While waiting for the start of the Simon and Garfunkel Story we had a lengthy period of time. They played a sixties soundtrack to put us in the mood (the audience were mainly a bunch of real old people – not at all like the sprightly 17 year old I am)
I like sixties music. I grew up with it. I like sixties pop music – it is the soundtrack to my early youth. I was fourteen in 1963 when the Beatles and Mersey stormed the world and then the Who, Kinks, Downliners Sect, Pretty Things, Yardbirds and Stones rocked the world. I loved it!
But what they had selected as representative of the sixties was:
Helen Shapiro
Freddie & the Dreamers (3 songs)
Herman’s Hermits
Gerry & The Pacemakers
Bobby Vee
Billy J Kramer
Alright they did throw in the Nashville Teens, Animals, Manfred Mann Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, and Adam Faith & the Roulettes – but even so it was all pretty lightweight. Worst of all the audience was singing along! It was like being in an old folk’s home. I was expecting Vera Lynne next!
Now if I had chosen it I would have blasted them with a bit of Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, Roy Harper, Jefferson Airplane, Doors, Cream, Dylan, Traffic, Pink Floyd, Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Country Joe & the Fish, Family, Byrds, Who, Mothers of Invention, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Free and Taste. That would have woken them up a bit and send the blood flowing! That’s what I call Sixties Music!
In the UK
In the USA
Wouldn’t that be LATE 60’s music? I graduated in ’69 and I don’t remember listening to some of them, though I know who they are…
Yep – my favourite time is the late sixties – 66-70. That’s where it got really interesting for me.
The 60s was really divided up into 4 different periods over here –
a. 60-63 – Pop Rock – a soft left-over from the 50s – Bobby Rydell, Bobby Vee, Del Shannon, Cliff Richard, Shadows, Frankie Avalon.
b. 63 – Merseybeat – Beatles, Gerry & Pacemakers, Bill J Kramer, Freddie & the Dreamers, Searchers, Mojos, Herman’s Hermits, Hollies + Surf – Beach Boys Jan & Dean + R&B groups – Drifters, Four Tops, Ronettes, Chiffons, Crystals
c. 64 – R&B & Mod Beat – Kinks, Stones, Them, Downliners Sect, Pretty Things, Yardbirds, Who, Smallfaces, Animals + Dylan
d. 65 – More experimental – Donovan + established bands
e. 67-70 – Underground Blues and Psychedelic, Progressive West Coast and East Coast – Hendrix, Cream, Captain Beefheart, Mothers, Jefferson Airplane, Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Arthur Brown, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin etc. + Soul & Tamla
I think things were perhaps a bit more mixed up in the States. The Beatles didn’t break until 64 there. It got muddled together aqs the British invasion.
When they think of the 60s they tend to focus on the most pop commercial stuff of the early years. That isn’t how it felt to me.
Sorry – that developed into a lecture!
LOL! Well you ARE a teacher, after all. 😀
not any more. I guess it never wears off.
Oh hon! Once a teacher, always a teacher. 😀 It’s in your blood.
I need to remember not to pontificate!
I left you a reply on my post I did this morning. The comment where you said you were still trying to change the world. 😀
Just replied to it Cheryl.
Thanks! Having you respond gives my blog a certain sense of class! 😉
Don’t know how you figure that Cheryl. Just me mouthing off.
Oh for hell sakes! Stop or I’ll have to come over there with my whompin’ stick and get after you! I have great respect for you. 🙂
Now I wouldn’t want that!