Turn on, tune in, drop out (Timothy Leary)

My second entry in my Ethernet Bright Lights Brilliant Minds sequel comes a year after London 1966.

San Francisco 1967.

Yes - the influence of London as the cultural centre of the universe didn't last beyond that halcyon year.

Focus quickly shifted to the west coast of the United States of America in 1967 where the Summer of Love became a social phenomenon when as many as 100,000 people converged in the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood of San Francisco.  

Wikipedia tells us that San Francisco in 1967 was  'the epicenter of the social earthquake that would come to be known as the Hippie Revolution'. The city became even more of a melting pot of politics, music, drugs, creativity, and the total lack of sexual and social inhibition than it already was.

As the hippie counterculture movement came farther and farther forward into public awareness, the activities centered therein became a defining moment of the 1960s, causing numerous 'ordinary citizens' to begin questioning everything and anything about them and their environment as a result.'

The Beatles were certainly paying attention to the cultural shift - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was McCartney's band-de-plume inspired by the weird names of the SF bands and George went to SF to sample the vibe for himself (he wasn't impressed though).

For me the scene in SF in 1967 marked the year when the counter culture started becoming THE culture. A roll call of San Francisco bands gives you an idea how the creative juices were overflowing in 1967. These bands are now thought of as an integral part of sixties culture.

Jefferson Airplane released Surrealistic Pillow. A brilliant fusion of pop and folk smarts with a glimpse of their future rock agenda. It was a wonderfully sunny record full of intelligence and grace. Her name was Grace Slick.

Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company (Janis Joplin), Sly and the Family Stone, Steve Miller Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Santana all either formed or recorded debut albums and started playing live gigs in SF 1967. 

In literary circles the famous beat poets were finding their voices being heard anew by the counter culture. Allen Ginsberg (writing poems that would eventually appear in 1968's Planet News), Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the City Lights bookstore were entirely relevant to the expanding consciousness being promoted in SF 1967.

The art and music worlds in San Francisco came together thanks to the heavily psychedicised posters from a bunch of talented outlaws to society. Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse and others revolutionised pop art. It was a heady time!

And in film, there was  Point Blank - a neo noir crime film directed by John Boorman, starring Lee Marvin and featuring Angie Dickinson. The film was not a box office success in 1967 but has since gone on to become a cult classic. 

How very 1967 San Francisco!

Love and peace - Wozza

The all seeing eye (Wayne Shorter)

Recently, I enjoyed watching Bright Lights Brilliant Minds - a three part BBC doco series presented by art historian Dr James Fox.

The idea is simple - focus on three years that are 'crucibles of creativity' (Fox's cool phrase). 

He picks Austria 1908, Paris 1928, and New York 1951.

It got me thinking about what I'd choose as the next one in the sequence. It made me wonder where and when.  

There's only one choice really: London 1966

London was the centre of the universe in 1966. It was a mass of swinging energy, a time when a city and a culture would come together as a crucible of creativity in a definable year.

Okay, so, why:

It was the year of The Beatles' Revolver album - recorded in St John's Wood at Abbey Road studios. The album vies with Sgt Pepper's as the greatest album of all time.

Full stop! I could finish there but I can offer some more evidence if you're not yet convinced.

During the year three seminal bands - The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who performed at the NME '​s poll winners' show in London. The Stones and The Who (along with The Kinks who released Face To Face in 1966) are Londoners. The Stones and Who also had big releases in 1966 - Aftermath and A Quick One respectively. 

Bob Dylan and the Hawks (later The Band) performed at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England. Dylan was booed by the audience because of his decision to tour with an electric band, the boos culminated in the famous "Judas" shout. London was such a pervasive influence this year that the bootleg set was called The Royal Albert Hall (where Bob had also played in 1966). Even the legitimate CD issue called it that!

In terms of art - 1966 is the year when John Lennon meets Yoko Ono when he attends a preview of her art exhibition at the Indica Gallery in London. 

Yoko Ono has had a huge influence on the way we conceive of art. She breaks boundaries and stretches taboos (or is it the other way 'round?). Her relationship with Lennon intertwined the art world and the music world. It seemed right, and still does!

Her pieces/peaces have had a lasting influence and it all started in 1966 in London.

Also in the art world: Mira Schendel (1919–1988) was one of Latin America’s most unique and prolific post-war artists. She helped reinvent the language of European Modernism. She had an influential solo exhibition in London's Signals gallery in 1966. 

Like Indica, Signals London was an important gallery of international, experimental art.

The gallery specialised in artists whose work was interdisciplinary and it aimed to connect art and poetics with new thinking in science and technology. 1966 - the tipping point into a new consciousness. 

The Destruction in Art Symposium was a gathering of a diverse group of international artists, poets, and scientists to London 1966. Included in this number were representatives of the counter-cultural underground who were there to speak on the theme of destruction in art.

As for film - 1966 was the year of Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up. Archetypal swinging, cool London, is the backdrop as Antonioni captures the year and the zeitgeist of London.

The 1966 World Cup was held in London - England won (with a hat trick by Geoff Hurst - not a native Londoner but a West Ham legend).

The model Jean Shrimpton was another icon from 1966 and one of the world's first supermodels. She was the world's highest paid and most photographed model during this time. Shrimpton was called "The Face of the '60s", in which she has been considered by many as "the symbol of Swinging London".

London 1966!! What a place! What a year! Unfortunately London's influence wouldn't even last into the next year (more on that in the next post) but in 1966 - London was the place to be.

Love and peace - Wozza