1977 This Week: What did you think of the 70s?
greg841
Since this is, in theory, a 70s newsgroup, here's a thought. We post a
lot of notes about the decade, the music, the culture, the food, the
drink, the clothing. Question is, what did you think of the decade
itself? Was it good for you? Were you disappointed when it ended? Were
you glad?
I guess that since it is the decade I grew up in, I'll always feel more
positively about it. Even with Watergate, an Energy Crisis, and the
incredibly cold winter of '76-77 thrown in, I still think the decade was
more positive than some give it credit for. Seems like we were more able
to relax then and trust others more. Besides, I had a lot of fun!
What about you?
Comments and opinions welcome.
Greg
--
____________________________________________________
"Everyone's Gone to The Moon" - Jonathan King
Anne Johnson
In article <335BC5...@concentric.net>, gre...@concentric.net
says...
Hello Greg! I guess I really enjoyed them too. The '70's seem very
innocent now,but if you had asked our moms back then they would have
thought that the days were wicked. dope,long hair,etc.. The late 70's
were the best for me. I guess because I was actually old enough to
enjoy them. :-)
Paul Goldschmidt
greg841 <gre...@concentric.net> wrote:
>I guess that since it is the decade I grew up in, I'll always feel more
>positively about it. Even with Watergate, an Energy Crisis, and the
>incredibly cold winter of '76-77 thrown in, I still think the decade was
>more positive than some give it credit for. Seems like we were more able
>to relax then and trust others more. Besides, I had a lot of fun!
>What about you?
Music - there was almost as much schlock coming out then as there is
now, but there were still discreet genres and sub-genres which meant
something, whatever you thought of them (top-40 rock, album rock,
progressive rock, fusion jazz, straight-ahead jazz, funk, soul, r&b,
etc). Loved the free-form style of radio on a lot of major-market FM
stations from the late 60's thru the early 70's, now practiced only by
a handful of community stations like WFMU <http://www.wfmu.org> or
WHRW <http://www.tier.net/whrw>. FM radio after '74 or so started
getting The Format Disease, but it still seemed much freer and less
micro-managed than it is today. And you could still hear *music* on
*AM*!
Dress - Liked the urban cowboy/neo-hippie look. Hated the way
"designer" jeans got to be such a big (and pricey) deal. Thought
platform shoes looked silly.
Politics - Thought the gas crisis was a scam, just like all the other
shortages which materialized shortly afterward. Thought Nixon was
guilty. Thought Ford was a scumbag for pardoning him. Thought Carter
was going to turn things around, silly me.
TV - Saturday Night Live 1975-80 rules. I do believe it saved my
sanity. (Didja catch the episodes with Ralph Nader, Frank Zappa or
Elvis Costello?) After '80, NBC should have mercifully euthanized that
show instead of letting it transmogrify into the pile of dog wastes it
is now.
Etc. - Cars went up in price but didn't cost the price of a house.
Speaking of which, you could still find good apartments for under
$200.00/month if you knew where to look. While I don't use drugs and
won't promote drug use, the prevailing social drug at the time (apart
from Sangria, Tequila Sunrises and Billy beer) was hemp or its
by-products. All of the violence and craziness which reportedly
surrounds the current cocaine/crack scene did not exist; cocaine was
strictly for people with 6-figure salaries.
>"Everyone's Gone to The Moon" - Jonathan King
Great tune!
--
"And let us say this as a final note: The 70's was the last time any
of us got laid and got high and didn't feel guilty, paranoid or
unpatriotic about it".
- Andrew J. Edelstein and Kevin McDonough, Goldmine magazine, March 9, 1990
Visit the Bartlepage <http://www.spectra.net/~bartle>
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Kent Parks
Paul Goldschmidt (bar...@spectra.net) wrote:
: TV - Saturday Night Live 1975-80 rules. I do believe it saved my
: sanity. (Didja catch the episodes with Ralph Nader, Frank Zappa or
: Elvis Costello?) After '80, NBC should have mercifully euthanized that
: show instead of letting it transmogrify into the pile of dog wastes it
: is now.
It definitely sucked in the early/mid '80s, BUT got its act together back
in the late '80s-early '90s in the Dana Carvey/Phil Hartman/Nora
Dunn/Dennis Miller years.
Kent
MrSkiMask
Music- the most awesome music- so many divergent styles- unlike now, where
they force one BORING and unmusical style down your throat- "Alternative",
soul music had SOUL, unlike the soul-less "slow jams" of today.
Look, you had so many more styles of music: Real Punk (X-Ray Spex, Damned,
Skrewdriver, Black Randy, Bags, etc.), Two Tone (Specials, Selecter), new
wave ia all sorts of substyles , like Devo, the 60's-ish pop of Blondie,
power pop like 20/20, that Adam and the Ants stuff, weirdos like Klaus
Nomi- all sorts of genius, that is so missing in today's unmusical music.
Then there's FUNK- The Ohio Players, James Brown's best work,
Parliamentfunkadelicthang, obscure bands like The Undisputed Truth, BT
Express all kickin much ass unlike the crap they call slow jams today. Oh,
and Barry White!
Then DISCO- the genius of the Brothers Gibb- some of the most well
written, well crafted pop songs are the disco era Bee-Gees and Andy Gibb
(who was a better guitarist than that hack Cobain- could Cobain play the
intricate jazz chords of "Shadow Dancing"? I think not!) I even love the
trite stuff like the Village People- they had an important social message
of acceptance of all people regardless of lifestyle...
The ROCK was amazing- so may STYLES from the stadium rock of Rush,
Mountain, Wings and Led Zeppelin to the California Sound melodic work of
the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac (and good solo albums by Bob Welch), the
ass-kicking hard rock of Foghat... so much musical DIVERSITY, unlike now.
Oh, and PROGRESSIVE ROCK like Genesis, Roy Wood, Electric Light Orchestra
(GENIUS Jeff Lynne melding 50's rock with 70's rock with classical and
string sections- I love that beautiful textural sound! So pleasant to
listen to!)
The 70's were undoubtedly the APEX of Western Civilization- then AIDS and
Prozac came and took it all away and ruined it. Free love at the disco-
YES!
The 70's were the Renaissance- the 90's are the Dark Ages.
Religious tolerance! The Church of Satan and bands like Coven, and Sammy
Davis Jr's weird devil movie from 1972! Too cool!
Crazy Magazine from Marvel- it was even better than 70's Mad, which was
good, too!
The ACTION of the TV shows (unlike the sit in one room and talk without
doing anything crap of the 90's)- CHiPs, Starskey and Hutch, the reality
of Baretta!!!! I loved it!!!!
How about KISS?
Mego Action Figures- so well made and fun compared to the small plastic
junk of today! Hot Wheels cars with crazy paint colors! The original
ATARI!! What was more fun than that? NOTHING!!!
The 70's were heaven compared to now!!! so PROGRESSIVE!
Cool clothes! Now people dress like hobos on prozac with ugly "tasteful"
muted noncolors like beige and taupe and brown- yuck!!! Give me a loud
polyester shirt, a Zodiac pendant, and a purple coat like Rooster the Pimp
of "Baretta" fame! COLOR was everywhere! Such ARTFUL clothing! I love
COLOR!!!
I love MUSCLE CARS- Mopar Madness!!!! Cougars! Furys! 442's! The beautiful
humpback Lincoln Continetal pimpmobiles when you KNEW a LUXURY CAR was a
REAL LUXURY CAR!!! The wacky and cute little Gremlin, Pacer, and Vega-
even the 70's Hondas were adorable!!
Stores were open later! Record Theatre 7 days till midnite- Fantasy World
sold all the latest new wave singles!! vinyl!!!! record stores that rented
records!!!
Musical gear- ELECTROHARMONIX , MXR, and MuTron!!! Need I say more? The
invention of the Musicman Stingray bass!!! The crazy and innovative 70's
Gibson designs. The lovely ORANGE amplifier- the glorious filter sweep of
a PolyMoog, the lush string sounds of a Crumar Orchestrator or Arp Omni 2
as heard on Bee-Gees and Joy Division records alike! Music was well
recorded, lush, and magnificiently produced, unlike the sterile bland
ear-wracking "sound" of today's thrown-together CRAP!!
I forgot GLAM ROCK- yet another musical genre!
FUN FUN FUN FUN!!!!! I LOVE THE 70's!!! I wish it would ALL come back. The
90's are DEPRESSING and UGLY- the only good thing about the 90's is some
underground electronic music and the internet. The rest is rubbish!
Scott Starr
I liked being a kid in the early seventies but when I started highschool
(1975) things started to go down hill. I hated disco ( I was one of
the guys with the DISCO SUCKS bumper sticker and t-shirt) The feathered
backed hair style which my hair wouldn't do cuz it was too wavy, and
thank god I never permed it like the girls wanted me to. I went back
in time and got into long hair and 60's music. I always said My
generation was born between WOODSTOCK and BROOK SHEILDS (CALVIN KLEIN
JEANS). then punk and new wave came out my senior year, it took me a 2
years befor I got into that. Now I think it's cool cuz I got to see a
lot of different decades,I like them all now!!!!
L. Sutton
Im with you, Scott- - I think of people like us as the "lost Generation"--
-not quite Baby Boomers of the 50s and too old for what they now call
Generation X -- I call us Brady Boomers. Beople who were ther for the 1st
run of the Brady Bunch & Partridge Family, but too young for the
Woodstock Nation.
At the time the 70s seemed pretty blah, but I look back with great humor.