Any Hippies here?


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It's right that if you remeber the '60s you were not really there. I lived through it and it was , well, just living and all the free love and 'happenings' I kept reading about always seemed to be happening anywhere I wasn't. With work, university and getting married at 20 everything went by in blur.

My only contribution to the hippie movement was a matching 'flower power' shirt and tie - long after it had gone out of fashion.

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Kev ( fynger ) and i are hippies, have been since the early 70s....those that have met us would, i guess have known this...something about the clothes we wear would have given it away...it's not somet

I think it's pretty certain that 'Nam' had a lot to do with it.  I believe there were more than a few hundred US 'Combat Deaths' in 'Nam' in the early 1960s before the US Govt. even admitted to any in

On the subject of London - I was once walking past the tower when I heard an American woman's voice say "Oh look, an English hippy".  She and her husband then asked me if they could have their photo t

Yes I was a hippy( but not a scruffy one) had really long hair, caftans,long skirts,cow bells,loved it and loved the music.,I was 17 at the time.

Then when I was a little older I became a mod,skirts up to bum,and all the other stuff,still kept the long hair,I loved the shoes from that time.My Dad would say if you are going out in that skirt remember not to bend forward you will show your drawers.

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We are on the same page, Brew.  I remember the 60s very clearly.  Like you, married at twenty. I guess I must have led a very sheltered life.  I didn't know anything about drugs.  I thought they were simply something the dr. Prescribed if you got pneumonia.  I think my first inkling of so called recreational drugs was when the Beatles went through their Eastern mysticism psychedelic phase.  I simply couldn't understand why somebody would want to be stoned out of their mind.  Still don't.

 

First sight of real hippies was in July 70 on down town Yonge street in Toronto.  There was a small side street there where my wife's cousin took me to show me the sites.  Loud music coming out of old buildings. Guys lying around strumming guitars in the hot July night.  Didn't look like much fun to me so we headed out of there, quick.

 

Seems like a period of idealism that ended with the realities of trying to make it.  Most of 'em just probably drifted back into being just like mam and dad, like the rest of us.:)

 

That said. I think many of those ideals didn't totally die.  Those of them that went on into politics, teaching, industry etc. Have probably shaped our society's more than we realize.  I'll leave it to others to address whether for good or bad.

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I posted these before somewhere else but they probably fit here as well.  They were taken by my dad when we were on holiday in London in 1966. They show Carnaby Street in the year before the hippy peak.  All the people are passers-by who just happened to be there. And that Austin Healey would be worth a fortune now.

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9 hours ago, loppylugs said:

Seems like a period of idealism that ended with the realities of trying to make it.  Most of 'em just probably drifted back into being just like mam and dad, like the rest of us.:)

That said. I think many of those ideals didn't totally die.  Those of them that went on into politics, teaching, industry etc. Have probably shaped our society's more than we realize.  I'll leave it to others to address whether for good or bad.

 

I think that's probably broadly right Loppy.  I don't suppose that the majority of those who gravitated towards the Hippy movement really intended to 'drop out' permanently.  They were making a statement and often about genuinely held disenchantment with the way the World was going.  It was also fun for those who enjoyed it.

 

The other thing that strikes me is that just as happened a decade or so earlier with Rock and Roll there, were 'vested interests' who did their best to exaggerate and publicise what they saw as the 'negative' aspects, while downplaying the positives.  The social conservatives of the 1950s political establishment also hated Rock and Roll.  They not only got themselves into a moral panic about it, but also trotted out idiotic propaganda about 'jungle music' (clearly racist inspired) etc.  But I'm pretty sure that the 'anti Rock and Roll' stuff was also backed by the music promoting and publishing establishment,  who saw their monopoly threatened.  That's why they trotted out their 'sanitised' version through the likes of Pat Boone and all those pretty boy Bobbies and Ricky's.

 

I think that the more paranoid elements in the establishment really did see the spectre of revolution in the huge upsurge of hippy/civil rights/ student protest/anti war activities.  They shot dead students on campuses.  It is only those who are intent on controlling others.. who fear the loss of that control.

 

But whatever, in the end, as you said. it seems that the era represented a paradigm shift in American Culture and 'Western' culture in general.  the establishment stayed in control, but had to loosen the leash, allow people to live in less 'prescribed' ways and stop dictating what was and was not acceptable popular culture.

 

For what it's worth, I also reckon that the whole drug culture thing was exaggerated.  There was already a hard drug issue in the US ( Heroin.. mostly I think.. in jazz circles and so on) And Marijuana and Cocaine had been around since at least the 1920s as recreational drugs.  Probably much longer.  But it paled into insignificance compared to what is happening now.

 

I also wonder whether my own kids seem so boringly conventional because 'conventional' now includes the new freedoms which were won 50 years ago.

 

Col

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, NewBasfordlad said:

I must admit I once tried hash, me and a mate sat on Bulwell forest golf course one night and smoked a couple of spliffs, waited a while nothing happened no castles in the sky etc so we went to the Golden Ball and had a couple of pints, cheaper, more fun and legal.

 

I tried 'Hash' more than a few times.  On rare occasions it just 'worked' and made for an interesting experience, but mostly I just got a dry mouth and felt a bit sick.  I also had a few 'tabs' of LSD.  Again.,,, sometimes a very pleasant experience, but other times a bit unsettling.  ( I am being deliberately vague here )  I have been offered the stuff many times even up until quite recently, but I wouldn't touch it now. And I think Cocaine would be very unwise for my ticker..

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Again, I'll reiterate that it was solely the music that influenced me, and the fashion of course. The so called idealism and the political connotations never crossed my mind. 

Regarding music, drove to Lincoln and back today and had Free and the Groundhogs on. Fantastic stuff. Then Radio 2 with the Walker Brothers doing No Regrets. What a fantastic voice Scott Walker had !

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Re; Carnaby Street....

 

Intriguing pics Kev.

 

The colours make them look like yesterday. In the top pic there is someone on the right just behind the woman with the blue blouse.  I can't make my mind up whether it is a tall woman with short hair in a 'trouser suit', or a bloke.  But if it is a 'bloke'.. he has a 'man bag', over his shoulder which would have been pretty daring even for Carnaby St. in 1966.

In the same pic, just behind the Austin Healey  ( 3000?) there is a chap walking away wearing a pale blue/grey  'hoody' which looks very 'now'. 

 

Col

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15 hours ago, DJ360 said:

not to mention LSD, Marijuana, Mescaline etc.,

Uppers, Downers and Hallucinogens all were available at many clubs in the 60's and the culture of a pint, a pill and a pi$$ was common.

 

Nowadays, it appears that the Zombie drug Spice, speed/ice and the old standby coke are the choice.

 

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Yes.  If I'm honest I didn't personally encounter such 'uppers' as Dexedrine, Drinamyl and Benzedrine until the early 70s.  I did like the effect though... but I learned that you had to take the 'down' that followed. The alternative was to take more stuff to get past the come down.. and that was a slippery slope that even I wasn't dumb enough to get onto.  Same as the booze really.  You can't fix a hangover with more booze.. unless you want to let it own you.

 

Col

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I suppose it's all an extension of the opium dens in the Victorian/Edwardian days,nothing really changes except the toxicity of the drug being consumed

 

Rog

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9 hours ago, FLY2 said:

Then Radio 2 with the Walker Brothers doing No Regrets. What a fantastic voice Scott Walker had !

Certainly did FLY. I was listening to the excellent Nite Flights album just the other night, different to their earlier stuff.

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My ex absolutely adored Scott Walker. I think that's why she chose me ! I hope she wasn't disappointed. LOL

Amongst the Free songs I played yesterday , were Heavy Load, Fire &Water, Mr Big and Be My Friend. 

In F & W, Koss conveys every single emotion known to man just in one prolonged note. In Mr Big, Andy Frasers bass playing is just unsurpassable. Forget Jack Bruce, this is the most mind blowing piece of bass playing in the history of rock music. 

I found myself gripping the steering wheel, eyes half closed at my head bobbing up and down like a nodding donkey !

Free Chronicles, double CD, 35 great tracks. A truly tight and talented group.

I NEVER needed any drugs, just a good song and a beer.

RIP  Koss and Andy.

 

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Col I was seriously put off LSD so never tried it.

 

One night we were in the pub in Buxton when in dashed one of the girls asking for help for her hubby, they lived in what used to be a posh Victorian part of the town. Her husband Brid had dropped a tab before setting off to the pub and as they walked down the road he had seen a gargoyle above some ones rear gate and could not pass it for fear of the 'monster'. Turning round to go home and now looking for more 'monsters' he saw another one between him and home, shaking with fear he sat down on the pavement edge and sobbed his socks off, he was still there crying when we arrived to escort him home.

 

Having witnessed that I never even went near the stuff.

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Just harking back a bit to the origins of Hippydom in the 'Beat' generation and jazz of the 1950s.. there's a very interesting prog on BBC 4 as I type.  It's called 'Bright Lights Brilliant Minds'  and this is about New York.  Thelonious Monk, Jack Kerouac, Jackson Pollock.  The whole gang.  Very interesting.

 

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NBL.  I don't doubt your story.  I had some odd experiences myself.  I wouldn't 'undo' any of it even if I could.  But neither would I do it again... or recommend it to others.  Just something notched up to experience. But I have to say that the best of it gave me experiences I'll never forget.  Of course they weren't 'spiritual enlightenments' , or 'mind expansion'.  They were just hallucinations.  Were they memorable?  Oh. Yes!!!  But on the same level as a good day out or a spectacular fairground ride.  Nothing more.

 

Also worth noting that of all the illicit substances I played around with in my youth.. none still figure.  Nicotine and alcohol, which don't result in anythiing like the same approbation.. actually do far more damage.  I kicked the Nicotine 10 years ago.  I'm still working on the alcohol.....  :)

 

Col

 

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The original group of San Francisco hippies teamed up with the Diggers, formed by the actor, Peter Coyote. They were an anarchist movement in the summer of 67, and were extremely anti establishment.

The English term relates to anyone who remotely dressed like them, such as Fruit of the Loom clothing, loon pants, and cheesecloth shirts and skirts etc. 

I wore a lot about 69 until maybe the early 70's. I must stress most vehemently that I was never scruffy, untidy or dirty. I've always been most fastidious regarding personal hygiene. As I said earlier, my style of dress reflected my then taste in music.

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Anyone remember "OZ" magazine?  Here are two covers and an article about the OZ obscenity trial from my tat collection:

 

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On 25/09/2017 at 2:58 PM, FLY2 said:

 I must stress most vehemently that I was never scruffy, untidy or dirty. I've always been most fastidious regarding personal hygiene. As I said earlier, my style of dress reflected my then taste in music.

 

Fly, I don't think any of us doubt it for a moment. 

 

One of the biggest myths of the whole era was that long hair was somehow automatically dirty, and that 'hippies', however you define them.. didn't wash.  IMHO,  just more propaganda trotted out by the 'establishment' to help to whip up moral panic and public condemnation. 

I also often noted the greasy collars and shiny suit pants, dirty shoes and B.O. on a significant proportion of 'respectably dressed' people.  For what it's worth, my sister in law has a house where you could eat your meals off the toilet floor in complete safety.  I doubt the NASA 'clean room' is cleaner. She was a hairdresser and her kids all had short cropped hair.  Yet they were constantly plagued by head lice.

 

Whether I was ever 'scruffy'  or 'untidy' is of course an entirely subjective issue depending on the eye of the beholder, but I was certainly never dirty. 

Even when I was 'on the road.... Man...'  .... I could usually find a public wash house or swimming baths in which to get a shower and get clean.  On one occasion I was reduced to wading out into the sea at Aberystwyth toting a bar of soap.  It's surprisingly difficult to get a lather up in sea water, but I at least managed to replace the smell of B.O. with the famous 'smell of the sea' that Rick Stein is always going on about....   :)  Perhaps as well because that was the night I met the lovely Holly from High Wycombe.  She and her friend were  'Youth Hostelling', but we couldn't get them to the nearest YHA place before it closed so they spent the night in our van.  We parked just off some mountain road above Aber.  Next morning I awoke to see a totally naked Holly running around in the mountain mist chasing sheep.  When I enquired as to her purpose she just laughed that she was "trying to catch breakfast".  All harmless youthful exuberance...  :rolleyes:.  Slightly more worrying was the fact that in the night.. the van had rolled back off the moor and over the road.. such that it was worryingly close to the very long steep drop on the other side.  Still, we survived, and my relationship with the lovely Holly developed into one of the longest of my pre-marital days.

 

Funny thing is that now, I can't stand my hair if it gets more than about 1/2" long.

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I also remember the International Times.. or IT.  Very subversive that was...  :)

And we might as well have a psychedelic input from Nottm's own  Rob Duffy with ' The Nerve'.

 

 

Col

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