The 60s
If you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren’t really there.
- Paul Kantner
Would you know a Mod from a Rocker, Dr. No from Dr. Who, or Simon from Garfunkel? If so, then kick off your go-go boots, switch on the lava lamp and reminisce about the age of peace and free love, when Berry Gordy borrowed $800 and started Motown Records, men walked on the moon, the Rolling Stone Magazine rolled of the presses and a new car cost $2.500!
Known retrospectively as “the Swinging Sixties”, this decade is, to many, a decade of memories - as much about Matchbox Cars as Vietnam; equal parts Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds as well as Woodstock and Hendrix. Life was so much simpler. A sunny optimism permeated everything, and possibilities seemed endless. This was the “permissive” decade, and the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1963 heralded a new freedom for women. Milk stillcame in bottles, Doctors still made house calls.
With employment high and most enjoying a reasonable income, the 60s saw an increase in consumerism. Leisure time could be enjoyed by shopping, going to the cinema, watching television and travelling abroad.
The Beatles made the film “Help!”, played Shea Stadium, visited Elvis Presley at home and went to Buckingham Palace to receive their MBEs - not quite all in the same week, but almost.
Some predicted the mini skirt would lead to anarchy - or even worse, to joy. The Pill and the miniskirt seemed to promise some kind of utopia, providing the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity. While Bob Dylan said that the answer was Blowing In The Wind, many women found a better answer in the Pill.
Meanwhile, The Rolling Stones were in and out of police vans for puffing weed and peeing on walls.
Internationally, the big issues were Vietnam and civil rights and the “Space Race”:
In the United States, the Sixties were also a period of great unrest and dramatic change. The Vietnam War and the civil rights movement were both beginning to make major changes in our society, and young people were rebelling against the tremendous conformity of the Fifties. The 60s also saw the most spectacular technical achievement of the 20th Century when America won the Space Race and man landed on the moon in July 1969 - but the greatest shock of the decade was the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.
The youth of the 1960s certainly had plenty of heroes to choose from -
Mary Quant, Twiggy, Che Guevara, Mick Jagger, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Bernadette Devlin, Yuri Gargarin … film stars and those four lads from Liverpool.
Sandwiched between the studied sloppiness of the beat generation - sandals and shapeless sweaters - and the floaty self-indulgence of the hippies was the time of the Mods. All targets, chevrons, bright colours, flags and crisp hard edges. Pop art, Op art and Psychedelia.
The second half of the 60s were the years of change. No year in the decade saw greater change than 1967. It was the year of Peace and Love. It was a year perfectly summed up in “San Francisco” by Scott McKenzie. Dressed in a kaftan, beads and bells and wearing flowers in his hair, McKenzie may have looked a right pratt. Nevertheless, he and the rest of the psychedelic Hippies believed that through rock music, drugs and “free love” (sex), they could change the world. They had the innocence of children…
They called themselves Flower Children. Their slogan was “Make Love Not War” and they took their message to military establishments all over America and Britain until the authorities banned them because of increased violence as soldiers fought each other over whose turn it was to beat up and/or make love to, a flower child.
Just as 1967 was the year of peace and love, 1968 became the year of protest. In Chicago, hippies clashed with Mayor Daley´s police force; In Tokyo, Red Brigades smashed police blockades; In Paris students rioted on the boulevards and in Belgium… nothing had changed so nothing happened at all.
1968 was a year of anger. The year when young people said “No” in songs that voiced their bitter frustrations at the establishment. No area of society was immune to the wave of revolution.
I´m proud to add two important dates to the Sixties´s history… important to my family and me:
My hubby Frank was born in August 1966 and my parents got married in 1968.
The 60s left also time for ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and for the camera to be there to record them. People invented strange contests - to see who could cram the most bodies into a telephone box, to leap the widest chasm on a motorcycle, to cross rivers and oceans in the strangest craft. What a decade!
Sometimes I regret I missed a great decade, especially when I listen to the music…
I´m not a child of the 60s - I wasn´t even “planned” - but it seems my parents didn´t smoke too much weed in the Sixties. They remembered many things and helped me lots to blog this 60s special. Thank you, Miss Elli and Mr Gargamel =)
Coffee2go´s Top 50 Songs of the 60s:
- Hey Jude ~ Beatles
- Paint It Black ~ Rolling Stones
- My Way ~ Frank Sinatra
- Light My Fire ~ Doors
- Turn, Turn, Turn ~ Byrds
- Rama Lama Ding Dong ~ Edsels
- Give Peace A Chance ~ John Lennon
- Sounds of Silence ~ Simon & Garfunkel
- Ruby Tuesday ~ The Rolling Stones
- Crimson and Clover ~ Tommy James and the Shondells
- Mustang Sally ~ Wilson Pickett
- Daydream Believer ~ Monkees
- Hang on Sloopy ~ McCoys
- Paperback Writer ~ Beatles
- California Dreaming ~ Mamas & the Papas
- (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher ~ Jackie Wilson
- My Girl ~ Temptations
- When A Man Loves A Woman ~ Percy Sledge
- Leaving on a Jet Plane ~ Peter, Paul & Mary
- Summer Wind ~ Frank Sinatra
- Mr. Tambourine Man ~ The Byrds
- Yesterday ~ Beatles
- The Wanderer ~ Dion
- Twist and Shout ~ Beatles
- Like a Rolling Stone ~ Bob Dylan
- I Heard It Through The Grapevine ~ Marvin Gaye
- Build Me Up Buttercup ~ Foundations
- Hit the Road Jack ~ Ray Charles
- Honky Tonk Women ~ Rolling Stones
- Hit The Road Jack ~ Ray Charles
- Louie, Louie ~ Kingsmen
- Yellow Submarine ~ Beatles
- Stand By Your Man ~ Tammy Wynette
- In The Ghetto ~ Elvis Presley
- Mellow Yellow ~ Donovan
- Black Is Black ~ Los Bravos
- Unchained Melody ~ Righteous Brothers
- Poetry In Motion ~ Johnny Tillotson
- (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction ~ Rolling Stones
- Monday Monday ~ Mamas and the Papas
- Isrealites ~ Desmond Dekker and the Aces
- I Got You Babe ~ Sonny & Cher
- She Loves You ~ Beatles
- Mrs. Robinson ~ Simon & Garfunkel
- Ring Of Fire ~ Johnny Cash
- All My Loving ~ The Beatles
- The Leader Of The Pack ~ Shangri-las
- Hot Rod Lincoln ~ Johnny Bond
- Let’s Twist Again ~ Chubby Checker
- Pretty Little Angel Eyes ~ Curtis Lee
Please cast your vote and let me know how you feel about protest songs!
See ya’all soon!!!
~xoXOxo~
And now…
… our moment of Homer J.:
Homer: I’ll never wiggle my bare butt it public again
Lisa: I’d like to believe that this time, I really would.
Bonus:
Then and now… 1960s vs the 2000s:
THEN: Long Hair
NOW: Longing for hair.
THEN: The perfect high.
NOW: The perfect high yield mutual fund.
THEN: Rolling Stones.
NOW: Kidney stones.
THEN: Passing the driver’s test.
NOW: Passing the vision test.
THEN: Trying to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor.
NOW: Trying not to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor.
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