. But today the fascist fashionistas of Kmart, WallMart and Sears and all the other stores do not believe that people can dress up and have to look avbsolutely the same so they can get their profits ...
You mean he wasn't throwing punches at that other guy? (Ted Nugent!) ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: jammun
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 21:14
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Enjoying this you guys. I remember my dad taking me to a drive-in (remember those?) to see A Hard Days NIght (the movie) when it came out. I got to go see Help on my own. This was obviously in the early-/mid-60's. Anyone here from the Midwest/Rockies? Then you'll remember KOMA out of Oklahoma City. That station had incredible reach, 500-600 miles each way. That's where I first heard The Beach Boys and The Beatles. We moved about that time and I listened to some station in Denver. This was during the heighth of the British Invasion. I'd still put that era up against any, though music was to only get better, at least for a while. The Beatles, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Animals, The Zombies. Of course, this era was more innocent times. I was maybe 12 years old. I went to visit a cousin in Houston when I was about 14. This would have been in 1967, I suppose. That's when I first heard FM radio, playing stuff I'd never heard, the one standout being Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy. And I'm referring to the album, which they had no problem playing in its entirety. My cousin turned me on to (because that's what we did in those days, "turn someone onto something" ) Jefferson Airplane, not to mention 13th Floor Elevators. We had an already common interest in Zappa. He was dabbling in drugs. I was having none of that...Until the next year. But that's another story altogether. ------------- Can you tell me where we're headin'? Lincoln County Road or Armageddon. |
Posted By: Ivan_Melgar_M
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 21:49
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I was 6 when the 70's started and only got into Prog around 1976, so didn't reached the golden era. Iván ------------- 
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Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 22:34
| ^ but you were there, that counts |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 31 2011 at 23:47
Yeah, it sure sucked! You're the guy I saw at King Crimson at the Kinetic Playground in 1973, who was standing up & playing air-violin along with David Cross, while the rest of the audience yelled & threw stuff to make you sit down!! Damn hippy! Fripp was REALLY pissed at the commotion too, it was priceless!!
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Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: September 01 2011 at 01:07
Minus the hair, too ...unfortunately ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |