What was it like in the 60's and 70's?

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.  

Edited by TODDLER - August 31 2011 at 15:48

lazland wrote: 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!

Edited by wjohnd - August 31 2011 at 13:39

Slartibartfast wrote: 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.

    

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.

Slartibartfast wrote: 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.

 

Edited by Sean Trane - August 31 2011 at 10:28

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!

moshkito wrote: Eärendil wrote: 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.   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! I love Bernard Hermann's soundtracks.   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.   True! True! and very true! Why does it seem as if a lot of people don't get this? Is it the seperation of generations? We were exposed to everything as a way of life. Every single point you bring out here about AM and FM. It shouldn't be the seperate....I can't relate to the older folks thing because when I was a kid I kept an open mind about my father's taste in music. Okay...I didn't care for Sinatra, but I knew that Johnny Smith and Charlie Christian were interesting guitar players at age 10 which was about 6 or 7 years before YES hit the scene and color me surprised when I discoverd that Steve Howe was a huge fan of Charlie Christian and Jim Hall. It does seem like people don't take us old cats seriously......like we are jive to everyone. You must be my sister's age and I feel I know exactly where you are coming from. Everything you say is historically correct.   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 ...  I think Woodstock was the spark for CHEAP Stadium Rock. It all started with Ten Years After and the song i'M Going Home. I mean Mike Bloomfield wasn't like that? Canned Heat were more underground then that. What the hell happened? Wasn't it I'm Going Home that sparked off the Staduim cheapness?   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!

moshkito wrote: ... A guy named Marty who used to sell imports out of the back of his station wagon opened Jem Records in the industrial park in South Plainfield and North Plainfield N.J. You could order from Jem yourself or have the record shops do it. Archie Patterson who was affiliated with Green World on the west coast formed Eurock continued to carry the torch for prog and electronic. Steve F. opened Wayside Music in Maryland which sold the early RIO stuff on LP and obscure prog from various countries. Because these guys were so determined to push prog that was long deleted in the U.S. on domestic labels....it made things a whole lot easier for people like me who were collectors.If you didn't have these particular mail order connections you were in the dark because not all shops did special import ordering.   ...   And sometimes I think that these three people deserve more credit for developing "progressive music" than any definition anyone could come up with.   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!   Yeah! The guy lived through the timesand he interviewed a lot of German musicians on the Krautrock and Electronic scene . Wizard Projects, John Dyson, Amon Dull II , Mani and I was in heaven. Archie is a wise guy and he cracks me up.    Jem was originally associated with Nektar and Passport I think                                                                                                                                                                                                                               . I remember when I discovered Jem and I was freaking out because I knew then that I had the chance to purchase underground European prog on LP. Jem saved me from the dread of the east coast. Third Street Jazz and Rock in Philadelphia had a incredible selection, but sometimes the local DJ's would buy it all up.   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. Yes he was into the Jazz more. I liked his Rio selection.

Edited by TODDLER - August 30 2011 at 22:40

Eärendil wrote: 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.

 

Edited by moshkito - August 30 2011 at 21:03