Did Hippies Hurt or Help American Music?

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 31 Jan 2008 3:52 pm

I REALLY hated it when somebody started using the Beatles' "Revolution" as background music for a pair of freakin' sneakers!

Lennon must have turned over in his grave when that happened. I was shocked when I saw/heard that commercial.

Scott Shipley · Post by **Scott Shipley** » 31 Jan 2008 4:11 pm

The German hippie movement was actually called "wandervogel" which means "wandering bird." Akin to camping and scouting here in the 1950's. These "free-spirited" folks were easily identifiable by the red, yellow, and black ribbons they tied to their backpacks and clothing when hiking. It started innocently in the 1890's and ended when a fascist pig named Adolf forced his "ideals" on them, eventually absorbing the movement into his own youth agenda.
The "ie" suffix means like, so the word hippie would mean one who is hip.
Dig?

Mike Winter · Post by **Mike Winter** » 31 Jan 2008 4:20 pm

Thank Michael Jackson for the Revolution ad. He bought the Beatles' catalog. I don't think John would've done it. "Sir" Paul on the other hand...

Professors, Politics, and Pop By Jon Wiener has the story...

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 31 Jan 2008 4:48 pm

Hippies, Shmippies...

Give me my man Myron anytime - really.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWEgfrnyB18

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 31 Jan 2008 4:54 pm

Hey Gerald- if you like Myron then you might also enjoy Art Van Damme. CLICK HERE

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 31 Jan 2008 5:06 pm

Q. 'What does the 'G.' stand for?

A. 'Walter'.
.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 31 Jan 2008 5:12 pm

man, those accordian clips are hard to take.

The accordian rates just below b^xj0 on my scale of appreciation!

Bring back the Hippies.

Mike Winter · Post by **Mike Winter** » 31 Jan 2008 5:18 pm

Worth a small fortune now...

When Rolling Stone magazine asked Bob Dylan where he got the inspiration for "If Dogs Run Free", he said "I wanted to get that Krebs sound, you know, with the girls in the back, 'Like What?' "

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 31 Jan 2008 5:19 pm

Mike... I'm way ahead of you. I have four Art Van Damme LPs.

Doug. Come on... you can't appreciate the musicianship, technique, skill and speed those guys have/had?

Watch this - especially starting at around 1:35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEeGgcSu ... re=related

Barry Scott · Post by **Barry Scott** » 31 Jan 2008 5:33 pm

Since you guys brought up Spencer Davis....here is a pic of Spencer Davis and I from a couple of months ago.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 31 Jan 2008 5:35 pm

Compared to what the present day rap culture has done to music, the hippie culture was a golden era.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 31 Jan 2008 5:37 pm

Okay, I give up: is he laughing 'at' or 'with' your shirt?

Russ Tkac · Post by **Russ Tkac** » 31 Jan 2008 5:39 pm

Art Van Damme is the best. I have a great 2 CD set.

Jim, That is priceless! LOL

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 31 Jan 2008 6:13 pm

Doug. Come on... you can't appreciate the musicianship, technique, skill and speed those guys have/had?

I guess so... I just don't like the sound of an accordian, or a b^xj0. To each his own.

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 31 Jan 2008 6:48 pm

Regardless of whether you think the music from the '60's is good, bad or indifferent, when it was going on it was new, vibrant and exciting. It seemed like new ground was being broken all the time.
Nobody had ever heard anything before like Sgt Pepper, or Hendrix, Cream, the Byrds or Dylan. It was all new and if you were there, and lucky enough to have been playing music back then, it was just as exciting as all get-out.
I don't hear anything like that going on now, whether it's rock, country or whatever.

And don't forget the C&W stuff that was going on then...Haggard, Owens, Jones & all the rest that gave birth to the Burritos and the whole country rock scene.

And where would our collective soul be without those gems from Motown?

Of course, this has nothing to do with hippies...just my two cents.

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 31 Jan 2008 6:49 pm

This has to be the all-time record for posts on a thread for a day.

Lessee...since the last influential band list is several pages back, maybe I'll update it.

ELP
Yes
King Crimson
Deep Purple
The Doors
Steppenwolf
Jethro Tull
The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Gram Parsons, Flying Burrito Bros, Manassas, CSN&Y, Poco, New Riders, The Eagles--and everything else spawned by the Byrds which spans over 40 years of great music
The Flock
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Santana
Black Oak Arkansas
Blue Oyster Cult
Ultimate Spinach
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Big Brother and the Holding Co and Janice
Egg--the first band I ever heard that played in 13/8
Blodwyn Pig
J.Geils Band
Bubble Puppy
Canned Heat
Savoy Brown
Alvin Lee and 10 Years After
Jefferson Airplane
Zappa and Mothers of Invention
Uriah Heep
Elf

With the advent of Hendrix, Page and Clapton, the whole concept of guitar playing entered a new paradigm.

Synthesizers changed music forever, but were it not for the way they played into the whole psychedelic era, they might have never gained any more popularity than their earlier counterpart, the theramin.

The Hippie era, despite any of its residual negative aspects, got the collective mind of humanity out of a box that was suffocating us. It gave us hope for peace. It opened doors of creativity in the arts unlike anything before or after. It made us more aware of serious problems facing society--pollution and other environmental concerns, poverty, racism,alternative energy and conservation of fossil fuels. Were we naive? In some respects, yes. But we learned to question authority, and one could argue that it has saved our democracy in the long run.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 31 Jan 2008 6:55 pm

This is turning out to be one of my all-time favorite threads on this forum. I had no idea I had so many spiritual brethren on the Forum.

Webb, has anyone told you that your avatar photo bears an incredible likeness to Chuck Norris?

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 31 Jan 2008 7:07 pm

If Chuck Norris played steel, there'd be no "way to survive".

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 31 Jan 2008 7:19 pm

Another thing we hippies contributed to society is the idea of co-operation instead of competition. The idea that we help each other up the ladder instead of climbing over each other, and thereby all get to the top.

This has a direct bearing on this steel guitar community ad this forum. There was a time when steel players would jealously guard their copedants, and according to some stories, would even de0tune their guitars between sets so other steel players could not figure out their tunings.

Anybody remember when certain players had "secret pedals?"

Compare that to today, and this forum where we all share or knowledge, so that we may all get better at taming this wild beast we're riding. Can you imagine somebody here refusing to say what some of his or her pedals or knee levers do?

This idea of sharing our knowledge and teaching and learning from each other is a direct outgrowth of the hippie philosophy.

I didn't contribute very much to the Hippie scene, but I'm PROUD of my generation for having created it. Even with the excesses, and the silliness, and the drug tragedies, we were part of something very real and substantial, that went way beyond our music.

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 31 Jan 2008 7:32 pm

Hey where's Matt Rhodes?.. his mewling little comeback posts, like he was crawling back into a little box and throwing out small toys in some desperate and childlike line of defence aren't really needed, but it would be interesting if he could define part of his original question.

It's too generic.

Eg: "Aside from what my hippie parents' generation gave birth to [questionable fashion and personal hygiene, flexible mores, other-worldly (read "unproductive") intellectual pursuits, and the overall championing of mediocrity], I've wondered lately about what that generation spawned (as well as preserved) musically."

Of course it might have helped if you had some thoughts beyond "birth to [questionable fashion and personal hygiene, flexible mores, other-worldly (read "unproductive") intellectual pursuits, and the overall championing of mediocrity]."

How do you define hippies.. beyond your own issues with your parents, is beyond me. You seem to have some perverted, simplified cartoon-like image ever present in your concious that shapes this sad image you've conjured for us all.

And then you later add "Hippies are (sadly) now pretty much homogenized and mainstream."

Why you think it's sad that they may be part of the mainstream, seeing as you dislike them with such intensity, it seems a little strange.
Surely you'd want them to assimiliate to whatever arch-conservative model you'd like them to fit into?

Or, was that your own way of saying that they are so part of the mainstream, that you are unable to tell anyone apart, except for people just like you.

You see, inall honesty I'm struggling to figure out what you're asking.
Do you mean anyone who had long hair, did they have to live on communes, could they own things, do you count older beats who got swept into the hippy thing?

Do you mean any long haired kid after 1965 up to 1975?

Come back Matt, help us out a bit.

Some things to think about:

Drum machines got back to the 60s. You can see someone using one in a live context in the film Nashville Sound (filmed '69, first released 1970)

Punk rock, for all intents and purposes, was invented in the 60s, if not by the first garage punk band, then by the Velvet Underground, The Stooges, etc.

Electronic rock bands (Silver Apples, etc) kicked off in the 60s, some of the late 60s and early 70s Krautrock (Re: German electro-rock bands) kind of invented post-punk and new wave abotu 10 years earlier than the mainstream knew about it.

Electric experiental albums proliferated in the 60s (Terry Reilly and many others..)

Student protest rallies grew from various prior peace movements and intergration groups, the freedom riders, etc.. so essentially they were a logical outgrowth of a pre-hippie movement.

The hippy influence helped the native American political movement take shape.

The 60s offered one of the greatest crossing of boundaries in the music world:
Genres like classic, country, bluegrass, soul, funk, electronica, old timey blues and country, vaudeville, blues, jug band, classicial indian, and others were crossed over and over, generations met, styles converged, new styles evolved at a pace like no other time.

For someone to dismiss it as a time of extended solos and meandering, they'd have missed the simple beauty of sunshine pop and later glam, the driving evergy of power pop.

The British folk-rock movement, the racial barrier crossing excitement of funk (black hippies!), country-rock and it's influence on mainstream pop and country.

Before the 60s there was no alternative music, there was next to no alternative press, now we learn from them and over the years some have made the move into mainstream media to help break the stranglehold.

Would you discount the filmakers of the 60s who grew up with the hippy movement?

The writers?

You did say it would be interesting to hear 'our' take on this.

and for better or worse, the Search Engine seems to derive a lot of information founded on prior information, ie: things that were written in the past.
Most of the basis for critique of popular culture came in the 60s, fanzines, the earliest rock journalism, and the early fanzines which strayed from simple fan club propaganda of previous generations. not to mention the growth of Univeristy Press and papers, which inspired by the politicised climate of the time.

Oh, and Matt.. I do't think the hippy era is the be all and end all of cultures, but nor do I think you've got much of a leg to stand on.

I've tried to be concise, but when the original question is loaded with so much personal baggage and piffle, it's hard.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 31 Jan 2008 7:45 pm

Not to be one of the rousers of the rabble, but it's been 36 hours and this thread has had over 2100 viewings, and mine is the 145th post.

Rock on, dudes!!! Don't take the purple acid!!

Oddy, thanks again for your insightful contributions, as always. I would truly love it if we could meet in person one day.

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 31 Jan 2008 7:52 pm

Herb, it will happen.. one day.

Actually, here's a tip for anyone starting a new topic. Matt Rhodes, you can come out from behind the bed and read this too.

When you ask about something and finish the question with something along the line of .."what does everyone think?"

It is advisable that if you are taking a stand or offering an opinion, don't just come out and trash it. You know, make negative generic assumptions or unleash personal baggage.
People don't like that sh!t and will spend a certain amount of time vigorously making a case that you are:

1. wrong
2. nuts
3. ignorant
4. all of the above

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 31 Jan 2008 7:56 pm

.... and for the record, I don't think you're nuts.

John Cisco · Post by **John Cisco** » 31 Jan 2008 7:58 pm

Uh.....Clem

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 31 Jan 2008 8:12 pm

Herb Steiner wrote:
Rock on, dudes!!! Don't take the purple acid!!

And don't eat the yellow snow!!

Matt, I don't know where you are or how you feel at the moment, but you're responsible for starting a forum classic! That can't be too bad, can it?

Steinar

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Did Hippies Hurt or Help American Music?

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