Hendrix 50th Anniversary Electric Ladyland Box Release

Yeah slaw, in interviews, the guys in The New York Dolls, MC5, Stooges, etc., said they didn’t share the Peace, Love, & Understanding sentiments of the West Coast bands. After living in New York for a year, I came to understand why. Life in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland is very different from New York, Chicago, and Detroit. Not so brutal. They also said they didn’t understand the whole "back to nature" ambitions of hippies. I can’t picture the above bands camping ;-) . Notice also that none of them had beards, or wore bell bottom jeans.

The West Coast bands also viewed "traditional" talents---singing, musicianship---as more important than did The Dolls, MC5, Stooges, Ramones, etc. A person may like Lou Reed, but it won’t be for his abilities at carrying a tune or playing guitar. Style and attitude are more of a concern to the aforementioned bands, and the bands they influenced. Of course, that statement is an over-simplified explanation of a more complex matter.

Yes, onhwy61! The choice of drug is a really, really good one (as is the weather), one I hadn’t considered. Seems obvious now that I’ve heard it! Even on the West Coast, there were pockets of anti-hippie music and culture sentiments, a counter/counter-culture, if you will. I never owned a pair of bell bottoms or a tie-dyed T-shirt (thought they were corny), and switched to booze in ’69, partly ’cause I started playing in bars regularly that year (my first time was at age 15, with a bunch of hot rod greasers in a band playing lots of Chuck Berry), where the beer was free for the band. That about doubled your pay ;-) . One of the few San Francisco bands eschewing hippieness were The Flamin’ Groovies, whom The Dolls, MC5, etc., considered peers. Another was Moby Grape (the best SF band, imo), though you wouldn’t know it from their goofy name.

Speaking of The Dolls, when I got to NY I went looking in pawn shops for vintage instruments (I play/collect/and deal only vintage drums---1920’s through early 70’s). In one I found Jerry Nolan’s set of pink Ludwigs, for sale. Sad.

Is Neil Young considered a great guitarist? A unique one, that’s for sure. Hearing him trade licks with Stephen Stills in Buffalo Springfield songs has always amused me.