or "What's so Funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding?"
On Wednesday of this week, I will be 67... the same age the last century was when I became a teenager. It was also the year that the Hippy Movement went from being an Underground Movement to an open challenge to "straight" society. Much to my father's horror, I absorbed as much information as I could about this new social phenomenon and If I hadn't been living in Lagos, Nigeria at the time (a country then in the midst of a Civil War) - I would no doubt have attempted to run away from home to try and join a hippy commune.
The hippy ideals had a tremendous appeal to me:
Peace & Pacifism seemed a brilliant idea in a country torn apart by a fratricidal war (and the TV images of the Vietnam War on the news every night underlined that).
Love and Open attitudes to Sex were an obvious magnet for a blossoming youth who was always falling in love with the wrong girl and ignoring those who secretly adored him. As well as coping with unsettling attractions to beauty in both sexes.
Alternative Consciousness Exploration also fascinated a young lad rebelling against the remnants of the old colonialist order and seeking to discover "who I was".
Psychedelic Rock and Drugs: the former I was very familiar with, indeed, for a long while it was my religion. The latter, in the form of marijuana, was more easily found in Lagos than on the streets of San Francisco... But I was wary of getting into that scene at 13 and 14. My trips down that particular cul-de-sac were a few years away in the future.
Anti-Materialism: as a privileged white kid, surrounded by a native population living in often squalid and impoverished conditions, the idea of turning our backs on money making and spreading the wealth had its appeal too. Living in a city that had grown from 300,000 to over 2,000,000 in the seven years since we'd arrived in Nigeria also led me to embrace ideas of "back to nature" - because the urban sprawl that Lagos was becoming was an anathema to anyone's aesthetic sense. The city must now be a true nightmare with its current population of over ten million.
Anyway, these were just some of the main themes that drove the Hippy Movement. Other offshoots of that rise in consciousness were a rejection of racism along with movements to support equal rights for women, the gay liberation movement and an awareness of environmental issues.
These are all ideals that I still believe the world could benefit from. So, it is these ideals I want to celebrate this week.
What I want those of you who like covering other artists to do is to submit songs from 1967 and 1968 (the Hippy Zenith) but only those songs which celebrated some aspect of the culture behind the long-hair, tie-die shirts and bell bottom jeans.
There was a lot of commercial crap produced in those years and none of that interests me. This was the age of Hendrix, Cream, The Incredible String Band, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, of albums by former "pop" bands that had caught the zeitgeist such as Sgt Pepper's, Their Satanic Majesties' Request, In Search of the Lost Chord, etc, etc.
So, help me, at 67, celebrate that formative period of my life and the ideals which I imbibed and have never really sobered up from.
For the Song-Writers among us, please give me songs of yours that similarly pay tribute to the hippy ideals, or else reflect on how it was targeted for destruction by a worried straight society, or else celebrate its legacy today, etc.
I'll leave the last word to one of my hippy heroes Robin Williamson, who, reflecting on the hippy period, came up with these lines in his song "Sands & the Glass" on the American Stonehenge album:
"I think we were duped
But I don't forget
The things that were true
I believe them yet
I've seen a new day
Beyond the sad sunset
It looks so fine
Let it shine...."
Hear it here:
https://youtu.be/u6N4hcZ5KpE
Usual rules apply:
There should be a prominent role for a Ukulele (or three).
Please listen to the submissions of others.
The Season starts at midnight Saturday 27th March and ends on Sunday 4th April at Midnight (both Hawaii Times) .
Please limit the number of songs to one a day. I rather foolishly took this week without noticing that it fell at Easter and if my wife doesn't get at least a couple of days away from home, these holidays, she will not be pleased. Especially as inter county restrictions have now been lifted.
And the winner is....
I may decide on a prize for the winner(s) this time around, but it won't be a ukulele. Thinning my collection out may be a good idea, heavily promoted by my dearest Carmen, but the postage to send out even a Soprano Ukulele here is incredibly expensive.
I will update this section later in the week when I have thought of what I might send the lucky winner(s).
Have a good one:
Playlist:
On Wednesday of this week, I will be 67... the same age the last century was when I became a teenager. It was also the year that the Hippy Movement went from being an Underground Movement to an open challenge to "straight" society. Much to my father's horror, I absorbed as much information as I could about this new social phenomenon and If I hadn't been living in Lagos, Nigeria at the time (a country then in the midst of a Civil War) - I would no doubt have attempted to run away from home to try and join a hippy commune.
The hippy ideals had a tremendous appeal to me:
Peace & Pacifism seemed a brilliant idea in a country torn apart by a fratricidal war (and the TV images of the Vietnam War on the news every night underlined that).
Love and Open attitudes to Sex were an obvious magnet for a blossoming youth who was always falling in love with the wrong girl and ignoring those who secretly adored him. As well as coping with unsettling attractions to beauty in both sexes.
Alternative Consciousness Exploration also fascinated a young lad rebelling against the remnants of the old colonialist order and seeking to discover "who I was".
Psychedelic Rock and Drugs: the former I was very familiar with, indeed, for a long while it was my religion. The latter, in the form of marijuana, was more easily found in Lagos than on the streets of San Francisco... But I was wary of getting into that scene at 13 and 14. My trips down that particular cul-de-sac were a few years away in the future.
Anti-Materialism: as a privileged white kid, surrounded by a native population living in often squalid and impoverished conditions, the idea of turning our backs on money making and spreading the wealth had its appeal too. Living in a city that had grown from 300,000 to over 2,000,000 in the seven years since we'd arrived in Nigeria also led me to embrace ideas of "back to nature" - because the urban sprawl that Lagos was becoming was an anathema to anyone's aesthetic sense. The city must now be a true nightmare with its current population of over ten million.
Anyway, these were just some of the main themes that drove the Hippy Movement. Other offshoots of that rise in consciousness were a rejection of racism along with movements to support equal rights for women, the gay liberation movement and an awareness of environmental issues.
These are all ideals that I still believe the world could benefit from. So, it is these ideals I want to celebrate this week.
What I want those of you who like covering other artists to do is to submit songs from 1967 and 1968 (the Hippy Zenith) but only those songs which celebrated some aspect of the culture behind the long-hair, tie-die shirts and bell bottom jeans.
There was a lot of commercial crap produced in those years and none of that interests me. This was the age of Hendrix, Cream, The Incredible String Band, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, of albums by former "pop" bands that had caught the zeitgeist such as Sgt Pepper's, Their Satanic Majesties' Request, In Search of the Lost Chord, etc, etc.
So, help me, at 67, celebrate that formative period of my life and the ideals which I imbibed and have never really sobered up from.
For the Song-Writers among us, please give me songs of yours that similarly pay tribute to the hippy ideals, or else reflect on how it was targeted for destruction by a worried straight society, or else celebrate its legacy today, etc.
I'll leave the last word to one of my hippy heroes Robin Williamson, who, reflecting on the hippy period, came up with these lines in his song "Sands & the Glass" on the American Stonehenge album:
"I think we were duped
But I don't forget
The things that were true
I believe them yet
I've seen a new day
Beyond the sad sunset
It looks so fine
Let it shine...."
Hear it here:
https://youtu.be/u6N4hcZ5KpE
Usual rules apply:
There should be a prominent role for a Ukulele (or three).
Please listen to the submissions of others.
The Season starts at midnight Saturday 27th March and ends on Sunday 4th April at Midnight (both Hawaii Times) .
Please limit the number of songs to one a day. I rather foolishly took this week without noticing that it fell at Easter and if my wife doesn't get at least a couple of days away from home, these holidays, she will not be pleased. Especially as inter county restrictions have now been lifted.
And the winner is....
I may decide on a prize for the winner(s) this time around, but it won't be a ukulele. Thinning my collection out may be a good idea, heavily promoted by my dearest Carmen, but the postage to send out even a Soprano Ukulele here is incredibly expensive.
I will update this section later in the week when I have thought of what I might send the lucky winner(s).
Have a good one:
Playlist:
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