1960s culture in two clips

You always hear about rapid cultural change in the 1960s. Is it true? Is it measurable?

Here are two clips:

The #1 song of 1962, set in a film clip that captures the cultural moment in all its imagery
A song from 1969, set in a documentary clip that also captures the cultural moment in all its imagery

1962

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU5xxh5UX4U

1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfLyK2DVVUU

You can draw your own conclusions. Or you can read on for mine 😊

My conclusion:

The culture shifted more in those 7 years than it has in the 50 years since. Why do I say so? Because if you look at the dress, the haircuts, the sound on that Joe Cocker stage, these guys could pop up at any outdoor festival today and not be out of place. Elvis, though – I love Elvis, I’ve been to Elvis’s house in Tupelo – but culturally, Elvis seems a million miles away in this clip compared to the Woodstock scene.

P.S. If you are wondering what the hell Joe Cocker is saying (and can’t remember the Beatles original), try this “misheard lyrics” version:

(Click covers below for links)

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8 thoughts on “1960s culture in two clips”

The 60’s changed Americans’ thinking and feeling in very large ways – and there was much negative reaction to what we were doing, including from the police. Since then there have been many other changes, but none has evoked such hostility from the average American as in the 60’s. PS – I was in my early 20’s, in San Francisco, in the 60’s. One of the first to drop acid there, I believe; and years later at Millbrook.

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Daedalus Lex on April 7, 2020 at 9:08 pm said:

Quite a bio, Terence. I have an old hippie friend here in Mexico who was a young music reporter on the scene in the Summer of Love, but Millbrook — that was a more intimate setting with Leary, (the future) Baba Ram Dass, et al., no?

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