Living and relating to 60s garage records

[EXPO67]

Paul, I've been a tad obsessive about 60s garage/psych records for 30 years but I certainly don't 'live' the 60s. I really don't see any point in that at all. If you're still dressing '60s' in your 40s (when you're fat, bald and have a face full of lines) you're gonna look a right clown.

I rarely listen to the words of garage songs. It's the garage 'sound' I'm tuned onto..... You're obviously in a different space being a songwriter.

My link with the 60s is that the number 1 in England on the day I was born was The Kinks 'You Really Got Me'....I'm pleased my mother hung on because the week before was Herman's Hermits 'I'm Into Something Good'..

 

[MopTopMike]

Life is TOO DANG SHORT to allow yourself to feel down, worthless, etc. Plus negativity WILL affect your health and well-being down the road. I no longer allow negativity and self-afflicted pressures to affect my well-being. I can't remember the last time I felt depressed, maybe 20 years ago, when I bottomed out and simply got pissed off enough to say "ENOUGH" (cue the Bohemian Vendetta). When you're outlook is postive, people will gravitate toward you - trust me. Maybe girls are difficult to deal with (in my experiences at least) but I no longer care, really. It's all about ME now, ha ha!

I still love the energy and immediacy of what we call '60s garage sounds. I just finished dubbing some 45s to CD for a friend who is in my weekly bowling league. For a year, he's always heard me and my other pal yakking about this type of music, but all he knows are a few big hits (He's 38 yrs old). He already enjoys '50s and '60s music, so I decided to make him a CD of a bunch of classics, songs I first heard at 17 yrs old. And while making the CD, the 45s still gave me that euphoric kick into the soul that I felt back in 1980, when I heard these songs on cassette tapes or Pebbles comps. I also remember driving the long way around to work, taking an extra 15-20 minutes to arrive when I had a pile of new "discoveries" to listen to on Hans Kesteloo's "Never Ending Trip" series.

I think most people over-analyze as to why these songs can connect with certain people (like us) on an emotional level beyond that of "Wallpaper" - a term I use for people who just put overtly familiar mass-appeal music on as background. They aren't really listening, or experiencing.

As it has been noted, '60s garage songs are aural snapshops, candid in-the-moment sounds. Vibrant refractions of what was happening. I used to think how cool it would have been to have grown up a bit earlier than I did, so that I could've been a part of the action. Now I'm glad I vastly prefer am where I am, with a whole nearly endless array of songs to listen to that I would never have heard.

 

[paul messis]

Colin I agree, dressing like that beyond 40 for the majority of folks looks as you say "clown-like"

By saying "Living" the life, I don't mean in the sense like all these ageing has beens on the mod scene trying to be like Paul Weller.

I mean like living what the record states.

Example... Last week I met a girl and we went for a drive in my car, I played The Outsiders track "I'm only trying to prove to myself that I'm not like everybody else" and I was saying to her how, lyrically and musically this song is ME... I was telling her, listen to the words carefully then you can understand where I am at as a person.

She dug it.

Maybe I do listen to songs slightly more intensely?? being a songwriter myself, I dunno?

Hey that is a great number 1 to be born too.... mine was David Bowie and Mick Jagger - Dancing in The Street.... talk about phoney!

Mike great answer, thanks.... all this thread has been for me is too see if others connect to 60s garage in an as deeply way as I do??


Paul

 

[MopTopMike]

Spending 20 years writing and researching a book paying tribute to this kind of music is my way of living it on a "deep" level.

 

[paul messis]

20 years.... man that is totally deep, This book is gonna be a masterpiece.

 

[mansson66]

I agree on many levels and with many posters here in this thread. I listen very 'intesely' to music when I listen. That's why I often don't play records at home - cause I don't need 'background noise' or 'wallpaper'.
I also come from playing myself and I was caught up in the 80's revival scene (although when we started there were no revival scene in Sweden... we had only heard a few US bands, more or less) at least not that we knew about. Of course it was a time when this music was 'happening' in more than one place but as far as we knew we were alone. For a while at least before getting to know guys in bands like The Stomachmouths and The Creeps etc.
I have never really analyzed why I fell for the music in the first place, but I already had a deep and profound love for 50's rock'n'rollers like Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee etc - which is basically the same music many 'garage bands' grew up with I think. I had my own taste in music from a very early age. When I was 13 - 14 I was the only kid in school with a 50's haircut, teddy shoes etc. I had no friends who liked the same music as me. In the early 80's I would go to school as Syd Barret... frilly shirt, super psychedelic jacket, hi heels and make up! Not very popular in '82-'83 I tell ya! :confused:

Anyway 60's garage speaks to me on the same level as r-a-b but I think the songwriting and different styles within the idiom is much more interesting, while still maintaining that immideate urgency of NOW. The best records are pure feeling pressed into the grooves and it can still hit me right into heart and soul 40+ years after it was recorded. To me this is still NEW rock'n'roll while a lot of the 'new' rock music is just rehashing older stuff. It's a bit like using the same old teabag over and over again... and I prefer the earliest cup of tea made with that bag - not the latest.
I also listen to the lyrics. Very important to me - but don't make me try n analyze what is a 'good' and what is a 'bad' lyric cause that is connected to what I feel when I listen.
PS I still have beatle boots, 60's shirts, a few sixties/mod suits etc. I do not wear this everyday, but when I dress up I do. When we play I will definitley dress up in 60's garb, just cause I like it. But I work out and try to stay in good shape

When it comes to girls... I had girls who I treated like dirt and then when they left my sorry ass I'd feel sorry for myself and would write some song about 'that evil chick' - before moving on to the next and manage to do the same thing all over again. Talk about 'living the BFTG punker' haha. Teenage logics... Long gone by now, thank god.

 

[paul messis]

Insightful Mans... thanks

Women fuel good songs, my whole LP is made up of this.

Paul

 

[beccabear67]

Well, as a chick (perhaps a really goofy one mind you) all I can add is that I've always hated phony types, to really be cool is to be beyond caring what is and isn't cool to others which is what I call living it. Trying to be Mr. Excitement or Mr. Happening is an unsustainable thing really. I'm probably offbase on a lot of these understanding guys and their music things though; you are mysterious creatures who often make no sense! As for music being a real lifeline I think we all have that in common here, After my fiancee lost a fight with throat cancer almost six years ago I turned to the world of music and it pulled me through, but I hate to seem cliched about old records saving my life. I'll be totally honest here, I inherited his computer as he'd really wanted me to have it and I carted the thing by boat a few hundred miles to honour and obey, and guess what... there were photos of him with somebody else while I'd had to be away for a month, and I saw these photos while on the boat days after holding him while he died... and yet I still feel love for him and I understand why maybe, but at the time, well I wasn't going to be writing any songs about him! I was sad, but angry, shocked, betrayed and all kinds of other things intensely all at once. He also had gotten me into transferring vinyl to CD however and I pretty much just dove into that obsessively for awhile and lost myself. It led me to you folks here when I was hot on the trail of old Canadian garage singles, which led to meeting Erik, which led to me to actually writing some songs that are now out there if only on college radio or some South American station with a dozen listeners. This music is something I live for, something I realize I now 'am'. Sometimes guys' bodies just want to bone chicks, I understand that, and that's in conflict at other times when you want something more, this is what a lot of songs are about obviously, but the bottom line still comes down to you being you and encouraging them to be who they are, two people being the real themselves whoever that is, if the real you is somebody not acceptable to some other standard well screw that standard making you feel like crap and telling you what is or isn't allowed. Eventually when you're not looking for it to happen at all, maybe even given up hope of it, you can meet somebody who gets you and is as amazed with you as you might be with them.

Or something like that. Remember, I think Tiny Tim music is entertaining. I'm a geeky 40-something mousy Carol Burnette who spends money on vintage Beat Instrumental mags instead of shaping my eyebrows, and damn proud of it!!! I have no idea where it's all going and I could end up on the sidewalk again tomorrow, but it's life and having gotten a few good looks at death I'm satisfied. Cue that Merry-Go-Round song now!

 

[Lee de Parade]

I just wanted to say that I fuckin' love clowns! But that could just be the drugs talking. But dressing the part and be 40-50 years old - that is cool! Do it! I won't, but I'd love it if you do it

 

[beccabear67]

To me the real clowns are the white suburban kids with the baggy shorts, backward ballcap and rapper bling; over thirty years of rap and it's still the number one choice of kids wanting to look hardcore? Gangsta rap to a fifteen year old ought to be like their parents' music now, oh well. Maybe it's the suckass cutesy names they've been laying on kids for the last dozen years like Skyler-Kyler-Tyler etc. etc. I guess a boy with one of those names has to compensate somehow. Really old metal guys with black official Kiss clothing are sort of sad more than funny, especially the ones with the little dolls (action figures?).

 

[Don Julio]

Life is TOO DANG SHORT to allow yourself to feel down, worthless, etc. When you're outlook is postive, people will gravitate toward you - trust me.

I guess we can call you "Sunshine Pop Mike" from now on, huh?

Life's too short to pretend to be happy all of the time. Angst, depression, and nihilism are intrinsic to the human experience; life would be shallow and empty without experiencing the full gamut of emotions. We barely understand what's going on in our own minds, much less anyone else's.

 

[nadorozny2001]

i love listening to garage records but i'm not gonna dress like that. dress smart will always make you look cool.

 

[axel]

I guess we can call you "Sunshine Pop Mike" from now on, huh?

Life's too short to pretend to be happy all of the time. Angst, depression, and nihilism are intrinsic to the human experience; life would be shallow and empty without experiencing the full gamut of emotions. We barely understand what's going on in our own minds, much less anyone else's.

I must say I admire Mike for stepping forth to champion positivity. Especially in front of a bunch of garage heads! That's courageous.
Angst and depression are intrinsic to life, that's true. But they are there to be overcome. That's what gives them meaning. To wallow in angst and depression is not healthy.
But, then again, I'm a genuine sunshine popper as much as I'm a natural born garage punk.

Apart from that, writing good songs out of a depressive situation is much easier than to write a cheerful song that is not shallow or simply stupid. The latter is quite challenging.

 

[mansson66]

Writing songs out of a depressive situation is a way to get out from that situation. It can be as heavy as any therapy session, and as fruitful. The goal is of course to get it out of the system.
Why would anyone wanna write songs out of a totally happy situation? I don't wanna get 'happy' out of my system. When I'm in a happy mood songwriting is one of the last things on my mind.
When I hear 'ding ding happy happy' songs I just get uncomfortable cause I think it comes from an evil place haha

 

[Stampy]

Everyone I know thinks I was born twenty years to late, but that is another story. I'm almost 40, and it was the constant playing of '60s records by my parents that got me into it.

It had taken me a long time - till now - to find my niche in life. I find it therapeutic, enthralling, and fulfilling when I go out and interview musicians that played in local bands (Brisbane, Qld) in the mid '60s. Another part of the equation is that a copy of each issue of the Primitif Sounds magazine is donated to the State library for prosperity and for research, so that future generations will be able to know how, what, when and possibly why their social history is, in the context of first hand knowledge of the very people who saw the swinging sixties as a fun and simple time.

 

[tom kirby]

Well, I don't know what to say here. I'll be 62 in the near future. I grew up through the 60s and wear clothes like I always have even if the "style" happened to come about in the 60s. I'm dressing, not dressing up. I'm me and wear what is comfortable and if that happens to be something I've worn all my life, so what. I guess the one thing life has taught me is not to give a shit about what you think of my clothes or if you think I look like a clown. I don't think I'm dressing for a part in some play, I'm wearing everyday clothes. I just happen to Love the music from that time, too, and will continue to listen to what I like and wear what I like. So, bring on the clowns.

 

[EXPO67]

Another part of the equation is that a copy of each issue of the Primitif Sounds magazine is donated to the State library for prosperity and for research, so that future generations will be able to know how, what, when and possibly why their social history is, in the context of first hand knowledge of the very people who saw the swinging sixties as a fun and simple time.

I hope the State Library file editions away and not just discard them in the nearest bin. By the way your web link to primitif sounds no longer works. Has this been updated?

Also, did the so called 'swinging sixties' happen in Australia? or anywhere else for that matter? Maybe it was a term used by a journalist reporting on a 'scene' in London and it stuck, then became the norm to describe the 60s as swinging.

 

[Stampy]

I hope the State Library file editions away and not just discard them in the nearest bin. By the way your web link to primitif sounds no longer works. Has this been updated?

Also, did the so called 'swinging sixties' happen in Australia? or anywhere else for that matter? Maybe it was a term used by a journalist reporting on a 'scene' in London and it stuck, then became the norm to describe the 60s as swinging.

Yeah - the library is - they called me up when there decided to put them up on the online catalogue.

Updated the link, it is okay now. Sorry.

The term "Swinging Sixties" did happen here, as a carefree, simple time. But there were prejudices towards long haired males. I've posted two clippings from the Telegraph to illustrate what I was referring to.

This from the same article that appeared on Dec 24th 1966.

 

[Dave Baldwin]

I was an American kid growing up in the suburbs back in the 1960s (and
idolizing The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Kinks, Yardbirds, Animals etc.) What
we call garage/teen beat/60s punk today was my demographic's "folk music"
in the truest sense...it was the music made by our peers that spoke to our
collective experience with that particular environment. 70s punk was the
same deal, sometimes with a decadent, more urban twist. Younger fans can
relate to it as a historical movement, or dig it because of the energy/mystery/
innocence/rawness of the music itself...kinda like the way white suburban kids
in the 60s related to 1950s Chicago blues or New Orleans R&B. It all rocked.

 

[MopTopMike]

I guess we can call you "Sunshine Pop Mike" from now on, huh?

Life's too short to pretend to be happy all of the time. Angst, depression, and nihilism are intrinsic to the human experience; life would be shallow and empty without experiencing the full gamut of emotions. We barely understand what's going on in our own minds, much less anyone else's.

Believe me, I'm not "Dancing On A Daydream" (referencing a 70's soul 45 here) every single day. Matter of fact, I'm feeling rather lousy today, like broken glass. Can't really put it into words unless one suffers the same affliction. I have a high tolerance for pain, anyway which ramps up automatically IF I allow myself to feel depressed, or "woe is me". Sorta like turning the guitar amp from 3 to 10 with your ear resting against the speaker.
But I deal with it, as I have for nearly 20 years, because I'll have mostly good days without any pain. As noted, I've already experienced enough of the "Angst, depression, and nihilism" in my younger days.

But as for the negativity you cite as being necessary to the human condition - I never implied that one should not feel that way ever - just not in perpetuity, or even frequently. Maybe a day here and there. People who are negative suck the energy and spirit out of me. Why the hell would I wanna hang around someone who is a cloud of gloom and doom? Neither would any girl / female/ woman, if the downtrodden "loser" syndrome is apparent - and it is if a guy feels this way. The vibe is broadcast to the world like a radio signal or lighthouse beacon.