I have been brain storming with Rob Jordan about a thread recalling what was popular in our High School years.  So here goes.  Does anyone recall what was popular during this week in the year 1967?  (Googling is acceptable too)

Sarah,

I think we need to wake this little forum up from the dead.. All Saints Day has come and maybe we should wake up the spirits who, at least last spring, appeared and had a lot to say to start this fourm off with a lot of good memories.. Now, over the summer and early fall, it's gone to sleep.. Maybe we can email the regulars to get them back.. we can share duties doing that going down the class roster. If you like. Email me and we can decide what to do next.

Thanks for starting the thread we discussed in an email.. I guess we should concentrate on the year 1967-68, our senior year, but being baby boomers, we can't avoid the years 1963, '64, '65 and '66. Especially 1964 coz we all sat in front of our TVs on February 9 and watched history being made.. the night The Beatles first appeared to us in a LIVE broadcast from NYC, on the legendary Ed Sullivan Show.. "A really big shew." An astonishing 75 million people watched that show, at least thats what the legend is.. and there were by 1964, 76 million baby boomers most of them between the ages of 12 and 17. Sixties historians are divided, of course, as to when the "sixties" really began.. I've always put it down to sometime in 1963, Dr ML King's the I Have A Dream speech, or JFK's murder in broad daylight in November..

Musically lots of arrows were pointing to the soon to come watershed British Invasion.. There were a few British singles in the Top 40 charts in 1963 and rock and pop was getting slightly more sophisticated - than the dance crazes of the early 60s e.g., The Twist, Hully Gully, Pony, Fly, et al... and the ever present girl group hits from Phil Spector and the Lesley Gore type singles.. Not that the early 60s sounds of Brill Building pop and teen idol singers don't have a place in the pop music history of the period, it's just that they belonged more to the late 50s musically than what was coming. Styles in clothes were also on the cutting edge.. The Beatles showed up in February wearing the latest in European outfits and hairstyles.. When I was in the 8th grade at Howell L Watkins Jr High, (1963-64) The Beatles appeared on "Ed".. A few days later kids were showing up in school with their hair combed down over their eyes.. If you were there at Watkins, then you remember.. Nothing was ever the same again.. 1964, like 1956, was one of those historic years that changed the course of American history.. American pop history. So, IMNSHO, early 1964 was when The Sixties began musically.. at least for our wave of the Baby Boom..

As far as 1967, there's just too much to discuss.. where do you start? The music we heard on AM radio alone, not to mention the album tracks we didn't hear until FM arrived in 1969-70, affected me (and all of us) greatly and helped shape who I was and who I became - music and art were all I cared about in those days - clothes was a close second - girls, as desirable as they were, were out of reach, painfully out of reach. 0ne thing for sure you can divide the year in music into two halves, pre "Sgt Pepper "- with sounds like Simon Garfunkel's "59th Bridge Street Song" (Feeling Groovy) and The Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" - and as a precursor to Pepper, the Beatles' first single in 7 months, "Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane" - and post Pepper, Jefferson Ariplane's "You Me and Pooneil" and, at the close of 1967, The Who's "I Can See For Miles," John Fred and his Playboy Band's "Judy In Disguise" (With Glasses)..

Course I have more to say and can post a song list for 1967-8 leading right up to graduation day.. but this'll do for now.. I've get off offline LOL..

BTW, do you know how to post HTML tags e.g., a JPG graphic of an LP cover? I'm really not sure how this forum format works.. but I'll bet Paul Yorke does lol.. Paul!! Help.

I might also add, I did some googling last night, or should I say this morning, and was searching for info about the (First Annual, and the last) Palm Beach Music and Arts Festival held out on Beeline Highway, at Palm Beach International Raceway, in November 1969 over Thanksgiving weekend.. And WOW, after years of searching, I struck gold.. and found some great archival material repleat with dozens of photos taken by a young photographer named Ken Davidoff, whose father was a local well know society photographer, Bob Davidoff. I was at the festival with various friends over the three days.. (including with Dave Rubinson) and saw all of the groups except one the last act which didn't come on til 4AM on the last night Sunday, November 30. Originally scheduled for 11PM, THE ROLLING STONES didn't arrive til 4AM to a dwindlng crowd of about 3,000, down from its peak crowd of 40,000 on Saturday night. I'm starting a thread about this almost long forgotten festival (The Post-Times has started a blog about Woodstock, and I think this applies to the memories, which I'll povide a link for) since the 40th anniversary is upon us soon and I hope to get some replies from anyone from our RBHS forum who was there.. One 1968 classmate, besides the ones I went with was there - Mike Moore.. when by 1AM, and my ride left to go home, I walked around the camp fires freezng my ass off hoping the Stones might come on - when they didn't I ran into Mike.. also wandering around and he was giving up and going home too.. Being not as adventurous back then as I would later become, I hitched a ride with him back to town.. he dropped me off at my door.. I regret it to this day for leaving the festival site and missing the Stones' HISTORIC 1969 American Tour performance. They were in their prime.. I found a rare sound archive today on the web and their 70 minute set was pretty good.. (I'll elaborate in the thread) but I was COLDER than I'd ever been and not dressed for it in my thin suede jacket - the local PBC temp (and of course out in the sticks it was colder) had fallen to below freezing, around 28F - we just weren't used to that kind of cold in South Florida.. (later in 1979 it actually snowed in WPB). In the end I was more cold than tired.. FREEZING we all were hence the thinning crowd waiting, and hoping, to see the Stones who hadn't toured the US and Canada since 1966! I had classes the next morning and needed a few hours of a warm bed.. (that memory will be in the thread).

In memorium Mike died of cancer around 1999 as I read on my Classmates message board back in 2001.. if you're a member you can read my tribute to Mike in the archives of the free message boards.. -- Rob

Irony.  In 1969 I was very close to Woodstock, but chose not to go, putting work first.  Today, I live very close to Bethel Woods, the original Woodstock site.

Sarah,

This is the list of songs from 1967 that went to Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They reflect, more or less, our local AM radio charts in the West Palm Beach radio market. Of course, these are only the #1s and many #2s and Top 10 songs are not on the list. Anyway.

These are the Billboard magazine Hot 100 number one hits of 1967.

Very cool. I would stay up late at night and write down all the radio stations I could pickup with my bedroom radio. One night I was listening to WABC when they played "I want To Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles.It was the first time it had been played in the USA. What a great song,thinking I would probably never hear it again.... LOL Thanks for the memories.

I (Bobby's wife Karen) remember listening to The Monkees, Supremes and Aretha Franklin in the mid to late 60's. My bet is Bobby was listening to The Young Rascals. He's has a CD of their greatest hits. We listen to a lot of oldies. Not too much good new stuff out there. I think we can give two thumbs up on the newish (is that a word?) Chickenfoot CD though, with Hagar and Satriani. It keeps us rockin at work! 

Hey Charles,

Thanks for joining the music talk.. So you could pick up WABC in your house? Cool, you must've had a great radio. I couldn't on my little Motorola portable.. which is why 'Id go out to the car and just sit there for an hour or so each night, usually after 11pm so my dad didn't know. He'd kill me if he knew I was running down the battery. It was such a thrill to hear those New York DJs. The reception was good but it had that far away sound.. And besides Beatles music I heard Sam and Dave's Hold On and other soul hits not as widely played on HEW. I knew by 1967 or so NYC was where it was at, and I would go there 8 years later to study art and design. By that time WABC wasn't as good any more. Cousin Brucie was still there, I think, and Don Imus had moved to another station and by 1980 was doing a morning talk radio show. Bruce Morrow and Imus were some of the original WABC "Good Guys". You can google them and see one of their newsprint ads from the 70s. By th time I got to NYC in 1, FM was how you listened to serious radio and the NY market was pretty saturated. But you had choice, a lot of it, from MOR FM rock to Jazz and Country - plus the ubiquitous classical music stations and one listener supported station WBAI. The main NY media group, besides RKO, ABC, CBS and NBC was called Metromedia and their flagship FM station was WNEW-FM which went on air in 1969, and played  AOR, or album oriented rock. NEW was commercial by day, and go "underground" by night still playing the same old trippy sounds from the late 60s and early 70s. Hit oriented in the day, though late at night there was a DJ who was playing the few single outs from the nascent NY punk rock movement.. groups such as Televison and Pattie Smith Group who were playing in a little dingy club on The Bowery called CBGB (OMFUG) or just CBGB (Country Blue Grass Blues) for short CBs began as a blues club by the patron Hilly Krystal (who died in 2006) and by 1974 young unsigned bands creating the punk sound, needing a stage, asked Hilly if they could play there. He said yes and they built the stage themselves. From 1974 the first bands played there usually to 10 or 15 people on good a night in the seats which were at tables, your typical smokey club with a bar and tables and chairs to watch the bands. By 1975 the NYT discovered it and wrote it up. I arrived in August and heard about it in school but was relcutant to go down there, I was into prog rock, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Jethro Tull, it took me a couple years to get past that music and get down there. CBGB forged punk rock and the Brits picked up on and then went national with it in 1977 and still claim to have started the movement.. Punk rock never took off nationally in the US its country of origin. Only when New Wave emerged in 1978-9, a softer more pop oriented sound did kids start taking to the new music. Disco dance music killed 60s rock n roll but punk and new wave saved it. CBGB stayed open through the 80s, 90s and finally closed its door in 2006, a couple months after its former founder owner died. And you heard the Beatles IWTHYH on WABC, the frst time it was played ever? Way cool. That is Boomer History 101. The record, their 5th single release in the UK and was on their second UK LP With The Beatles and came out on November 29 in Britain. The LP came out on November 22, an ominous date for a release of an LP that would be their first US release, Meet The Beatles, and change our lives forever. According to Mark Lewisohn, the best known Beatle authority and historian, the single was released on January 14 and the LP on January 20. I swear I heard the B-side, I Saw Her Standing There, over the 1963 Christmas holiday period, maybe before January 1. Though memory is selective and can be distorted. Though, it's possible a DJ at WHEW got an advance copy from Capitol Records and played it on December 30.. I heard it on that little Motorola.. That radio deserves a thread of its own.. It had been in the family since the mid 50s, was a vaccum tube radio - it seemed only Japanese radios had transistors - and I have memories of hearing Elivs records on it in 1957. It was with me til about 1968 when I think it died on me. Later I got a FM AM SW MB radio in 1969, which I listened to Armed Forces Network Radio late at night on or Chicago White Sox baseball games on.

Don't remember you from school, you got out 2 years ahead of me.. You probably knew some of my first cousins who graduated in 1965 and '66.. Cynthia Evans ('65) and Robin Jackson, ('66).

I read some of your and the others posts in the ROTC and Music Casters thread.. and I was just amazed to read, after all these years, that so many top national singers and recording artists came all the way down to lil ol Riviera Beach! I recognized all or most of them. Course the Bazaar International was no ordinary venue. It was a unique place to shop, eat and browse around the courtyard. And why not have such a revolutionary mall in our town, with its 60 ft tall tower it was "the future"? Back in those days, the early 60s Riviera Beach seemed on the upswing and the Bazaar helped put it on the map sort of. Of course situated right next to the Port of Palm Beach, all those exotic import shops had a port of entry for easy delivery. I guess that's why Riviera (what long time locals called it, it became The Town of Riviera Beach in 1924) city planners gave the go ahead for it. But for some dumb reason I never went to the Music Casters in its hey day. But every Monday morning some jock or in-crowd guy would talk about it.. As for the Lake Park Dances, I may have lived in WPB around that time '62, '63 and missed out on that too.. we moved back to PBG and Riviera in 1964 and I went to Howell Watkins Jr High (was there when JFK was murdered) and then RBHS for the 9th grade.. Watkins had a 9th grade and being in the 9th grade in a senior high school, grades 10-12, meant you were nothing, the lowest of the low. In a nether world. Still I was clueless about any kind of local music scene.. I had falsely assumed what ever local garage bands there were and there were a few who played our RBHS dances after key football and basketball games. I remember one dance the "winter" of 1967, after a basketball game during the Hornets Suncoast Conference championship year, there was a big dance.. and as I was walking into the Hornets gym (I think the cover charge was 50 cents) the DJ who was playing 45s had Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth going.. which was a Top 10 hit around that time.. It sent chills up my spine. Times were changing and youth were taking over. The band playing that night I can't remember the name, had a strobe light behind the drummer which I thought was pretty cool. 1967 was they year the Top 40 went psychedelic so maybe lil ol RB wasn't so behind the times as I had always thought.

You still live in the area? I haven't been back home since the late 80s.. I often read up on Riviera Beach today.. and I have to tell you, it makes me want to cry. RB has gone to hell in a hand basket, my home town. My roots go back there three generations, so, at RBHS, I was a rare Florida native among the majorty transplants. Though, of you knew them, RBHS had plenty of us Florida "crackers," and I was only born in WPB since there were no hospitals in Riviera Beach in the early 50s and as far as I know, there still aren't any. My mother, who was born threre, could've had a home birth with the local midwife, but she chose a maternity hospital in the Northwood area. From what I've read and seen online, there's been a lot of urban renewal and overdevelopment, in WPB the last 10 years, and lots of restauration of historic districts like Northwood, so how is it Riviera and north WPB looks ugly as hell from my Google Earth visits? The city looks as if it has been largly neglected and carved up by the property developers.. And most of the local and snowbird familes who lived there 40 years ago have moved out. The town my grandfather was a city pioneer in the 1910s and 20s of is now only in the news for street gang violence. It has one of the highest crime rates in the country. Of course youth unemployment has a lot to do with it. That and easy access to guns. RB seems like it's suffering from the usual American rich and poor wealth divide, huge condos on Singer Island and poverty and violence in Riviera Beach proper. To be brutally honest, I would be scared to death to walk down Broadway even in daylight if I came home and I lived in New York City in the city's Fear City era, the 1970s. Riviera always had its seedy side and run down funky look to it, but it was a charming and safe place to live in the late 50s and early 60s. Broadway was a very active business center. Remember the Royal Castle (Broadway and Blue Heron Blvd next to the First Federal Savings and Loan, which is still there), the Dairy Queen? The original McDonald's with the original 1950s space age looking golden arches? I think DQ is still there in some ugly dumbed down version but the oiginal burger joints are long gone. Then from the 70s and 80s onward developers took over driving families out, poorer people moved in and more middle class folks moved to the housing divisions west of town leaving little in tax revenue behind.. I've read the mayor and police chief are pretty hard working but, why do our hometowns always have to go this way? Down.

Rob

Hey Charles,

Thanks for joining the music talk.. So you could pick up WABC in your house? Cool, you must've had a great radio. I couldn't on my little Motorola portable.. which is why I'd go out to the car and just sit there for an hour or so each night, usually after 11pm so my dad didn't know. He'd kill me if he knew I was running down the battery. It was such a thrill to hear those New York DJs. The reception was good but it had that far away sound.. And besides Beatles music I heard Sam and Dave's Hold On and other soul hits not as widely played on HEW. I knew by 1967 or so NYC was where it was at, and I would go there 8 years later to study art and design. By that time WABC wasn't as good any more. Cousin Brucie was still there, I think, and Don Imus had moved to another station and by 1980 was doing a morning talk radio show. Bruce Morrow and Imus were some of the original WABC "Good Guys". You can google them and see one of their newsprint ads from the 70s. By the time I got to NYC in 1975, FM was how you listened to serious radio and the NY market was pretty saturated. But you had choice, a lot of it, from MOR FM rock to Jazz and Country - plus the ubiquitous classical music stations and one listener supported station WBAI. The main NY media group, besides RKO, ABC, CBS and NBC was called Metromedia and their flagship FM station was WNEW-FM which went on air in 1969, and played  AOR, or album oriented rock. WNEW was commercial FM by day, and would go "underground" by night still playing the same old trippy sounds from the late 60s and early 70s. Hit oriented in the day, though late at night there was a DJ who was playing the few single outs from the nascent NY punk rock movement.. groups such as Televison and Pattie Smith Group who were playing in a little dingy club down on The Bowery called CBGB (OMFUG) or just CBGB (Country Blue Grass Blues) for short CBs began as a blues club by the patron Hilly Krystal (who died in 2006) and by 1974 young unsigned bands creating the punk sound, needing a stage, asked Hilly if they could play there. He said yes and they built the stage themselves. From 1974 the first bands played there usually to 10 or 15 people on good a night in the seats, your typical smokey club with a bar and tables and chairs to watch the bands. By 1975 the NYT discovered it and wrote it up. I arrived in August and heard about it in school but was relcutant to go down there, I was into prog rock, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Jethro Tull, it took me a couple years to get past that music and get down there. CBGB forged punk rock and the Brits picked up on and then went national with it in 1977 and still claim to have started the movement.. Punk rock never took off nationally in the US its country of origin. Only when New Wave emerged in 1978-9, a softer more pop oriented sound did kids start taking to the new music. Disco dance music killed 60s rock n roll but punk and new wave saved it. CBGB stayed open through the 80s, 90s and finally closed its door in 2006, a couple months after its former founder owner died.

So, you heard the Beatles IWTHYH on WABC, the frst time it was played ever? Way cool. That is Boomer History 101. The record, their 5th single release in the UK and was on their second UK LP With The Beatles and came out on November 29 in Britain. The LP came out on November 22, an ominous date for a release of an LP that would be their first US release, Meet The Beatles, and change our lives forever. According to Mark Lewisohn, the most well known Beatle authority and historian, the single was released on January 14 and the LP on January 20. I swear I heard the B-side, I Saw Her Standing There, over the 1963 Christmas holiday period, maybe before January 1, 1964. Though memory is selective and can be distorted. Though, it's possible a DJ at WHEW got an advance copy from Capitol and played it on December 30.. I heard it on that little Motorola.. That radio deserves a thread of its own.. It had been in the family since the mid 50s, was a vacuum tube radio - it seemed only Japanese radios had transistors - and I have memories of hearing Elvis records on it in 1957 when we were living in northern Maine on a USAF SAC base. It was with me til about 1968 when I think it died on me. Later I got a FM AM SW MB radio in 1969, which I listened to Armed Forces Network Radio late at night on or Chicago White Sox baseball games on SW.

Don't remember you from school, you got out 2 years ahead of me.. You probably knew some of my first cousins who graduated in 1965 and '66.. Cynthia Evans ('65) and Robin Jackson, ('66).

I read some of your and the others posts in the ROTC and Music Casters thread.. and I was just amazed to read, after all these years, that so many top national singers and recording artists came all the way down to lil ol Riviera Beach! I recognized all or most of them. Course the Bazaar International was no ordinary venue. It was a unique place to shop, eat and browse around the courtyard. And why not have such a revolutionary mall in our town, with its 60 ft tall tower it was "the future"? Back in those days, the early 60s Riviera Beach seemed on the upswing and the Bazaar helped put it on the map sort of. Of course situated right next to the Port of Palm Beach, all those exotic import shops had a port of entry for easy delivery. I guess that's why Riviera (what long time locals called it, it became The Town of Riviera Beach in 1924) city planners gave the go ahead for it. But for some dumb reason I never went to the Music Casters in its hey day. But every Monday morning some jock or in-crowd guy would talk about it.. As for the Lake Park Dances, I may have lived in WPB around that time '62, '63 and missed out on that too.. we moved back to PBG and Riviera in 1964 and I went to Howell Watkins Jr High (was there when JFK was murdered) and then RBHS for the 9th grade.. Watkins had a 9th grade and being in the 9th grade in a senior high school, grades 10-12, meant you were nothing, the lowest of the low. In a nether world. Still I was clueless about any kind of local music scene.. I had falsely assumed what ever local garage bands there were and there were a few who played our RBHS dances after key football and basketball games. I remember one dance the "winter" of 1967, after a basketball game during the Hornets Suncoast Conference championship year, there was a big dance.. and as I was walking into the Hornets gym (I think the cover charge was 50 cents) the DJ who was playing 45s had Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth going.. which was a Top 10 hit around that time.. It sent chills up my spine. Times were changing and youth were taking over. The band playing that night I can't remember the name, had a strobe light behind the drummer which I thought was pretty cool. 1967 was they year the Top 40 went psychedelic so maybe lil ol' RB wasn't so behind the times as I had always thought.

You still live in the area? I haven't been back home since the late 80s.. I often read up on Riviera Beach today.. and I have to tell you, it makes me want to cry. RB has gone to hell in a hand basket, my home town. My roots go back there three generations, so, at RBHS, I was a rare Florida native among the majorty northern and midwestern transplants. Though, of you knew them, RBHS had plenty of us Florida "crackers," and I was only born in WPB since there were no hospitals in Riviera Beach in the early 50s and as far as I know, there still aren't any. My mother, who was born threre, could've had a home birth with the local midwife, but she chose a maternity hospital in the Northwood area. I've read and seen online, there's been a lot of urban renewal and development in WPB the last 10 years, and lots of restauration of historic districts like Northwood, so how is it Riviera and north WPB looks ugly as hell from my Google Earth visits? The city looks as if it has been largly neglected and carved up by the property developers.. And most of the local and snowbird familes who lived there 40 years ago have moved out. The town my grandfather was a city pioneer in the 1910s and 20s of is now only in the news for street gang violence. It has one of the highest crime rates in the country. Of course youth unemployment has a lot to do with it. That and easy access to guns. RB seems like it's suffering from the usual American rich and poor wealth divide, huge condos on Singer Island and poverty and violence in Riviera Beach proper. To be brutally honest, I would be scared to death to walk down Broadway even in daylight if I came home and I lived in New York City in the city's Fear City era, the 1970s. Riviera always had its seedy side and run down funky look to it, but it was a charming and safe place to live in the late 50s and early 60s. Broadway was a very active business center. Remember the Royal Castle, the Dairy Queen, the Riviera Theater? The original McDonalds with the golden arches which opned its door in 1957? I think the DQ is still there in some version but the burger joints and the movie theater are long gone, replaced by God knows what discount retail outlets and pizza joints. Then from the 70s and 80s onward developers took over driving families out, poorer people moved in and more middle class folks moved to the housing divisions west of town leaving little in tax revenue behind.. I've read the mayor and police chief are pretty hard working, but why do our hometowns always go this way? Down the tubes.

Rob

Robert,

     As soon as I graduated, I left for Europe.  When I returned I only stayed in NPB for a short time before leaving for New Orleans and then to Connecticut.  I lived in Hartford and worked for a large insurance company.  At the time FM radio was big.  It was 69-70.  Howard Stern was DJ at a local FM station.  I saw Jethro Tull at the Hartford Opera Hall in May 69.  It was the great time before everything went south with Disco.  Actually, my daughter would disagree with you regarding NYC as the birthplace of Punk.  Although the Ramones were big in NYC, across the pond the Sex Pistols claimed the originators of Punk (at least my daughter would argue).  Regarding the popular music of our times, the old Monkees song "I'm a Beliver" has been released as a very popular remake today, although I do not know the musicians who cover it. 

Remember Da Doo Ron Ron and And Then He Kissed Me?  Lala Brooks, the lead singer of the Crystals who sang those songs originally is a client and a friend. That's her at 15 singing in the Steadicam shot in Godfellas - the long walk through the kitchen right up to the front table at the Copa Cabana.

Supposedly Madonna slept in the stairwell in my building 25 years ago.  I dount it but her road manager used to have a loft here.  Madonna probably crashed there.  The Ramones used to rehearse here and lived next door.  Belafonte had a loft here as well.

Bill Otterson '65

Oh hi Karen,

Nice to meet you ~ I see you're keeping Bobby's profile going. Do you think he will ever post anything? Bobby was in our Class of 68, Sarah's and my class. At RBHS, where being cool and detached was a way of being part of the crowd, I think he was one of the nicest people in the entire class.. I mean though he was popular, he never looked down on anyone and always had a smile for just about everyone.. including me, and I was not in any kind of crowd. He just seemed upbeat most of the time.. and always friendly. But you knew that.

Funny story ~ why don't you remind him of the time he brought a kitten over to me and my sisters' house, after she had found out his cat had a litter. He just drove up one weekend in his (GTO?) and delivered it.  This was ca early 1967. I think he was advertising for homes for the kittens in school. My sister got the cat, black and white, and took him under her care.. "Tommy" was its name.. Don't remember what happened to it.. it may have lived for a few years. But I think she neglected to spay it and you know what happens when you don't do that..

*************************

Speaking of the Monkees, back in late 1966 early 67, when I was a Junior and my sis, Wanda Jordan, was a Freshman (she went to RBHS from 1966-70) we had battles royal over who was better, more popular etc etc ~ The Beatles or the Monkees. I told her bluntly, when this is "all over," (the 60s) well into the future when were all grown up and we look back and remember and write about this great time, the Beatles will still be remembered and as popular and celebrated as now (1967) and the Monkees will not.. Even Mickey Dolenz (drums) said in 1967 when interviewed by 16 Magazine, (which my sister read cover to cover) that the Beatles were the kings and would always be the kings and would always be the best. That didn't faze her one bit but I always won that argument and still feel I have. Well the Monkees haven't been forgoten and had a comeback about the sametime, mid 80s, I predicted they'd be forgotten. I met Peter Tork (bass) in New York in 1981. And, though he'd been out of the limelight for over 10 years, I have to say I was a bit star struck. And he was just as nearly embarrased. A rather humble guy. This was 5 years before their celebrated MTV comeback I don't think he'd been spotted lately in punk obsessed New York of the early 80s; even though he had lived in NYC since the 70s, he'd gone around virtually invisible.. Asked him what he was up to, and he told me he was just coming back from a tour of Japan with his band who were with him. I didn't have long to chat he was on his way out and I wish I would've had the mind to ask him for his autograph, my sister would've liked that, especially with Christmas on the way. But damn I'd lived and worked in NYC for about 6 years and seen my share famous people, knew some people in the arts and scene, a scene I was in myself and I just immune to stardom and celebrities were more or less your neighbours in NYC.. Not like today where TMZ and every damn website reporter and photographer is hunting them down for an off key moment photo. I respected their privacy, ignored them or gave em a wink and a nod and went on my way. The essence of cool back then was to ingnore famous people in NYC, which is why John Lennon felt so comfortbale living there after years of dodging the fans and a hostile press. And I could've met John too but didn't chase him and Yoko down a they were raising their son. Everyone in my age group knew the Lennons wanted to be left alone. I was so against asking for autographs even when rock and film stars seemed to be everywhere. And after John Lennon's murder the 70s ease of a chance meeting of a celeb was passing, bodyguards and bulletproof limos were the main hinderance. I did not like the early-mid 80s shift in mentality. I think this was when the E! movement began and throwaway celebs lined up for their 15 minutes of fame. And it's only gotten worse. They really think they're important. Perhaps the current depression and the lost millions in Bernie Madoff's schemes has cooled their heels a bit.

I've read someewhere Peter Tork now lives out on the west coast and is teaching and doing fine. He was no minor part of my teen years, I liked the Monkees, and Wanda would've been thrilled to get a Peter Tork autograph. Damn PCness. But good memories are enough for me that and my books, mag collection and LPs. But the Beatles are more than our collective memories since EMI/Apple just rereleased the entire Beatles Remasters LP collection on 9/09/09. I haven't seen any new Monkees releases in at least 20 years and I've been working on and off for the media.

When we were teens Wanda and I fought like cats and dogs over who was best The Beatles or The Monkees, as if it were a life and death matter. And we had one record player, and 2 sets of LPs, my Beatles LPs and her Monkees LPs, it was turf WARFARE. Seems funny to think of it in that way now. But it began more peacefully in 1964, and what was ironic is that it was Wanda who first brought the first Beatles LPs into the house, loaners from her friends until we bought our own copies of Meet The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night etc. Somehow when the Monkess arrived she lost her love for Paul and now it was fpr Davey Jones (vocals). LOL. Which informed me she wasn't serious about the music anyway, just teenage girl infatuations.

By 1965, after hearing Rubber Soul I was a diehard Beatle fanatic, after being your average Fab Four fan more or less going along with the Beatlemania wave in 1964 with my ear glued to the radio. While liking the Beatles - and especially other British Invasion bands and acts like Gerry and The Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas, The Zombies, Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Sandy Shaw, and, of course, The Stones - I felt the Brit Invasion hadn't totally killed off American rock n roll or vocal groups. Like the ones I still liked pre-1964 Beatles arrival.. a lot of American groups like The Four Seasons, Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Roy Orbison, et al. But scrolling down my iTunes playlist for 1964 (I have 1000s of these mp3s, mostly copied from CDs for good playback quality) it seems the Brits DID kill off American rock n roll, the list is dominated by British Invasion acts.. and when a Beatles song comes up it just shows you how DIFFERENT they were in 1964 compared to the American sound, which didn't recover till 1965 with Dylanesque Byrds and The Turtles folk-rock fight back. Things were never quite the same after 1964-5. Well except me, I still have a Beatles calendar hanging around somewhere, still wear longish hair (my own LOL) and am still looking for a pair of Bob Dylan sunglasses on ebay.. like John Lennon wore on Beatles VI.. Some kids never grow up. Next time I'll reflect on the (Young) Rascals.

I think we can give two thumbs up on the newish (is that a word?) Chickenfoot CD though, with Hagar and Satriani. It keeps us rockin at work!

New should do.. lol

Who the hell is Chickenfoot? Is Sammy Hagar in that band? I liked him in the post David Lee Roth Van Halen.  I'm still trying to get into The Vines, an Aussie Altrock band who covered a Beatles song, I'm Only Sleeping, in some teen flick recently. I also like The Flaming Lips, a neopsychedelic "space rock" rock band from Oklahoma of all places. Check them out, if you like Pink Floyd you will like the Lips. I think they're the most creative rock band in America right now. If you want to call rock still alive in America. Rap, which isn't the newest thing on the block anymore either, has stolen all the media in recent years with all their relationship bust ups and gun fights. It gets so much media because there is $BILLION$ in it. I like when black artsists play rock n roll like In Living Color or The Outkasts. And I WON'T get started on American Idol. The biggest waste of TV time in history. I don't care how that makes me sound out of date. I don't watch reality anything. I prefer fantasy. But, then I guess, we're all a bit back dated. Blissfully backdated which is why young rock bands cover so many 60s and 70s songs.

Aretha and The Supremes were the best. I also like Mary Wells, Doris Troy and Dionne Warwick. Dusty Springfield changed her style from folk to a Motown sound after hearing those singers. It's great to listen to the classic stuff from our hey days, but it's also good to keep an ear open for good new rock.. like the Flaming Lips who have actually been around since the late 80s, 90s and have released some critically acclaimed LPs over THE PAST 10 YEARS. Second plug tonight.. lol.

Europe? A country? England or France? Spain?

Sorry for the delay been pondering this post for some time, but have been inundated with life's stuff that must get done, or not done.. ask my wife lol. But I think slowly but surely we may get this thread going. I'm also planning one about the November 1969 First Annual Palm Beach Music and Arts Festival in the coming days. I've found some archive material on the Web.. I only wish I could post some photos. I only wish I had my own old photos of the event long lost ones.

If you saw Jethro Tull in 1969 then you probably saw their maiden US tour. I think it's been documented on the Living In The Past LP.. They formed in 1967 or 8 and This Was was their debut in 68. But 69's Stand Up, the concert you saw is their classic LP and period. By 1969 Tull hadnt reached South Florida so you were ahead of me.. Not until FM radio arrived in West Palm Beach in 1970 Jethro Tull was not played on any PB County radio station that I heard.. I think someone had a cover of This Was at PBJC one day and I asked who are these old guys? The cover depicts Ian Anderson and Co in makeup making them appear to be in their 70s. I first heard them on WMUM-FM that summer of 70 and the music spoke to directly me. The Benefit (Benefit is the British form of unemployment checks) LP was hugely popular on MUM. That summer of 70 Tull was on tour again and played the WPB Auditorium. I was hanging out with some diletante left wing radicals from Washington DC and southern Cal who were editing an underground newspaper, Hieronymous out of their condo in WPB.. I helped with layout and attempted to draw a cartoon strip.. Mostly I helped pass it out for free in the Palm Beach Mall. One day a film maker showed up with a bunch of aluminum cases filled with 16mm gear who was following Tull on tour and was going to film the group at the WPB Auditorium for a documentary. How many hints did I drop to get a guest list pass? I didn't get a pass. When the Aqualung LP came out I realized they had peaked creatively when it went to #1 or near the top of the LP charts. Aqualung is a fine LP, but it doesn't resonate like the first three LPs. Successive LPs, Thick As A Brick was a bit too conceptual and long. Warchild and Too Old Too Rock n Roll Too Young To Die had radio friendly hits and established Jethro Tull as a FM AOR band. They still tour with Anderson and his key side-musician, guitarist Martin Barre still at his side. Even into their 60s. which is ironic since This Was depicts them as old guys.

Hmm, Amber has some spunk doesn't she? Bring her on LOL. Looking at her photo I see a flash of high intelligence.. However, dear Amber, your mom and I were there please, at least I was. Now eat your peas. I won't belittle her challenge if she wants to debate me fine, I love a good debate, but I have the undisputable facts at hand. I can add more detail later but the Ramones were a band in one form or another as early as 1974 and performing live. Back in England John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten (b 1956), was 19 years old and probably dropping out of school. Glen Matlack was the real professional musician in the group and was the first recruited by Malcom McClaren. McClaren put the Sex Pistols together out of his lovers' (Vivienne Westwood) leather  and bondage boutique, Sex. Lydon was the last recruited. This happened in 1976.. The Ramones had aready been playing at CBGBs for a year and had put out their first LP by then Ramones on the Sire lable. Punk rock began in New York between 1974 and 75 and it began, more or less, at CBGBs. It was exported to London in 1976 and the young bands there ran with it.. And I can back up all of my claims with hard written facts in books on the classic punk era (1975-78), includng dates, quotes and historical information. Not to mention - my own eyes and ears - that I was there.

Rob

Haha!  Rob, Amber never loses a debate.  Remember she is going into law.  She would indeed debate you on the subject, but she hates internet.  She only uses it for research, downloads, and to follow her hobby of Victorian architecture.  Also, I would agree with you regarding NYC.  My brother was an actor of some success there.  He did alot of commercials and small parts in film.  It is common to run into artists and actors in the city and to think nothing of it.  I think for the most part, people leave one another alone.  One time I happened to be in NYC for an exhibition.  I had not mentioned it to my brother because, frankly, I just wanted to see the exhibition and leave.  I ran in to him in the 42nd St. subway station on my way.  How rare is that?