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

#61
Haroldo said:
This is worthy of a longer post. I think there is a strong tendency for every generation to wear those rose-colored glasses (dunno if it's particularly stronger in us boomers, tho' you might have a point). To me, the more interesting thing concerning the original post is the list of present day hardware don'ts - and that an awful lot of good music was made in spite of our past sins. We can question whether it's the best, but it was pretty darned good. We got away with technological murder!

I'm as guilty as the next person but there seems to me a lot of us possess quite a few hardware / technology / convenience fetishes these days. I vacillate between luxuriating in the wealth of bass playing goodies available to me and on the other hand wanting to be a stone Luddite. By virtue of having too much disposable income, I think I've come down on the side of "golly-gee-whiz that new amp sure looks to be a fine thing, let's give it a whirl". But I could certainly stand to do a whole lot more plain ol' music making.
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I didn't see rose colored glasses in the original post. I saw nostagia for what might have arguably been a simpler time, when the music we made was possibly more important than the gear we made it with, and before anyone was able to monetize every tiny inconvenience that we had to solve organically. I mean, seriously. People pay money for a little strap to channel their guitar cable behind their feet now. Talk about a need that doesn't exist.

I posted a picture of a ground lift adapter. Back then, I wouldn't have been able to play half the gigs I had without one or three of those. If I tried to plug in something like that today, I'd be vilified, and rightly so. We did the best we could with what we had or knew at the time, and we're lucky it worked out okay.

It's funny because one of my personal pet-peeves is the "kids today" mentality that people in my age group (I'm 60) often display. "Back in my day, we made music on real instruments," grumble grumble. Yeah, every generation hates the way the next generation does things and reinterprets life. And I really dislike the "change is bad" mentality. But that's not what I saw in this post. We're allowed to have nostalgia for our own youthful times without that meaning that we're all a bunch of curmudgeons.
 
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#62
Paulabass said:
If we did so many things wrong, how come we made the best music of the century?
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Because we used Coil Cords! Can't make the best music of the century without 'em!
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#64
GregC said:
As a Boomer myself, I am so utterly and completely sick of this rose-colored glasses view of yesteryear. My generation is so full of themselves, it's incredible.
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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.
 
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#67
LBS-bass said:
I didn't see rose colored glasses in the original post. I saw nostagia for what might have arguably been a simpler time, when the music we made was possibly more important than the gear we made it with, and before anyone was able to monetize every tiny inconvenience. I mean, seriously. People pay money for a little strap to channel their cable behind their feet now. Talk about a need that doesn't exist.

I posted a picture of a ground lift adapter. If I tried to plug in something like that today, I'd be vilified. We did the best we could with what we had or knew at the time, and we're lucky it worked out okay.

It's funny because one of my personal pet-peeves is the "kids today" mentality that people in my age group (I'm 60) often display. "Back in my day, we made music on real instruments," grumble grumble. Yeah, every generation hates the way the next generation does things and reinterprets life. But that's not what I saw in this post. We're allowed to have nostalgia for our own youthful times without being curmudgeons.
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I was primarily responding to @GregC, but with some added philosophizin'. I, too, like to engage in nostalgia (and bemoan my flown-the-coop youth). For a variety of reasons this is a really good thread - particularly the tension between technology and art. (I think there has been a little 'damn kidz' in it, but not much).

I wanted to say 'ignorance was bliss', but there is far more here than merely that. We were at the point where a new music was being born, along with its expanding technology. (Also, I was bunches younger and thought everything was possible.)

At any rate, don't let me catch you using cheaters to plug in a grounded amp ever again!
 
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#68
Haroldo said:
I wanted to say 'ignorance was bliss', but there is far more here than merely that. We were at the point where a new music was being born, along with its expanding technology. (Also, I was bunches younger and thought everything was possible.)
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Agreed! The whole situation where rock music was emergent as live entertainment in local venues was pretty new, as I recall correctly. And we were the generation trying to figure out how to get the music out there to the audiences that wanted to hear it. That meant doing a lot of things on the fly, fixing stuff that broke, using what was available, 'cause there was no big "market" for all of those solutions yet.

At any rate, don't let me catch you using cheaters to plug in a grounded amp ever again!
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Nevah! Nevah again!
 
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#69
Coolhandjjl said:
I DJ’d soc hops at my high school in the 70’s. The Peavy and EV gear I rented back then sucked donkey.
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Sock hops? Spinning platters? In the 70s? Seriously?

Where were you doing that? I didn’t grow up in the hippest part of the world back then. But sock hops were definitely considered something that went out with the Dobie Gillis B&W TV era. DJs were were what you listened to on the radio. And you’d go catch a Sha Na Na show if you wanted “rock & roll” instead of just “rock.”
 
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#70
GregC said:
As a Boomer myself, I am so utterly and completely sick of this rose-colored glasses view of yesteryear. My generation is so full of themselves, it's incredible.
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I get what you’re saying. But we were there, you know? A lot of it was nonsense, but a lot of it was not. What was your draft number?
 
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#72
I don't have much nostalgia. I remember not being able to afford decent gear (I had a Fender Duo Sonic and a hot rodded blackface bassman), and a Shure Unidyne lll mic. I was constantly working on my equipment, because I had to live cheap. My first good stereo amp was a kit.

It's true though, standards were lower, but appropriate for the time. The rock music scene was new, and we invented it as we went along. People were more open minded it seemed. and audiences were not as sophisticated. It was possible to come up with something new, because so many things had not yet been done already.

I don't miss it much.

Tom
 
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#75
O God - So many memories from the 60's!

Coil Cords
Hi-Z Mic through a guitar amp with the guitars!
No instrument setup.
Never changed strings
I couldn't afford a P Bass - most of the rest of them were horrible junk.
No such thing as "vintage" we hacked and chopped the instruments. :eek:
All the amps coming off one extension cord. (30W was huge power then!)
A Shure Vocal Master was an amazing PA!
VW bus for the band!
TONS of gigs everywhere.
 
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#76
In the '70's we learned songs from the radio or cassette, we had no internet or sheet music (that we could afford). When trying to learn Shining Star by EW&F we listened to the cassette until it broke....could never make out some of the words. Best we could come up with was "pull the pants off of the sun". The drugs weren't better back then, either. Mostly shake and leaves.
 
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#78
Judge Nickels said:
Playing music and dicking around with gear are separate activities. They are fun to do together, but people should try to have a realistic idea of how much affect one has on the other.
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This.

A couple of people with a few cardboard. boxes, a good sense of rhythm, a modicum of talent, and some creativity can still floor you with the music they spontaneously perform.
 
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#80
charlie monroe said:
Because it was what was available.

A few years ago I went to a Yardbirds/Vanilla Fudge show in a great Buffalo club called the Tralf.

The lineups were reversed. The Yardbirds were all young hired guns except the drummer, and I believe the Fudge was all original except the drummer (corrections welcome here).

The young dudes were all using ancient mojo soaked gear. Aside from the Hammond, the Fudge were using all of the latest and greatest available today.

Taught me a lesson that day. Why look back? Use the best gear that you can get your hands on.
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Isn't Johnny A in the Yardbirds current lineup?
 

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