By DAVID KITTREDGE
Renaissance Redneck
While the United States population was leerily monitoring our skies for an impending onslaught from Russia due to the “Cold War,’ we were blindsided instead by the British Invasion, a term used to describe the influx of musical groups that emanated from the United Kingdom, the foremost being the Beatles. The Beatles released 11 studio albums in the United States from 1963 through to 1969, with over a 150 songs, many of which were Top 100 hits. While I was reviewing the song titles on these albums, most of the songs lyrics and melodies surprisingly popped into my head. Of course I have heard these various songs countless times. This occurred in spite of the fact that I have never actually owned a Beatles album, but most of my friends had them and of course these songs dominated the radio waves then and for years since then.
Not only did the British Invasion greatly influence our music industry, but it also affected other cultural styles and mores. Men wore pegged pants and paisley shirts, women’s skirt hems rose higher and higher until the mini skirt reached seemingly impossible heights where the wearer had to be very conscious of her body movements lest her unmentionables be mentioned. There were fishnet stockings, shag haircuts, Beatle boots, and turtle necks. Also there were granny glasses, tie-dyed shirts, psychedelic posters and paintings providing an explosion of color which permeated our lives.
On the night of Nov. 9, 1965 the northeastern United States blackout occurred because of a logistics problem with the electrical grid’s relay switches, which caused an overload to the system. Luckily, I had fresh batteries for my pocket-sized transistor radio and although I never heard a report as to the cause of the blackout that evening, I was able to listen to the chart topping songs such as “Yesterday” by the Beatles, “Get off My Cloud” by the Rolling Stones and “Downtown” by Petula Clark, with lines like, “So go downtown where all the lights are bright,” which created pleasing mental images for me while the flickering candlesticks lighted our tiny country home. I thought at the time that I was ready for the hustle and bustle of city life rather than my rustic country lifestyle. I longed to be where the action was and to be in on the happenings. Luckily, I was still a minor.
As the Vietnam war lingered on, the protests and sit-ins became a regular phenomena that interrupted the normal daily course of getting on, which the protests were designed to do. That did cause us to reflect on the way in which the war was being played out, even before our eyes on nightly television news broadcasts.
On Nov. 2,1967 President Lyndon Johnson held a secret meeting with a group of some the United States’ most prestigious leaders known as “the Wise Men” and asked them to suggest ways that would unite the American people in backing the Vietnam War effort. It was decided that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war, which sounds very much like propaganda, does it not? And who were these supposed wise men? We will never know as this meeting was deemed secret. But their tactics did not dampen the protests, sit-ins and marches against the war as it raged on.
The summer of 1967 was known as “The Summer of Love” because 100,000 people, mostly young hippies, flocked into the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. Many of them could have been lured there by the song “Are You Going to San Francisco?” written by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas and sung by Scott McKenzie. This song was released on May 13 of that year and did a lot to create an image for the hippie culture through its lyrics, which described a lifestyle of gentle people wearing flowers in their hair and the mention of a love-in there (San Francisco). I would imagine there were a lot itchy people there at the end of the summer and that the medical clinics were very busy.
Ironically, “The Summer of Love” was actually very violent because there were rampant race riots in American cities almost daily.
There was also a P.T. Barnum-like showman in New York City by the name of Andy Warhol, a self-promoting artist who was a leader in the pop art genre with his silkscreen posters of Campbell Soup cans, Marilyn Monroe, and Jacqueline Kennedy at the top of the list. Warhol became a phenomena through his events at his studio, The Factory, where he indulged many, from Hollywood celebrities to bohemian street people. Warhol had started out as a commercial artist by painting newly designed shoes, then as a graphic artist using the silkscreen process, which he eventually developed into a fine arts medium. In 1968, Warhol made the statement that “In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.” This idea which was originally considered to be hyperbole, can now be viewed as prophetic, especially with the advent of the internet and the march of endless celebrities that invade our culture today.
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