I thought that since Ken is starting an area for memories of the different decades, that maybe we could also have some threads where we can post beloved songs from the past, and maybe ones that are not beloved, but just memorable of that era. I am going to start off with one that at least most of the older members on here should remember; Arlo Guthrie and "Alice's Restaurant Masssacree". This song was actually writen from a real life experience that he had one Thanksgiving holiday. Since it was such a very long song (monologue), he never expected it to even be released, let alone become the gigantic hit that it did.
I'm sorry if I cannot relate to that song because I probably was not aware of music yet when that song hit the airwaves. From what I remember, the Bee Gees was the popular band aside from the Beatles. And one song of the Bee Gees that I remember is First Of May which is a slow one but very popular that time. I remember my brother who was always singing that song. With the Beatles, hmm, that is a problem because they have so many songs that were very popular.
Oh yeah Yvonne! I definitely remember Arlo, and just about everything he ever did! (Who could forget the infamous "Group W bench?") I was such a fangirl of his. We used to go around singing "Alice's Restaurant" all the time. I also loved "City of New Orleans," which came later. Arlo is such a great singer-songwriter! With just a few hits, he carved out his niche in music history, just like his father did.
I remember Alice's Resturaunt, but to be honest it wasn't from hearing the song on the radio. My brother who was studying music back in the seventies in High School broght the lyrics home and was sharing them with me. He was getting the biggest bang out of how long the song was. I was floored by the fact that this was an actual song that was on the radio. So, I wasn't too familair with Ario other then this one song which I found out about years after it came out.
Because we have such a diversity in ages, even though this is a forum for seniors, it is totally understandable that those of us who were children of the Fifties would remember more of the older songs frm this era of music. Hopefully, those of you who have never heard some of these songs will listen and enjoy them also. Since you mention some of the songs that you remember from your childhood, and teenage years, @Corie Henson , maybe you can start a thread on songs from your decade of music ? Here is another great song from the Sixties, and even some of the younger members of the forum have surely heard this one, This is a song that just continues to live on in our hearts, and never seems to lose its "magic". This clip is from the 25th anniversary of the song, and even this was made back in 1987.
my dad gave me this song when I was young. Its the only thing I can remember them doing just for me lol
@Yvonne Smith, thank you for posting that video. I am listening to it right now and mind you, it was still quite popular in the mid 1970s when I was a high school student. And since the topic is Peter, Paul and Mary, may I share with you an anecdote. My college chums and I went to an informal bar during one vacation. On the makeshift stage were 2 guys with guitars and a woman with a tambourine. And guess what? They introduced themselves as Peter, Paul and Mary. PETER: Good evening, people, I am Peter but I'm not an apostle. PAUL: Hello, everyone, I am Paul but not a disciple. MARY: Hi there. I'm Mary but I'm not a virgin.
I had such a wide range of tastes in sixties music. Since we were making the transition from Elvis and Co. to the Beatles, my taste was all over the place. I loved the British invasion stuff, Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, etc., but I also loved The Monkees, especially Mike Nesmith. He was such an underrated talent! Of course, there was also "Sound of Silence" and "I Am A Rock" by Simon and Garfunkel, and ANYTHING by Bob Dylan!
I don't remember The Bee Gees in the sixties except for "How can you mend a broken heart" as their first big worldwide hit, but this was in the early 1970s. As for the Beatles, I remember some of their first songs such as "She loves You", "Love me Do" and "I Love Her..." Oh my, so much love, but this was when I was like 4 years old. The sixties were meaningful to me because the revealed me what would be my favorite band for the next 20 years; Creedence Clearwater Revival, being "Green River" the best ever song I heard from them, and "Green River" the first long play in a huge records I later gathered through the years. Before "Green River" I only had 45 rpm extended play records, besides 33 rpm children-song albums. However, and besides CCR, the sixties was a decade plenty of song I loved listening to bands such as Yes, Cream, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Kenny Rogers and the Fifth Edition, Grateful Dead, Classic IV, The Monkees, Jefferson Airplane, and much, much more, including Loving Spoonful, whose top hit song comes back and forth to my mind every summertime since By the way, when it comes to recall those days, I prefer to browse for the original recorded song rather than a newly recorded version, even if done by the same artists, and neither like live versions at all, unless it was a live version what I listened to the very first time. Or in other words, I prefer "Dead" (Studio) Versions
@Carlota Clemens, you got me there. You are right that Bee Gees are part of the 70s and not the 60s. Now I am recalling more of those era when you mentioned Led Zeppelin. Stairway to Heaven was a big one and almost all bands were performing that song which they said was a difficult one - for you to be called a guitarist, you should play Stairway first. Back to the 60s, now I remember Elvis Presley. But I am not a fan of his songs and I don't know if Love Me Tender was in the 60s or early 70s. There's also Wooden Heart which our neighbor would always play loudly in the morning as if to let the neighborhood know of their new turntable.
Actually, Love Me Tender was not only a hit song; but also the name of the first movie that Elvis Presley starred in. It came out in 1956, and I remember being so excited to be able to go and watch the movie. They handed out photocopies of Elvis from the movie, with his signature on the bottom, and we girls were all just thrilled to be able to take those (black and white) pictures home, find a frame and put them up on our bedroom wall. Mine was probably up there for years and years.
@Corie Henson and @Yvonne Smith, this is why I suggested to start a decades category because as time is passing by, most of us are tending to confuse the transition moment between one era and another so we may hoop to the next or step back o the previous. I remember Elvis with "Suspicious Mind" but again, aired on the radio sometime in the 1970s. Other than this, only songs from the 1950s. Might be some from the 60s though, but I don't remember any. When Corie first mentioned the Bee Gees, I was sure for a moment to have heard this song in 1969, when it was 1971. How do I know? Because this was one of the first videos to be aired on TV much in the way MTV would do years later. It was a TV show aired only on Saturday and Sundays and I have still a button pin with the date with the channel logo and the release date, and remember the announcer presenting videos straight from the Billboard top-ten of that year, being the Bee Gees the number one then. And this is what I call the transitional moment, the last one-two year of a decade, and the first one-two years of the next. I was tempted to name some other bands I remember around the 60s, but might happen they fall in the transitional moment I said, just as Sugarloaf with "Tongue-in-cheek" or "Green Eyes Lady," Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" or Iron Butterfly with "In a Gadda Da Vida," spell of this song might be wrong, LOL And this is another good example of people falling for transitional moments. The Bee Gees achieved huge success after "Saturday Night" fever in the late 1970s, so that a YouTube user thought to associate the early "How can You Mend a Broken Heart" with the album (and Bee Gee's look) of the disco era, when this song belongs to other. Tried to find the original I remember to have watched first, a girl running in a park with the broken heart and could find but the original recording associated with the above comment on date mistake :
@Carlota Clemens, I agree about that transition years. Just take note that we are not up to date when it comes to current hits. There was no internet yet and from what I know, we were about 2 years behind in technology and fashion. And the radio is the only link for most of the houses since television is a rare thing in the 60s over here. We have this AM radio now that plays only old music. I have that station in my car and I one time I was surprised that the DJ greeted my husband, hahahaaa. That means my husband is also a listener of that station. They play music in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and a few 80s songs. There is a streaming in the internet - DWWW 740.
I grew up in a very small town in Northern Idaho, and we had one little local radio (AM) station there. Spokane stations couls sometimes be picked up , especially at nite when the reception was better; but for the main part, everyone listened to KSPT, the local station. At night, we had a request program called "Partyline" and anyone could call in and request any song, and make a dedication to another person if we wanted to. Most of us early-teens listened to Partyline every night. During that same timeframe (about 1956-57 ?) my grandmother in southern California passed away, so my folks drove down to take care of funeral arrangements. San Diego, being a huge city, of course, played all of the latest songs, and ones that i had never heard before back in Idaho. One song in particular, I just loved ! It was sung by some fellow named "Johnny Cash" that I had never heard of before, and the sound of the guitar strumming in that song was just incredibly different from any other song. It was called "I Walk the Line", and became one of Johnny Cash's biggest hits. When we got back home to Idaho, I called to request this awesome song on Partyline. The Disk Jockey had never heard of the song, or who Johnny Cash was. I asked every few days for what seemed like WEEKS, before they finally got that song to play on our little radio station.