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1969 The Year That Defined An Era


BUCK'EYE' DOC

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This article was in the USA Today on Monday. It is from a book by Rob Kirkpatrick titled 1969: The Year that Everything Changed.

There is a picture of Led Zeppelin included in a collage of memorable events of 1969 in the cover story of USA Today.

The top five albums were:

1. In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida Iron Butterfly

2. Hair Original Cast

3. Blood, Sweat & Tears BST

4. Bayou Country Creedence Clearwater Revival

5. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin

"Some pop culture experts say that 1969 is all about the music. Led Zeppelin introduced heavy metal, the Who gave us the rock opera Tommy, and the Rolling Stones were in top form. It was also the year that the Beatles broke up."

"The reason we remember 1969 is because of the twin poles of Woodstock and Altamont. The community of peace and love and the nightmare of chaos and disorder."

"Kirkpatrick (Rob) says his definitive song of 1969 is We Can Be Together by Jefferson Airplane 'because it encapsulates the revolutionary spirit of the time'. (We are forces of chaos and anarchy/Everything they say we are we are/And we are very/Proud of ourselves/Up against the wall.)"

"Jeremy Wallach, a cultural anthropologist with the department of pop culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, calls 1969 'the apotheosis and decline of counterculture." He, too, says the music of the day tells the story."

"Another telling sign of the times was that concertgoers wanted to be 'part of the show'. 'You can see it in footage from Woodstock. They were rushing the stage,' Kirkpatrick says."

"'It was one of those unusual moments in history when the fabric of society was torn. A lot of balloons popped because what was at stake was very deep cleavages over what America should be and how people should live', he says."

"'The modern American society that we know today was just beginning. What followed in the '70s proves his point." The end of the war in Vietnam, Nixon's resignation, Roe vs. Wade, the 'Me' decade. Even short hair."

"'I don't think it's even debatable. There's an America before '69, and an America after '69.'"

What is everyone's perspective on 1969?

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I can't say that it was the most pivitol year in music but it certainly was a pivitol year all round.

The moon landing, the death of Brian Jones , Charles Manson

The good, the bad and the ugly 1969 had it all

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I'd have said 1967 was the pivotal year, myself.

The article says:

"'A lot of people talk aabout 1967 as 'The Summer of Love' and 1968 as' The Year the Dream Died', but there wasn't one book about 1969. It fills a gap', says Kirkpatrick, who was one year old when rain foll on throngs of rock fans at Woodstock."

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"'There were truly seismic shifts in music and popular culture' in the late '60s, says Joe Levy, editor of the music magazine Blender.

Levy says Gimme Shelter by the Stones (Oh a storm is threatening/ My very life today/ If I don't get some shelter/ Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away) is the signature song of 1969. 'It's a song of immense foreboding, the sense that something awful is just on the horizon.', he says."

Top 5 movies of 1969:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Midnight Cowboy

Paint Your Wagon

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Link to entire article:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/20...ok_N.htm?csp=34

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It's probably the first year for which I have real memories; I started kindergarten that fall, my brother was born that summer and I can remember watching the moon landing. I knew it was a very significant moment. I remember Woodstock too.

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The good, the bad and the ugly 1969 had it all

'68 and '69 were the worst years of my life.

I was totally freaked out on LSD :drool: and the draft was calling me :rtfm::depressed::phone::wakeup:

Luckily, they didn't want me. :hurrah:

I'm just glad I got through the 60's ALIVE!!! And in my later years I took up the guitar. :elvis2:

I wouldn't go back to those years for a zillion bucks!! :peace:

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1970

I am just quoting the article.

Please read the link below:

http://www.aboutthebeatles.com/biography_p...rtney_myths.php

It says that the Beatles broke up on September 20, 1969 when John Lennon told Paul that he wanted a "divorce". Paul announced the break up on October 24, 1969, but the public was too stupified by the "Paul is dead" hoax to notice.

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The article says:

"'A lot of people talk aabout 1967 as 'The Summer of Love' and 1968 as' The Year the Dream Died', but there wasn't one book about 1969. It fills a gap', says Kirkpatrick, who was one year old when rain foll on throngs of rock fans at Woodstock."

I'd have leaned more towards 1967 as a more pivotal year as well but I can see why they'd have chosen 1969 as a turning point - end of a very turbulent decade socially and politically and a move towards a new era.

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Two rock stars that I know of - Pete Townsend and Ian Anderson were quite critical of hippies. I've kinda adopted their stance and am quite appalled by the free love, drugs and all that crap.

Pete thought they were hypocrites - they didn't exactly practice what they preached....

Welcome

Come to my house

Be one of the comfortable people.

Come to this house

We're drinking all night

Never sleeping.

Milkman come in!

And you baker,

Little old lady welcome

And you shoe maker

Come to this house!

Into this house.

Come to this house

Be one of us.

Make this your house

Be one of us.

You can help

To collect some more in

Young and old people

Lets get them all in!

Come to this house!

Into this house.

Ask along that man who's wearing a carnation.

Bring every single person

from Victoria Station,

Go into that hospital

and bring nurses and patients,

Everybody go home and fetch their relations!

Come to this house

Be one of the comfortable people.

Lovely bright home

Drinking all night never sleeping.

Excuse me, sir, there's more at the door

There's more at the door

There's more at the door

There's more at the door

There's more at the door

There's more at the door

There's more at the door

There's more at the door

THERE'S MORE!!!

We need more room

Build an extension

A colourful palace

Spare no expense now

Come to this house

Be one of us

Come into this house

Be one of us

Come to this house

Into this house

Welcome

I guess Ian did too.....

Ian was critical of people (hippies) who joined protests/causes that they didn't really understand.

Living in the Past.

Happy and Im smiling,

Walk a mile to drink your water.

You know Id love to love you,

And above you theres no other.

Well go walking out

While others shout of wars disaster.

Oh, we wont give in,

Lets go living in the past.

Once I used to join in

Every boy and girl was my friend.

Now theres revolution, but they dont know

What theyre fighting.

Let us close out eyes;

Outside their lives go on much faster.

Oh, we wont give in,

Well keep living in the past.

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'68 and '69 were the worst years of my life.

I was totally freaked out on LSD :drool: and the draft was calling me :rtfm::depressed::phone::wakeup:

Luckily, they didn't want me. :hurrah:

I'm just glad I got through the 60's ALIVE!!! And in my later years I took up the guitar. :elvis2:

I wouldn't go back to those years for a zillion bucks!! :peace:

For a number of reason's , me either

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I think many people who were a part of the hippy movement, upon reflection will freely admit it was wrought with problems, which is why things ultimately fell apart. But there's no escaping the effect it had on our culture and society and there's still something that touches my heart to think of young people uniting for the greater good like that.

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Ah, the Sixties, Woodstock, and Viet Nam.

Then came the Seventies, Cambodia; the Khmer Rouge slaughtered everyone between the age of ten and sixty. They figured anyone under age ten would be easy to influence and manipulate because they are too young to think critically and independently, and that anyone over sixty would be too weak to resist.

Most of those who were airlifted wound up in a huge tent city at Camp Pendleton waiting in line for everything for hours.

The excesses of rock and roll were nothing compared to the consequences of war.

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I think many people who were a part of the hippy movement, upon reflection will freely admit it was wrought with problems, which is why things ultimately fell apart. But there's no escaping the effect it had on our culture and society and there's still something that touches my heart to think of young people uniting for the greater good like that.

There were a lot of reason's why the Hippie movement crumbled but in my mind at least, I think they were sold out by the Yippie 's who thought the non violent approach simply wasn't working. As time went on the level of violence escalated forcing many Hippies to abandon their cause

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There were a lot of reason's why the Hippie movement crumbled but in my mind at least, I think they were sold out by the Yippie 's who thought the non violent approach simply wasn't working. As time went on the level of violence escalated forcing many Hippies to abandon their cause

Or join the "Dead Head" entourage! :lol:

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There were a lot of reason's why the Hippie movement crumbled but in my mind at least, I think they were sold out by the Yippie 's who thought the non violent approach simply wasn't working. As time went on the level of violence escalated forcing many Hippies to abandon their cause

I would say that definitely impacted things.

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What makes people think hippies have disappeared from the landscape? They're still out there and I don't mean the ones that "play" hippie at Widespread, Phish, etc. shows. They exist on the fringes of society just as they always have.

I also wonder about the fascination some seem to have with wishing they had grown up in the 60s or 70s. Why would anyone want to go back to such a turbulent time in our nations history, as if the times we are living in aren't turbulent enough. Having grown up in the 70s I can say without hesitation that you really didn't miss out on much. I'm more about living in the now.

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