The US, the West Coast and

The Scene for the British Invasion in the Sixties

The Musical Scene in the US

• Really so unexciting?– Video references in documentary– Only the Brits shining their act?

• At least a grain of thruth– Own childhood memories of Pat Boone’s Speedy

Gonzales, 1962 – top 10 hit!• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4s2AMKPHnE• Easy to explain why I remembered the cartoonish song

• How about a demographically minded explanation?

West Coast -- California sound

• Surf music– Beach Boys: good singers, but…

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGjky5U64LM

• Center of hippie movement– Who were they?– Well-to-do middle class boys and

girls, most of them?• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v

=RuSUpqdYV-I• Interesting posting, music by Tidal

Wave, recent alternative music.

• Drug culture: psychedelia (not just this side of the „Pond”)

• „They were living in the moment, until later when they got into flipping houses and the stock market. Before they became politicians and CEOs.”

Jefferson Airplane and Grace Slick

• Folk, rock, and psychedelic roots

• Album Surrealistic Pillow, 1967– White Rabbit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0bUkBqXtdY

– Somebody to Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0bUkBqXtdY

White rabbit and Somebody to loveOne pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you smallAnd the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all

Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fallTell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call

And call Alice, when she was just small

When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to goAnd you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low

Go ask Alice, I think she'll know

When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy deadAnd the white knight is talking backwardsAnd the red queen's off with her headRemember what the dormouse saidFeed your head, feed your head

When the truth is found to be liesAnd all the joy within you diesDon't you want somebody to love, don't youNeed somebody to love, wouldn't youLove somebody to love, you betterFind somebody to love

When the garden flowers baby are dead, yes andYour mind, your mind is so full of redDon't you want somebody to love, don't youNeed somebody to love, wouldn't youLove somebody to love, you betterFind somebody to love

Your eyes, I say your eyes may look like hisYeah, but in your head, baby, I'm afraid you don't know where it isDon't you want somebody to love, don't youNeed somebody to love, wouldn't youLove somebody to love, you betterFind somebody to love

Tears are running down and down and down your breastAnd your friends, baby they treat you like a guestDon't you want somebody to love, don't youNeed somebody to love, wouldn't youLove somebody to love, you betterFind somebody to love

The Doors• Blues-based music

– Classically trained Ray Manzarek• keyboards• Rock rendering of Orf’s

Carmina Burana

– Poet, „reptilian imagery” and singer• Front-man, chief boozer

loony Jim Morrison

• Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic of Jim Morrison and the Doors, starring Val Kilmer– http://www.youtube.com/watc

h?v=UZqGfW78BN0

Riders on the StormRiders on the storm X2Into this house we're born, Into this world we're thrownLike a dog without a bone, An actor out alone, Riders on the stormThere's a killer on the road, His brain is squirmin' like a toadTake a long holiday, Let your children playIf ya give this man a ride, Sweet memory will dieKiller on the road, yeahGirl ya gotta love your man X2Take him by the hand, Make him understandThe world on you depends, Our life will never endGotta love your man, yeah, Wow!Riders on the storm X2Into this house we're born, Into this world we're thrownLike a dog without a bone, An actor out aloneRiders on the storm, Riders on the storm X5

Homework

• Review Powerpoint (listen, read, etc.)• Read encyclopaedia entries (The Doors and

Jefferson Airplane• Find out about (watch) the Oliver Stone film