Topics
Basic (free) Member
|
| | | |
Bruce Boyd
|
10/29/2007 10:13:56 PM
December 6 1969 - the day the music died?
The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
Altamont Dec 6 1969.
"...Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil’s only friend.
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music died..."
(Don Mclean - American Pie)
While these lyrics are probably unfair to the Stones, Altamont marked the end of the great musical experiment of the '60s. Within a year of that infamous festival, the Beatles were no more, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were dead and the "Summer of Love" was well and truly over.
Corporate America again gained control of the music industry after briefly losing it to the influential artists of the 60s. Once more music was to become a disposable product - to be bought, consumed and thrown away. Records became "units" to be "shipped".
However over 30 years on we're now witnessing a second revolution. Cheap digital equipment allows any musician to record at home. Websites such as IAC (it's the best of course Verity!) provide artists with direct access to their listeners and vice versa - the physical CD is becoming less important as music is transmitted direct over the web.
And the future? Well just as the '80s and '90s saw cross-cultural collaborations - Paul Simon, Ry Cooder etc - these are now possible in the virtual world. There's a growing number of sites where a musician can log in, upload files which are then added to by others from all over the world. The recording supergroup of the future may never have met in person!
So the outlook seems to be bright for those musicians to whom the MUSIC is more important than FAME.
|
|
SILVERWOODSTUDIO
|
10/30/2007 3:44:04 AM
Hey BJ,
'69 I was living on the West Coast of NZ ------------the land was cheap, and one could live on a few $, and hang out with some of the wildest looking characters ever.
We were full of hope and dope, and for the next few years, thought everything was up for change!
Gradually some of these communitys became weighed down with takers , crims, and maniacs, which also attracted the law----------makeshift houses were dismantled by councils, people ended up in court and the dream faded--------
I wouldn't have missed a second of it ---------It's sad to think my kids will never experience that kind of freedom, ------?
I put up a photo from those times on my site----'The Razorback gang'
towards the end of the slideshow, I'm on the left holding son Leo, now playing the didge, Maori flutes, Okarina, guitar,keyboard, bass and drums on IAC.
Fame?
|
|
Bruce Boyd
|
10/30/2007 11:18:52 PM
Yeah Rob we were living in this old two storey house. I had to take my amp head and two 4x12 quad boxes upstairs to my bedroom after every gig to make sure it would still be there in the morning. My brother was in a jug band and I was in a heavy rock band. Sometimes rehearsals overlapped and there were some pretty wild results!
There were all sorts of freaks squatting downstairs - I remember there was this mad banjo player....no-one knew where he came from and we chucked him out pretty regularly but next day he'd always be back.....playing the damn banjo...
|
|
|
10/31/2007 3:59:37 AM
I have seen Gimme Shelter many times. It used to play at the midnight movies with The Song Remains The Same several times every summer at the downtown theatre.
I think a little too much was made of the significance of it. I've read first hand accounts of numerous people who had a normal fine time at that show, just thought it was a bit crazy in front. Nirvana shows were all wilder in some respects.
I think the official start of the end of the 60s scene was when the Manson murders occurred.
|
|
Bruce Boyd
|
10/31/2007 8:06:14 PM
Good point about the Manson family Toby. Their misinterpretation of the "meaning" of the Beatles White Album lyrics was certainly a sign that the innocence of the '60s was over.
|
|
SILVERWOODSTUDIO
|
10/31/2007 8:25:52 PM
-----right Toby----------------after that we had a few hippy murders here!
not quite as bad-----but I lost 3 friends to relationship / jealousy type murders---2 in Kaikoura , (throats cut) and one in Nelson (shot in the stomach)
Also the drug killings in Motueka, one dead one wounded,--------plus various assaults and sexual crimes-----------had to step back, and change locations
It IS the company we keep!!!
|
|
| |
�2015-16 IndieMusicPeople.com All Rights
Reserved
| |
|