Why Do You Love 60s and 70s Music?
It’s been noted that I grew up with 60s and 70s music blasting through my house. It obviously stuck because I sang along at a fairly young age. However, I don’t think I owe my love of this genre entirely to this. My roots with the hippie sounds of past had a much more visual origin.
Here’s where I out myself as the princess of the “We thought she might be cooler” kingdom. You know those weird schoolgirl (or schoolboy) crushes you have on celebrities? Here was my first:
Recognize the fellow singing away? I cannot believe I’m admitting this. But sadly, it’s true. I first saw HAIR at about the age of six or seven and loved it. I loved the music, the clothing, and I especially loved Don Dacus as Woof. Both his looks and his great voice.
Clearly at age seven I had no idea I was singing along to lyrics that had to do with LSD, the war, and sex; I just thought it sounded good.
I think we should see him in action…
Because I loved HAIR so much, My mom introduced me to even more musicals and rock operas. By the age of nine or so I’d fallen in love with:
This guy, David Haskell, (and the musical he came with). I know you know it. Alias dad, Victor Garber played Jesus.
Then I got a crush on this fellow:
Either I was really into long-haired hippie looking guys who could sing or I was moving toward religion in a serious way.
By age ten, I was telling everyone that my favorite movie was:
The Big Chill had almost zip plot that a ten year old could understand but it was the music that drew me in (okay, and William Hurt). The Stones, You Can’t Always Get What You Want funeral finale, The Weight by the The Band, I Second That Emotion by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles all the way to the end credit’s Joy To The World by Three Dog Night. The movie was packed with a huge lesson in music. And what about Tommy? A rock opera worth a much longer post — but not today, because I didn’t have a crush on Roger Daltrey.
And even though my love for early hippie oriented musicals (and their stars) might be considered kind of dorky, you can’t ignore that some of these early musical stars went on to bigger things. After HAIR, Don Dacus took over as guitarist for Chicago when the hugely famous Terry Kath committed suicide. Before that Dacus worked with Stephen Stills, CSN, and Billy Joel. And when I heard the original Jesus Christ Superstar album I grew to love Ian Gillan, Deep Purple front man in the lead.
So there you go. My early love of this music came from the long haired hippie guys of the rock operas and musicals of the 70s. With a few other flicks thrown in for good measure. Do I think that this was the coolest road to this genre? Nope, not likely. Am I glad I traveled it — yes.
What about you? Why did you first fall in love with the music of the 60s and 70s?
[Video via: Here.]
Tags: 60s Music, 70s Music, Dacus, David_Haskell, Deep-Purple, Godspell, HAIR, hippie-guys, Jesus, Jesus-Christ-Superstar, music, Religion, Ted-Neeley, The-Big-Chill, Tommy
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