For those around here who are old enough to remember the 60s, partiularly the early '60s I have some questions:

1) When do you first remember hearing about Rock & Roll--Stones or any other band--? How did your parents feel about Rock & Roll?
2) When do you first remember seeing long hair on a guy? What were the local attitudes toward long hair on guys, pants on women, etc? Your parents attitude? When did you first grow your hair out long?
3) How do you remember the culture changing in general as the 60s went on from the Kennedy years to the Woodstock era?

I was just wondering because I was reading this little extract about how this guy in London in 1964 lost his uninsurance benefits due to wearing hair similar to length to and inspired by our very own Rolling Stones:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=W2hkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QXwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1083,2141...

And I just find the evolution of pop culture and the changing gender roles and aesthetics of the 60s--And the way the culture is still divided over the 60s today--really interesting.

Well Sioux, I beat you on this one. Yesterday I became 60 years old (LOL). I remember my father hating The Beatles back in 1963-64 for their music and their "long hair", but when The Stones had their first performance in Europe outside England in the "Kurhaus" in Scheveningen (Netherlands) in 1964, and the concert hall was completely destroyed by fans, you should have seen my father when he read the newspapers. He was so mad I thought his head would explode. You can find alot about this concert with some googling. In those days long hair was absolutely not done, but got more excepted in the late sixties, even by my father, who later did like a number of Beatles songs, but never The Stones. Of course there were boys with long hair, but just a few. We had in the Netherlands a band called "The Outsiders" with hair so long, it made The Stones look like choirboys. Not only parents didn't allowe it, but you also got kicked out of school with long hair. I remember an article in the paper about a boy who killed himself because his parents didn't allow him to grow his hair. I also remember my father having nearly a heartattack when my sister bought her first hotpants. She never wore it, that's for sure. We were with seven children, six boys and one girl, and 3 boys were Stonesfans, and I'm sure the sixties took 10 years of my father's life. Still, the sixties and early seventies were the best years of my life, but hey, that goes for evey generation I guess.

I was born & grew up (till I was 16) on Prince Edward Island, a Canadian Province East Coast Of Canada, it was so backward with what was happening we only heard about it days after, but one thing that stood out was Radio, in those days (& even in the 70's) songs that artists or bands did were more well 'known then the Band themselves, unlike today when one hears these big name performers, ask yourself what song is theirs? half the time the performers are so well 'known in the media, that the song is secondary.

When I first became of music I heard the songs on the radio, this was '64, Beatles had about 6 songs in the top 20, & everybody knew their songs, they hummed to them, they were on the radio every 20 minutes, even the old guy down the road knew their songs, I knew a lot of bands music first before I even knew what they looked like, The Rolling Stones name always stood out to me, I liked the name, the only way in P.E.I. I knew what these guys looked like was in Hit Parader magazine, they used to list all the lyrics to songs, I wanted to look like these guys, The Byrds had really long hair for their time, so I wanted to grow my hair long, Brian Jones's hair stood out too, which was what the Byrds fashioned it after.

Most people, outside some of my cousins liked Country & Western music, which I didn't like, there was all this "Get Your Hair-cut!" going around, some people actually got beat up for it, I remember a lot of name calling, one guy said to me "Do you squak when you take a piss" & a lot accusing you of being gay, only in those days they didn't have a very kind word for it.

I was the biggest Stones fan I knew, I idolized them, never heard music like this (Rhythm & Blues) before, the Beatles were mostly pop, but they made everyone else write their own songs, & then their music changed outside of pop with Rubber Soul.

I loved Garage bands, Motown, the West Coast San Francisco scene, Monterey Pop & so on, for me the 60's were like a magical time, & I'm so glad to have been brought up with it.



This is me in '66, I wore these pants to school, & somebody said to me "Where did you get the fruity pants from?" I was trying to get the pants Brian & Mick wore, I said to the guy "Go back & Listen to your C & W records" I thought they were a bunch of hicks.

" 1) When do you first remember hearing about Rock N' Roll--Stones or any other band--? "



It was 1965 --   just outside DaNang , South Vietnam  -- whilst traveling up the Mekong Delta when
our lieutenant began blaring the first chords of " Satisfaction " from a small transistor radio .....................

........................... a Damn Shame about that village five clicks up river .


Joey Cong

Tumbling Dijs wrote on Dec 21^st, 2011 at 2:51pm:




Hey, I know the Dutch OUtsiders! I love garage rock, and they were a great band...


I WILL be back! Gotta talk about this... Agreed---GREAT thread!

Edith Grove wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2011 at 9:43am:

" I WAS BORN(1969) IN A CROSSFIRE HURRICANE
AND I HOWLED AT MY MA IN THE DRIVIN RAIN   "

Here's a link to the 60's.
http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

1) When do you first remember hearing about Rock & Roll--Stones or any other band--? How did your parents feel about Rock & Roll?



I was born in 1957.



Boooo!


I have always maintained that my Mom was scared by Little Richard when I was in utero. It could explain a lot,
but I have no firm evidence to back my hypothesis. My mom never copped to it.


But Here's Little Richard was released in March
1957...five months before I was born...hmmmm...


First rock & roll I recall was Chubby Checker. The
Twist. The whole "Eee-yaw" thing really resonated
with me.


That was 1960. I was three.  


But the big awakening was the Beatles, in Feb 1964 on Ed Sullivan.

My Mom, who played classical piano and was something of a prodigy in her youth, loved
Rock & Roll, and was as big a Beatles fan as I was. We followed their career album-by-album.


I got the Beatles Second Album for Christmas, and
then we got all of the American releases from then until
Abbey Road, which she bought. I remember her
discussing what she thought "Revolution #9" was
all about with me. But she was not a big Stones fan.
"They look like they're TRYING to be as dirty as
possible!" she said when we saw them on the David
Frost Show.



My Old Man, on the other hand, nearly blew a gasket when he got a load of
the Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan in 1969. It confirmed all of my instincts about
the Stones. He'd already yelled at me for playing Beggars Banquet too loud,
saying "Turn that nigger music down!"  But this was even better. Mick had
on a scarf and mascara.


Keith had an earring and a see-through guitar. Just seeing them on his TV
made the Old Man apoplectic. It was great!

BILL PERKS wrote on Dec 24^th, 2011 at 10:46am:

No...that's what it said, although it's not what I typed. Just look in the quote box :  N-word N-word N-word! Nigger.

Wow...what a strange computer glitch...I can't write the PC version ...but if I write the offensive word itself, it's OK. Anyway, my Old Man said "Nigger music". He was a racist. I'm definitely NOT. I apologize if I've offended Sirmoonie with that blunt language, but it was a direct quote. And I always thought the Stones would be sort of proud of the title.

I was born in 1952 so was lucky to have enjoyed the whole 60's and british Invasion thing from our small town an hour west of Toronto. My parents loved the music too and we enjoyed it together...(not so much Hendrix!!). fuuny but true story back when Between The Buttons came out. Our little town had one very small record store and one copy of Buttons....So I hid it in the country section so I could buy it day after Xmas with money I knew I would be getting!..Waltzed in grabbed Buttons and store owner flipped as many more had asked him for it and he thought the copy had been stolen!...lmaooo....Great times....heck I remember in 1965 New years when the big rock station in Toronto CHUM named Downtown ahead of Satisfaction as years 31 song...I totally flipped out!!

2) When do you first remember seeing long hair on a guy? What were the local
attitudes toward long hair on guys, pants on women, etc? Your parents attitude?
When did you first grow your hair out long?


My first memory of long hair was the Beatles, because it's hilarious to think just how
deadly serious an issue it was. Their hair completely outraged an entire segment of
society. And the Stones definitely upped the ante by appearing to have long DIRTY
hair. The Beatles always appeared highly shampooed and combed. With the obvious
exception of Brian, the  Stones often appeared to be a bit lax in personal hygiene.
So while my Mom loved the Beatles, the Stones elicited a negative reaction in her.
Not as negative as the conniption they unfailingly triggered in my Old Man, but
noticeable.


That was sort of key in the Stones climbing higher in my estimation - when you're young
and those rebellious hormones start to kick in, it takes the fun out of it if your Mom likes
all the same stuff you do.


It's AMAZING to reflect on attitudes toward hair in the 60s. Hair length could provoke
violence. It could get you sent home from school. It could make relatives stop talking
to you. So I immediately wanted to let my hair grow.

Below: me in 1966. Teenage rebellion here I come!

StickyStones wrote on Dec 27^th, 2011 at 1:19pm:


Reading is for squares, man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5zxeLwUSdk