The Greatest Year Of All Time

[László]

1965 was the finest year in the history of the world, and civilization[FONT=DroidSansRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] has produced comparative worthlessness ever since. [/FONT]

[FONT=DroidSansRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Well, I try my best[/FONT]
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
They sing while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when from out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great 1965 Mustang! The Lone Stranger rides again!

Or something like that.

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

Mmmm... I gotta go with 1984 my man.

Paul Smith was ramping up for production. Miami Vice was in it's first season. Prince was at the top of the charts. Ferrari launched the Testarossa. Playboy's cover saw the likes of Bo Derek and Christy Brinkley. Sony created the Compact Disc. Apple released the Macintosh. The Detroit Tigers won the World Series (like I even had to tell you).

And then... there was THIS!

 

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May, 1965:

December, 1965:

 

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1965, Beck joins Yardbirds:

 

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1965:

 

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1965:

 

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1965:

 

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1965:

 

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1965:

 

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1965:

The Grateful Dead with Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia play their first concert, in San Francisco

Voting Rights Act is passed (arguably more important than the Dead's first show, but...).

The freaking MINI SKIRT, baby!!!!

Sandy Koufax' perfect game.

The Pill: contraceptives were not available in all states - even to married women(!)- until Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965.​

 

[rugerpc]

May, 1965:

This actually gives me some hope. I had forgotten just how bad the Stones were in 65 - still learning their instruments, tempo all over the place.. A great song which became better as they worked on it..

Back to practice for me!

 

[rugerpc]

1965:The freaking MINI SKIRT, baby!!!!​

Well, yeah THIS!

 

[László]

This actually gives me some hope. I had forgotten just how bad the Stones were in 65 - still learning their instruments, tempo all over the place.. A great song which became better as they worked on it..

Back to practice for me!

Think of it this way - rock and roll wasn't about virtuosity. These guys weren't learning a song to cover.

They created the f%$ggin thing!!!

Instrumentalists like Eddie Van Halen stood on the shoulders of the guys who created what we now call rock. And of course, there were many others whose shoulders the classic rock bands leaned on as well.

Another point to understand about 60s rock shows, you will notice that there are no stage monitors, no FOH mixer, very primitive PA systems, etc. If you played in the 60s, it was honestly hard to hear the other guys, and that's a big reason that it sounds sloppy.

People today think, "Wow, those guys could hardly play back then." That's not true. Try playing an arena without stage monitors of any kind. The echoes will kill your timing. We sometimes played in large buildings for big dances, etc., and it was essentially playing by rote in a way. Because you couldn't hear.

It was very, very hard to keep it together live, especially in large venues. Even in the late 60s, when I started college and played in big rooms (for the time), we had no idea how the band sounded. It was catch as catch can. You knew how YOU played, but you had no idea how the band sounded.

You hear better playing on the albums from this era, because in the studio, a band could actually hear its members playing, since they used headphones to monitor while playing.

I remember seeing a college concert of Traffic, with Steve Winwood, a true virtuoso on keys, and a great singer. His band was composed of excellent players, but live, it was still the usual mess. Same with Clapton and Cream, I saw them live several times. Bands sounded nothing like their records until the early to mid 70s, when better monitoring and better stage speakers became the norm.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

1965:

The Grateful Dead with Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia play their first concert, in San Francisco

Voting Rights Act is passed (arguably more important than the Dead's first show, but...).

The freaking MINI SKIRT, baby!!!!

Sandy Koufax' perfect game.

The Pill: contraceptives were not available in all states - even to married women(!)- until Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965.​

I like two of those things.

 

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I like two of those things.

What, you don't like the Voting Rights Act, the Dead, or perfect games?

 

[sergiodeblanc]

What, you don't like the Voting Rights Act, the Dead, or perfect games?

Oh, I'm down with the VRA. I just come from a long line of diaphragm manufacture's... The Pill wiped out most of my chances of being a spoiled rich kid. Now I'm just spoiled.

 

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Believe it or not, diaphragms were also illegal in some states until 1965.

 

[WEDGE]

1959........

Playboy debuts!

Les Paul....nuff said

Cadillac.....FINS!

Ben Hur.....all time classic movie

Motown Records founded

Introduction of the microchip

 

[rugerpc]

Think of it this way - rock and roll wasn't about virtuosity. These guys weren't learning a song to cover.

They created the f%$ggin thing!!!

Instrumentalists like Eddie Van Halen stood on the shoulders of the guys who created what we now call rock. And of course, there were many others whose shoulders the classic rock bands leaned on as well.

Another point to understand about 60s rock shows, you will notice that there are no stage monitors, no FOH mixer, very primitive PA systems, etc. If you played in the 60s, it was honestly hard to hear the other guys, and that's a big reason that it sounds sloppy.

People today think, "Wow, those guys could hardly play back then." That's not true. Try playing an arena without stage monitors of any kind. The echoes will kill your timing. We sometimes played in large buildings for big dances, etc., and it was essentially playing by rote in a way. Because you couldn't hear.

It was very, very hard to keep it together live, especially in large venues. Even in the late 60s, when I started college and played in big rooms (for the time), we had no idea how the band sounded. It was catch as catch can. You knew how YOU played, but you had no idea how the band sounded.

You hear better playing on the albums from this era, because in the studio, a band could actually hear its members playing, since they used headphones to monitor while playing.

I remember seeing a college concert of Traffic, with Steve Winwood, a true virtuoso on keys, and a great singer. His band was composed of excellent players, but live, it was still the usual mess. Same with Clapton and Cream, I saw them live several times. Bands sounded nothing like their records until the early to mid 70s, when better monitoring and better stage speakers became the norm.

OK, I got it wrong... again.

but I still need to practice more.

 

[rugerpc]

'65 was OK, but just a year before, we got:

"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"

and 1946 wasn't too bad either, mechanical engineer Louis Réard introduces the bikini swimsuit and the belly button was forever freed.