Music of the 60's ... Peace Love and Understanding (page 2)

I recall wonderful peaks during the 1960s and also great ugliness. Since I lived in NJ, I used to trek every weekend to Greenwich Village and Central Park's Bethsaida Fountain for Happenings every weekend, just as generations of Jersey youth have done and still do. When my family went to see the moon walk in Central Park, a street band announced that Woodstock Music Festival was taking place. The first thing I did was to get tickets - tickets that I still have. For every groovy awesome things, I recall ugly things. Radical leftists enticing teenagers to get the hell beaten out of them to radicalize. Being white and dealing with black power up close. There was no ethnic white power to balance it. Woodstock was very scary---and awesome.

Today I listen to the Beatles, the WGO, Dylan, Clapton - the whole bunch. I loved it when I was young. Now I adore it and am amazed at the quality of my music heroes. I saw myself as part of an exciting counterculture which has melted into establishment blandness.

I had music enemies in the 1960s. Crooners such as Frank Sinatra, jazz legends, Four Seasons who hogged precious radio and Tv time from the 60s counterculture. Now there is enough bandwidth to encompass many different styles. My musical taste has broadened. Almost all the musicians I once hated are now on my iPod.

I am glad I was part of this movement.