Disco was hated in the 70's. It was utterly hated by a Rock crowd and a Progressive Rock crowd. Traveling up and down the east coast in various bands...I and a bunch of musicians witnessed the on going violence between Disco boys and Rockers. At the time, Progressive Rock was appealing to fans of "Hard Rock" and so the anti-Disco crowd was a mixed bag of both. The gist was that Disco was to overthrow the Rock music world. We would travel by bus , arrive to the venue, set up, soundcheck, eat, and head back to the gig. Disco fans would stand on one side of the strip and the Rock/Proggers on the other. Rocks were thrown, punches, blood spilled, sometimes knives were pulled in some cases, ....but my point is that it was very dangerous in the 70's when I traveled the road performing the music of Genesis, Jethro Tull, and Yes. From 1 state to another these cruel thrusts existed between both parties. One day..after no longer focusing on the news media, I came to realize that the same group of kids who listened to "Alternative Rock" accepted Disco. Really? I was hearing that same old phrase. It went something like this...."It's all good bro?" I had to physically back away and think it over for a while...for in the 70's..I had witnessed a war. Musicians, booking agents, managers,..we all were aware of the danger between the 2 groups gathering outside of the theatres. Police were always breaking up the massive fights. But all of a sudden...people in "Alternative" bands were telling me..."Disco is cool" , "It's all good". Was that really a change for the good? What did Disco have to offer Progressive Rock other than pushing it off the market? What kind of musical substance existed in Disco? Was there any substance at all?
I remember being 8 years old, buying Beatles 45's, and listening to conversations between adults about The Beatles. ........"Who do they think they are?"...."They can't sing Chuck Berry or Rock n' Roll for that matter"...."They are ruining American music". This was strictly a minority because everywhere I went between 1964 and 1966...all kids and most teenagers wanted to be British....in the same sense of how almost every boy in the 50's wanted to be like Elvis..BUT!...this was different. The British had longer hair...especially Dave Davies or The Pretty Things and people in America were used to Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Fabian, and Elvis if you can picture that? As kids we watched the British bands appear on Ed Sullivian, Shindig, Hullabaloo, Ready, Steady, Go!, Dean Martin Show and when we heard them talk...we wanted to NOT only imitate their accents, but investigate their culture.This is the upmost corny stuff, but I sware to you that it was totally vast and insane!
When the British musicians invaded America....they changed Rock music by coloring it more and in general having many more ideas to experiment with than any of the American groups before and even after they hit the music scene. The Beach Boys were unique for their time..however most American Rock bands were directly influenced by the British bands. Love songs were huge on the charts in America, but no one was writing lyrics like "I'll be back again" or "Not a second time", "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" and "Tired of Waiting". Sorry folks..but lyrics like that did not exist in America until the British invaded the Rock n' Roll music scene. And to note..."All Day and All Of The Night" , the unwed father, if you will, of such later classics as Paul Revere & los Raiders' "Just Like Me" and los Doors "Hello , I Love You" was a copy cat , repeated sequence ,by many other American Rock bands as well. Every kid on the bus I rode to school carried British Invasion Rock albums and 45's with them to play in music class. You see those films of girls throwing themselves off a balcony while the Rolling Stones or Beatles are playing on stage...well? everyday life of the kid and teenager in America was just as extreme. Don't think for a minute that when American kids and teenagers went back to school on Monday..that they were forgetting all about British Rock..because it's simply not true. Kids were sent down to the office for singing Beatles songs in class and everywhere in America was British influenced chaos! American kids were hypnotized by British rockers for many years...unlike today where someone , somehow, hit's the big time and fades a year later. I'll remember that magical period when I'm on my deathbed,
Joined: June 09 2004
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Posted: September 26 2013 at 22:09
cstack3 wrote:
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.
Age has its advantages.
I saw Californian reggae band Rebelution in Denver CO, 2012 and trust me there was so much weed being smoked at the concert, that even for a passive smoker like me, I could feel it. No sanitization there at the Fillmore and the cops just looked the other way, or inhaled, not sure which order that took
<font color=Brown>Music - The Sound Librarian
...As I venture through the slipstream, between the viaducts in your dreams...[/COLOR]
A great rock show for me was Blue Oyster Cult at the Shubert theatre, Philadelphia 74' . It was the Secret Treaties tour. Another was when P.F.M. opened for Rory Gallagher at the Spectrum, Philadelphia.
Climax Blues Band, Manfred Manns Earth Band, Ten Years After..Spectrum, Philadelphia
Genesis...Wind and Wuthering tour ..Spectrum, Philadelphia
Return to Forever...Tower Theatre, Philadelphia
Spooky Tooth, Frampton's Camel, The Mahavishnu Orchestra...Spectrum, Philadelphia
Gary Wright, Peter Frampton, Yes...JFK Stadium...Rows of seats were set on fire when YES performed "Ritual". The fire department arrived late and the fire was spreading rapidly. Insane!
Sea Level, Jefferson Starship..Spectrum 75"
U.K., Al Dimeola-Tower theatre
ELP-Welcome Back tour..Spectrum
Frank Zappa...Tower theatre 82" He had the flu as he pointed at everyone singing...you're an a-hole, you're an a-hole
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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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: July 20 2009
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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.
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?
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.
Joined: August 22 2010
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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
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: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 18586
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
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
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Points: 18586
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
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What was it like in the 60's and 70's?
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cstack3 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...
