VIDEO: Interview with Jim Morrison's Father and Sister

Hi all,

Here is a fascinating insight of Jim Morrison through a series of interviews with two people who very close to Jim. This is from the "When You're Strange" DVD bonus material. Fascinating!


Uploaded to YouTube by Helge Nicholson

VIDEO: The Crystal Ship by The Doors

Hi all,

A classic from the Doors. The lyrics are below, enjoy!


Uploaded to YouTube by Anonymous343434

Before you slip into unconsciousness
I'd like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We'll meet again, we'll meet again

Oh tell me where your freedom lies
The streets are fields that never die
Deliver me from reasons why
You'd rather cry, I'd rather fly

The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time
When we get back, I'll drop a line

The Role Of The Hippie In American Culture

Cover of Timothy Leary

American society and culture experienced an awakening during the 1960s as a result of the diverse civil rights, economic, and political issues it was faced with.

At the center of this revolution was the American hippie, the most peculiar and highly influential figure of the time period.

Hippies were vital to the American counterculture, fueling a movement to expand awareness and stretch accepted values.

The hippies’ solutions to the problems of institutionalized American society were to either participate in mass protests or drop out of society completely.

The government and the older generations could not understand their way of life. Hippies were often portrayed as criminals, subversive to the morals and best interest of the public.

Although misunderstood, the hippie had a great impact throughout the country, still surviving today in American culture. The term “hippie” itself became a universal term in the late sixties. It originated in a 1967 article in Ramparts, entitled “The Social History of the Hippies.” Afterward, the name was captured by the mass media as a label for the people of the new movement (Yablonsky 28).

Even before this, the word “hip” described someone who was “in” and “down”, wise to what was going on around him. By the 1960s, some of America’s youth created a gap between themselves and their parents. They grew their hair long because it was natural and therefore considered beautiful. At first, the idea of men with long hair was absurd and society considered it a sign of homosexuality. When it became clear that the establishment felt so strongly about hair, the attitudes of young rebels changed.

One young man responded after being questioned about his unkempt appearance: "Growing hair does not mean that I am or am not a homosexual. It does mean that I am willing to stand up for my rights as a human being and that includes my right to be harmless to all people. It also indicates my unwillingness to get on the treadmill of killing for a vast machine-like government. If I am scorned and called dirty because I allow hair to grow on my face and my head, then so much the better, for by this I indicate the seriousness of my belief. I scorn the society that has created this monstrous robot-like conformity that feeds the war machine as Hitler found robots to feed his war machine" (Perry 188).

In contrast to the short crew-cut style that every young man adhered to during the fifties, the hippie popularized a diversity of hairstyles with no single ideal image to fit. The clothes worn by hippies were also chosen to express anti-establishment sentiments to the public.

They tried to stay away from store-bought, expensive clothes. Their pants, shirts and dresses were made of comfortable, natural fibers like cotton and denim. Many articles of clothing were hand-crafted, such as belts, shoes, necklaces, and headbands.

As poverty spread, the hippie wardrobe grew increasingly shabby. They shopped at thrift shops and places like the Diggers’ Free Store. Gray, dingy, torn clothes and broken shoes became the characteristic style of the hippies (Wolf 18). Spawned out of necessity rather than style, these clothes were another symbol of their retaliation against the system.

The hippies’ approach toward life was much more relaxed and open-minded than the rest of society. They all agreed on the importance of brotherhood among people of all races and ethnicity. Preaching a motto of love and kindness, hippies tried to spread their beliefs into society. By handing out flowers, singing songs, and making orations, these young people tried to make America hear its message of love (Kornbluth 250-253).

People would share resources amongst each other, making sure everyone got a portion of the food, drink, clothes that the group managed to get. This was completely opposite to the government policies favoring sharp economic inequality, allowing starvation and poverty to continue.

The Diggers of San Francisco attempted to do their part, organizing free meals and handouts (Wolf 11). This charitable display demonstrated the kindness and gentleness of the hippies to the American public. They hoped that the rest of the population would follow in their example and help the indigent, unfortunately, they did not. The hippies, did however, gain respect in the eyes of the public as champions of the poor.

Sex was a major issue associated with the hippie culture of the sixties. Society had built up barriers against intimate contact between the sexes for decades. Throughout American history, pre-marital sex was offensive and unacceptable to society. The hippies challenged these limits by practicing sexual activities spontaneously an openly. Their promiscuity left the nation in disbelief: having multiple partners and engaging in casual sex with little emotional engagement (Mills 112-113).

The female’s sensuality was actually realized and flaunted. These girls did not dress in conservative, concealing clothes to hide themselves. Hippies realized the beauty of the human body, as a result they found no need to hide it. One hippie’s remark about the women he associated with was quite noteworthy, “See the girls in the miniskirts? See the beautiful legs. Yes they lead to the …! and these girls do not tease … they *censored*. Can you take it?” (Kornbluth 206).

Of course, society strongly disagreed with this behavior. The deviation from the nuclear family ideal imposed upon them was a vital step for the hippies. Through this gesture, they abolished the possessiveness and materialism associated with marriage (Westhues 41-42).

Illegitimate children and unrestricted sex created a negative stigma, but it brought the hippies even more attention from the American public. Although many people did not approve of the hippie lifestyle and some turned their heads, they made a lasting impression on social boundaries. The possibilities of sexual freedom they presented to the “straights” took root and eventually widened their boundaries as well.

The hippies openly advocated the use of drugs to enhance the monotony of daily life and to raise awareness. Marijuana and LSD were their most prevalent drugs of choice because of their psychedelic properties.

“Grass” had been illegal since 1937, so dealing with it was a criminal offense. The hippies used marijuana for numerous purposes, unable to find the negative effects that the government had been spreading for decades.

David Solomon, editor of The Marijuana Papers stated comically in regard to weed: "Like Spearmint, it aids concentration and helps you do almost anything a little bit better. It grows hair on the palm of your hands, introduces you to a nice type of black man, overcomes impotence, improves appetite, banishes excess bat, constipation, and headaches, relieves rheumatism … in short, it’s a miracle drug. A pot nation is a powerful nation. Possible side effects: a feeling of dreamy nonchalance, heightened sense of awareness, bursts of introspection, mellowing attitude towards one’s fellow man, especially if he’s stoned beside you (Neville 127).

The continued use of marijuana, despite legislation and parental guidelines was another powerful means of rebellion. Many people were “turned on” to the hip “scene” by marijuana (Yablonsky 242). Smoking grass soon spread into the suburbs and the rest of sheltered America.

The popularization of LSD can easily be attributed to the hippies and the self-proclaimed leaders of the acid movement. Remaining legal until 1966, LSD gained great publicity from them and drew notoriety after it was criminalized. Timothy Leary’s studies were published and widely read, almost like bibles. His book The Psychedelic Experience, and a translated version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead soon became the guidebooks for passage through a successful trip (Westhues 40-41). Through his writing, he spread the hippie motto of “Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out”.

Ken Kesey’s acid tests and his adventures with the Pranksters drew further attention to the acid movement, as it came to be known. In The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, an account of his adventures, he metaphorically states, “There are going to be times, when we can’t wait for somebody. Now, you’re either on the bus or off the bus. If you’re on the bus, and you get left behind, then you’ll find it again. If you’re off the bus in the first place - then it won’t make a damn. You’re either on the bus … or off the bus” (Wolfe 74).

The hippies believed that LSD had the power to raise them to a higher consciousness, it helped you get “on the bus.” Hippies used acid limitlessly, tightening the bonds with each other and widening the gap between themselves and society. Americans could reluctantly tolerate marijuana usage, but after seeing the creative and frightening effects of LSD, would not accept the chemical in society.

Individuality and identity are two very important ideals to the hippies. They feel that the establishment tries to control people through routine methods like organized work and leisure. The idea of anything organized would instantly evoke boredom and restraint in the mind of the hippie (Cavan 162-163). Many of these young people devoted tremendous amounts of time to “doing their own thing”.

This could have been anything, ranging from creative endeavors like painting and poetry to merely sitting on the grass meditating. Doing one’s “own thing” brought the person a unique sense of identity. This gave them a different approach to finding careers than their parents tried to teach them “If you get a job or something, you’re even more conforming to the system, and if you don’t agree with it, where do you turn? So you see you kind of invent your own lifestyle” (Mills 79).

The dehumanizing effect of joining the American workforce was met with the hippies’ decision to exclude themselves from it, avoiding its negative effects. This placed them outside of the economy, separating them from the rest of society. Of course, they were further misunderstood and even despised for their refusal to work.

Some hippies looked for solutions to the social problems plaguing the U.S. during the sixties. They staged massive demonstrations to draw attention and try to bring about change. Student activism reached a peak during the 1960s as bright, affluent college students fought against unfair legislation, abuse of human rights, racial discrimination, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

These protestors were more than just hippies, they were the children of the upper middle class. The social status of these students ensured that their message was heard by the public and captured by the media (Westby 254). Images of angry hippies burning draft cards and giving speeches to huge audiences spread across the country.

During the mid 1960s, anti-war demonstrations flooded the nation’s capital. Led by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), some protests drew massive crowds of twenty-five thousand protestors or more (Young 150-151). The commitment to a common was a unifying force among the hippies, surpassing any individual differences. The protests were very important because they were nationally televised, placing the hippie at the center of the American home, in the living room.

Another group of hippies thought the answer was merely to “drop out” of society completely. They chose to live together communally, generally in rural areas, and attempted to become self-sufficient. On these communes, they participated in food and clothing production, child rearing as well as devoting plenty of time to “do their own thing” (Cavan 155).

These hippies quickly learned that survival was very difficult without the aid of civilization. A commune could not function without a great deal of effort on behalf of the members. As they soon found out, organization was necessary to keep these communities running smoothly. Because most hippies came to the communes escaping the establishment, organization was not easy to impose upon them (Westhues 194-195).

The most famous hippie community was not a farm, it was the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco. People flocked from around the country to experience the phenomenon of merely being there, of “being in” (Perry 29-30). The brotherhood and kindness present in the community was hidden from the American public by the appearance and lifestyle of the inhabitants.

Tour buses carried visitors through the neighborhood providing them with a superficial and confused view of the community: "We are now entering the largest hippie colony in the world and the very heart and fountainhead of the hippie subculture. We are now passing through the ‘Bearded Curtain’ and will journey down Haight Street, the very nerve center of a city within a city … Marijuana, of course is a household staple here, enjoyed by the natives to stimulate their senses … Among the favorite pastimes of the hippies, besides taking drugs, are parading and demonstrating, seminars, malingering, and the ever-present preoccupation with the soul, reality, and self-expression such as strumming guitars, piping flutes and banging on bongos (Yablonsky 200).

The creation of hippie communities gave them a foundation in American society. Whether the public liked it or not, the hippies became a permanent part of our culture. The controversial messages of the hippies and their socially unacceptable lifestyle made them targets of very much negative publicity. They were all portrayed as drug pushers, prostitutes, and thieves by the media (Mills 76-77).

The belief that their subversive ideas could destroy society’s structure and values caused people to fear them.

Perhaps the most damaging publicity that the hippies received during the sixties was their association with the Manson family. In a Newsweek article entitled “Case of the Hypnotic Hippie”, brutal murders and cultism are linked to a hippie world that prides itself on peace and love.

In describing how normal teenagers became savage killers the author of the article states: "One by one, these vulnerable yet dangerous misfits made their way to California in the late 1960s, most of them to the Haight Ashbury in San Francisco, where the hippie culture was already showing signs of strata. The trouble was that these misfits were just as vulnerable to the follies, cruelties and excesses of the hippie world as they were to those of the straight world they had abandoned" (Newsweek 31).

Along with reports such as these, the public grew more cautious about the hippies. They were further ostracized, despite their acts of public kindness and gentleness.

Following the 1960s, as many of these hippies grew older, the returned to normal society. They eventually bought into the establishment they once fought against, by getting married, moving into suburban homes and buying family cars.

Some stubborn individuals never lost their hippie appearance and lifestyle. Many of these interesting individuals can still be seen in San Francisco and the East Village in New York. A large number of these hippies are even conveniently located in beautiful Ithaca. Their appearance is still the same, but now hippie gear is mass-produced for the department stores.

Regardless of how their lives had changed, the impression that hippies left will last forever. They demonstrated the power of America’s youth as they fought to bring about change. The hippies taught people to appreciate nature and the beauty of the human body. Most importantly, hippies broke social boundaries, setting an example that others would follow.

Bibliography

List Cavan, Sherri. Hippies of the Haight. New Critics Press. St. Louis, 1972.

Kornbluth, Jesse edit. Notes from the New Underground. The Viking Press. New York, 1968.

Mills, Richard. Young Outsiders, a study of Alternative Communities. Pantheon Books. New York, 1973.

Neville, Richard. Play Power: Exploring the International Underground. Random House. New York, 1970.

Newsweek. “Case of the Hypnotic Hippie”. December 15, 1969. p. 30-32.

Perry, Helen. The Human Be-In. Basic Books Inc. New York, 1970.

Westby, David “Class and Politics in the Family Backgrounds Student Political Activists”. American Sociological Review. vol 31, Oct 1966.

Westhues, Kenneth. Society’s Shadow: Studies in the Sociology of Countercultures. McGraw-Hill. New York, 1972.

Wolf, Leonard. Voices from the Love Generation. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1968.

Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Bantam Books, New York, 1967.

Yablonsky, Lewis. The Hippie Trip. Pegasus Books. New York, 1968.

VIDEO: Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Steve Stills - Super Session [Full Album]

Hi all,

Here's one of my favourite albums of the 1960s - a swirling bit of psychedelic blues for ya! 

Uploaded by guitargods2009

The classic 1968 Columbia jam album in it's entirety. One of my all-time favorite LP's. Mike Bloomfield just tearing it up on that '59 'burst (Gibson Les Paul Standard).

Track listing:

SIDE ONE (feat. Michael Bloomfield)
1. Albert's Shuffle - 0:00
2. Stop - 6:52
3. Man's Temptation - 11:09
4. His Holy Modal Majesty - 14:34
5. Really - 23:48

SIDE TWO (feat. Stephen Stills)
1. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry - 29:16
2. Season of the Witch - 32:45
3. You Don't Love Me - 43:53
4. Harvey's Tune - 48:03

Super Session is an album envisioned by Al Kooper and featuring the work of guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills, released on Columbia Records in 1968, CS 9701. Bloomfield and Stills do not play together on the album, with tracks including Bloomfield on side one (tracks 1-5), and those including Stills on side two (tracks 6-9). It peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200 eventually awarded Gold status.

Album personnel:

Al Kooper - vocals, piano, organ, ondioline, backing guitar
Mike Bloomfield - lead guitar on side one
Stephen Stills - lead guitar on side two
Barry Goldberg - electric piano on "Albert's Shuffle" and "Stop"
Harvey Brooks - bass
Eddie Hoh - drums, percussion

DVD PREVIEW: Beatles Magical Mystery Tour Film Restored

by Retro: Kimmer: http://www.retrokimmer.com/2012/08/beatles-magical-mystery-tour-film.html

SEE THE NEW TRAILER

A restored version of The Beatles' 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 9. 

The long-out-of-print movie, which was conceived and directed by The Beatles themselves, follows the band and an eclectic cast of actors and performers on a surreal bus ride from London to the English seaside. Among the then-new Fab Four songs featured in the flick were "I Am the Walrus," "Your Mother Should Know," "The Fool on the Hill" and "Hello Goodbye."

The Magical Mystery Tour DVD and Blu-ray will feature a variety of bonuses, including new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, commentary by McCartney, three deleted scenes, a making-of documentary, and a short feature about the cast members. It also boasts newly edited versions of three scenes in which The Beatles performed songs, as well as the original promotional film put together for "Hello Goodbye."

Besides the separate DVD and Blu-ray editions, a deluxe Magical Mystery Tour box set will be sold featuring both discs, a 60-page book, and a vinyl double-EP of songs from the film that recreates the one released in the U.K. in 1967 to accompany the movie.

Prior to the release of the updated Magical Mystery Tour discs, the film will be screened at a variety of theaters around the world.

VIDEO: Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg Visit the Grave of Jack Kerouac (1979)

by Colin Marshall, Open Culture: http://www.openculture.com



Above you can watch a rare 1979 meeting, of sorts, of three hugely influential twentieth-century cultural minds: Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, and - in spirit, anyway - Jack Kerouac, who died ten years before.

This clip, though brief, would be fascinating enough by itself, but Sean Wilentz provides extensive backstory in “Penetrating Aether: The Beat Generation and Allen Ginsberg’s America,” an essay from the New Yorker.

“On a crisp scarlet-ocher November afternoon at Edson Cemetery in Lowell,” as he describes it, “Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg visited Kerouac’s grave, trailed by a reporter, a photographer, a film crew, and various others (including the young playwright Sam Shepard).”

There “Ginsberg recited not from Kerouac’s prose but from poetry out of Mexico City Blues [...] invoking specters, fatigue, mortality, Mexico, and John Steinbeck’s boxcar America, while he and Dylan contemplated Kerouac’s headstone.” Why that particular collection? “Someone handed me Mexico City Blues in St. Paul in 1959,” Wilentz quotes Dylan as having told Ginsberg. “It blew my mind.”

In the piece, which comes adapted from his book Bob Dylan in America, Wilentz goes into great detail describing Dylan as a link between two sometimes compatible and sometimes antagonistic subcultures in midcentury America: the folk music movement and the Beat generation.

“I came out of the wilderness and just naturally fell in with the Beat scene, the bohemian, Be Bop crowd, it was all pretty much connected,” Wilentz quotes Dylan as saying in 1985. “It was Jack Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, Ferlinghetti … I got in at the tail end of that and it was magic … it had just as big an impact on me as Elvis Presley.”

Wilentz describes Dylan relating to Kerouac as “a young man from a small declining industrial town who had come to New York as a cultural outsider more than twenty years earlier - an unknown bursting with ideas and whom the insiders proceeded either to lionize or to condemn, and, in any case, badly misconstrue.”

The Beats showed Dylan a path to maintaining his cultural relevance, a trick he’s managed over and over again in the decades since. “Even though Dylan invented himself within one current of musical populism that came out of the 1930s and 1940s,” Wilentz writes, “he escaped that current in the 1960s - without ever completely rejecting it - by embracing anew some of the spirit and imagery of the Beat generation’s entirely different rebellious disaffiliation and poetic transcendence.”

Note: Do you want to hear Sean Wilentz read Bob Dylan in America for free? (Find an audio sample here). Just head over to Audible.com and register for a 30-day free trial. You can download any audiobook for free. Then, when the trial is over, you can continue your Audible subscription, or cancel it, and still keep the audio book. The choice is entirely yours. And, in full disclosure, let me tell you that we have a nice arrangement with Audible. Whenever someone signs up for a free trial, it helps support Open Culture.

Related content:
‘The Ballad of the Skeletons’: Allen Ginsberg’s 1996 Collaboration with Philip Glass and Paul McCartney
Celebrate Jack Kerouac’s 90th Birthday with Kerouac, the Movie
Allen Ginsberg Reads His Classic Beat Poem, Howl
Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall.

VIDEO: "I'll be your Mirror" by Nico (1966)

Hi all,

Here's a real obscurity by Nico from 1966. Typically strange!


Uploaded on YouTube by veletundergroundvid

NEWS: John Lennon ... Chapman Up for Parole Again

by Retro: Kimmer: http://www.retrokimmer.com/2012/08/john-lennonchapman-up-for-parole-again.html

I do not wish to promote MD Chapman in anyway but ... he is up for parole again ... truly I hope he stays put.

John Lennon's killer is up for parole this week for a seventh time and could have a hearing as early as Tuesday, officials said.

Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life for gunning down the Beatle outside of his Manhattan apartment complex on Dec. 8, 1980.

A decision regarding Chapman's release could come as soon as Thursday or Friday, according to the New York Department of Corrections.

At Chapman's last parole hearing in September 2010, he told the board there had been other names on his list of potential targets, including Johnny Carson, Elizabeth Taylor and two others he could not recall.

Yoko Ono, the wife of the late musician, said in 2010 that she opposed paroling Chapman and believed he could be a danger to her and her family. Chapman is currently being housed at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, N.Y.

VIDEO: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Stockholm 1969

Hi all,

Here's some rare Hendrix footage - a complete concert from 1969 in Stockholm. I have no further information on the concert, so if anyone can enlighten us on this, it'd be great!
Jimi dedicated this performance to the American deserters.

Uploaded to YouTube by hobadoxa

VIDEO: The Savage Resurrection - Someone's Changing

Hi all,

Some nice psychedelia from 1968 with The Savage Resurrection from San Francisco! Enjoy!
 

Uploaded to YouTube by deadhead891

VIDEO: George Harrison - Here Comes The Sun

Hi all,

Here's George Harrison from the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 with Here Comes The Sun. Enjoy!


Uploaded by JimiHendrixANDVADER

VIDEO: The Age of Aquarius by The Fifth Dimension

Hi all,

A cultural icon of the 1960s! 'The Age of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In' by The Fifth Dimension, was a hit song in the sixties, with very intuitive lyrics, that carry great symbolism and significance in the times now at hand.

 

Uploaded by gaiasoundandvision

VIDEO: Fusion - Border Town (1969) [Full Album]

Hi readers,

Here is a bit of rarity but it is one fantastic album. This is a band called Fusion from 1969, and the talk is that Ry Cooder was the guitarist on the album.


Published on YouTube by Didiheavy

01. Struttin' Down Main Street 0:00
02. Goin' Up to Clarksdale 4:18
03. Somebody's Calling My Name 7:56
04. One More Hand 10:45
05. Another Man 15:47
06. What Magic? 19.30
07. Time of the Ostrich Head 22:06
08. Cajun Two-Step 26:12
09. News of Salena 29:23
10. Erebus 32:25

Rick Luther (clarinet, vibraphone, piano, drums, vocals)
Harvey Lane (saxophone, clarinet, flute)
Bill Wolff (guitar, bass)
Richard Matzkin (drums)
Gary Marker (bass, guitar, vocals)
Guest: Ry Cooder (guitar)

VIDEO: The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin

Hi readers,

Here we have the first official Video of "Nights In White Satin" from the year 1967! A classic if ever there as one!

 

Uploaded by redbaron863

VIDEO: Buffalo Springfield: "For What It's Worth"

Hi all,

This is one of the great anti-war pieces of the late 60s. This video is accompanied by a slide-show with clips of anti-Vietnam War protests and marches set to Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth."

 

Uploaded by buttholesurferss

VIDEO: Humble Pie - For Your Love (Live)

Hi all,

Here is a brilliant live acoustic version of the iconic 60s track "For Your Love" by Humble Pie with Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton.


Uploaded by hbyg14

VIDEO: Eric Clapton & Jimmy Page - Miles Road (1965) (Audio Only)

Hi all,

Here's a very nice electric guitar blues duet from Eric Clapton (solo) and Jimmy Page (rhythm) from the album "Blues Anytime Vol.3 - an anthology of British Blues", Immediate Records, 1965.

 

Uploaded by GeeMyJoe

VIDEO: Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon (1970)

Hi all,

A bit of Moody Blues. Tuesday Afternoon (sometimes referred to as "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?), or simply Forever Afternoon) is a 1968 single by English symphonic rock band The Moody Blues, and presented in its original album form on their 1967 album Days of Future Passed in two parts. The version here is a live version performed in 1970.


Uploaded by MoodiesFan

NEWS - CURRENT EVENT: Jimi Hendrix 70th Birthday Exhibit "Hear My Train A Comin"

by Retro: Kimmer: http://www.retrokimmer.com/2012/08/jimi-hendrix-70th-birthday-exhibit-hear.html

When Jimi Hendrix arrived in London in 1966, he was just another would-be rock star with a few pennies to his name.

Within a few months, he’d become an international phenomenon - and cemented an association with Britain that remains a cause for celebration in the UK today.

Hendrix’s British roots are reflected in the new exhibit ‘Hear My Train a Comin’: Hendrix Hits London,’ currently showing in London’s Hospital Club and scheduled to move to the EMP Museum in November.

Occupying an impressive 2,500 square feet, ‘Hear My Train a Comin” offers visitors the chance to get up close and personal with more than 100 Hendrix artifacts, including some that have never before been shown in public.

The show is coming together with the full cooperation of the Hendrix estate, with his sister Janie showing her support in a press release where she promised it’s “certain to be an informative and fascinating exhibition.” Added Janie, “It is wonderful to be able to share so much of Jimi with fans. There is no question that it will solidify my brother’s place at the very top of music’s pantheon.”

“Jimi Hendrix surmounted racial and cultural barriers in America and Great Britain at a time when youth culture, pop music, and society were radically changing,” observed Jacob McMurray, senior curator for the EMP. “One of the most innovative musicians of the 20th century, Hendrix continues to influence an ever-increasing number of musicians, artists, and fans in the 21st century.”

Highlights from the exhibit include Hendrix’s handwritten lyrics for ‘Love or Confusion,’ pieces from the guitar he smashed during his June 4, 1967 gig at the Saville Theater, Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell’s kit, and assorted articles of clothing.

VIDEO: Janis Joplin - Try (Live at Woodstock, 1969)

Hi all,

Here, Janis sings "Try" at the world's most famous music festival, Woodstock, with her Kozmic Blues Band.

 

Uploaded on YouTube by MantasiaHater

VIDEO: Fleetwood Mac - Albatross (1970 UK TV Performance)

Hi all,

Fleetwood Mac with the legendary Peter Green on UK TV - The Old Grey Whistle Test!

Uploaded on YouTube by GreatGuitarHeroes

VIDEO: Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) [Full Album]

Hi everyone,

Well ... I love Pink Floyd and, although it's not the 1960s, I'm uploading it to the site.

Psychedelic? I think so, but let's have a discussion about it? What do you think?

 

Uploaded by 8IdontGiveaFuck7

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon [Full Album] - 1973 (EMI)

Track 1 (Speak to Me): 0:00
Track 2 (Breathe): 1:08
Track 3 (On the Run): 3:57
Track 4 (Time): 7:49
Track 5 (The Great Gig in the Sky): 14:39
Track 6 (Money): 19:23
Track 7 (Us and Them): 25:46
Track 8 (Any Colour You Like): 33:36
Track 9 (Brain Damage): 37:02
Track 10 (Eclipse): 40:49

Liverpool: The Beatles Home City

The gates of the former Salvation Army orphanage Strawberry Field, immortalised by the Beatles song 'Strawberry Fields Forever', where John Lennon used to play as a child (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

by David Anthony Phillips

John, Paul, George, Ringo, and Stuart Sutcliffe were all members of the Beatles and they all came from Liverpool.

The city is a seaport in North West England; tough grimy and somewhat depressing in the fifties and sixties, today it is currently emerging as a new vibrant tourist location.

Much of this new tourist activity is due to the Beatles.

Liverpool is a city that is full of Beatles locations. There are several museums dedicated to the Fab Four, in the city.

Original Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe died in Hamburg just before they made national fame in the UK. One of Stuart's homes is now a hotel and there are three more Beatles related hotels in the city: The Brian Epstein Guest House, The Hard Days Night Hotel and The Eleanor Rigby Hotel, which has a statue of Eleanor on a bench nearby, many people sit next to her for a photo opportunity.

The childhood homes of the Beatles are still standing, almost; as Ringo's first house is in a street of boarded up houses that are pending upgrading or demolition. Beatles tourists can visit Paul McCartney's home and also the home of John Lennon's Aunty 'Mimi' where John was brought up: 1945 - 1963.

The very first location that the Beatles played at was not the Cavern Club but a coffee bar: The Casbah Coffee Club, its still there. The Beatles even decorated the place and it still has Beatles art on its walls: John's painted walls and you can appreciate their Beatly insects theme as a huge spiders web is painted at the back of the stage area.

There are lots of places in the city that have strong connections with the Beatles and inevitably lots of tours to take you there, from exclusive taxis, walking tours and a Magical Mystery Tour bus and some of the best are just walking about and bumping into locals who if the right age (no pensioners) they may tell you their stories of screaming at the Cavern.

The Cavern club has been re-built in the original Mathew Street where the Beatles appeared 282 times. The cavern was the fourth location that the Beatles played at after the Casbah they played at the Jacaranda and The Blue Angel clubs in the city, both locations were owned by their first manager, Alan Williams.

Two songs about places in Liverpool were written by Lennon and McCartney: 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields For Ever'. 'In My Life': Places I Remember' is John's nostalgic song about his Liverpool home and Ringo did two: 'Snookeroo' and 'Liverpool 8'.

John called his home city 'LIDDYPOOL' in poems he wrote: 'A Spaniard In The Works' and 'In His Own Write'.

Liverpool is a great place to visit for any Beatles fan and also there is much more about the city that visitors are bound to love when they get there! More can be found at CityLeaves Liverpool for information when planning a trip to The Beatles Home town.

The influence that the city had on the Beatles was profound as any Scouser will tell you their city has a deep psychological link with its people that defies explanation. The places, the culture, the unique way of speaking and the humour all contributed into producing far more artists, musicians, playwrights and celebrities than any other provincial city in England.

John Lennon called it Liddypool and more about it can be found @ http://cityleaves.com/liverpool/content/liddypool and also @ http://www.squidoo.com/beatles-city

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Anthony_Phillips
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Beatles-Home-City&id=6861063

VIDEO: Ultimate Spinach: Mind Flowers (1967)

Hi all, Here's a great psychedelic obscurity for ya! The blurb about the band is below. Enjoy!

Uploaded by gomera222 - made with some artpics of gomera222's own!



Ultimate Spinach is an obscure 60s Psychedelic/Hard Rock/Blues group from Boston, Massachusetts, similar to the likes of The Lost, Front Page Review, Country Joe & the Fish, Orpheus, Mandrake Memorial, Earth Opera, Boston Tea Party, The Beacon Street Union, and Jefferson Airplane.

Ultimate Spinach was formed in 1967 and comprised keyboardist/guitarist Ian Bruce-Douglas and singer Barbara Hudson.

The music is undeservedly forgotten. Despite suffering claims of dishonesty, they published technically sophisticated but also musically fascinating albums.

On Ultimate Spinach (MGM, 1968) the standout cuts are Ballad Of The Hip Death Goddess, with an instrumental interval for theremin (an early electronic instrument), feedback and reverberation, the psychoanalytic folk-blues PlayEgo Trip, the 4-part suite PlaySacrifice of the Moon, as well as PlayYour Head Is Reeling and the Frank Zappa-esque - but less nasty than he typically was - Plastic Raincoats.

While there was a rumor that Bruce-Douglas had been taken to court by Country Joe McDonald for having copied The Masked Marauder in his PlayBaroque #1, this was pure fantasy.

More complex compositions such as the suite in four movements Genesis of Beauty and PlayFragmentary March of Green, two pieces soaked in mysticism, enliven the second album Behold & See (MGM, 1968).

The tracks Jazz Thing and Mind Flowers experimented with unusual tempos and atmosphere, while the graceful PlayGilded Lamp of the Cosmos exemplifies the best of their psychedelic folk ballads (note: Big Beats re-release of Behold And See omits PlayVisions of Your Reality. In addition, it liberally edits other cuts, and thus should not be considered a true re-release).

Upon release of the second album, Ian Bruce-Douglas quit Ultimate Spinach and a new band was formed with Barbara Hudson as the only original member. Tony Scheuan, Ted Myers, Mike Levine and Jeff Baxter (future session man for Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers) were also added.

A third album (Ultimate Spinach III) was recorded in 1969. This album is inferior to the two before it, largely leaving behind the psychedelic effects that characterised the Bruce-Douglas period and developing a generic sound more reminiscent of such acts as The Byrds, The Monkees and the 68-era The Beach Boys.

In 1970 the band reformed with no original members and continue to this day, generally performing in the Oregon area. The new group have released several independent albums such as Sacrifice of the Moon: Instrumental Music of Ultimate Spinach (2006).

This band has always remained underground and in recent years Bruce-Douglas has derided its existence. Years later Bruce-Douglas created Azlbrax, with whom he released In the Valley of the Shadow (Intergalactic, 1988).

VIDEO: The Beatles: Hey Bulldog (Rare Film)

Hi all,

"Hey Bulldog" is a song by The Beatles which first appeared on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album in 1969. Written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney), the song was recorded during the filming of the "Lady Madonna" promotional video, and is one of the few Beatles songs to revolve around a piano riff.


Uploaded by thebeatleslovesong

VIDEO: The Beatles - Rooftop Concert (Full Version)

Hi folks,

Here it is! The famous final Beatles concert on the rooftop.

Uploaded by Hendrixonas on Jan 18, 2012

Last Concert Of The Beatles On The APPLE RECORDS on Abbey Road

Get Back - 01:03
Don't let Me Down - 04:18
I've Got a Feeling - 07:53
One After 909 - 11:35
Dig a Pony - 14:38
Get Back 18:30

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the music in his video, it belongs to the rightful owner {THE BEATLES/APPLE RECORDS and EMI MUSIC}.

VIDEO: Russell Morris - The Real Thing (1969)

Ok, for all the Australians out there,

This is an old classic that has somewhat defined our culture, even up to the present day. Some real psychedelic stuff from 1969. Russell Morris' promo-video for the hit single 'The Real Thing', written by Johnny Young and produced by Ian 'Molly' Meldrum.

Who remembers this one?

Uploaded by nzoz1960s