(1515) Hope you survived that rain just then. VJ day is today or tomorrow or in September, depending where you are.
19. On a journey here, folks
Once you start delving into long-gone things, inc. songs, all sorts of spectres reappear, skeletons. Of late, I’ve been concentrating on three years … 1963 and the death of innocence, musically but also look at world events … Bay of Pigs, JFK gone, Vietnam starts for real … now tick the clock over to January 1968 and my own finale to youth but who had come out just prior to this?
In fact one year earlier, January 1967? The Doors’ debut album with the strangest diabolical themes … and who produced it? Wikipedia says:
“Paul A. Rothchild serving as producer.”
Uh huh. Starting to see a pattern? And that iconic, dystopic eleven minute last song The End, about death and destruction. Kids lapped it up, it overcame all attempts at banning it. Some Millennial just now reacted to the whole album, did not understand Backdoor Man, certainly did not understand The End, though he disliked the lyrics, loved the funky boppiness of the music … the hook for the kids.
Fast fwd to August 2025 and where we are right now. 1968 kid would understand today easily. 1963 kid would not have. 2025 kid is only just starting to.
He may have been too young, as I’d been in 1963 … but in 1968 I was exactly the age range, the demographic … this was designed for my mates and me. Now, I’ve already told you about a Damascene moment in 1964, right at the start of the Stones and Beatles. It may have kept me from many an abyss but there were plenty of others I rushed into, headstrong and unpredictable. Yet not over the edge.
And now here we are, mid August, 2025, at the brink again.
18. Toodles and the chain of command
Just what are these people doing there?
17. Luggage trucks and wives
16. Alaska
15. YouTube suddenly recommended this
Won’t inflict the follow up song so here it is.
14. Ireland
13. Downunder
12. Digital IDs experiment on MPs first
11. The other Charlie
10. Seizing defeat from the jaws
