OFF: When hippies ruled the world

[Doug Pearson]

On Wed, 10 Apr 2002 09:22:26 -0400, Jobson, Eddie <ejobson at THRUPOINT.NET>
wrote:
>But that's often one of the categories the media tried to put them into, so
>I am happy for them to be tagged that way by the BBC as long as I can see
>some of that rare footage again. I think they only scrapped into the 'When
>Rock Ruled the World' one because of background on Lemmy.

Exactly!  That's one of the great things about Hawkwind!  Because they
don't really fit ANY genre directly (except spacerock), their diversity
allows them to be considered part of MANY genres - metal/hardrock
(mostly 'cause of Lemmy), prog (probably a large part because of Simon
House and Tim Blake), punk (since mr. Lydon was a big fan), and, yeah, even
psychedelic/hippie rock.

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ted Jackson
>To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU
>Sent: 10/04/02 07:13
>Subject: Re: When hippies ruled the world
>
>On 10 Apr 2002, at 5:42, stephen lindas wrote:
>
>> I have A Brock interview where he says they weren't into the Hippy
>> thing...
>> Isn't the Hippy thing more of a west coast deal?

Mostly (the term was allegedly coined by the great San Francisco newspaper
columnist Herb Caen), but's *also* an English thing ... from the '67 UFO
club to Glastonbury '71 to the battle of the beanfield '85, they've
certainly been present in the UK.

>> Just because someone has long hair and uses
>> drugs doesn't make them a hippy. Never heard HW sing pretty songs
>> about peace and love. Their music was loud and psychotic. Would
>> Sabbath or Zeppelin be hippies too?
>
>Absolutely no, in Sab's case.  They have made it clear in many
>interviews that they were too angry to buy into the hippie ethos.
>The obsessively negative imagery in Geezer's early lyrics should be
>plenty of proof of that!

(Obviously this is splitting hairs purely for the purpose of an academic
discussion, but ... )  I wouldn't say that anger disqualifies one from
being a hippie.  The MC5 were certainly hippies (in addition to the drugs
and hair: communal living [which was ironically as reactionary - with the
women doing all the cooking/cleaning/etc. - as the "establishment" they
were allegedly opposed to], countercultural politics [support of Black and
White Panthers, performing at the '68 convention in Chicago, etc.], change-
the-world AND leave-the-world lyrics, and more), but the energy/anger in
their music is indisputable.  Even flower children like Jefferson Airplane
espoused violent revolution ("Up against the wall ... motherfucker") on
their 'Volunteers' album.  And Sabbath had their share of pretty songs, a
signature anti-war song, and at least one song about leaving the world to
start again, just like MC5, Jefferson Airplane, Hawkwind, Groundhogs, and
other hippie (or not?) bands.

But pay no attention to my ravings - I'm merely trying to reclaim the term
(I get called it, for the hair, of course) to encompass loud, hairy,
badass, aggressive rockers like Blue Cheer, Pink Fairies, Deviants, Edgar
Broughton, Hawkwind, Savage Resurrection, Bent Wind, Rallizes, etc.  By
THAT definition, I don't mind being called one (but that definition would
encompass Sabbath, too, so I could be full of it!  And Led Zeppelin had
their share of "hobbit rock" songs like "Ramble On" or "Battle of
Evermore", too.).

(shut up already, Doug!)

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com