Friday, 14 February 2014

West Coast

1970 At school you look up to the kids a year above you, and they look down on you with withering contempt. But at least, in their patronising way, they let you listen to their LPs

At lunchtimes we were allowed to play our own LPs in the music room. The kids above us were bringing in albums by bands which never got near the limited output of  the BBC. Feverishly we started to peruse the US album charts so that we could pretend to have heard of Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young were in that crowd too. And I hadn't needed the older kids to help me find The Doors. I never took to The Dead. I claimed to like JA and QMS, but I fear it was more about trying vainly to appear cool. CSN&Y were great for two albums and introduced me to Neil Young. Carlos Santana gets a post of his own. And the Doors...their Absolutely Live album, and LA Woman, with its sultry full version of Riders on the Storm, still sound exciting and atmospheric today. This video featuring Roadhouse Blues is 44 years old, and it still looks and sounds exciting today. But five years back from 1970, and everything looks so naive and low key by comparison with this. What to conclude from this? I'll let you decide, but these were momentous times to be young.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.