1969 was 50 years ago...

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by notesfrom, Apr 7, 2019.

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  1. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC USA
    1969 was 50 years ago...

    Hard to believe. All these current and impending 50th Anniversary box sets won't let us forget. These music sets (and the copyright ramifications that go with them) have made musical 50ths a bigger deal than 5-0's in many other fields - besides the weddings and birthdays category. I was a baby then and couldn't see or hear much beyond the crib, but I would like to believe that the place I grew up in in the USA stayed sort of '1969-ish' until about 1974-75 - end of Vietnam war, maybe. Some locales changed slower than others.

    Abbey Road, Easy Rider, Woodstock, 'Space Oddity', Elvis in Vegas, Switched On Bach, Zeppelin I, Dylan gone Country, the Moon landing (conspiracies aside), the Manson murders, Altamont, the 'last' year of the 1960s...

    What are your favorite albums, songs, and memories from that year? Was the music as good as it was in '66, '67 and '68?

    The music and cultural touchstones from that year have persisted in the popular consciousness. Is it because a lot of folks who were alive then are still alive, keeping the memory alive? Or was it really a special time worthy of attention from even those who weren't around to remember it?
     
  2. ShayL

    ShayL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia
    I wasn't born yet but I really enjoy this kind of music mostly because I was exposed to it thanks to my mom, or I just found out about it from listening to oldies stations. Since the OP already mentioned Elvis, "Suspicious Minds" is one song from that year I happen to like.

    Other songs: "The Sound of Love" from Bee Gees' Odessa.

    Time of the Season- The Zombies
    Crimson and Clover- Tommy James and the Shondells
    Gimme Shelter- The Rolling Stones

    Too many to name really.
     
  3. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Oh, man, I'm so glad you went for this topic. I was just thinking that 1969 (when I was in grade school) was the year that I became totally infatuated with music on the radio, music on records, reading about musicians in magazines and books, just the entire universe of the music scene. The Chicago Cubs had a great season that year, and we were all into that pretty heavily, but I've always associated that summer with the songs I first heard on Chicago's Top 40 radio giants, WLS & WCFL: "Lay Lady Lay"..."I'd Wait A Million Years"..."A Boy Named Sue"..."Green River"..."My Cherie Amour"..."Get Back"...I could go on and on. A few years ago I did a deep dive into the weekly radio surveys from 1969 (I have all 52 weeks of the WLS charts saved in a text file) and made a whole series of playlists and CD-Rs...a nostalgic exercise, well, yeah, I guess, but I tell you -- so much of it is SOLID.

    Re-discovered this gem:
    Can I Change My Mind - Tyrone Davis

    (released Dec. 1968)
     
  4. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    I bought Abbey Road in 1969, it wasn’t such a big deal. Preferred Fleetwood Mac, Purple, Tull.
     
  5. ranasakawa

    ranasakawa Forum Resident

    Wait to you get to 1970 :goodie::edthumbs:
     
  6. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    As good? From 1966 ..albums wise it was pretty consistent. There should be a album thread / poll to see what year produced the best albums in the sixties, hard to top 1969.
     
  7. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    How shall we celebrate? Tie-dye, drugs and loads of sex?
     
  8. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC USA
    I'd imagine that 50th Anniversaries in 1969 were centered around WWI commemorations?

    PS, I have a positive view of the 'nostalgia' concept; it's just an accessing of the great Hall of Records in relation to individual and collective memory. Better to have that option than to be without the libraries of antiquity. Records keeping is better than ever.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2019
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  9. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC USA
    That's a start!
     
  10. lonelysea

    lonelysea Ban Leaf Blowers

    Location:
    The Cascades
    I remember the Summer of ‘69 almost like it was yesterday.

     
  11. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    was this a great year! I can't believe it's been this long...I remember everything mentioned here and more...of course my highlight was seeing Led Zep live! It blew my mind...we were a few feet from the band.
     
  12. GonnaGetcha

    GonnaGetcha Forum Resident

    A most sublime 2 minutes 38 seconds. "Villanova Junction" from Woodstock...

     
  13. mesfen

    mesfen Senior Member

    Location:
    lawrence, ks usa
    What I miss the most was how diverse the music was; pick any week during '69 ( or any year from around 64 onwards) you'd hear any genre blasting out from the radio. Remarkable time to sample just about anything. Fantastic learning experience. FM became a cult where the learning experience grew exponentially; definitely anything went.
     
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  14. Raunchnroll

    Raunchnroll Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Bought Crimson & Clover. We went to London in the summer. Had a crush on Lousie P. in my class. Couldn't ice skate at Gold Creek because of Seattle Pop festival. AM radio was a blast, almost everything sounded good.
     
  15. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    This came out in the first part of '69 and pointed the way to everything that transpired in that last year of the 60s decade. This was huge.

    The 5th Dimension - Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In

     
  16. I bought Abbey Road in 1969 and it was a HUGE deal! It was all over the radio and it grabbed the listening audience pretty much immediately.
     
  17. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    Seemed like a great year.

    Was that the moon landing year""
     
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  18. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    no, July 20th 1968.
     
  19. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NC USA
    This is the sound I associate with the first three years of my life - as well as 'Stoned Soul Picnic'. Sunshine Pop at its finest. And Sesame Street brainwashed a lot of us into believing that every day was a 'sunny' day. Lol.
     
  20. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    The moon walk was in July of '69. The real one.
     
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  21. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
  22. Remote Control Triangle

    Remote Control Triangle Forum Member Rated 6.8 By Pitchfork

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    I can imagine! Insanely jealous...
     
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  23. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Maybe...our elderly neighbor did have a Doughboy helmet in his basement. :)

    Nixon, Manson family, Woodstock, moon landing, casualty figures from Vietnam on the nightly news...a lot of heavy stuff happening. I'm thankful I was too young and innocent back then to have to think about all of that, but I also missed out on all of that disreputable behavior mentioned by @Chris DeVoe -- or should we call him 'Moon Child'? (Just kidding Chris. :D )

    One other vivid memory that stuck with me: trying to decide whether to get the 45 of "Try A Little Kindness" by Glen Campbell, or "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis -- I really liked both songs, but in the end I went with...
    [​IMG]
    (borrowed photo)

    Later on I did get a copy of Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits, which had "Try a Little Kindness," so I did get them both.
     
  24. PepiJean

    PepiJean Forum Resident

    Favorite songs:
    Honky Tonk Women (RS)
    Touch Me (The Doors)
    Suspicious Minds (Elvis)
    Oh Happy Day (Edwin Hawkins S.)
    Fortunate Son (Creedence CR)
    Space Oddity (Bowie)
    Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf)

    Albums:
    Bayou Country
    From Elvis in Memphis
    Let it Bleed
    Green River
    Soul'69
    With a little help from my friend
     
  25. Mesozoic Mike

    Mesozoic Mike Forum Resident

    Location:
    Torrance CA
    Yup.
     
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