Incense, posters, beads, and girls. My first taste of a "taco" from the new Taco Bell that came to our area. Television was getting bolder, old shows getting older. Music was different, and attitudes were changing. In fact, everything was changing so fast I felt that I could hardly keep pace with it. Girls weren't girls anymore, they were "pre-women". The "Summer of Love" exploded like nuclear fission; I felt caught up in a strange wave that was taking me in its direction. The whole world seemed to have fallen off into the deep end of the pool. And lastly, I was a kid, but not a kid.
This is what I remember.
Fashion changed, and I found myself changing with it. In 1969, I bought my first medallion. I thought it was so cool hanging around my neck. Serious clothing changes wouldn't happen to me until 1970, but the root of fashion was beginning to take hold. I watched the "Mod Squad" faithfully, every Tuesday night at 8:00 on channel 2. It was from that show that I learned that guys really could wear poofy scarves on their necks complimented by a set of mirror shades. The world was wild, and full of color. Love beads were a clackin', and those big leather watch bands were in style.
1968, the sonic pre-cursor to the great 1969, was the year that I discovered the angelic purple-blue glow of ultraviolet light. Black lights and posters were the coolest thing yet. In fact, here in 2008, I tend to feel the same way. I remember going to the first head shops, scavenging through the poster bins. hoping to find that one corresponding number to that one special poster on the wall. Though black lights were very cool, my real induction to the world of black light posters came in the early 70's.
Me in 1969
Nehru Jackets
Still being an absolute Beatles fan, nothing was more sacred to me than the "White Album." This was to me, a cryptic, unusual side to the band; a place where they decided to show a more intimate, undercover view of themselves. And yes, you could play the records backwards and the secret messages would be there. "Turn me on dead man" was quite obvious on Revolution No.9
Look Magazine's famous lithos by Photographer Richard Avedon are an integral part of my 60's memories. I had these hanging on my walls among my other Beatle memoribilia. A world of color, Psychedelia, and incense canopied under the mystic blue of black lights was my new realm. Everything was fresh, seen through even fresher lenses of a youth gone wild. Again, "The white Album" plays like a silent anthem in the background. I can still hear "Back in the U.S.S.R." blasting George riffs through tinny basement speakers.
Psychedelia was everywhere. It was in the fashions, the talk, the walk, the movies, the music. "Yellow Submarine" was the movie to see in 1969. I saw it on a double-bill with "The Thomas Crown Affair." George Harrison had just released "Wonderwall Music", an ultimately strange LP with some good works on it. Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" became the most played album in my collection. This now brings me to the world of Black Lights and Posters. I became obsessed with collecting posters. Not only collecting, but making my own with glo-paints. Hip artist Peter Max was also responsible for wallpapering the late 60's. His designs became a dire fascination for me, and like many artists, I imitated his unique style in my own posters.
Mostly, I noticed the music changing. It was no longer only about the Beatles. New bands were breaking surface, and my musical library was becoming greatly diversified. A guy named Jimi Hendrix threw acid and oil on a different sound, bringing newer and more abstract dimensions to the world of psychedelic music. He was way out; his clothes were on fire, his music maniacal, and he was beautiful. Jimi was the guy to admire. He lived in his own world. Better yet, he had a group called "The Experience." I mean, how much better does it get than that? The upside down Fender Stratocaster (that was as Hendrix as apple pie), became an icon of a new era of rock and roll.
These were some of the bands I was listening to in 1969: Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Moby Grape, Country Joe and the Fish, The Steve Miller Band, The Doors, The Moody Blues, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Grateful Dead, Cold Blood, Donovan, The Beatles' White Album, The Rolling Stones, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Just when I thought it couldn't get any more surreal...
1969 was a time of some pretty strange and devastating events. The famous "Helter Skelter" murders happened in August of 1969. Again, The Beatle's White Album suffered some pretty harsh slander and was practically named an accomplice to murder. The infamous Tate-LaBianca murders turned the tides of a new generation. "Drug-crazed hippies" were the fear of every parent in the nation. I remember that specific terminology in our own household. My mother banned me from listening to Steppenwolf's first album (after 400,000 plays on our living room stereo), because of the song "The Pusher". In this song, she finally heard the lines over and over again: "God damn the pusher." and replied with her own: "What did he say?!"
Hendrix was likewise banned. He was, as I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, just too way out. "Drug crazed" and "Hippie" were etched all over the guy. It was no problem though. All I had to do to keep listening to him was switch album covers. I began putting Hendrix records into Blue Cheer and Iron Butterfly covers. Poor mom never knew the difference. She wouldn't have known Jimi Hendrix from Paul Anka with trapped gas.
Viet Nam was on television every night on the five o'clock news. Parents of young men that were serving tuned in every night hoping, (and at the same time, not hoping) to catch a glimpse of their son. Paul McCartney was rumored to be dead. The world so bought into the idiotic theories that LIFE magazine did a cover story on it.
Although the world seemed to be turning on its dark side, positive events were also happening. The first moon walk happened in July of 1969. Woodstock happened in August, 1969. For me, high school had begun, and my life would soon start to spiral into the definite psychedelia of the 70's.
Me in the 70's
