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Joined: February 01 2011
Location: Michigan
Status: Offline
Points: 12798
Posted: July 20 2013 at 20:02
Dean wrote:
What the various minumum wages are now isn't really the point I was making... to me $7.00/hr seemed like quite a lot of money for 1976 considering that is it roughly what the minimum wage is now and I was trying to get a perspective on that... I'm going to take a guess and say the average US wage in 1976 was probably not much over $9,000, which would be about $4.30/hr... for a teen/young adult it would be considerably less
I think my first job at age 16 in 1976 paid $2.50 an hour. Of course, cigarettes were only 50 cents a pack and gas cost about the same or less per gallon. I remember there was a gas war between 2 competing gas stations, each selling a gallon for 25 cents.
Beer was cheap also. And drugs. I enjoyed myself immensely.
...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
Status: Offline
Points: 4591
Posted: July 20 2013 at 23:02
My 1st job in 1976 was Christmas season at a toy store paying $2.05/hr. The law may be different now, but back then they didn't have to pay me minimum wage cause I was only working about 20 hrs/wk. Of course single albums at Tower records were $5 so I was happy to trade 3 hrs of work for a new copy of Starless and Bible Black
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 16594
Posted: July 21 2013 at 10:41
Gerinski wrote:
$7.00 an hour in 1976 looks like a fortune from my old Spanish eyes, good for you!
The restaurant I was at, was busy ... and at lunch, the ticket window would go to about 50 tickets within 5 to 10 minutes, and it was fast and busy ... so much so that more than half the cooks that applied there, quit the first day ... they couldn't handle it. For that we got paid, because they could not afford to be on the training mode. Everything home made, and over 100 omelettes ... oh ... for the record, when I backed up the chef, it was ... are you ready? 50 gallons of Split Pea soup, 50 gallons of Chili con Carne, 50 Gallons of Brown Gravy, 30 Gallons of the Soup of the day ... so you can get the idea of the quantities, and they went through half of that in one day!
Now you know why I like my music heavy, long, and ... only the best!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com
Joined: September 13 2013
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 4
Posted: September 14 2013 at 08:09
I grew up in Oshawa Ontario, about a half hour drive from where Rush were just putting it all together. I turned 15 in 1970 and was already infatuated with my older sisters record collection. The title track of ITCOTCK and "Epitaph" drew me into the prog direction at an early age but I still had a love for hard rock that rode along with it for many years. I saw Rush on the 2112 tour and was blown away at how much and how fast they had grown from a hard rock bar band to a valid contender on the world prog scene. Some radio stations out of Toronto were into playing the longer songs in there entirety, even Iron Butterfly's psychedelic 17 minute "Inna Gadda Da Vida" was fair game for a while there. And the cover art, I miss that. There was no feeling like taking the plastic off a double album and exploring the creative artwork. I now have a couple of "coffee table" books the size of an album cover that feature a lot of the greats. The curve creativity took from about the mid 60's to the late 70's was astounding. As the electric guitar, and the effects it spawned and the synthesizer were coming into their own as instruments in modern music the sounds coming out of the radio were amazing. And they were bewildering to my parents generation, it all happened too fast for them but us kids didn't know the pace things were at before this era, we just listened and soaked it up.
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 16594
Posted: September 21 2013 at 12:35
Dean wrote:
...except on long car journeys.
I have to tell you, that as I get older, I miss the "trips" and the "fun" in getting "there".
It was kinda nice to think of California as a cool place when you were in Madison, WI ... and then going to California and find out that the whole thing was a fad ... but the girls were fine, and the dope was fine in those days, too!
Was the music better?
There was a lot of very good music in the midwest ... Chicago, Sons of Champlin, Mason Profit, lots of Canadian stuff, and Chicago had a fairly good blues and jazz scene, though it never really got as much credit as it could ... and Chicago was "owned" by old money, and it meant that no new business and arts, would make it big in the scene. Thus the likes of the Museum scenes and everything else, always stuck to the "known" and "accepted" ... and it was just like them when we in our senior year had a field trip and got to see "Man of La Mancha (w/Richard Kiley) in the afternoon, and then Yehudi Menuhin (very big in those days!) with Ravi Shankar in the evening ... on the same day ... and of course, you also got to see the huge El Greco and the huge Picasso and such!
Today, stuff like this is not "important", and is so ignored and not looked at ... to the point where it takes the appreciation of some of the arts completely away ... it's all top ten, and no one has heard or cares about Picasso (even here!!!!) ... or the importance of "East meets West", some 45 years ago.
Here, in the Portland and Seattle are, there isn't a single "huge" name in concert or show ... other than ... Myley Cyrus ... or some rap this or that ... and I think that in the end, our appreciation of the finer works in life, lose a lot of attention and appreciation, and it shows in so much of the music scene even listed or discussed here.
I find it amusing to see the last 2 issues of Bass magazines be really big on "metal progressive" and it is STRICTLY based on the bass players dexterity on the bass guitar ... and not the music as a whole ... and that is just sad, and a bit sick ... like the music is not interesting, and not even discussed here, which says a lot more!
It was way better then, I think, that there was a REAL and HONEST desire to look and find new things, and different things, and today, it's like, you think there are a lot of them out there, and there really aren't!
It's just part of the evolution I guess, but if you ask me, I really think that those people need to get some serious dope into their music ... before it can get better ... but some could find that expression confusing and offensive, when it does not have to mean drugs per se ... !!!
Edited by moshkito - September 21 2013 at 12:35
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 16594
Posted: September 22 2013 at 12:11
timothy leary wrote:
Seattle concerts
...
the hits keep happening
Need I say or ask for more?
The music then, that was "with it" ... was not a "hit" ... and you went because it was good, and meant something to you and your friends!
Anathema might be the one I would not mind seeing, but driving 3 hours north (PDX/Vancouver, WA by the way!), as a half blind man, to see that show, would be tough, very tough. I am considering Ian Anderson, but have not made up my mind ... I was not lucky enough to ever catch JT, but the only JT I was interested in ended 30 years ago.
Edited by moshkito - September 22 2013 at 12:12
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com
A lot of people around me with tongues in their cheeks and eyes rolling in their heads listening to Mountain. Drugheads who thought bending a guitarstring was the all of everything. They talked about sex all the time and bored me to death with their sexual promiscuity lines. Philadelphia DJ'S who thought Bob Dylan was the real Jesus. The lingo...."Hey man", "Far out", "Right On", and "Dude". Vineland...the redneck capital of the world. Robin Trower and Foghat. Guys who played Led Zeppelin and Queen in their car to impress girls. Jack In The Box and 7 Eleven...crowded to the max with dirtbag degenerates buying tastycakes because they had the munchies from smoking too much weed. Police officers who were taught at the academy that anyone with long hair and dark circles under their eyes is a junkie and needs to be searched. I disliked phony hippies and took that personal. Kids who were innocent of these charges were constantly searched. Just because I had long hair did not mean I desired to dance in a field and roll in the mud. No one could be themselves. Everybody was a flippin' robot. No originality in anything. If you had long hair, you were a hippie or druggie. That was the most moronic thing ever. I didn't care for their rules, how they justified everyone being searched, or their moronic notion that in order to bust kids for drugs...everyone had to be pigeon-holed. All revolving around a dress code of cheapy fashion, greaseball hair, take a bath..and hey ho! Rules applied to training at the police academy because empty headed degenerates who grew their hair long....just needed to take drugs..and for what? To fit in? Fit in with what specifically? Burn outs? I hated the 70's for that reason.
Joined: August 22 2010
Location: Indiana
Status: Offline
Points: 20545
Posted: September 26 2013 at 09:15
TODDLER wrote:
A lot of people around me with tongues in their cheeks and eyes rolling in their heads listening to Mountain. Drugheads who thought bending a guitarstring was the all of everything. They talked about sex all the time and bored me to death with their sexual promiscuity lines. Philadelphia DJ'S who thought Bob Dylan was the real Jesus. The lingo...."Hey man", "Far out", "Right On", and "Dude". Vineland...the redneck capital of the world. Robin Trower and Foghat. Guys who played Led Zeppelin and Queen in their car to impress girls. Jack In The Box and 7 Eleven...crowded to the max with dirtbag degenerates buying tastycakes because they had the munchies from smoking too much weed. Police officers who were taught at the academy that anyone with long hair and dark circles under their eyes is a junkie and needs to be searched. I disliked phony hippies and took that personal. Kids who were innocent of these charges were constantly searched. Just because I had long hair did not mean I desired to dance in a field and roll in the mud. No one could be themselves. Everybody was a flippin' robot. No originality in anything. If you had long hair, you were a hippie or druggie. That was the most moronic thing ever. I didn't care for their rules, how they justified everyone being searched, or their moronic notion that in order to bust kids for drugs...everyone had to be pigeon-holed. All revolving around a dress code of cheapy fashion, greaseball hair, take a bath..and hey ho! Rules applied to training at the police academy because empty headed degenerates who grew their hair long....just needed to take drugs..and for what? To fit in? Fit in with what specifically? Burn outs? I hated the 70's for that reason.
Sounds awful...........
I was in college from 69-75 and then married after that .....can't say I experienced any 'negativity' and I enjoyed those days but then I was a lot younger then. There were certainly some problems with political conflicts and the establishment and the counter culture but for the most part it was ok and the music was great as all the original bands came on the scene in those days. I still miss my college days , friends, the music and new ideas that developed then.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin
In the 60's I saw The Temptations and The Supremes at Ed Hurst's Steel Pier in Atlantic City N.J. I was 10 and it was a very exciting experience for me. Kids who rode the bus to elementary school carried The Beatles 45's with them. During that time there existed a kind of innocence. Long hair was forbidden by parents and only a selective few in the classroom had it. We were all very influenced by the British Invasion. The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and the D.C.5. attracted a lot of attention with their hit "Bits and Pieces". Everyone in elementary school wanted those records for Christmas. It was totally chaotic! But drugs were not part of it. At least of all for us.
In 1969 ...I had the album Arthur and the Fall and Decline of the British Empire. I was in 7th grade and jotting down all lyrics from that album. One day I was confronted by a counciler/teachers and they asked why? I explained that I was interested in Ray Davies words. They informed me that it was NOT good for me and totally negative. They notified my parents, but since both of my parents were musicians and liked The Kinks..it was more than welcome in our household. In the 60's and 70's..I had to fight for everything I believed in. I was constantly being put on the spot to defend it.
Cults were everywhere in Vineland and even though they took themselves seriously, witchcraft was spreading way beyond the rural areas because now it was a fad of some sort. It was chaotic! Teenagers in school ...if angered, would threaten to put a spell on you. I still remember everyday hearing....."Bug off or I will cast a wicked spell on you". It became commercialized in the late 60's and early70's ..although kids were tortured, went missing/abducted by cults and there was a murder when I attended Junior High School. There was this whole hippie kind of atmosphere too and it had no contribution to "Rock n' Roll" ..but instead created concepts for the youth to follow...such as practicing witchcraft from old books or pretending to be from the 16th century..which meant dressing up and dancing around a fire after consuming large doses of acid. But....there was also the existence of a underground sect that found all this activity to be laughable. Members of the sect had no real interest in fads...only programming the weak who followed these fads. As I said..there was a serious and very scary side to it as well.
The 60's feels like an isolated ..forgotten experience to me. My sister had hippie friends, hippies roamed the main drag in town, and everywhere was talk of great musicians who are hardly mentioned in any 60's music documentary in the last 25 to 30 years. Everybody, everywhere, knew who Mike Bloomfield was. As a guitarist he would occasionally get sloppy...but for the most part had such a beautiful way of phrasing and his leads just soared through you. His name was everywhere on the east coast. Those who heard the WHITE ALBUM...heard Mike Bloomfield. And....people took Canned Heat seriously and pretty much disliked their hits. On their official releases...Blues ventured into fast swing beats and Jazzy harmonica playing from the Blind Owl. In today's world...most people who buy Eric Clapton records have no clue who Bloomfield is and look upon Canned Heat as merely a down home party boogie band. Canned Heat DID play "Boogie" style BUT..their albums as a whole represented other adventurous styles of improvisation in Latin music, some Jazz oriented harp, and experimental layers of sitar coming across in a more ambient vain. In the 60's The Doors were opening for Canned Heat and Mike Bloomfield was very popular. I don't believe people in general grew disinterested in them. I do believe they were wiped out though. John Mayall and Johnny Winter were huge..and especially in the popular cities on the east coast where arts and crafts was a way of life then. Today you won't even hear these artists on the radio, but you WILL hear their peers. It makes no sense at all. If you are a fan of Progressive Rock and you often wonder what was so special about the musicans in the 60's..you know, the ones played 24/7 on the airwaves...then look beyond those people and check out pure intense musicianship displayed through the artists I've mentioned above. For some reason they were dismissed and no longer promoted by the early 70's. Why the industry would pull off such a shrude act on an artist like Paul Butterfield is beyond me?
Joined: July 20 2009
Location: Tucson, AZ USA
Status: Offline
Points: 6830
Posted: September 26 2013 at 11:48
timothy leary wrote:
When else but that time period could you see a concert that started with the Eagles and ended with Yes.
Yeah, I saw that tour, it was great!
September 22, 1972: Yes with The Eagles, Arie Crown Theater, Chicago
Concerts had so much pot-smoke that it was a challenge to see the stage! Now, modern concerts are very sanitized, and modern acts feature more choreographed dancing than quality music. Ugh.
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Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
Posted: September 26 2013 at 12:34
The last time I saw choreographed dancing during a rock gig was the Sensational Alex Harvey Band back in 1976, but it's much more fun to generalise and compare the best of a genre you do like with the worse of an genre you don't...
Joined: March 25 2006
Location: Los Angeles
Status: Offline
Points: 460
Posted: September 26 2013 at 14:19
Born and raised in Southern California. First concert I ever saw was Elvis Presley at the MGM in Las Vegas in 1969. Second was Derek & the Dominoes at the Pasadena Civic in 1970. Where do I begin.......
Well, music info was only available via FM radio, the Los Angeles Times (Robert Hilburn was a great writer..frankly biased but always interesting) and Rolling Stone magazine.
Prog music wasn't really called that until around 1972 if I remember correctly.
I always like the trippier songs from those days.
Tomorrow Never Knows/Beatles.
2000 Light Years from Home/Stones.
Light My Fire/Doors.
Shapes of Things/Yardbirds
The vinyl 33 1/3 long player album was the sacrament. If the album was great then my friends and I had to see the band live.
Marijuana was everywhere.
When Johnny Cash had Bob Dylan on his ABC television show it was remarkable as Dylan never did TV. Cash also had Derek & the Dominoes, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor.
Slowly, groups were releasing albums that, well, couldn't be played in the garage with 2 guitars, bass and drums.
ELP's first album was huge. 1968's "Switched on Bach" by Walter (now Wendy) Carlos preceded it by about 2 years. Truly, "Switched on Bach" was one of the most influential albums ever made as George Harrison bought a Moog in 1969....he even released an album called "Electronic Sound" with his synthesizer noodlings on the Beatles Zapple label.
Slowly the giants emerged: Yes, Jethro Tull, ELP, Pink Floyd. Nobody had ever made music like these guys were making and the demand was big.
Crimson had a huge debut album, but was never able play the 20,000 seat places like Yes, Tull, ELP and Floyd. Crimson could play the 5,000 seaters and that was about it. I think the largest venue they ever played in LA was the Hollywood Bowl during the double trio tour, which I saw and enjoyed immensely.
Same with PG-era Genesis. Only after PG left and they turned radio friendly and Collins solo career took off did they go through the roof.
Edited by schizoidman - September 26 2013 at 14:23
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What was it like in the 60's and 70's?
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Dean wrote:
The last time I saw choreographed dancing during a rock gig was the Sensational Alex Harvey Band back in 1976, but it's much more fun to generalise and compare the best of a genre you do like with the worse of an genre you don't...