Last week, we revisited the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival which was so good that we ought to stay there.
The Jefferson Airplane, before it morphed into the awful Jefferson Starship (later just Starhip), was one of those bands that evoked the tenor of the times. At Monterey, the Airplane was introduced as a sign of "what the world was coming to." It turns out that they weren't and, if I wanted to do some thumbsucking, I could draw a parallel between this song, which expresses an uncontrolled and self obliterating love, and the Dyonisian fascism that was an unfortunate part of the sixties counterculture, But, really, I just like the song.
And, once again, I offer a bonus, although it's not an old performance. In honor of my appearance at the Fourth Street Forum (which is on again this afternoon at 3 on Channel 36) on religion and politics, I offer my friends on the left some faith in politics. Michelle Shocked is a lefty folksinger who is, as she would put it, "God-crazy." She did a great gospel set at Telluride a few years back that was apparently recorded without her knowledge and recently released as To Heaven U Ride . I highly recommend it. This song, Quality of Mercy, was written for the movie Dead Man Walking.
7 comments:
"the Dyonisian fascism that was an unfortunate part of the sixties counterculture"? Wow, man, roll me some of what you're smoking. Are there still Commies in the closet, too?
My Lord the baby boomers are rising from the dead.
"the Dyonisian fascism that was an unfortunate part of the sixties counterculture"?
Gee, that's not even controversial. Cf. Bernadine Dohrn.
Well, sure, I mean if Dohrn says it... "You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows", right?
"Dyonisian fascism?" Rick, I am defending neither "the 60s" nor, I suppose, Nietzsche. But, what's with the word "fascism?"
Back in the late '80s I was an annual Alpine Valley visitor when the 'Dead were in town.
The 'Heads wore a uniform too and if you didn't wear it and conform to certain ways you were outcast, but it is not always good to be in the in group.
The old '60s hippy dippy says they are all about love, peace, and understanding, but as Mike says when you go outside to check the wind it blew in a direction different from what the weatherman told us it was.
Being a generation removed from the 60's makes me believe one of the best things to come of all the dyonisian indulgences was the death of terms like "counter culture". Our culture is now fractured into so many subcultures a term like "counter culture" is meaningless when contemporarily applied.
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