Things we didn't know or do in the 60's and 70's

[socialleper]

You are spot on about the simplicity. The music I was referring to is what I hear coming from the car adjacent me at the traffic light, which is very pronounced on rhythm, which is why I think of it more as poetry. And you are correct: very little of what is contemporary interests me. I very much am a retro-cat.

I will bet you if you tried, you could find modern artists doing a reboot of whatever floats your boat. The advantage of modern recording and distribution is that musicians can fill any weird little niche they want. Someone somewhere is doing their best to sound exactly like something released 50 years ago.
We have mostly run out of ideas, so it is a given.

 

[JimmyM]

If the phrase had been "because music was so central to everyone's lives back then," do you think the flak still would be flying? And AFAIK no one ever defined "best." But a lot of music in the 60s and 70s was so good in so many genres.

While true, a whole lot of it was total crap as well. "Abergivenny"? "Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In"? LOL! Yeah, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

[redwingxix]

I was going to say "it was the drugs," but even the drugs are better today.

Anyway. I wasn't around at that time, so I'm guessing it's because standards for live sound were much lower then. It's not like the craze for vintage gear extends to poorly intonated instruments or bad cabinets.

It also seems like some of the improvements are less about the quality of music, and more about convenience. A 30-pound amp that sounds great, a multi-effects unit, and a clip-on tuner doesn't make you a better musician. However, it certainly makes it easier and faster to get to the gig, set up, and tear down.

If anything, I'd say the advances in studio gear are more impressive. Tape and 4 tracks, oh my....

You were right the first time. It was the drugs. Back then you could enjoy yourself a little bit and still play and make great music. Today the drugs are more like an on/ off switch than a knob that goes from 1 to 11.

 

[JimmyM]

You were right the first time. It was the drugs. Back then you could enjoy yourself a little bit and still play and make great music. Today the drugs are more like an on/ off switch than a knob that goes from 1 to 11.

It's all about pacing yourself. Trust me, you could get completely wrecked and insane from the drugs back then if you wanted. And booze, which is still the number one drug, hasn't changed much at all except for different flavors.

 

[LBS-bass]

Actually, relative to Paulabas's post these were either not invented yet or non in use.

What decade was that? I was using them everywhere in the 70's and 80's. Seemed to need them less and less in the 90's on, though.

 

[Richland123]

Learning songs on a portable record player or a console stereo.

 

[LBS-bass]

Oh, and that we were under threat of being kidnapped every second of every day. We were told even to be suspicious of other family members suddenly showing up to pick us up from some where.

This is sad to me. There are kids in our neighborhood whose parents we're friendly with, but their grade-school aged kids will turn their heads and run if my husband or I say hi to them. "Stranger Danger" is raising generations of kids who are absolutely terrified of everyone and socially unskilled.

 

[redwingxix]

I think every generation has had a rose-colored glasses remembrance of their own youth.

Besides, without my rose-colored readers I can't read the menu.

I heard Chris Rock once say that the best music is whatever music you were into when you had sex for the first time. (Obviously paraphrased). That's why he will always have a soft spot for Whodini.

I tend to agree.

 

[JimmyM]

I heard Chris Rock once say that the best music is whatever music you were into when you had sex for the first time. (Obviously paraphrased). That's why he will always have a soft spot for Whodini.

I tend to agree.

And that's why I have a soft spot for The Ramones

 

[wes stephenson]

I'm of the opinion that every generation believes the music they grew up with is the best music, because it's inextricably linked with their youth and all the things that go along with that. There's no winning any argument about this because it's a subjective thing for every single person.

I really do think it's perfectly OK to let everyone have their own personal joy in this. Isn't that joy also something we associate with music? I'm happy for you that whatever music you enjoy the most is there for you. We certainly don't have to agree that your favorite music is better than mine, or vice versa. But you are still free to suggest that yours is the best because, for you, it is. I just don't want to fight about it.

So are you just reiterating what I said or what?

 

[wes stephenson]

See, this is where things get problematic.
"I think the music of that time was incredible" is a subjective opinion. It can't really be debated.
"Truly incredible" is a declarative statement of what is being forwarded as an objective truth. However, that statement can't be an objective truth because it is referring to personal opinion about art, about which opinions can only be subjective.
The internet is extremely literal; a simple "to me" really has to be tagged on to the end of your statement, because to simply state that it is "truly incredible" in any universal way is simply untrue.

Bitchin!

 

[GretschWretch]

While true, a whole lot of it was total crap as well. "Abergivenny"? "Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In"? LOL! Yeah, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I actually liked "Abergivenny," for the band accompaniment. But "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" got really old really quickly.

 

[Danny O Danny]

Sorry can't even find an image of them on the net. Coffee Can lighting. We took 4 coffee cans, painted them black, affixed them to a piece of wood, insert sockets, in parallel, screw in colored spot lights that were sold (in think they still sell them). Our singer constructed a control box. Was an ingenious kinda guy. We had 8 spots total (4 each side), hot hot hot, but we were the naz, with a lighted stage.

This brings back fond memories. Back in the day we had a frizzy-haired LSD-addled lighting guy/evil genius who we nicknamed Captain Nuclear. He built our light show out of coffee cans. Next he attached across the front of the drum riser (which was plywood sheets on milk crates) a plank upon which he had mounted eight automobile headlights on high beam. He made his own control board using household light switches. I can still remember flash images of stunned dancers caught in stark relief whenever he flicked on the headlights. Then he got into building flashpots, which were essentially pipebombs. It's a wonder no one was maimed or killed.

 

[Ronzo]

Like this? That is so cool! I never saw one of those amps before.

My best friend from childhood bought one of these at Lee Benson Music in Glen Oaks, NY when they were first on the market. I remember it sounded much like a B-15. No surprise with Jess Oliver’s involvement with both amps. It was - and is, if well kept - incredibly cool.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Four words: Estes model rocket igniters.

Those were always in our arsenal

 

[Haroldo]

I heard Chris Rock once say that the best music is whatever music you were into when you had sex for the first time. (Obviously paraphrased). That's why he will always have a soft spot for Whodini.

I tend to agree.

I vote for 'Bring It with You When You Come' by the Siegal-Schwall band. (Blues mandolin will now almost always get my motor runnin'.)

 

[Nevada Pete]

Learning songs on a portable record player or a console stereo.

Thank you for these beautiful photographs! Anybody get that at the time, after you dropped the cash for a beautiful console stereo, you darn sure were going to listen to it? People, lots of people, actually listened to music. They gave it their (more or less) undivided attention. Recorded music was not just something to act as a palliative while driving to, or from work. People took pride in their stereo, and in their album collection. Far more value was universally placed on music then, than now I think. Heck, I can actually remember going to visit friends, and they would play an album for you (subsequent to proper preparation). I guess the equivalent today would a home theater. I don't know anybody who has a set up like that. I guess it would double as a stereo. Sort of.

Now I'm jonesing / gassing for a set of Altec Lansing A-7 / 500 Voice of the Theater's. They made real fancy ones in mahogany or rosewood for the living room. I liked the bare bones dark green ones with no grills. The sectorial horn would sit on top of the thing. Probably a character defect.

 

[redwingxix]

I vote for 'Bring It with You When You Come' by the Siegal-Schwall band. (Blues mandolin will now almost always get my motor runnin'.)

Yep.

This will always be be one of my all time favorite records:

 

[LBS-bass]

So are you just reiterating what I said or what?

I am claiming both your right and Paula's to say it. What I'm not doing is endorsing the unkindness with which certain opinions are being dismissed in this thread. I think that part is unfortunate. Not aiming that at you, just the general smugness and trollishness on exhibit in some of these posts.

And now I really don't want to talk about this anymore because it's making me part of the problem and a lot of people really do just want to have some fun here. Including me.

 

[Haroldo]

Four words: Estes model rocket igniters.

I am such a granny....the thought of any indoor pyrotechnics scares the living daylights out of me. I think if such a thing was around in the late 60s / early 70s (and maybe it was, I didn't see any), I would have gotten out of the music biz alot more quickly than I did.

I like booms and zooms outside just fine.