Big Blue Huddle

So we've gone thru the 50's but I would assume more would get involved in the 60s

Check this out for starters

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/60-vintage-photos-that-will-send-any-60s-kid-back-in-time/ss-AA1b8nzs?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6b8260f3e46f4ebbb5dfbfc16795b805&ei=14#image=1

It is said that, "if you remember the 60's, you weren't there"...LOL A take on the amount of drug use and chaos that stretched across the nation

Going through the picture montage you posted, I noticed one about the girl singing groups like the Ronnettes, Shirelles, Supremes, etc., which brought back memories. I got to see the Shirelles in person at the BC Open golf tournemant held at Enjoe Greens back when I was in my late 40's. Tommy Shiptenko was in charge of the music, so he would bring in old 60's bands for Friday night entertainment every year...concerts were free, so couldn't go wrong. Tommy has been replaced by someone else who now brings in big name groups and tickets are 80-150 dollars...booo. Anyway, I've seen Three Dog Night, Blood Sweat and Tears, various doo-wop groups, etc. It was a lot of fun to sit back and watch a free concert from the old timers. I remember running into the lead singer of the Shirelles after the show and I told her how much I loved her voice and that I thought she was fantastic. She grabbed my hands and said, "thank you, you don't know how much that means to me", which surprised me. Very shy and down to earth...and much older than me. I doubt she still tours as that was more than 20 years ago. Interestingly, one of their top songs was "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" which was written by Gerry Goffin and his wife Carole King. Ten years later, I ended up hanging out with Goffin having no idea who he was. I went outside on a patio to grab a smoke and a guy who looked like a homeless fella asked if he could join me and I said, "sure" and he sat down at the little table I was using. I asked him where he was from and he said "L.A.", which surprised me because the way he was dressed and his scraggly hair and beard, I figured he had to live on the street. Anyway, he told me he was in town for an award...which piqued my interest and I found out who he was. We talked for a good half hour and he was a very nice guy who told me a lot of stories of his life. Great guy

Got my first car when I turned 16...a '64 Chevelle with a floor shifter and Thrush exhaust pipes, which I ended up trading it in for a '69 Road Runner. I wish I had kept both of them 

Even though the 60's were radical and chaos was everywhere, I was just young enough to miss out on the hippie stuff. Everything was about Vietnam, protests, free love, peace signs, flower children, the young against the establishment...especially politicians, and a whole lot of drugs. But I kept up with the music...particularly fond of the Beatles, Mamas and Papas, etc. We had sold the farm by 1964, but every farmer within a 30 mile radius needed help during haying season and they preferred kids who had spent years working the hayfields so I was always hired during the summer hay season. My friends went to Woodstock, but I turned them down because I didn't want to go 2 hours away for a concert...duhh

Years later I had a business trip to San Francisco and I just had to take the time to visit Haight/Ashbury and what a disappointment. Looked like any street corner in any small city with drug stores, clothing shops, etc. Not a hint of the 60's movement. In Los Angeles, it was Laurel Canyon where all the flower girls and hippies hung out like in San Francisco's Haight/Ashbury. But I'm glad I went. Reminds me of the Mamas and Papas song, "twelve-thirty" where they sing about all the young girls heading to the "Canyon". Chartruese VW buses with flowers painted on the sides hauled all kinds of people to Haight Ashbury and Laurel Canyon...tens of thousands


Unfortunately, The Mamas and Papas were destroyed by scandal upon scandal. To start with, Michelle was not really a great singer (when she started). She was a groupie who followed John Philips around who eventually married her. The group was originally called the "Mug Womps" or something like that. It wasn't until Mama Cass joined the group who had an absolutely beautiful deep, rich alto voice...then they took off like a rocket thanks to their unique blend of voices. But somewhere along the line, Michelle had an affair with Gene Clark of the Byrds as well as a few bedroom flings with Denny Doherty. So the group kicked her out, but they failed to make any music afterward. They finally invited Michelle back into the group where she sang her signature song, "Dedicated to the One I Love" as an apology to (some say "punishment" by) her husband.


Then Michelle ended up pissing Ed Sullivan off so much that they were no longer allowed to go on the show. Michelle wanted the full group of musicians to get credit on stage with them and to play "live" instead of lip singing. Her last time on the Sullivan show, she sang into a banana as her microphone while lip singing, eventually eating it while she was supposed to be singing...LOL.



John Phillips was a terrible man, but it didn't come out until much later. He had a daughter McKenzie Phillips who played one of the two daughters on the comedy show, "One Day at a Time" with Valerie Bertinelli as her sister, who later married Eddie Van Halen. McKenzie made her chops on "American Graffiti". What was discovered, was that she had an ongoing, long sexual relationship with her father that she couldn't get out of...not good!

Mama Cass finally left the group...unhappy...and wanted her own career. She abhorred the name "Mama" and demanded to be called Cass Elliot. So left the group for Vegas and eventually moved to London and after getting rave reviews on stage, she died of a heart attack (not the rumored "choking on vomit" that was spewn) and she had no drugs in her system according to the autopsy, even though she did a lot of drugs at one time with David Crosby when she was in Hollywood. She died in the same bedroom that Keith Moon of the "Who" died in, while choking on his vomit...which probably led to the rumor

Denny Doherty was the only member to not be in some sort of a scandal. He died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm at 67. Anyway, I think the Mamas and Papas epitomized what the 60's were all about

Anyway...the 60's were a unique time in my life

Some of my memories are still of a teen (early 60s) who really got into that doo-wop sound. I graduated HS in '63 and was out in the workforce the next year. I was attending college at night. I hated school and was always outside playing some sort of sport. I was intelligent enough to whiz thru HS without ever really opening a book. I paid for that later on as I couldn't get into any college because my grades weren't high enough, so I tried night school. That lasted about a year. I had a job working for CBS in NYC. It was a menial job, but I got to see many TV shows for free and met several recording artists who were under the Columbia brand.
When the Beatles came around, I was hooked. In fact, my friends and I decided to go to the airport when then first flew into JFK, but they disembarked so far from a terminal it was impossible to see. My job got me a better look as they were staying at a hotel that wasn't far from where I worked, so I was able to get by barricades that were set up and I did get a glimpse of them hanging out the hotel window.

I had some really good friends and we formed our own baseball team and that took up a lot of my time. We were good and traveled around locally, playing and winning. But I was getting older, now at 20, I was called for the draft. I thought long and hard about being drafted and spending 2 years in the Army, or enlisting in the Air Force and spending 4 years at that. I guess it was because my recruiter promised me the world if I joined the Air Force, I went with that. I spent 1 month at Lackland AFB in Texas, 5 months at Amarillo AFB again in Texas, and then 3 years at Ramstein AFB in Germany.
Because of being overseas, I really missed out on much of what was happening in the USA and in other parts of the world. A lot of what you mentioned, I knew nothing about. Yes, we read in the Stars and Stripes (the Military paper), but when I left the US I had a crew cut and most of my friends did also. When I returned in 1969, I still had my crew cut but I was about the only one. I hardly recognized anyone as they all had long hair, beards, and 'stashes', and half were drugged out. A completely different world, and you know what, I never adopted to it. This was me, and I basically have remained me until this day.
I never regretted my time in the service, even though, when I did get home, I WAs literally spit on in Manhatten when I wore my uniform on a date. Never put that uniform on again. It wasn't cool to be a veteran back then, but my time in the service and in Germany was well spent. I got to see most of Europe, met some fantastic people, and went to some amazing places. I sat on the Spanish Steps in Rome, threw a coin in Trevi Fountain, and even saw the Pope at one of his audiences. I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, walked into the very room where Anne Frank lived, sat in Picadilly Circus, and just watched the people hang out, watched the Changing of the Guards. I spent time on Carnaby Street (remember that in London). I saw 2001 in a huge movie theater in London, went to Hitler's retreat in Berchtesgaden, and walked across this path in the Alps where you walk from one country to another, 14,000 up above sea level. I drank beer at the Heineken Factory in Amsterdam, been to Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge, and been to the cemetery where General Patton is buried. I have been to October Fest in Munich and spent a never-to-be-forgotten day touring the Dachau concentration Camp. My only regret was I never got to Berlin as it was in East Germany and it was hard for the military to go thru East Germany to get there.  I was even then, a student of WWII and I was able to get to places that I only read about in books. You have to understand, I was there in 1966 and it was only 20 years after the war ended. I had some good German friends but I was always hesitant about bringing up the war, Hitler et al. When it was, almost to a man, their answer was 'We knew nothing' (Remember Hogen's heroes and that line).
When I did get home in September of 1969, I got caught up in NY Mets fever as they were making a run for the pennant and then the World Series. It was so addictive being in NY, everyone was, all of a sudden, a Mets fan.

I remember sitting up in the middle of the night, to listen to the Jets beat the Colts in SBIII. I remember sitting up all night to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. Most of our barracks stayed up for that one. At this time, I was what we called in the service 'short', meaning I was about to rotate back to the States. I only had about a month or so left on my tour, thus the meaning 'short', and being in that category, several of us were sort of kings of the barracks. We've been there almost 3 years and we knew it all. Good times though.

Some times, I do think back and think what I would have become if I was in college and didn't serve. Would I ahve become a long-haired hippy, or stayed my crew-cut ways?

As a side note, I went to a small high school in a small town (only 70-75 in my graduating class) and I was the first kid to have bell bottoms and had hair over my ears. The 60s were different than any decade of the 20th century...no matter what your age at the time, unless you were a baby or toddler...but your parents would have been in it all the way

If you can't tell, I was fascinated with the Mamas and Papas...especially Michelle (who everyone called "Mitchie"). So, a little more about her. After a tumultuous marriage, she finally divorced her husband John Phillips, and married Dennis Hopper. She already had a child with her husband, John. She had a daughter, Chyna Phillips who teamed up with two of the daughters of Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) and started the band "Wilson and Phillips". Chyna Phillips became an actress and married Billy Baldwin and then became an avid Christian and an outspoken crusader for Christ as a Bible thumping alpha woman

Michelle got into acting and had a large and long role in "Knot's Landing" as Anne Matheson. She was in dozens of movies, like "Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All", "The Joshua Tree", etc., and dozens of television shows like "Murder She Wrote", "Fantasy Island", "Love Boat", etc

I was shocked while watching the Quentin Tarantino's movie, "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" (which really captures the 60's movement) when Phil Spector (some foreign actor) and Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) show up to a party at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion and one of first people they see is Michelle Phillips smoking a joint and dancing with Cass Elliot...shocked because they found a woman who looked exactly like Michelle from the early 60's


She is the only who is still alive today, as all the others died fairly young

You had an interesting life, Lenn...really travelled a lot and saw some great things. And yeah, if you weren't in the military, you'd have had long hair...anyone who was cool had long hair at that time...LOL

I got drafted into Nam as well and chose to join the Navy (didn't want to carry a gun through the jungle); however, by the time I got through boot camp, the war was over and I ended up getting released on a technicality in 1973 and was supposed to go back and sign back up, but I never did. For years I thought they'd find me and drag my ass back into the service. I worried for nothing. Once the war was over, they let a lot of people out

 Yeah, I traveled a lot and still am. Maybe that's what gave me the bug. When we travel to Europe these days I try and relive some of my past experiences with my wife. But, you have to realize, when I traveled while in the service, I was with a bunch of guys who really weren't looking for photos of attractions. We were looking for girls, getting laid and where can we get a drink of the local brew. Sure we saw a lot and did a lot, but what a group of GIs are looking for is a whole lot different from what an old married couple are looking for.           

 I remember when Kennedy became president. I have vivid memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where most people really didn't know how close we were to mass annihilation.  I can remember, like it was yesterday, when Kennedy was shot and killed, and his funeral after that. I was already in the service when Bobby was killed and MLK also. Just terrible things but being where we were, I guess we really didn't feel the effects as those who were in the States.

As you, I grew up, what we would call poor, these days. But we didn't think that way, as people do today. We managed. My Dad worked in some sort of defense plant and my Mom started working part time later on but we had what we had and needed. My parents, along with many folks from 'our block' saved their pennies and every summer, rented what was called a bungalow in the Rockaways (Queens). I tagged along for many years, on the beach every day, and I am paying for that dearly these days.

As I got well into HS, I refused to do that in the summer and found summer jobs in supermarkets, etc. I stayed in our apartment in Brooklyn with my Dad and he went to the bungalow on weekends and vacations. We rarely had family vacations as my parents wanted that bungalow so that's where the extra money went.

If you watch the movie, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", it really shows what the 60's were like and who were famous. Television and movies were still mostly "western/cowboy" shows, drug use was rampant, etc. The movie highlights Charles Manson's "family" of girls and the murder of Sharon Tate and her unborn baby due to be delivered in several days, as well as the lifestyle of actors and actresses competing to get a gig in a movie. The movie is shot in Laurel Canyon, LA...or depicts Laurel Canyon, the nexus of the counterculture movement. Doesn't show the entire 60s scene, but does hit home from one perspective. It leaves out an interesting fact about Laurel Canyon, as that was where future governor Jerry Brown and his live-in girlfriend, Linda Ronstadt resided, and partied with the other hippies

Anyway, of all the things that stick out the most to me personally about the 60s was the Vietnam War. It was "in my face", day in and day out throughout my teen years. My family had supper together every night, and we'd all watch Walter Cronkite and the news. Every night we would be given the number of Americans killed and wounded. Never a night went by when there was a zero. I remember, when I was about 14, my home village gathering for the bringing home of a dead soldier. Extremely sad. There were also people in our town who survived Nam, but were maimed. And me...listening to all the antiwar songs on the radio, watching protests across the nation on TV, and watching Cronkite tell us, "62 GIs were killed and 107 wounded today", hippies burning draft cards, colleges in an uproar, coupled with watching a dead soldier in a casket brought back to a local family who were in indescribable grief...had to be the biggest worry of my teenage years as I knew I was approaching draft age. I don't think I met a single person in my town who was in favor of the war going on in Vietnam. Hardly made one want to run down to the recruiting office and sign up. Quite frankly, the whole thing was terrifying to me. And then I watched the Smothers Brothers get kicked of TV because they dared to speak out on the Vietnam War

This is a fairly quick 10 minute highlights of the 60's biggest events that changed history. I remember some of them well...JFK's assassination...as well as MLK...the moon landing of course. I was only nine or ten when the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, but I remember my uncle at the kitchen table with my parents say, "if they launch a nuclear missile, I hope it lands on my house so I don't have to live through the aftermath", making me think..."whaaaaaaat?"


A few of the hundreds of antiwar songs during the 60's

 Just thought I would add this.

Do you remember them all?

Quote from: LennG on February 10, 2024, 12:18:32 PMJust thought I would add this.

Do you remember them all?

All? Nope
Some? Yup

I didn't really know who Del Shannon was until I kept singing along with a song by Tom Petty in my car and wondered about the line in his song as he's driving down the highway, "me and Del singing Runaway". Google set me straight. I also read a very sad story when Del Shannon committing suicide because he was depressed as he hadn't had a big hit since "Runaway". Even though he lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills, he could come to grips with it and took his own life...tragic

I've actually seen the Shirelles in person, as well as Dion, so there's that. I recognize about 60-70% of them. It seems to me that a lot of them are late 50's songs, or very early 60's (pre-Beach Boys and Beatles)

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on February 10, 2024, 12:44:18 PMAll? Nope
Some? Yup

I didn't really know who Del Shannon was until I kept singing along with a song by Tom Petty in my car and wondered about the line in his song as he's driving down the highway, "me and Del singing Runaway". Google set me straight. I also read a very sad story when Del Shannon committing suicide because he was depressed as he hadn't had a big hit since "Runaway". Even though he lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills, he could come to grips with it and took his own life...tragic

I've actually seen the Shirelles in person, as well as Dion, so there's that. I recognize about 60-70% of them. It seems to me that a lot of them are late 50's songs, or very early 60's (pre-Beach Boys and Beatles)

 I believe the list was from 1961 and yes, several would fit into a 1950s-type song.

As was said in the Beatles thread, after Feb 9, 1964, everything changed as far as music was concerned.

And thanks for the heads up on Del Shannon, I never knew that.

Quote from: LennG on February 10, 2024, 01:31:15 PMI believe the list was from 1961 and yes, several would fit into a 1950s-type song.

As was said in the Beatles thread, after Feb 9, 1964, everything changed as far as music was concerned.

And thanks for the heads up on Del Shannon, I never knew that.

It's funny how I have a hard time relating songs and the year they were released. I remember the Beatles years and I usually say 'mid-60s-'69. But as I was driving home just now and listening to the 60's channel in my car, a song by Dean Martin came on, "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime"...which I remember from my parents playing it...so I glanced at the monitor to see what year in the 50's it was released. It said "1964", and I thought, "huh, the radio must have gotten it wrong", so I Googled it when I got home and it was released June 1964. Although my parents loved it, the rest of the world was into the Beatles as a new craze had taken off. It must have been hard to get a hit song back then once they were up against the Beatles stealing the air waves. I actually like Dean Martin's song...it's relaxing, and maybe a little nostalgic thinking back when my parents would slow dance to that song in the kitchen

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on February 10, 2024, 04:31:56 PMIt's funny how I have a hard time relating songs and the year they were released. I remember the Beatles years and I usually say 'mid-60s-'69. But as I was driving home just now and listening to the 60's channel in my car, a song by Dean Martin came on, "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime"...which I remember from my parents playing it...so I glanced at the monitor to see what year in the 50's it was released. It said "1964", and I thought, "huh, the radio must have gotten it wrong", so I Googled it when I got home and it was released June 1964. Although my parents loved it, the rest of the world was into the Beatles as a new craze had taken off. It must have been hard to get a hit song back then once they were up against the Beatles stealing the air waves. I actually like Dean Martin's song...it's relaxing, and maybe a little nostalgic thinking back when my parents would slow dance to that song in the kitchen

That is Dean's theme song.

Del Shannon

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/the-meaning-of-runaway-by-del-shannon-and-why-it-sounded-unlike-anything-else-on-the-jukebox/ar-BB1i2sWO?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=e90b80ec0bdc4530959cb227c2ff31a6&ei=32

60's (things that would absolutely befuddle youngsters today)

- Watching wives and mothers collect green stamps, lick them, and put them in a little paper book

- buying stuff with green stamps

- cost of gas was 27 cents a gallon in 1961, but by 1969, it was 34 cents a gallon

- The 60s sports icons were Mickey Mantle, Wilt Chamberlain, Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali, Willie Mays, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, Pelé, Hank Aaron, Jim Brown, Jack Nicklaus...Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's record of most HRs in a season in 1962

- Musical icons of the 60s were Elvis, Beach Boys, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, the Doors, the Who, Temptations, Four Seasons, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Mamas and Papas, Bob Dylan, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, and many more

- 1961, the minimum wage law was passed, and minimum wage was 65 cents an hour for women, 1.00 an hour for men, by 1969 it was 1.21 an hour for women, 1.30 an hour for men

- 1961 First U.S. astronaut to go into outer space

- 1961 Bay of Pigs Crisis

- 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

- 1962, Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe (found dead in her bed at 36 yrs of age)

- 1963, the President of the United States was shot to death in Dallas; followed almost immediately when prime suspect Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot to death as he was being brought into police headquarters to be questioned

- 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. "I have a dream" speech

- 1964 Scientists declare that "cigarettes cause cancer"

- 1964 8-track tape players replaced records as favorite music medium

- 1964 the Beatles land in the U.S. creating a hysterical love for the "Boys of England"

- 1965 The rise of hippies, long hair on men, free love, VW vans painted with flowers, and the "groovy" generation, takes off like a rocket

- 1965 Malcolm X assassinated

- 1965 First American troops land in Vietnam

- Unrest across the nation was "all the news" for the next several years, as protests over the Vietnam War, and general hatred and anger at politicians and the "establishment", caused riots, terrorism, murder, and mayhem, culminating in the U.S. military soldiers (Ohio National Guard) going to Kent State University and shooting unarmed students on campus and killing four and wounding nine others. U.S. was a mess

- 1967 First Super Bowl...first ever NFL-AFL championship game, between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers won the game, 35-10. The game wasn't a sell out and two television networks carried the game

- 1967 First microwave oven for residential use came to market. It was a countertop model built by Amana and cost around 500 dollars

- 1968 Presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated while giving a stump speech

- 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee

- 1969 man landed on the moon

-  1969 Woodstock (475,000 people in a field for 3 days and listening to 32 of the most famous bands in the world

- late 1969, early 1970, three major musicians die at the age of 27 of drug overdoses: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison (The Doors)

I was away in Germany from 1966-1969. We heard and knew about many of the major events in that time frame but except for the assassinations and moon landing, most others we got all too little of.
While I was away, my parents had the NY Daily News sent to me in Germany maybe 2 times a week. It was a special edition, devoid of all advertisements and just had the local news and some national news.
When we heard about Woodstock, it was really hard to imagine the way it was portrayed to us. At that time, having 500G people in one area, all trying to listen to a music festival--wow. We saw pix of it, but even then it was something your mind never was able to grasp. When I got home, a few months later, I found out my younger brother was there. They had no tickets, just he and some friends decided to ride up there and see what was doing. Even him telling me what it was really like, it was still hard to fathom. I guess, until I saw the Woodstock movie, then it actually dawned on me what it was like in actuality.
 Me, I never would have gone.