The WELL: inkwell.vue.366: Bruce Pollock, By The Time We Got to Woodstock

#143: what another day it takes: (oilers1972) Sun 18 Oct 09 19:41

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:41:00 PDT

Good luck, and thank you for sharing with us, Bruce! [Read entire topic]

#142: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Thu 15 Oct 09 07:31

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:31:00 PDT

Good luck, Bruce.

Thanks for a very interesting discussion, everyone! [Read entire topic]

#141: Bruce Pollock (bruce-pollock) Thu 15 Oct 09 04:33

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:33:00 PDT

Now I've got a book signing to prepare for next week. Wish me luck. [Read entire topic]

#140: Lisa Harris (lrph) Wed 14 Oct 09 17:07

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:07:00 PDT

Thanks, Bruce and David. [Read entire topic]

#139: Gail (gail) Wed 14 Oct 09 16:59

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:59:00 PDT

David and Bruce, and everybody who posted, this has been a rich meander through history and musical history. Thanks so much! We've got our next guest up - talking about traffic in the road sense of the word - so you're free to move along. You can also keep posting here for as long as you wish, of course.

WELL members who are interested in continuing these themes may enjoy conferences like <music.> or perhaps <boomers.> to hang out with and muse about a certain g-g-generation.

Thanks! [Read entire topic]

#138: David Julian Gray (djg) Wed 14 Oct 09 16:49

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:49:00 PDT

Bruce: Been enjoying reading and re-reading the book and the thoughts its triggered on that period and its impact socially, musically - and very much enjoyed youyr participation in the discussion - Thanks much for being here! Of course - time divisions do sometimes seem artificial, and, as Chou en Lai famously repied when asked his opinion of the French Revolution "It's too soon to tell" So it is, really with 1969 and as Frank Zappa said as the cancer was eating him up: Time isn't linear ... [Read entire topic]

#137: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Tue 13 Oct 09 10:38

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:38:00 PDT

I'm assuming Bruce's comment relates to Scott's comments, not mine.

In August 1971, the Australian near underground publication, "Revolution", mutated into "High Times". If you assume Oz was always a couple of years behind the times, bingo! [Read entire topic]

#136: Bruce Pollock (bruce-pollock) Mon 12 Oct 09 12:17

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:17:00 PDT

This reads like a review in the New York Review of Books, which I appreciate, since I'm not expecting to get one in the actual NYRB.

Revolution is a loaded word. Obviously, something that started in '55, dramatically expanded in '65. Whether it continued to change and expand at the same pace through the next 40 years, whether MTV represented another "revolution," whether Michael Jackson revolutionized rock and roll race relations and choreography--may be like comparing eras in baseball.

I definitely have the feeling 1969 was the end of an era for a part of the generation that discovered rock and roll. For others it was only the beginning. And at Studio 54 and Plato's Retreat, nobody cared one way or the other. [Read entire topic]

#135: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Mon 12 Oct 09 12:11

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:11:00 PDT

In Brisbane we didn't stop thinking it would be a good idea to put LSD into the water supply in 1970.

In 1973 Bob Marley and the Wailers, David Bowie, Steely Dan were really hitting their stride. Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon. Grateful Dead released Wake of the Flood. By '83, when I was involved in the trade union movement, we were still listening to mostly '65 - '74 (+ The Clash), still working for a revolution. [Read entire topic]

#134: Scott MacFarlane (s-macfarlane) Mon 12 Oct 09 09:14

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:14:00 PDT

<where it all started with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters>

<By 66 Tom Wolfe was claiming Kesey said "We blew it.">

Kesey has said many, many, many things about the Sixties, LSD, and the Prankster's role as proto-hippies. This is another example of taking one outsider's three word quote to help prove your thesis, Bruce. Kesey, after his bust, also moved back to Oregon in early 1967 and extracted himself from the thick of the counterculture because, as he put it, "we all got arrested."

Evoking Kesey is to track the rise and fall of psychedelia, not music. You are the one who chose to use the word "end" to suggest that the revolution in music (and the counterculture) ended in 1969. Unlike Tom Wolfe, you've clearly attempted to write a serious assessment of the Sixties from an "insider's" perspective. There are many people who are serious observers of this era. The early '70s are an integral part of understanding the 'revolutionary' fervor of the "supernova." Consequently, in an historical domain overflowing with an unhealthy share of written distortion, propaganda, and oversimplification, your book and its conflated thesis deserves to be held to a high standard. [Read entire topic]