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Back in the Age of Innocence
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Young Glen and his parents had moved from Toronto and Toronto was away ahead of the backwater where I was growing up. In Toronto, there was the start of 60's rock scene and young people were already starting to feel a restlessness and the times they were a changin'. You could just feel that big things were coming down the pipe.
Glen brought with him a great love of music, and actually owned his own record player (before most people had stereos) and a growing collection of records. Up to that time, I'd had a passing interest in rock music, but was mostly listening to AM radio and it was playing a huge variety of tunes to suit pretty well every musical taste.
Glen got me more focussed. At the very beginning of the mid '60's band scene – just before the British invasion really started – there was the first wave of a west coast music scene, and my new friend was right into listening to it. It included groups like the Safaris, Jan and Dean and the best-known, the Beach Boys. It was a huge rage back in the early '60's, just before the Beatles, et. al. burst onto the scene.
This was music that was good for the soul – usually just real feel good music that made you want to head for the beach to rev up your surf board. Indeed, the music fostered a whole culture that included the tacky "Beach" movies that brought Mouseketeers like Annette Funicello into theatres across North America.
Few of the groups that dominated the scene were musical heavyweights. In fact, of all the groups I was mulling over for this article, the only one that's still really kicking around is the Beach Boys and the grim reaper has paid them a couple of visits.
And the Beach Boys were indeed a heavyweight from the era. And while most of their music did fit into the feel good category and you really can't call "The Little Old Lady from Pasedena" a very serious piece of music, they did do some great stuff. The mournful tune "In My Room" struck a chord with teenagers around the world when it was released.
The Beach Boys released a string of hit albums back in the early to mid '60's, dominating radio play. One that I remember in particular is a double Beach Boys in Concert album that was one of the first real "rock" albums I really got into. It was amazing to me as a young musician that those guys could do vocal work like that while playing instruments in a live concert.
Sharing the spotlight with the Beach Boys and other West Coast bands back in those pre-invasion days were singing groups like the Everly Brothers, the Righteous Brothers and a host of others. There was a rich and vibrant folk scene happening and artists like Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary could also be heard on AM radio warning us of dire consequences if we didn't shape up.
Still, there was an innocence about the whole thing. It seemed that whether it was a band like the Beach Boys, or a singing duo like the Everly Brothers, or the mournful voice of Dylan, there was one thing that really came to the forefront – a type of creative freshness. And there was all kinds of music that was readily accessible on AM Radio.
Within a few years, the whole dynamic would change. Social change was coming and "rock" music was about to lead the way. Almost the entire rock music scene was about to gain a social conscience. The Dead and Jefferson Airplane was busy working up numbers for the acid tests – the Beatles were in India – Country Joe and the Fish were just getting together. The times were indeed a changin'.
John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:
- Melancholy Man and Minister's Son
- Reality Check
- Grim Faerie Tale
- Once Upon a Visit
- Toward the End, Oyster Boy
- And It Was Christmas
- From Genesis to Revelations (Chapter 1) - the novel. the rest of the novel follows month by month
