When Life Wasn’t So Complicated

By Righty

(At least for me, anyway)

I like this band …and find it interesting how the sixties crowd appears unsure how to handle dancing to their style. 

The Monks - Complication (1966)

Sometimes It’s Pretty Dark

By Righty

Friend & Lover - Reach Out of the Darkness – 1968

I think it’s so groovy now
That people are finally getting together
I thinks it’s so wonderful and how
That people are finally getting together

Reach out in the darkness
Reach out in the darkness
Reach out in the darkness
And you may find a friend

I knew a man that I did not care for
And then one day this man gave me a call
We sat and talked about things on our mind
And now this man he is a friend of mine

Reach out in the darkness
Reach out in the darkness
Reach out in the darkness
And you may find a friend

I think it’s so groovy now
That people are finally getting together
I thinks it’s so wonderful and how
That people are finally getting together

Don’t be afraid of love (don’t be afraid)
Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid to love (listen to me)
Everybody needs a little love
Everybody needs somebody (don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid to love)
That they can be thinking of (reach out)

Reach out in the darkness
Reach out in the darkness
Reach out in the darkness
And you may find a friend

I think it’s so groovy now
That people are finally getting together
I thinks it’s so wonderful and how
That people are finally getting together

Time Of The Season

By Righty

With four older siblings, I was able to listen to their records in my early teens. But I remember buying my first “45 record” in 1968. It was “Time of the Season” by the Zombies. I was 13 years old.

“The 12th track on the 1968 album “Odessey and Oracle” by the Zombies. “Time of the Season” is written by Rod Argent.”

I don’t mean to embarrass my younger sister, but she bought her first record that same day…it was the Cowsills version of  “Hair“ originally from the counter-culture Broadway show.

Just…Say No

By Righty

Incense and Peppermints

“Strawberry Alarm Clock was a American psychedelic pop band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1966.”
———————-

Just Say No campaign

Gee, I Think You’re Swell

By Righty

Turtles – Elenore 1968

Mine Was “CRestwood”

By Righty

That was my telephone exchange/area when I was growing up in 1960′s Connecticut.  I have no clue how it worked.  It was an area we lived in..that’s all I know.  There was a country club named Crestwood, too.  We also had a party line at the same time.  Oh, life was simple back then. 

BEechwood 4-5789

The Marvelettes - 1962

The single was later covered  by The Carpenters in 1981

Sunday…

By Righty

Will never be the same …

Spanky and Our Gang - Sunday Will Never Be The Same  (their biggest hit, which reached number #9 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1967)

“That Umbrella We Employed It”

By Righty

We’re having a little too much rain today…

Bus stop, wet day
She’s there I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus go, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella
All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella we employed it
By August she was mine

The Hollies – Bus Stop 1966

I would love to have been there…how about you?

Remember Slow Dancing?

By Righty

You just needed arms around a neck and a head on a shoulder.  You barely moved your feet out of the small space where you stepped back and forth.  It wasn’t the  “dirty dancing” of today.   This would have been the perfect song for slow dancing.

Peter and Gordon

Let It Be Me

Live in Munich – 24 June, 1966

Is Music As Controversial Today As It Was In The 60s, 70s & even 80s?

By Righty

It may be, but not for the same reasons.  Does music today have all of those hidden meanings it did back then?  Especially about drugs?  I don’t think so.   Was there ever a Beatles song without a mystery linked to some of the lyrics?  Admit it…did you ever listen to I Am The Walrus backwards?  (Was Paul really dead?)  And what about those Rolling Stones and the Jefferson Airplane and even innocent Donovan? And what about fans who find controversy that really isn’t there in lyrics?

I suppose music doesn’t need to be filled with hidden messages anymore.  There are too many parents who aren’t monitoring what there children are listening to and many could care less.  The difference is, most of the controversial music from the past was pretty good music.

Here’s one of those songs…Eric Burdon and War with Spill The Wine.  It’s a live version from 1970 with some alternate lyrics thrown in.  I personally think the album version is much better, but there’s nothing like watching good video of the live band.

The first chart hit of the multi-ethnic band War, sang by short-time member Eric Burdon. Burdon, tired of his parent band The Animals in the UK, joined the Californian jam band in 1969. But after two albums, highly acclaimed concerts and rave reviews in the music press, Burdon suddenly left the group in the middle of an European tour and never went back.

And here’s their version of Paint It Black -