Living and relating to 60s garage records

Word, Mike. I'm currently struggling to get out of a lengthy depression which has rendered me useless (I can't work) and it is fuckin paramount not to succumb to the demons of negativity. Then again I allow myself to feel down now and then cause that is only normal. I never try to drag my friends down my well of eternal darkness because that is just not polite. Kinda like farting in public.
But Mike - I do think it is possible to get girls/women/females that are totally into depresed guys. Some even try to maintain your depression, like feeders who keep their spouse fat.
 
I hope you can discard the depression Mr. de Parade. Which you will, once you fully understand that depression is simply a state of perpetual and extreme mental exhaustion that can be cured. Not cured by rest unfortunately, but only by understanding and facing fears you may be trying to avoid. Constantly pulling back from fear causes painful mental exhaustion and depression. If I didn't say at least that much, I wouldn't be a friend.
 
Lee,

I find that being positive and up-beat (or up-rock in the U.S.A.) is less trying and mind tiring than being down and depressed. And, I have ALWAYS found music to be the prescription for relieving a mind meltdown. ALWAYS. So, I prescribe a revisit to the cd "Music For Abnormal People" twice a day and see me in the morning.
 
axel said:
To wallow in angst and depression is not healthy.
Click to expand...

Neither is wallowing in happiness. That was my point. Way too much time and effort is spent conditioning people to believe that they must feel "happy" 24/7 otherwise they're not "normal." Trying to sustain this absurd idea is why Americans consume more drugs and pharmaceuticals than the rest of the planet combined, which of course fucks us up even more and makes us even more depressed when we realize it.
 
Don Julio said:
Neither is wallowing in happiness. That was my point. Way too much time and effort is spent conditioning people to believe that they must feel "happy" 24/7 otherwise they're not "normal." Trying to sustain this absurd idea is why Americans consume more drugs and pharmaceuticals than the rest of the planet combined, which of course fucks us up even more and makes us even more depressed when we realize it.
Click to expand...
Of course you're right. To perpetually wallow in happiness is not an option.
 
Welcome back to the action David, btw! Sometimes life stinks - it's been the same for me although I'm too f***in stubborn to confess. We all want everything right now and we don't get it. That is pretty annoying and that's one of the reasons people abuse drugs/food/sex/money/relationships etc. Instant gratification.
It never comes. Or rater: it never stays. A new 45 always get my blood pumping. That's my addiction these days, and it feels like a pretty healthy one considering the options ;)

Anyway - good to hear that you're better. Gimme a holler next time you're in town :)
 
great answers folks...

It's been insightful.... I'm now gonna go and listen to HATE by the Perils.

I agree buying a hip 45 and making music does make me really happy, although I can't seem to express it externally, only internally.


Mans... we need to get a Higher State and Flight Reaction show happening next year somehow???


Paul
 
the holiday season hs been nuts....i have been waiting for along time for a thread like this to come down the pike on here, so.... for me, the 60s teenbeat sound is completely relevant to today's world and today's 'average' 21st century person for innumerable awesome reasons, but i have tried to isolate the 3 most important ones.

1st and foremost, like MTM and Boss Hoss said, each 60s garage rock song is like a diary or time capsule. Now some people's diaries/time capsules can be boring as hell, but the diary/time capsule music we yak about on here is eteranally relevant because it was (mostly) teenage music made by teens. This makes it totally compelling to me because (hold on to yr hats) teenagers exist in a millieu of almost pure chaos. The teen years are a time when the body, the mind, and (presumably) the soul are in a constant state of flux. its like this from the time adolescence starts all the way until it ends. some folks have a great time ridin thru the madness, while others barely make it out in one piece thanks to heaps of unending embarassment, awkwardness, and longing to find ones own identity or place within the greater context of the world at large. And this truggle even often continues into adulthood and to a greater extent existence itself is defined by an eternal state of chaotic flux (check the work of either yr fave physicist or Aleister Crowley for more info on the latter part there....)

Bruce Svboda of The Five Canadians was quoted in the zine Brown Paper Sack saying something along the lines of this: for the kids who played in 60s rock bands that chance to get together and play yr own music *brought chaos into focus*. It is the ecstatic feeling of release from the adolescent chaos' grip that powers the engine burning a fiery trail thru each epic 60s garage tune that i love.

2nd, as an American, i think 60s garage rock is so great cuz its one of the most bastardized impure mutated examples of American cultural ephemera EVER, which is saying alot considering the role that bastardization and mutation has played in shaping literally *every* aspect of American culture from 1607 to the present. Lets put it this way: you have predominantly white middle class-to-upper middle class kids tryin to rip off the music of British white middle class-to-upper middle class kids tryin to rip off the music of (mostly) impoverished Afro Americans who made music by randomly combining west African rhythms with Scotch-Irish based folk melodies.

and 3rd, the 60s/early 70's/mid 70's gave birth to alotta great music, but no matter how great the popular groups are classic rock radio/oldies radio has turned more than a few decent songs from the era into annoying background noise with their incessant overplaying of such hits. With 60's garage (and many garage/lo fi records from the early/mid 70's too) we get to hear all the excellent songwriting and music ideas beaten to death by pop radio come back to life blazin like a phoenix with endlessly rejuvenated passion thanks to the always over-the-top imaginations and emotions of teenage American artists (and older artists with entertaininlgy bizarre/awkward ideas about how to express points of view only a teen could really understand, lol)
 
Raven, thanks for your answer.... it was insightful thanks.

I guess what I can garter from the various replies to this post of which I asked, is that as a genre of music, 60s Garage is honest, raw and true... As I stated before, I haven't found any other music outside Early Black Blues, Early Black Spirituals and Doo-wop to be as honest and true.

60s garage despite it's influence from British Beat Groups via The Electric Blues of Chicago is most definitely an American paradox, yet whilst being a paradox is so totally American, speaking as an outsider and someone from the UK, I really dig this Americanism I find in 60s garage punk music.

But as stated in my initial post, it's more than just a branded identity of something "cool" for me, something about this music stirs something pretty powerful inside of me, whether or not I am fully past all my teenage hang-ups, I don't know??, but this music, I can relate to on a multitude of levels.


let's take a great lyric by The UnIted Travel Services for example

"left the graveyard today, made of things that people say, the games they play?, left what some men call home, but to me their bricks of stone"

who has NOT ever felt this before, who has not ever LIVED THAT way of thinking??

I can't explain fully what I am trying to convey maybe it's too esoteric I dunno?
 
While I love all things 50s & 60s I surely would look the fool if I tried to dress and play that part at 54 years old. But that doesn't mean I have to give in and conform to what my parents, society and others have in store for me. But there is a movie that I've always patterned my life after from 1966 that you all must watch. A Thousand Clowns starring Jason Robards. If you don't own it order it here. After clicking on the link, read the reviews and you'll see where I live:cool:

http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Clow...1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1324623748&sr=1-1
 
Looks like a good movie, one I've missed somehow. As Tom Waits sez, I don't wanna grow up!

We're all mongrels over here, it's our strength!
 
Let's see if I can respond without getting too wordy. I have been a fan of '60s garage since the very early '80s back in Sydney, Australia. I got into it through the first Chesterfield Kings LP that a penpal sent me back in 1982 (?). Once I realized these were all covers I decided to try and find originals, or the comps they were on. I was also very much into the fashion, which was great for collecting since the male collectors never took me seriously, so it made it easy to swoop in and grab some good stuff at record fairs :lol: (I have ditched most of the fashion now, but still retain a '60s style and a love of all things '60s in my house.) Fast forward a few years and a friend and I decided to start a fanzine about US garage, Australian punk and UK freakbeat. We called it Born Loser. We were true fans who would get a thrill finding any of our heroes and interviewing them. The fanzine is still going now, only it is just putt together by my friend as I bowed out in the early '90s.

The music still speaks to me now and sounds as fresh and appealing as it did back when I first discovered it. Maybe it's because most "new" music is not exciting to me. One thing I miss about collecting back in the '80s vs now is that finding things back then required work. The harder the work, the more amazing the sound on that record when it finally made it into your hands; usually after letters, auctions, sending a money order, waiting for weeks, etc. It was just more rewarding and the supplies more plentiful.

Wait, what was the original question? :oops:
 
The visceral reaction to '60s garage/teenbeat/rawness is still there, and always will remain... but I'm not a kid anymore. The girl putdowns and school melodramas don't have the same relevance. These days (as you all know) I gravitate toward the moodier side of the music -- the turbulent introspection that mirrors what I've been through at so many phases of my life. Yeah, maybe a punk shouldn't ponder the meaning of life, but it was my misfortune to be as many parts intellectual as street kid, never really fitting in either world. I've been through so much depression and hurt at psychedelic velocity, but I made it through... for one reason, and one reason only. I chose to! I said ENOUGH of this loser shit! And above all, I got off anti-depressants and sleeping pills! At the risk of sounding like one of those bad music loving zombies on a Back From The Grave cover, I go to a fitness center and take care of myself now. Exercising doesn't make you a Sting-loving generic person. It just makes you more aware. And I like '60s music of self-awareness... whether it's "Why Must It Be" by the Emotions, "Whenever You're Ready" by the Novas, "The Clouds Don't Shine" by the Gaunga Dyns, or millions of other faves. These are guys trying to figure out their darkness, and I can relate to that a lot more than "go go go gorilla", as much as I still love listening to that and all those other silly but fun, rockin' tunes. Deep soul does it for me, too. "How Does It Make You Feel (When You've Ruined A Life)" by Jesse Slaughter! "Since There Is No More You" by Annetta (aka Annette Snell)! And my current fave that unfortunately I cannot afford, "But If You Must Go" by Eddie Parker! These guys put their pain to music, and I can never thank them enough for it.
 
[quote="
Bruce Svboda of The Five Canadians was quoted in the zine Brown Paper Sack saying something along the lines of this: for the kids who played in 60s rock bands that chance to get together and play yr own music *brought chaos into focus*. It is the ecstatic feeling of release from the adolescent chaos' grip that powers the engine burning a fiery trail thru each epic 60s garage tune that i love.[/quote]

i gotta remind everyone again, when im posting on here im never at home around any of the notes/ephemera/books/etc. i have about all this kinda stuff, so i must apologize to Don Julio and Doug Ryniker: the 'chaos into focus' quote comes from Doug Ryniker of the 5 Canadians, *not* Bruce S.
 
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