Did Hippies Hurt or Help American Music?

Greg Simmons · Post by **Greg Simmons** » 31 Jan 2008 12:11 pm

Enough of this carnal frivolity..get hip to "The Damned Hippie Name Generator"

http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen/13/

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 31 Jan 2008 12:16 pm

RE: Clapton

His greatest guitar work was in the 60's as far as I'm concerned. It was artisticly all down hill after that.

I agree. In the 60's and early 70's his playing was on fire and very exciting. When he became a pop singer/player in the 80's and 90's his stuff became bland and uninteresting IMHO, with the exception of a few flashes of brilliance.

An artist's early work is often his best, in my opinion. Jimi's first album "Are You Experienced" is so alive, the songs nearly jump off the record! That album is 40 years old and it's still sounds exciting! Jimi's career was short so it's hard to talk about his 'early work', but his later albums were not like the first one IMHO.

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 31 Jan 2008 12:18 pm

The BEATNIKS started it all,DYKBC.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 31 Jan 2008 12:23 pm

I HEREBY NOMINATE THIS POST FOR: THE #1 POST OF 2008.

It's been very educational and enlightening.

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 31 Jan 2008 12:33 pm

Clapton in the '80s? So corporate rock is better than hippie music now?

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 31 Jan 2008 12:39 pm

While not putting down Slowhand's recent work... because I really enjoy his rediscovery of acoustic blues..., my favorite Clapton is on the Mayall Beano album, the Cream era, and Blind Faith with Stevie Winwood.

Layla really got to me as well, in spite of the substance problems EC was going through at the time.

Here's how great Clapton was: he stole his best friend's wife, and the guy still used him on his record ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps")!

As an aside, am I alone in thinking that "Gimme Some Loving" by the Spencer Davis Group is among the quintessential rock songs of all time, (regardless of it not having Clapton)?

Larry Miller · Post by **Larry Miller** » 31 Jan 2008 12:46 pm

Herb, Yes,Gimme Some Lovin'is right up there with this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbXKEjIApac

Scott Shipley · Post by **Scott Shipley** » 31 Jan 2008 12:50 pm

A beatnik walks into a cafe and sits down. The waitress comes over and asks him "what'll ya have?" He says to her, "I'll have a piece of that groovy blueberry pie." She then says, "it's gone man," to which he replies, "far out, bring me two!"

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 31 Jan 2008 12:54 pm

Herb, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was recorded in 1968, but Eric didn't decide to kick his best friend in the shins until 3-4 years after that. (He recorded "Layla" as well, before he nabbed her). You're definitely accurate about them staying friends, though. After a short uncomfortable period, they were chumming around again.

Actually, when Eric confessed his love for Patti to George at a party, George remarked that people should have what they really want. Now there's a hippie for ya!!

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 31 Jan 2008 1:01 pm

Thanks for the correction, Chris... the years seem to be turning the gray matter white. Hey, where'd I leave my hookah? Anybody seen it?

Here's Spencer Davis and Stevie. Check out the Silvertone bass!!

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 31 Jan 2008 1:08 pm

And how about bluegrass deadpan hippies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs2NNUCD ... re=related

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 31 Jan 2008 1:17 pm

Ya, that Spencer Davis Group stuff is outstanding. Stevie Winwood is a prime example of influences working in your favour. He sounds just like Ray, but has his own thing thrown in there as well.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 31 Jan 2008 1:37 pm

Check out the way Spencer Davis Group dressed back then... they looked like college students! Real music, played with heart and soul by a quartet. No pretenses, no showbiz, just young men doing their thing. I love it.

When I was with Ronstadt in '68, our piano player Bill Martin told me to check out this band. He said "a Les Paul guitar went to Bach's funeral... and wept."

Of course, they're most famous for this classic.

Please, no wet-behind-the-ears young un's talk to me about 60's rock.

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 31 Jan 2008 1:48 pm

Herb Steiner wrote: When I was with Ronstadt in '68

Nothing more needs to be said.

P Gleespen · Post by **P Gleespen** » 31 Jan 2008 1:50 pm

I like how this topic has drifted from "kind of nasty" to "warm and fuzzy"!

I'm slightly embarrassed to say I've never heard any other Spencer Davis Group songs. Heck, I don't even know which guy is Spencer Davis!

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 31 Jan 2008 2:10 pm

The entire notion behind this thread is such to make me feel that any comment I have to make on it would only be superfluous, but I could only say, no, I don;t think hippes did a darn thing to "hurt" american music At All. Lets see- you might well ask Clarence White, Gram parsons, Chris Hillman, Sneaky Pete, Commander Cody, even Jerry Garcia, this silly question & they'd probably just laugh in your face with a fluster and a blush. Nobody ever said you had to LIKE it!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 31 Jan 2008 2:39 pm

"Hippie Music" IS and WAS American music. The 60's were part of a music continuum that evolves to this day. Elvis to the Beatles to psycodelic to country rock, heavy metal, soft rock, disco, new wave, punk, grunge, hard core... etc, etc. It all builds on what came earlier. Did Hippies Help American Music? Yes... absolutely!

I like how this topic has drifted from "kind of nasty" to "warm and fuzzy"!

One big happy family! Now let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya... like a bunch of hippies.

P Gleespen · Post by **P Gleespen** » 31 Jan 2008 2:46 pm

Doug Beaumier wrote:One big happy family! Now let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya... like a bunch of hippies.

Nice!

Mike Winter · Post by **Mike Winter** » 31 Jan 2008 2:56 pm

Before there were "hippies"...

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 31 Jan 2008 3:03 pm

Matt Rhodes wrote:...Generation X.

Generation 'X' includes anyone born in the early 1960s (the tail end of the 'baby boom' in the US). I was born in 1961, so that would make me Generation 'X'. When us Xers were teens we had to endure the disco and corporate rock of the late 1970s.

I didn't start liking rock and pop music until around 1971, and by then the so-called 'hippie' stuff was pretty much on the way out.

Ron Sodos · Post by **Ron Sodos** » 31 Jan 2008 3:10 pm

There was a whole lot more musical creativity then then there is now.

Bob Dylan
Janice Joplin
Judy Collins
Linda Ronstadt
Stone Ponies
Charlie Musslewhite
Poco
Paul Butterfield
The Byrds
Jefferson Airplane
Grateful Dead
Jimmy Hendrix
The Cream
Buffalo Springfield

and a million others I can't even remember.

Now we have Barf Brooks and Shania Twain

lucky us.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 31 Jan 2008 3:16 pm

The Spencer Davis Group... a great soul/rock band! I love that big Hammond B-3 sound. Another of their hits was 'I'm a Man'.

Steve Winwood was only 18 when he sang 'Gimme Some Loving' and 'I'm a Man' with the SDGroup. Back then he was known as Stevie Winwood. Spencer Davis looks a little bit like McCartney! Winwood went on to bigger things... Blind Faith, Traffic, and a great solo career. He did a lot of session work that many people are unaware of, like his awesome Hammond organ work on Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help from My Friends".

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 31 Jan 2008 3:19 pm

Okay,

I admit I didn't slog through all the posts so I will apologize now if I am repeating what others have said.

First of all, hippies is a misnomer, fabricated by the media to put label on a series of events that really couldn't be categorized. Same as the Beatnik label of the 50's. Really a meaningless label.

If we want, however, to talk about the music of the times we have:

The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Joni Mitchell
The Band
Jimi H
Janis
Jesse Colin Young
Frank Zappa
The Who
Led Zeppelin
Bob Dylan
Donovan
Pink Floyd
The Allman Brothers
The Greatful Dead
Crosby Stills Nash (and Young)
the Yardbirds
Van Morrison
Cream
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Doors
The Dave Clark Five
Steely Dan
Joe Cocker
Santana

I guess I could go on
and on and on and on. Most of the music from that permeates our commercials, background music, television comes from these musicians and musicians like them. Most of these bands or the members in them are still actively producing music, and selling out shows today. All of them were highly disciplined (you don't create music like this without being), great musicians.

Do you honestly think any other generation's music can boast of this kind of longevity, and popular appeal?

And honestly, if you don't see value in the list I just posted, you are just an idiot and not worth wasting breath on. Go piss on someone elses tree.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 31 Jan 2008 3:34 pm

The roots of the so called "Hippie" movement go Way Back... to Germany and Switzerland in the late 1800s, early 1900s. Communal living, being one with nature, etc. Some of these pictures look like they could have been taken in the 60's... but they weren't.

1887:

1917: California, Yes, a Slide Guitarist!

1916:

1926:

1948: California

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 31 Jan 2008 3:43 pm

Matt, are you angry at your parents for conceiving you? You've obviously learned how to stand up for your position, regardless how stupid or blind it may be. As far as "hippie" music, there was never any other kind, for me and my people. And now, there's nothing at all. I don't want to see Led Zeppelin in their 60's, I don't like to see Eric Clapton's playing lose it's fire---And I REALLY hated it when somebody started using the Beatles' "Revolution" as background music for a pair of freakin' sneakers! The beginning of the end.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Did Hippies Hurt or Help American Music?

I grew up in the 60's and was called a hippie.