I'm working on a book set in New York City in 1966. It was the year before the idea of the hippie codified, as it were, and there was a rising sense of excitement about the still-un-labled cultural ferment. The awfulness that was to overwhelm the city in the 1970s, was already taking hold. The infrastructure of the 40s and 50s was breaking down. Crime was going up, and while it was deplored, no one could predict that the crime wave would soon get even worse, and be taken for granted in the 1980s.
And, yes, the Top 40 was incredibly rich in great songs, the tide of excellence cresting, as Kling notes, the next year. Smoking was everywhere - I myself smoked on the bus, in movie theaters, in the office, and on airliners.
The anti-war movement had yet to merge with the new counterculture, and still wore its Old Left garb.
As one of the Jefferson Airplane put in, "For two weeks in 1967, everything was perfect". But when the media discovered hippies, named them, and put them on the cover of Time and Life, it all started to get nasty.
While all this was going on, America went on to elect Richard Nixon in a landslide.
My wife, born in 1968, hadn't heard White Rabbit before, since I don't have JA on CD (just very old tapes). So heard the whole Surrealistic Pillow album on YouTube. Other cool things by the hippies included more Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n Roll, with weed & speed & downers & LSD.
Funny how without radio domination of hits, so many kids have so many weird and wild other musical tastes - including more metal and electronic and video-game soundtrack stuff, plus redone parodies.
The Association did their song "Enter the Young", a paean to ... the Boomers! Who were, at the time, destined to finally lead the US to enlightenment. (Also see "The Greening of America", "Age of Aquarius", etc.)
Hippies constantly fought for their new ideas but after they gained control of academia decades later they ruled with an iron fist and stopped dissection of all new ideas.
I'm working on a book set in New York City in 1966. It was the year before the idea of the hippie codified, as it were, and there was a rising sense of excitement about the still-un-labled cultural ferment. The awfulness that was to overwhelm the city in the 1970s, was already taking hold. The infrastructure of the 40s and 50s was breaking down. Crime was going up, and while it was deplored, no one could predict that the crime wave would soon get even worse, and be taken for granted in the 1980s.
And, yes, the Top 40 was incredibly rich in great songs, the tide of excellence cresting, as Kling notes, the next year. Smoking was everywhere - I myself smoked on the bus, in movie theaters, in the office, and on airliners.
The anti-war movement had yet to merge with the new counterculture, and still wore its Old Left garb.
As one of the Jefferson Airplane put in, "For two weeks in 1967, everything was perfect". But when the media discovered hippies, named them, and put them on the cover of Time and Life, it all started to get nasty.
While all this was going on, America went on to elect Richard Nixon in a landslide.
A fascinating period!
My wife, born in 1968, hadn't heard White Rabbit before, since I don't have JA on CD (just very old tapes). So heard the whole Surrealistic Pillow album on YouTube. Other cool things by the hippies included more Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n Roll, with weed & speed & downers & LSD.
Funny how without radio domination of hits, so many kids have so many weird and wild other musical tastes - including more metal and electronic and video-game soundtrack stuff, plus redone parodies.
The Association did their song "Enter the Young", a paean to ... the Boomers! Who were, at the time, destined to finally lead the US to enlightenment. (Also see "The Greening of America", "Age of Aquarius", etc.)
Hippies constantly fought for their new ideas but after they gained control of academia decades later they ruled with an iron fist and stopped dissection of all new ideas.