Post by tzinana on Jul 17, 2005 22:12:59 GMT
"THE WAY IT WAS: ROCK NOTES FROM '60S"
By Steve Morse
Boston Globe
April 4, 1982
Fascination with music from the 1960s has become a
national pastime. Vaunted '60s acts like the Doors,
Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix keep being revived
through the press, radio, cover bands and reissued
records, while a new generation wonders, "What did we
miss? Was the music really better back then?"
There is an almost obsessive need to compare and
contrast the generations. The '60s were a period of
musical optimism, while the '80s are a commercial,
cynical era without heroes - or so many popular
theories go, especially among older, nostalgic
critics.
The truth is that there are no black-and-white
answers. There is more big- business hype and
confusion these days, but there is still quality. You
just have to look harder for it by searching
independent record bins, alternative radio stations
and word-of-mouth sources.
Good music is good music in any age. Probably the
biggest difference is that people are more jaded these
days. Many think they've heard everything. That notion
didn't exist in the '60s, when concerts were still a
new phenomenon.
The concerts were on a much different scale, rendering
comparison impossible. "There are a lot of clubs
around now that have bigger sound systems than were
used in the '60s in buildings like Boston Garden,"
says Gerry Stickells, who is now Queen's tour manager
but traveled with Jimi Hendrix back then as a truck
driver.
Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, I was a music
addict who went to every show I could afford. What
follows is not a weighty pronouncement on the '60s -
perhaps we've all had too many of those - but just a
personal memoir of concerts I attended.
My biggest regret was that I never saw the Beatles,
but I was luckier than most to see the Rolling Stones,
Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and Led Zeppelin twice each. I
went strictly as a fan, never knowing I'd been writing
about the music some day.
Many of the shows were at the Boston Tea Party (now
the Metro), along with various sites in Providence
(where I went to college) and England. There I spent a
summer at a bogus archaeological dig, arranged partly
so I could stick around and hear some music.
The following have been arranged in alphabetical, not
chronological, order:
NOTE: ONLY THE DOORS SECTION IS INCLUDED HERE
Doors - No one was prepared for his or her first Doors
concert. Singer Jim Morrison was like an unleashed
psychopath, staggering around and sprawling on the
stage, looking to be in a shamanistic frenzy (bigger
eyeballs I've never seen) and establishing an
explosive tone of hurt and anger, ending in catharsis.
Pianist Ray Manzarek played his dapper opposite - a
Van Cliburn character who acted straight enough to be
in a classical piano competition until you looked
further at his granny glasses, and realized he was an
emissary from Pluto. Guitarist Robbie Kreiger,
meanwhile, was a shy, poetic figure in the background.
The first time I saw them was at the shortlived
Crosstown Bus in Brighton, a psychedelic atmosphere
complete with absurd silver foil covering the walls
and go-go girls in cages. An eye-opener.
Posted by Tzinana
By Steve Morse
Boston Globe
April 4, 1982
Fascination with music from the 1960s has become a
national pastime. Vaunted '60s acts like the Doors,
Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix keep being revived
through the press, radio, cover bands and reissued
records, while a new generation wonders, "What did we
miss? Was the music really better back then?"
There is an almost obsessive need to compare and
contrast the generations. The '60s were a period of
musical optimism, while the '80s are a commercial,
cynical era without heroes - or so many popular
theories go, especially among older, nostalgic
critics.
The truth is that there are no black-and-white
answers. There is more big- business hype and
confusion these days, but there is still quality. You
just have to look harder for it by searching
independent record bins, alternative radio stations
and word-of-mouth sources.
Good music is good music in any age. Probably the
biggest difference is that people are more jaded these
days. Many think they've heard everything. That notion
didn't exist in the '60s, when concerts were still a
new phenomenon.
The concerts were on a much different scale, rendering
comparison impossible. "There are a lot of clubs
around now that have bigger sound systems than were
used in the '60s in buildings like Boston Garden,"
says Gerry Stickells, who is now Queen's tour manager
but traveled with Jimi Hendrix back then as a truck
driver.
Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, I was a music
addict who went to every show I could afford. What
follows is not a weighty pronouncement on the '60s -
perhaps we've all had too many of those - but just a
personal memoir of concerts I attended.
My biggest regret was that I never saw the Beatles,
but I was luckier than most to see the Rolling Stones,
Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and Led Zeppelin twice each. I
went strictly as a fan, never knowing I'd been writing
about the music some day.
Many of the shows were at the Boston Tea Party (now
the Metro), along with various sites in Providence
(where I went to college) and England. There I spent a
summer at a bogus archaeological dig, arranged partly
so I could stick around and hear some music.
The following have been arranged in alphabetical, not
chronological, order:
NOTE: ONLY THE DOORS SECTION IS INCLUDED HERE
Doors - No one was prepared for his or her first Doors
concert. Singer Jim Morrison was like an unleashed
psychopath, staggering around and sprawling on the
stage, looking to be in a shamanistic frenzy (bigger
eyeballs I've never seen) and establishing an
explosive tone of hurt and anger, ending in catharsis.
Pianist Ray Manzarek played his dapper opposite - a
Van Cliburn character who acted straight enough to be
in a classical piano competition until you looked
further at his granny glasses, and realized he was an
emissary from Pluto. Guitarist Robbie Kreiger,
meanwhile, was a shy, poetic figure in the background.
The first time I saw them was at the shortlived
Crosstown Bus in Brighton, a psychedelic atmosphere
complete with absurd silver foil covering the walls
and go-go girls in cages. An eye-opener.
Posted by Tzinana