Perfect Time & Place
What would be your Perfect Time & place ?
I’ve always thought I was extremely lucky to be alive in the 1960’s. It was an exciting era and relatively free compared to the restrictions we now have in every area.
As a Musician and also a Car nut I completely agree with Rob Forrester of the Go-Betweens when he said,
“I wish I’d been in San Francisco in 1965-1966″ –
“All the major players were there, bands were forming but hadn’t made their first albums yet and there was a lovely feeling of shared ideas, shared houses. The Hippy world was coming on, people were enjoying it but it hadn’t been on the front cover of Time Magazine yet.
It was that world where men started to grow their hair down on their shoulders, people were getting into Eastern religion, adventurous fantastic Rock n roll was being made. For a couple of years in 1965-66, that was a fantastic world”
(conversation Hour, Richard Fidler 18 Nov 2009 )http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/brisbane/conversations/200911/r471934_2364525.mp3
What year & Date would you choose for your Perfect Moment in time?
Agree or Disagree, but let me know by posting your year and reasons in the comments box at the bottom.
Music, Cars, Peace and Love – they were all there in 1965.
Here’s more on what it was like, the Atmosphere, the Cars, the Music –
ATMOSPHERE
In 1965 San Francisco became one of the liveliest cities in the US. The poets of the “Beat generation” moved there; the “Diggers” turned the Haight Ashbury district into a “living theater”. Mario Savio founded the “Free Speech Movement” at the University of California at Berkeley, where sit-ins and marches were supported by the likes of Country Joe McDonald.
McLure, Dylan & Ginsberg
There was excitement in the air. In the summer of 1965 a San Francisco band, the Charlatans, and their hippy fans took over the “Red Dog Saloon” in Virginia City (Nevada), and came up with the idea of playing a new kind of music for a new kind of audience. The Warlocks (later renamed the Grateful Dead) got hired by Ken Kesey to play at his “acid tests” (LSD parties), where the band began performing lengthy instrumental jams, loosely based on country, blues and jazz.
The Warlocks- later became The Grateful Dead
In October of that year, the Family Dog Production organized the first hippy party at the “Long Shoreman’s Hall”. Following the success of that “festival”, avenues for San Francisco’s new bands sprang up all around.
Those acts embodied the pacifist ideals that had been promoted by Bob Dylan, but with less political stance. Theirs was a philosophy of life (“peace , love and drugs”) in direct consequence of what Dylan had preached, but much closer to Buddhist philosophy.
Hippies gathered not to march, but to celebrate; not to protest but to rejoice. The spiritual experience was more important than political experience. This represented a dramatic change from the times of rock’n’roll, when the music was an (ultimately violent) act of rebellion.
CARS
Cars were every bit as fantastic as the music. The muscle car era had just begun. In 1965-66 the top option V8 engines were around 425 cubic inches, that’s 7 Litres. Cars from this era had character, the designers were allowed to be individuals, and cars didn’t all look the same.
The Pontiac GTO
The Shelby Mustang
The Stingray
The Buick Wildcat
late in 66 the Chevrolet Camaro
1965 Ford Thunderbird
Carol Shelby built the Cobra sportscar and then the hot Shelby Mustang. The Pontiac GTO is credited with starting the muscle car era and the Mustang for making muscle cars popular. The Buick Wildcat was powerful, sleek for its size and the Corvette Stingray was becoming a legend. Plymouth Fury & Barracuda, Buick Riviera & Toronado, Chevrolet Chevelle, Impala & Caprice – all these cars were large and had options for huge gas guzzling 7 Litre V8 engines. They were classic and they had style.
The movie Bullit, with it’s famous car chase down the hilly streets of San Francisco, premiered two years later in 1968, but it was no doubt inspired by some of these cars and they way they were driven.
MUSIC
The Grateful Dead, considered by many to be “the” greatest rock band of all times, were a monument of San Francisco’s hippy civilization and the psychedelic civilization of the 1960s. Their greatest invention was the lengthy, free-form, group jam, the rock equivalent of jazz improvisation. This became known as ‘Acid Rock’ which came to represent escape from the Establishment, artistic freedom and the alternative lifestyle.
The Grateful Dead
Jefferson Airplane embodied the spirit and the sound of the hippy era and had a formidable group of talents that redefined every part of Rock music. Their early singles, Somebody To Love and White Rabbit, helped establish psychedelic-rock as a musical genre.
The Santana Blues Band, later simply called Santana formed in 1966. Big Brother and the Holding Company formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their lead singer.
Santana
Not so famous bands of the time (Charlatans, Ace of Cups, The Vejtables, Chocolate Watchband to name a few) contributed to an atmosphere of experimentation, improvisation, and ambivalence about the notion of commercial success.
The Charlatans were credited with being the first band to take LSD just before a gig and also producing the first Psychedelic poster.
In other parts of the music world the Beatles had chart toppers with Ticket to Ride, Yesterday, Michelle. The Rolling Stones had a #1 hit with Satisfaction and The Who had a chart hit with My Generation. The Doors got together in California 1965; The Beach Boys had a hit with Help me Rhonda & Do You Wanna Dance –
“It was all happening, Man”
1965-66 in San Francisco would have been an exciting place to live.
Peace Man~!
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Perfect Time and Place – 1991 – Carribean – Steel bands – rum – fun and parties – Great sailing – awesome boats and people – Great body surfing – fresh seafood – stunning beaches – good diving – atmospheric pool bars- Dougie’s in Antigua – Wonderful sunsets! – What more can I say…
Bottle of red – good friends – good food – an ocean – anytime anyplace
My perfect time and place was the sixties too I guess, Beatles music, driving my mini to the coast and surfing all weekend, loving my gorgeous man in the sand, that time can’t be beat!!
I never wish for what can not be.Only one life to live and i best make the most of it. My son and daughter are the most importent
I would like to be an ‘up-and-coming’ black person, living at the time of the release of Nelson Mandela.
Being an ‘up-and-coming’ type, this would be the opportunity to become the person I longed to be.
ANY time would be good for me; so long as I can live it in a little cabin in the rainforrest 🙂
……….I would like to be an observer of the court of King Henry VIII or see how my grandmother lived when she was a girl. Tutankhamen’s time would be good too or how about one of Jesus Christ’s followers just to see what he was all about.
I would like to have been an Aussie soldier in Vietnam 1967/68 ( I was 10 at the time). I often say jokingly ‘I remember when I was in the ‘Nam’. I have read a lot about it and find it fascinating and horrendous. I also wonder how I would have coped with the fighting and the coming home. Having said all that,if I had been there I would be busy trying to forget it.
Gee; I thought MINE was just a simple one! hahhaha
Motor cycles.Motocros,road racing.rallies etcThis was before money reared it,s ugly moosh! you tuned your own stuff.AND you could trust your bike mates.Now it is all special machinery and gear.Club life was fun and the cops even talked to us!!!!!
As for soaring I think that up to 1970 or so that was tops too.Now it is all money again.Unless you have the latest open class machine with GPS and all the rest you better stay home and play with your model air craft if ready to fly kits is your thing.A good glass of whiskey will have to do
…I’ve thought about this in more depth; I’d have to say, that I am (reasonably) happy living IN the time I’m in;
We have computers and plasma Tv’s etc, and cars that (usually) run flawlessly and are far more comfortable and lighter to drive than any that have come before it.
…IF it were possible; I’d like to have the money I had before the GFC knocked it down $100,000, but go back several years or more, and buy a few properties…THEN zoom FORWARDS in time back to NOW, where they’d be worth 8 times what I paid for them!
Aside from that; I think we live in alright times given the worlds population – we (as of this moment at least) DON’T have the ugly stress of being at war, nor (for most of us) are we starving and living from hand to mouth every day.
We have it MUCH easier than in time behind us.
Having said that; I’m kind of glad that many of us DID do it a bit tough in years gone by; it helps us appreciate what we have versus what we never used to have (pity the ‘kids’ of today weren’t so grateful!).
Lastly, aside from all of that; the simpler life when I was a young boy is still appealing; times when drought didn’t dictate that we couldn’t play under the hose in summer, and be so nieve that we could BURN our rubbish instead of dump or recycle it. ‘Global warming’ hadn’t become a term which is now all consuming, and ‘carbon tax’ would’ve meant simply how much extra we’d have to pay for charcoal pencils!
I’m going to have to say 1968-9 London, for the atmosphere and new possibilities and an establishment just as mean but less accomplished at disguising itself. Then when I get to about 35 I’d go back to medieval England for the societal structure and freedoms. Then when I get to 50 I’d come back to now to write a book about it.
I’d have to say growing up in Kerema PNG in the sixties wild and free, when it was ok to go to school barefoot. A time when kids could roam in safety, explore the black sand beaches and caves without parents worrying . Where there were only 17 kids in the local school with one teacher – no TV – and lots of imagination.
I would not change a thing.I went through adolescence in the mid sixties,and they were my “Happy Days”. We did all the things they did on the show,and a few more,before there was a TV show of that name.American Graffitti,did all that too.Top Of The Town for burgers and juke box,Mc,cann St for hanging out,Tailight Alley for getting it on,Point Henry road for drag racing,all this in Australia.No,I would not change a thing.
Hey Rob,
nice Buick Wildcat,did you realise it”s mine?
Part of me would have liked to have been a brigand on the high seas but probably not as ideal in real life as in a fantasy, so would have to add bullet, cannonball and sword proof.
The 70’s weren’t too bad, things sort of sped up after that and loads of things changed.
The digital age sort of stuffed a few things up but there are benefits, still figuring out if they are better than what is now gone.
Paihia North Island NZ about 200 years ago but certainly before planning permission was invent
I am personally fascinated with the 1960’s probably because I have never experienced that period. I have heard stories though for instance my dad grew up on a commune in the boonies of California, great bands and everything.
I think the 60’s and 70’s were probably some of the best times when fuel was so cheap you could afford to drive the V8’s cruising everywhere and anywhere just because you could with as many mates as you could squeeze into the car with up to 5 in front and loads more in the back.