Hello,
I am writing a paper about Sixties culture for college and I need some help. I need to do a personal interview. It is kind of ironic that I HAVE to write a paper and FOLOW RULES about the Sixties, but here I am. I was hoping anyone who took an active role in the Sixties or somebody who went to Woodstock (Arlo?) could answer a couple questions?
Can anyone tell me any social changes that are in effect today that may have been inspired by Woodstock? Did anyone who went to Woodstock
anticipate that Woodstock would become an iconic event. Was Woodstock a protest or celebration or how did you see it at the time? Did you feel, at the time, that this was an revolutionary event? How so? Have anybodyparticipated in any event other than Woodstock that has had such a global impact? If more change could have happend, what do you wish it was? What was the negative impact of Woodstock or music, if any? Any input would be great.

Or if you (anyone) prefer, just say what you think about the sixties, good, bad , or otherwise.

Thank you,
Tom
Sheboygan, Wi

how is the poll going?

The poll is going SLOW, apparently only seven people remember the Sixties. To those who are contributing, I appreciate the responses. I am having some fun with it anyways.

its tuff to remember the sixties, so what have you learned?

Well, I am doing a study of counter culture, new left, and pop culture and the collision of the three to form 60's culture. Some pretty interesting stuff. Although some of the concepts seem logical; few would put food on the table. Change is risky and as we now know, does not come easy. As a matter of fact, there is usally a high personal cost to the people that try to initiate such changes.

Also, based on the responses, people seem to like the past better than the present.

The 60's & 70's were the best era's ever & I'm glad I was alive then. I just wish I'd been older in thte 60's tho instead of being too young for stuff. I'd like to go to back then & be the age I am now & Married to Mike so I could experience it with him. Folks accuse me lol of ignoring all the bad stuff back then like Vietnam. But they had some great music, tv shows & cool clothes back then...

well if i might comment

counter culture, new left and pop culture

I would argue the sixties (and early 70's) were not as unique as people make them out to be. the 20's 30's 40's and, yes, even the 50's had their counter cultures, "new left" and (as a reflection of these) there pop cultures. Jazz and swing and jump blues and folk singers (hey hey Woody Guthrie) with sexual, racial, political and secular rebellion in general. I think what made the 60's unique was the extreme paranoia of the counter culture, the number of political and social issues that reached a critical mass and the extreme mechanisms of the establishment to maintain their perception of order in the world (which created the paranoia) and the television cameras that captured it all in real time. You say "change is risky". It is always risky to change to a new equilibrium. Allowing a blackman or a gay man or women so called "equal rights" entered unchartered territory for many and the fear (i would say feared but there is no past tense here) of what might go wrong is greater than the possibility of what might go right. As far as the world stage then, personifying a family of under nourished Vietnamese village people as the root and focus of all evil and losing lives in the name of killing them to protect them from an abstract philosophy, well i would like to say that sort of thinking became extinct, but???? You know there were a half a million kids gathered at Woodstock or so they say and they may have shared a wavelength for a moment or two but they were still half a million souls wandering about with no direction known! Just like Cleon Jones (that is how I sang it in 65, know who Cleon Jones was?), Just like a rolling stone.

as far as better then than now

my life was certainly more carefree and experimental. I was a kid! I was exposed to many unusual and alternative lifestyles, some with value, some not. though i refrain these days i had quite a fondness for Pot, LSD and Peyote and i would say they may have left me with some valuable insights on life (those other drugs all fell into the not category for me). But liked it better then? I think there is a nostalgia gene that makes people say that, they should be reassessing their lives if that is truly true, recapture the rebellion for crying out loud, because every minute your breathing is a precious oppurtunity and if you have decided the best has passed, well you have found yourself in a bad situation.

that is my opinion

some more reflection

it is interesting how (through the undying efforts of everybodies fav General, Westy) it has become almost folkloric that America actually won the war in Vietnam had the people in our country only had the will to pursue the ultimate (and morally correct I might add) conclusion to the conflict, oh, we won militarily!

If there was ever an example of pursuing the wrong policy to the wrong conclusion for the wrong reasons! and maybe that is what inspired Bob Mcnamera to finally write his opinion that he F#@&%d up! I mean LBJ admitted it before he died but not Dick Nixon, isn't that odd?

Ya, those were the good old days!

between what's in the news, and what i know, and all these thoughts (they need to be said, i know!), and my heart that's trying to beat it's way out of my chest, i'm comforted by the thought that alro has shared with us (sorry arlo, i don't mean to paraphrase you or anything but, forgive me?) that in a world that sucks, it doesn't take much at all to make a difference (for the better)

sigh...oh i hate these feelings i have sometimes

I mentioned this subject today in one of those work a day world conversations and they were shocked, shocked I say, by the paranoia concept. The whole decade (and more) was one paranoia trip with i am being an individual but very paranoid about it type thing though. I mean what was the over riding theme of the whole scene? Has anyone here seen my old friend John, Bobby or Martin, nope why because they shot them dead, shot them dead, who were they?
paranoia will destroy ya
sorry Tom I rant and rave but your post seemed so lonely

Now I have a friend a wife and a home and there is a tap on my phone
hey undercover man won't you leave me alone
(Skip Batten from the Byrds circa '72)

or

No Knock on my brothers head
No Knock on my sisters head
(Gil Scot-Heron circa '71)

to be submitted to John Mitchels suggestion box

THe Revolution will not be televised

paranoia my foot! i was horrified! i was too young to even grasp the concept of paranoia during the 60s but things were on fire! getting news over the intercom at school that someone (else) had been assassinated (a very jagged word i learned in context) was difficult to wrap my mind around. if you're talking about current events at the time, i remember viewing the riots on the tv news by myself in the room and crying, then of course shaking it off once anyone entered the room.

"what's goin' on" marvin gaye 71


but i have to say, outside of that realm of thought...i was chasing toads and grasshoppers and dandelions gone to seed...

I agree that the 60's and 70's were probably not as controversal as portrayed in the history books. It is subjective. The 60's and 70's were much more lenient towards alternative points of views, or maybe better said, changing points of view.

I would point out that drug use probably became more widespread in the 60's and that openess of certain lifestyles became more tolerated. The increase in telvisions put counter-culture in America's living rooms for the first time. It also put the war into peoples homes too. This awarness created a need to revolt or attempt to make an impact/ difference.

As far as my study, it is pretty limited by the costraints of the course, but counter-culture is definetly not a new concept. Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs, and Ferlinghetti were all pioneers for sixties culture, not necessarily in every way but in a sense that they challenge the norm.

I cannot speak regarding the paranoia, but history has shown to be different in anyway is like putting a target on yourself. So, paranoia seems to be a logical reaction. Anxiety maybe be a slightly more fitting adjective describing the sixties (or maybe coping with it) with a little angst mixed in.

Cheryl,

I agree with you. The 60's definetly had its own style. It seems like the style we have today is all recycled from yesteryear.

The sixties had a lot of great music. Not that there isn't some good stuff around today, but overall, music is too commercial today.

well i would stick with paranoia over anxiety, I remember a cartoon of Dick Nixon as a puppet, the whole Military Industrial thing ruling the world and our lives, Oliver Stones Movie on Jim Garrison is one big Paranoia fest about the period, is there anyone who thinks Oswald acted alone (even if he did pull the trigger?) "Its a riddle wrapped up in an enigma" (Joe Pesci was great as David Ferrie)

Yes I watched the war on TV, I remember Tet in Color and seeing the famous bullit to the brain videobyte and the little girl coverd in napalm when they were new and rallies for Calley because he was a scapegoat and riots when King died and the end of "Colored Nights" at amusement parks and movie theatres and busing riots with dead kids in the hallway near my locker.

but Agnes I don't really remember much fear when I wore my hair long with the boot cut pants covered with Mr Natural Stickers and Long hair that obviously offended. One of the great ironies was when Brewer and Shipley had a hit record in '71 I believe with One Toke Over the Line because that became sort of a hit with the silent majority folks (these types predominated in my world, definitely). It held a spot right next to Merle's Muskogee anthem in some of the juke boxes (does see these things much anymore) in my hometown because it said sweet jesus in it and seemed sort of Christian (maybe it was because Brewer was from my home town but they even made a guest appearence on the Ho Ho the clown show one morning, very bizarre). I remember being in the Eight Ball, a pool hall with a typically less than liberal clientele and playing the B-side

Oh Mommy, I aint no commie
just doing what i can to live the good all american way
like to wear my hair long
i would never do any thing wrong
when you already accused me twice
of lookin like Jesus Christ Hallelua

Mr Nixon, I aint a fixin (that an Okie line if I ever heard one)
To speak Spanish on a Plane or polish of the liberty bell

like mr patricjk henry said
i got to be free again

please let me do what i want to
like lay around the house and smoke marijuana

well i can't remember the words in the correct order but it created a bit of a scene but i don't think i felt fear, i remember they pulled that record from juke boxes pretty quickly after that

you mention Ginsberg and Kerouac and Burroughs but don't forget Elvis, the Beatles and the Yardbyrds, after all they are reponsible for all the garage bands you could hear playing in the twilight all over the world in 1965-66. (The Voids practiced in our garage (they had cards and everything) and they played Gloria, Hey Joe and We Gotta Get out of this place over and over again hoping some chicks would come by).