Living and relating to 60s garage records

[paul messis]

This isn't gonna be the usual post one will ever find posted on this forum, but as we are a small sect of people heavily into the sounds of 60s teen punk, there is something about this music which obviously draws us to this music, a sound which emotionally fuels our being and captures an essence in our souls.... It surely can't be that you just dig the sounds and like the music and the novel idea of the 60s.... surely?

For me 60s garage music is some of the most emotionally true music I have heard, I think it at times is more powerful than Doo-wop, Black Spirituals and The Blues.


Me... I am just gonna throw it out in there, I am a fucking loser, social dud and all round weird guy , my name is really MUD...plus I have a shit load of hang-ups, I am unhappy, I smoke cigarettes, I dress in 60s clothing and pretty much dislike my surroundings.

60s garage helps me, I relate to this music cos, it speaks to me and guides me through this bullshit called "Life".

Hearing for example a genius compilation such as Shutdown 66 whereby each song say's something relative to my life.... or listening to a song like "Careful What You Say" by the Tikis or 'Mr Wind' by The Rockin Ramrods..... how do YOU relate to certain songs and what feelings does it give you???

I mean who has the balls to admit they, don't just like this music but LIVE this music too??? I am just interested, cos I'd love to know why you all love 60s garage music so much and in some cases MORE than me??.... Me I love it cos it's like a good friend to me, it's like a personal and spiritual experience each day.

I am pretty much a loner with no real close circle of friends.
I suck with the girls, each girl I do fall in love with or have gone out with eventual ends up causing me the most terrible and unfair pain.
I work a day job and hate working and thus hate authority.
I hated school and was pretty much an outcast due to dressing 60s and being into the so-called "weird music".

60s garage for me is like The French Existentialists, it just is an internal experience in real time audio.... that's all I can say really!!


Cards on the table there guy's and girls.... I'd love to read others' reasons for digging this music so much.

Paul

 

[Lee de Parade]

I never dressed in the part, certainly not anymore. And I have pretty good social skills - for about an hour. Women has never been a problem ('kept for my two big sisters, grr).

Otherwise you are pretty much describing me. My first love was the Beatles and the Stones. Than the Kinks and the Yardbirds. But when I saw The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle I totally fell for punk - for about 3 years.

60s garage. Definitely an old friend. I remember when I got my first taste of it. What I was really set out to buy was a Paul Revere & the Raiders 2 CD set, but the guy behind the counter asked - "have you heard Back From The Grave?"
He played "Psycho" by the Swamp Rats and that was it. No return. I didn't listen to anything but 60s garage.
My band played some kind of hard rock and had little or no understanding for my new taste in music and I tortured them in the band-van with various comps on cassette made by yours truly.

One thing I miss nowadays is...I have a problem relating to these teens of yore, or more specifically their lyrics. I'm 40 and the world gets a little bigger and a little less black and white. Then again, I have a problem relating to Romeo & Juliet - two 13 years-olds from the 16th century - but still find it moving and beautiful. Hmm, I think my mind got stuck on moody janglers. Ralph Nielsen's "Scream" is a whole nutha story!

Oh, I'm rambling again.

To conclude: this music will always suck me back to the golden days of my youth but it has changed its impact. So no - this is not a lifestyle for me. Life to me is ever changing, shifting and never should be paralyzed by any fashion or taste. "But I Can Dream..."

 

[paul messis]

To conclude: this music will always suck me back to the golden days of my youth but it has changed its impact. So no - this is not a lifestyle for me. Life to me is ever changing, shifting and never should be paralyzed by any fashion or taste. "But I Can Dream..."

I wouldn't say I am paralysed by fashion or taste.... I can't really express what I am trying to say.... I think mainly cos it's too hard to put into words.

But I dig your response Lee... thanks

 

[Lee de Parade]

You describe it just fine, I'm just not that good at expressing myself. Or understanding things.

 

[beccabear67]

I was watching a show about Hank Williams Sr. the other day and thinking about what the show was saying about what an outsider he felt himself to be. It was so much like things said about Kurt Cobain actually. Then I was thinking about how Hank's voice must've come through the radio speaker back in my Dad's day (1950s) and given a shock of recognition to other awkward imperfect loner types. I really think somehow, even though he was reported to say he was just singing Ernest Tubb songs with a Roy Acuff voice, that he was the beginning of what white people call Rock & Roll. So many of the biggest names were social misfits and disabled in some way; Hank had severe spine problems and his Mom was a Madame for Call-girls, Gene Vincent had a leg the by all rights should have been amputated, Elvis and Johnny Cash came up from severe poverty (Elvis' Dad doing time on the county farm for a moment of weakness in the face of need). The same things are there in Ritchie Valens, Dick Dale, John Lennon, Lou Reed, Brian Jones, Barry Tashian, Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan. I don't think there are any choices involved anymore than Hank Williams Sr. was going to find a normal job he could do or stand. To us it's just called living, like if you're not living then you must be dying! Getting beat up sometimes isn't so bad compared to that. I hope rock music never becomes respectable or the establishment, every time it starts to look that way it's just some preppie jock pretending. If it's in your bones though nothing will shake it, Jerry Lee and Little Richard tried with religion remember? The best rock music is about freedom and sometimes breaking rules, even Roy Orbison sang about being free and broke the rules of how songs were put together which made him rock to me. It's something you 'do' foremost, maybe something you really are, and writing about it is some kind of later on thing that isn't really required.

If you're the real you then you are Hank Sr., or Elvis, or Sky Saxon... and real people are much more attractive than fake and dead inside people! I've always liked and related to stuff other people trashed and then became cool and then got trashed again. Twas Ever Thus sez Mr. Natural! I try not to romanticize other times and realize they had bad points as well as good and the way things get remembered are something of an illusion, but I'm thankful we still have this music, it's a lifeline for real. Hell, dig on what you dig and decorate yourself however you want, is there some kind of convincing argument or a law against that I haven't heard of? Oh, and try to cut yourself some slack so you can cut other people some in return.

 

[Frantic]

Oh, and try to cut yourself some slack so you can cut other people some in return.

 

[buckeyebeat]

When I was in my early 20s I felt a kinship to some 60s garage in terms of the lyrics and the raw energy....I was only a few years removed from the age of the people involved.
Now that I am over 50, I see these records for what they are....a snapshot of the time, not unlike reading something from a diary I wrote when I was 18 years old. In all honesty, most of the lyrics in garage records sound stupid.....sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. I still like the energy and spirit.

The 'garage revival' scene of the 1980s pretty much killed any enthusiam I might have had for expressing myself through 60s pop culture. I still like a lot of the art, whether it be music, graphics, industrial design, movies, etc. I also like a lot of the same from the 1970s. The 1970s were wilder and more crazed than the 1960s, although it ended up crashing itself against a wall of coke, ludes, smack, polyesther, STDs, and terrible music. The ME decade indeed - a multicultural society like the US can only handle so much 'freedom'.

 

[depravedskippy66]

As someone who is in his mid-'40s, I find myself in agreement with buckeyebeat's assessment of '60s garage sounds: a snapshot in time, lots of energy, enthusiasm and spirit but not exactly something I would want to live as my teenage years are pretty far behind me now. One cannot stay 18 years old and pissed off at the world forever. Yeah the world may not understand you all that well and girls may not have any idea of what you're talking about. But at some point, change has to come from within; especially if you're not happy with things as they are now.

Paul, it was not all that long ago that I was very much like you: a loner who had one real friend, two at the absolute max. I have a tendency to keep people at arm's length as I have been burned by too many "friends" in the past. Having said that, some amazing things can and WILL happen to you if you let your guard down just a little bit. I am speaking from personal experience on this as I have befriended many of my coworkers, all of whom are considerably younger than me and do not know the first thing about garage bands as their tastes are considerably different. One friend is into death/black metal and plays in a band along those very lines; they've played a few times at a bar just a few blocks up the street from where I live and I make it a point to show up and lend them my support as they're actually very good at what they do. Granted, death/black metal is not my genre of choice but it's a good opportunity to meet up with friends. have a few drinks and show support for a friend. Another friend is more into Top 40 and others enjoy Rap/Hip Hop/R&B. When I was a lot younger I tended to look for friendships based on what we had in common; when you're younger that is important but as you get older and gain some insight/perspective into life you realize that is a somewhat superficial way of looking at friendship, and not something that bodes well for any long term connections with people. It is all about what's inside a person that counts; if the good outweighs the bad then you'll find a way to overlook any perceived flaws and the other person will be willing to do the same.

This wisdom has been hard earned, believe me! It is very easy to say no to things and define yourself by what you're NOT. However, by doing so you paint yourself into a tight little corner, one that may not be so easy to escape from. I know this may be heresy to some here, but there IS more to life than listening to records and playing in a garage revival band. I have had to learn to take an interest in what my friends like and what they want to do and, you know, that's not a bad thing at all!! I am learning to be flexible and broaden my horizons; without doing so you tend to stay stagnant, and that's not fun.

 

[bosshoss]

There's only one certainty in life and that is :
Buying another '60s garage 45 can make you feel better. And since there are over 20,000 known '60s garage 45s, you have 20,000 opportunities in life to feel better. That should see you thru 'til the end!

The main function of '60s garage music is to alert you, or remind you how great things could be, compared to how they are. That's what I use it for, anyway.

 

[Lee de Parade]

Sounds so simple Hoss. And simple is one thing I can't afford.

 

[The Plague]

I`m 35 and wouldn`t necessarily say the young romantic in me is dead,but I find it frustrating to not be able to touch this era of music.maybe a better cartridge/system for the ole turntable, playing the original 45`s will bring me closer.researching the cultural context of this music(mighty easy in this day and age) is a step closer also. too much emphasis round these parts is placed on merely the vinyl artifact!!! those trophy brandishing types(not including all here) are merely perpetuating the cosmetic/superficial nature of this day and age.

sounds kind of hippy, but music is a spiritual thing for me...and after trawling for that ultimate audio fixation, nothing does better than this genre in regards to; production/sentiment/communication of feelings...its `so satisfyin``...err by the way, where did the devil moticon go!(insert)

buckeyebeat :

The 'garage revival' scene of the 1980s pretty much killed any enthusiam I might have had for expressing myself through 60s pop culture.

this is kind of interesting...maybe all of that was a tad cheesy in the 80`s? (as it still is now)

bosshoss

Buying another '60s garage 45 can make you feel better. And since there are over 20,000 known '60s garage 45s, you have 20,000 opportunities in life to feel better. That should see you thru 'til the end!

this could be limited to 10,000 for those on a budget...still a life times work!

 

[bosshoss]

Is anyone besides me finding that the forum seems a little sluggish, when posting or browsing? I mean, the response time, not the quality of the posts

 

[The Plague]

well this thread seemed to disappear from the `whats new` link. + i`ve had to create about 5 new passwords for no reason.but nothings perfect, as they say!

 

[bosshoss]

too much emphasis round these parts is placed on merely the vinyl artifact!!!

Note to The Plague...that's what the G45 forum was actually set up for.

 

[The Plague]

let me see G stands for garage and,..45.. yes, yes. ok point taken...its not about teenage boys and girls REALLY.

 

[Lee de Parade]

I love emphasis on vinyl artifacts. I just don't practice it myself.

 

[bosshoss]

Without artifacts you have literally nothing but memories

 

[beccabear67]

Some say vinyl records will outlive CDs, and in fact I saw some memos recently about the big companies phasing out the CD format for new releases in a few more years except for limited edition collector's item products.

 

[Derf66]

Mark you are certainly right about that. It certainly does not apply to everybody but it certainly is one of the few things that makes me happy. I absolutely hate my job, it totally is sucking the life out of me, but scoring a killer 45 especially on the cheap does make one feel a bit better at least for a moment. I love this quote!! " The main function of '60s garage music is to alert you, or remind you how great things could be, compared to how they are. That's what I use it for, anyway."

There's only one certainty in life and that is :
Buying another '60s garage 45 can make you feel better. And since there are over 20,000 known '60s garage 45s, you have 20,000 opportunities in life to feel better. That should see you thru 'til the end!

The main function of '60s garage music is to alert you, or remind you how great things could be, compared to how they are. That's what I use it for, anyway.

 

[paul messis]

Ummm thanks for the responses thus far.... I enjoyed reading all your answers.

I think I may have mis-communicated my message, I wasn't expecting to come across as a whiny self-indulgent little shit, who needs the world to feel sorry for me and give me advice.... it's totally the flip side to the coin.

I am simply just interested in where you are all at in your personalities and what ties you to 60s garage punk, emotionally, spiritually, mentally etc etc.

For example almost 85% of 60s garage songs which I have heard are songs about "CHICKS"..... Now, for me Girls are a major factor in what I am trying to relay here in regards to the music, they "chicks" have a way to make you love them and hate them in equal measures, It's almost like an old-age Delta Blues idiom, however the White Middle Class kids of 60s America got it right when they wrote songs about it in such powerful depth.

The past year and a half, I have gone through an emotional roller coaster with one such girl and The Songs have all seemed much more potent to me since this has happened, because it is almost like the "records" have been happening in real time to me on a personal level.... also since the demise of that relationship/friendship, I kinda have been interested in two other chicks who rejected me point blank... instead on going mental, I turned to 60s Garage and that made me feel a little bit better about the situation.

Socially I am not a TOTAL DUD, but I certainly am not an optimistic extrovert.... I am more introverted i'd say and a great deal of the time, I feel 60s Garage is the music soundtrack for the "introvert" hence my comparison to the great French Existentialist poets.


I don't feel I am explaining myself correctly.

I just feel that in order to LOVE this MUSIC, you as a person need to GET IT to some extent??? It surely can't be because the Fuzz Guitar solo is good.... surely??


P