
Anos
60 - Revolucionários e Idealistas
Nos anos
60, o mundo entrava de vez na sociedade de consumo. A televisão
ditava modas, e a guerra fria era a grande paranóia. Garotos imberbes
percebiam que a música era o grande sonho libertário. Eles queriam
mudar o mundo, mas, em vez de armas, pegavam em guitarras.
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Nos Estados
Unidos, Bob Dylan fazia um cruzamento entre o folk e o
rock. Nas letras, engajamento político e poesia.
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A chamada "contracultura"
- supondo uma homogeneidade maior do que a realidade - foi uma vasta
corrente englobando a herança da "geração beat", o movimento de contestação
da juventude (que acabaria desembocando nas grandes revoltas estudantis)
e o movimento hippie, além das inúmeras ramificações nascidas dessa
nebulosa, como os movimentos "alternativos".
Espalhou-se valores
que ainda influenciam a maneira de ser no mundo. Nos Estados Unidos,
alguns nomes célebres continuam vinculados ao brilho que assinalou
toda uma época - como Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Alan Watts, Ken
Kesey, Timothy Leary, Gary Snyder, Neal Cassady ou Bob Dylan -, sem
se falar em inúmeros grupos musicais e algumas revistas. São Francisco
e a Costa Oeste iriam constituir o local privilegiado dessa "revolução
de costumes".

Concretamente,
as práticas da contracultura passam pela ruptura com o mundo
(o drop out), pela viagem de iniciação - que, tal como monges
mendigos budistas, se encontravam normalmente na Índia, mas
também nas estradas norte-americanas e européias -, pela vida
em comunidade, pelo desejo profundo de igualdade, pela influência
libertária, pelo engajamento (por influência de Gandhi) na cultura
da não-violência, pela proximidade com a natureza e por um certo
misticismo tingido de influências orientais, principalmente
budista (nessa época, muitos artistas se converteram ao zen
budismo, ou aderiram a seitas influenciadas pelo orientalismo).
A sociedade era concebida como uma comunidade pacífica, com
o amor e o altruísmo ocupando um lugar importante. Inúmeras
redes de vida, que produziam música, literatura, lazer, educação,
alimentação ou medicamentos específicos, acabam formando um
vasto universo underground que, na época, envolvia centenas
de milhares de pessoas.
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"Era
de Aquário"
Em
1968 o movimento hippie estava a todo vapor, pregando
paz, amor e sexo livre. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim
Morrison eram ícones da juventude. Para os hippie deve-se
acreditar na paz como a maneira de resolver diferenças
entre povos, ideologias e religiões. Paz, amor e a tolerância.
Amar significa a aceitação do outro. Dar-lhe a liberdade
para expressar-se e não o julgar baseado em aparência.
Este é o núcleo da filosofia hippie.
Eram
jovens da mais diversa extração social que ostensivamente
vestiam-se de uma maneira chocante para o americano médio.
Deixavam crescer barbas e cabelos, vestiam batas, brim
e trajes de algodão colorido, decoravam-se com colares,
pulseiras, e profusões de anéis. Passaram a viver em bairros
separados ou em comunidades rurais. Rejeitando a sociedade
de consumo industrial viviam do artesanato e, no campo,
da horta. “Paz e Amor”(Peace and Love) era o seu lema. |
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Desenvolveram
um universo próprio, uma “vida alternativa”, que infelizmente
não resistiu ao convívio com as drogas. Iniciados na marijuana
terminaram por mergulhar em drogas mais fortes como o LSD
(ácido lisérgico) e outras chamadas psicodélicas. Seus ídolos
literários foram o escritor alemão Herman Hesse, cujos livros
concentravam-se em histórias orientais de iniciação e abandono
à introspeção e à meditação nirvânica, e o poeta Dylan Thomas,
um rompedor de regras. |
Seu mestre pensante
foi o psiquiatra Wilhelm Reich que associava a agressividade humana
à repressão sexual praticada contra os adolescente e os jovens em
geral por adultos que consideravam o sexo pecaminosos e imoral. Reich
defendia, paralelo à revolução política, uma Revolução Sexual.
A religião era
muito forte na cultura hippie. Acreditavam em astrologia, tarô,
magia. Religiões como budismo, Hare Krishna tinham muitos adeptos.
Também haviam aqueles que fundiam o cristianismo com idéias
hippies de vida comunitária, paz e amor livre. A música foi
muito importante, pois ela servia não só como entretenimento
mas continha e simbolizava os ideais do movimento. Haviam grandes
festivais, principalmente de rock, que duravam em média três
dias, e podem ser comparados a rituais onde o músico tomava
o lugar do sacerdote, pregando a todos a sua ideologia e as
suas crenças. O mais famoso dos festivais foi o Woodstock Music
& Art Fair, que ocorreu, primeiramente, em 1969 nos Estados
Unidos.
Nada parecia
ter captado melhor o espírito da década do que o que se viu
nos tres dias do histórico festival de Woodstock, em uma fazenda
próxima de Nova Iorque, pessoas curtindo o corpo nu, o poder
das flores e a distância dos males da civilização. Mas um dia
tudo isso acabou. No festival de Altamont, organizado pelos
Rollings Stones, a segurança foi entregue a gang de motoqueiros
Hell´s Angels que esfaquearam uma pessoa. Saldo final: 4 mortos.
O poder das flores não sobreviveria ao poder das armas. Os anos
60 pareciam estar chegando ao fim. A contracultura parecia ter
fracassado. Era o término daqueles tempos de recusa à industrialização
e de retorno lúdico à natureza.
Em 1970, quando
Hendrix, Joplin e Jim Morrison morreram e os Bealtles se dissolveram,
a ideologia dos anos 60 acabou. Nas palavras do próprio John
Lennon: "The dream is over."
| 1960s
1960: Former member of Miles Davis'
classic quintet of the '50s and the leader of the seminal 1959
album "Giants Steps," John Coltrane forms his own quartet with
pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones (bassist Jimmy Garrison
joins the next year). The band would stay together throughout
the early '60s as the saxophonist, with his gutsy "sheets of sound"
and deeply moving ballads, would rise to the rank of jazz superstar.
The quartet's masterwork, "A Love Supreme," would be written and
recorded in 1964 and released in 1965 by MCA to critical praise.
The four-part suite clocks in at just under 33 minutes and speaks
with more passionate power and eloquence than any half-hour set
of jazz ever recorded.
1960: Chubby Checker's Cameo/Parkway novelty dance single,
"The Twist" (written and first recorded by R&B great Hank
Ballard) ignites a global dance craze, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's
Hot 100. Little more than six months later, it returns to the
chart, and is again No. 1: The only such twin peaks in chart history.
1962: The Crystals' "He's a Rebel" (Philles) becomes the
first single employing Phil Spector's groundbreaking "wall of
sound" production technique to reach No. 1 on Billboard's Hot
100. Darlene Love provided the song's vocals.
1962: James Brown had scored R&B hits for King Records
beginning in the late 1950s, but it was his furiously paced, ritualistic
stage shows that had mostly black audiences fawning over "the
hardest working man in show business." Brown recorded his Oct.
24, 1962, performance at Harlem's Apollo Theater on his own dime.
Released reluctantly by King in 1963, "Live at the Apollo" is
pop music's seminal concert recording and was Brown's first crossover
hit, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Albums chart in 1963
during a 66-week run.
1963: Philips introduces the audio cassette.
1964: Robert Moog invents a music synthesizer, opening
the door on an electronic music age. With a piano keyboard as
an interface, the device allows musicians to tap into a world
of sounds that could be manipulated unlike anything created by
traditional instrumentation.
1964: During their inaugural U.S. tour in February 1964,
the Beatles make their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show,"
launching the country into full-blown Beatlemania and marking
the beginning of the British Invasion. more
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1964: "Where Did Our Love Go" reaches No. 1 on Billboard's
Hot 100 and marks the beginning of a staggering string of hits
for the Supremes. Previously a backing group for other Motown
acts, Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson released seven
unsuccessful singles before reaching the chart summit, but they
would revisit the post with their next four singles -- "Baby Love,"
"Come See About Me," Stop in the Name of Love" and "Back in My
Arms Again."
Through 1969, the group (which became known as Diana Ross &
the Supremes in mid-1967, the year Cindy Birdsong replaced Ballard)
scored a dozen No. 1 songs, 10 during 1964-67.
1965: The Rolling Stones'
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" becomes the U.K. rock act's first
No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. It is also a breakthrough both for
radio, which rallies enthusiastically around the nearly four-minute
single, and for songwriters Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, just
hitting their stride and already at the top of their game. Their
group would go on to be one of the most enduring, successful,
outrageous and influential rock acts of all time.
1965: Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport (R.I.) Folk
Festival. His third appearance at the legendary event follows
the release of "Bringing It All Back Home" (Columbia), which boasts
one electric and one acoustic side of ragged, blues-oriented arrangements.
In hindsight, playing electric at Newport with the Paul Butterfield
Blues Band seems hardly surprising. But the truncated performance,
greeted with a mix of boos and cheers, is a defining moment in
Dylan's career and in popular music. more
»
1966: Masterminded by Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys create
"Pet Sounds" (Capitol), widely regarded as one of the best pop
albums of all time. Layers of harmony and adventurous arrangements
are woven through such classics as "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Sloop
John B" and "God Only Knows."
1967: Aretha Franklin releases "I Never Loved a Man the
Way I Love You." Her Atlantic Records debut features the Otis
Redding-penned "Respect," which would become Franklin's signature
tune. The Jerry Wexler-produced set reaches No. 2 on Billboard's
Top LPs chart and establishes Franklin as the "Queen of Soul."
1967: The Jimi Hendrix Experience debuts on Reprise
with "Are You Experienced?," a stunning document of the psychedelic
rock era that features such classics as "Foxey Lady," "Purple
Haze," "Hey Joe," "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Fire."
1967: The FCC forces FM stations to stop simulcasting AM
sister stations. FMs in major markets give over programming to
young, musically adventurous DJs like Tom Donahue at KMPX San
Francisco. Their underground rock and free-form programming fans
the flames of the rock revolution.
1967: Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" appears in
the Mike Nichols-directed film "The Graduate," starring Dustin
Hoffman along with Anne Bancroft as the song's titular subject.
Simon & Garfunkel provide the bulk of the soundtrack, which
with the movie stands as a coming of age milestone for a generation.
The Columbia set was the duo's first to reach No. 1 on the Billboard
album chart.
1967: (June 16-18) The Monterey International Pop Festival
is staged at California's Monterey County Fairgrounds by producer
Lou Adler, John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, producer
Alan Pariser (heir to the Sweetheart paper fortune) and Beatles
publicist Derek Taylor. In a sterling example of "the summer of
love," all of the acts performed for free and revenue from the
event was donated to charity.
Captured by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker in the documentary "Monterey
Pop," the festival marked the first performances by the Jimi Hendrix
Experience and the Who on U.S. shores. It also featured a landmark
appearance for Janis Joplin, who was "discovered" there by Clive
Davis. The following year, Columbia released "Cheap Thrills" her
breakthrough album with Big Brother & the Holding Company.
1967: Russ Solomon opens the first Tower Records store
in Sacramento, Calif. After expanding throughout California, an
aggressive growth strategy would take the retail chain across
the United States and into 14 countries. The company's landmark
three-story New York store, established in 1983, became a destination
for music fans and sparked the re-gentrification of its East Greenwich
Village neighborhood, now home to Billboard's New York offices.
1968: Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay"
reaches No. 1. The song was recorded three days before his death
in a December 1967 plane crash that also claimed four members
of the Bar-Kays. Redding was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 1989.
1969: The Woodstock Music & Art Festival is staged
on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, N.Y. The event drew more than
400,000 and marked the zenith of the 1960s counterculture movement.
The bill for the "three days of peace and music," as the Oscar-winning
documentary film about the concert was subtitled, included everyone
from Richie Havens, Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead to Jim
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