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FRIDAY FLASHBACK! My Case Against the Hippies, Part One: The Five Americans Versus The Jefferson Airplane
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Here's a running theme that veterans and probably even newcomers to the Halls of Rock will notice in the otherwise piercing and wise posts of Townsman Hrrundivbakshi: "Hippies weaken rock 'n roll!" I cannot fully subscribe to HVB's anti-hippie stance, although like others, I find it fascinating. Hippiedom seemed to me such a logical and necessary extension of where rock 'n roll had been heading. Sure it ran its course after the musical equivalent of the eighth day without a shower, but I still treasure the injection of Flower Power and poor grooming that their long weekend in the hot, stinking sun brought to rock.
An interesting unfinished part of this story, which is only hinted at in the original comments this post generated: Mike Rabon of The Five Americans came across this essay through his feed, or whatever it's called, and agreed to an interview. I quickly came up with what I thought would have been some cool questions, but after repeated requests for replies and numerous delays, I finally gave up on hearing back from Mike. Too bad, but I know how life can get busier than expected. Maybe I'll try once more to get a true hero of the anti-hippie scene's take on all this. Enjoy!
This post initially appeared 11/14/07.
Starting today, I offer a series of short posts that I hope will help illuminate how and why things went so very WRONG 'round about 1967.
Those of you who've been following RTH for while now have probably come to understand that I have a visceral dislike for much of what has come to be labeled "hippie" culture. And, if you've been following RTH, you probably know that Mr. Mod has never stopped busting my balls for not donning the white lab coat and providing a detailed taxonomy of all the toxins mixed into my beloved rock and roll music by that messy generational burp.
And so it is that I've decided to meet Mr. Mod halfway on the field of cultural battle. Starting today, I offer a series of short posts that I hope will help illuminate how and why things went so very WRONG 'round about 1967.
In today's essay, I hope to let others do much of the talking, and to allow some of hippie music's main offenders hang themselves on a rope they painstakingly twisted themselves. In the opposing corner, I present my surprise champions of the day, The Five Americans.
Follow up:
The Five Americans popped up on my rock radar screen as a result of finding a beat-up copy of a song I'd long forgotten, the delightful "Western Union Man". What a joyful testament to the beauty of the economically designed, tightly arranged pop song! On the strength of this one single, I went and did something foolish: I plunked down $12 for their Greatest Hits compilation. "Greatest Hits"?! The Five Americans had -- maybe -- three hits worth mentioning! Still, I was overcome by the simple beauty of "Western Union", and off my money went.
Well, to make a long story short: if you're looking for all the Five Americans worth listening to, I recommend you find a copy of the "Western Union" single. The rest of the comp I bought vacillates between pretty-good-but-my-life-didn't-suck-for-never-hearing-them tunes and a sizable portion of full-on needle-lifters.
But the album liner notes did provide inspiration for this post, in the form of a crystal-clear case study of hippie music hubris (and its righteous comeuppance), as related by lead singer and guitarist Mike Rabon, who desribes a bill the Five Americans shared in their home state of Texas with the Jefferson Airplane:
"By then, we'd had three hit records, and they'd only had 'White Rabbit.' But they wanted to headline in our back yard. We just told 'em, 'Go ahead,' and they ended up jamming and getting the plug pulled. The screamin' teenies wanted to hear our three-minute zingers."
Three-minute zingers. How much of what we all love about rock and roll is neatly encapsulated in those three fine, "winner" words! I mean, seriously, how many of you prefer sitting through this:
... to enjoying this:
I'm with Steve Allen -- and all the old squares -- all the way on this one. Yay, Five Americans, and your one Great American pop song! Boo, Jefferson Airplane, and your self-indulgent, churlish, rooftop drone rock!
Who's with me on this one?
HVB
29 comments
Yours, etc.,
HVB
Think about what was going down in Britain at the same time, not just the music but the Carnaby Street style and all. In comparison the US just looks like a bunch of long haired idiots in bad need of a bath. And I mean that metaphorically.
Life's pleasures are fleeting enough. Why invent mental rules on whose music you should like?
-db
np Wire - READ & BURN 03
I see that the ramblings of the thread distracted me from your real point but yes, you're wrong about that too.
I love the perfect pop single as much as anybody around here, but I completely support people's right to look at what they do as "art" and let them tear down whatever barriers you think all musicians should bow to. Any rule that disqualifies "Hey Jude" or Hendrix is highly suspect in my book.
-db
The screamin' teenies may have wanted to hear their three minute Zingers, but no one on the planet can remember a Zinger they ate ten minutes ago, let alone 40 years ago. While I don't miss the Airplane much, I don't miss The Five Americans at all.
When I got the Airplane boxset a few years ago, I was reminded what a weird mix they were. The three singers, the 12 string guitar, the fluid bass playing, the stringency of the lead guitar sound, it's all very unlikely, but when it works it really works.
I like Western Union Man too, but it's really just a step above a novelty song.
The most remarkable self-indulgence in this thread is hrrundi's. No surprise really, but the guy needs to stop complaining about self-indulgence when his posts are often the most self-indulgent around, a perfect example of the navel gazing he so claims to despise.
If we're talking about short, radio friendly singles only, the Airplane has about 5 or 6 that are pretty sharp.
I think the first side of "After Bathing at Baxter's" is pretty nicely focused, by the way. The second side fades fast.
There was a recent article in the New Yorker that thrilled me no end because it was one of the very few general audience pieces about Thoreau I've ever read that mentions the thing that for me sums up everything that was wrong with the guy: not once in the course of his smug little treatise about how awesome his life as Captain of the Huckleberry Patch was does he mention that he walked into Concord every day (a heroic trek of just over a mile, or what I walk every day to get to the post office and back) to drop off his dirty laundry at his mom's house.
Thoreau was the 19th century's version of that tool who thinks he's done his part for the environment because he kinda thought about buying a Prius once.
Limitations can produce great art, or great zingers, but it's a given that great artists will try to break through externally imposed limitations.
That's so true. Great artists can even use those limitations themselves as an advantage, but I think that's a lot harder. Sometimes average artists get called great just because they ignore limitations and use a bigger canvas, though. I usually like the guys that can do something new or good within the limitations the best.
I find Thoreau highly ironic at times, and I enjoy his mocking of those who think everything he says is meant to be taken with the utmost seriousness.
I enjoy Emerson as well, but for different reasons.
Yours, etc.,
HVB
Jefferson Airplane Takes Off: no songs over 4 minutes.
Surrealistic Pillow: only one song over 4 minutes: "Comin’ Back To Me" (5:20)
After Bathing at Baxter’s: only two songs over 5 minutes: “Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon" (5:09) and "Spare Change" (9:12)
Crown of Creation: only one song over 5 minutes: "House at Pooneil Corners" (5:51)
Volunteers: Four songs over five minutes: “We Can Be Together” (5:48), “Hey Frederick” (8:31), “Wooden Ships (6:00), “Eskimo Blue Day” (6:31).
"Spare Room" is one of their least successful efforts, but "Hey Frederick" develops a strong long jam, reminiscent of Fairport Convention's "Sailor's Life," a song that's 11 minutes long.
Based on these numbers, the following bands put longer jams on record than the Airplane: The Beatles, Mott the Hoople, and even Creedence Cleerwater Revival. Not to mention many other bands, of course.
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