Sunday 27 May 2007

Trying To Forget The 70s

For some unknown reason there has been a rash of programmes lately remembering the 70s.
As i was born 8 months shy of the start of the decade, i grew up in this era of bad haircuts,even worse clothes and music so sickly sweet you would need an insulin jab if you spent more than 30 minutes listening to the radio.
Of course my poo-pooing of the decade has bought me into confrontation with friends who bizarrely remember the time as one long party.
For me, when i cast my mind back to the 70's i think of flares, patchwork dresses, Gary Glitter, that damned Copacabana song, skinheads, interior decor that made your eyes bleed, power cuts, black & white television and that song about the Queen being a fascist that got to number 1 but nobody could listen to.
Take out Punk music and some of the Glam Rock stuff, and the music that you are left with are the types of songs that should be played to those held hostage in Guantanamo Bay, I would be confessing to the shooting of JFK after a few verses of My Ding A Ling or Tie a Yellow Ribbon.
Maybe i was too young and didn't appreciate all that was going on at the time but any era that can proudly boast Barry Manilow deserves to be quickly forgotten.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

i grew up in this era of bad haircuts,even worse clothes

That sounds like the era that i grew up in, the 80s!

I wonder if future generations will look back on the 90s and 00s with the same contempt? :)

Paula said...

OMG, the 70s! That's when my mom was into making her own bread, ice cream, etc. And all those Jell-O things. We embroidered our jean jackets with peace signs and flowers in home-ec. I had white go-go boots. Listened to Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot and the Supremes. Good times. :)

Falling on a bruise said...

Maybe the bad clothes and bad haircuts is not restricted to the 70s iMuslim, i remember some clothes nightmares from the 80s and my parents have a family album to prove it.

My mum made her own bread miz uv, it was not exactly light and fluffy. The peace signs i remember were the two finger Churchill signs. I had one sewn onto my patchwork denim jacket and thought it was so cool because to a young girl, it was very close to the other two fingered salute.

Deadman said...

Why use two fingers when one will do, Hon?

;o)>

The Intolerant One said...

Bad hair is right for sure.

I was also tortured by mother's constant 8 tracks and vinyl records of the BeeGees and ABBA! Playing them over and over and over....AHHHH, I am still in therapy over that one.

I do have some fond memories. I was into KISS by the time I was 6 and had my first album (Love Gun) by the following year.

Lite Brite was cool and arcade video games like asteroid and space invaders were considered "awesome" technology :)

A record cost $6.00 and I could buy 10 packs of hockey cards for a dollar getting not only 15 cards per pack but BUBBLE GUM as well. Today you get no gum and they want $4.00 for 8 cards >:(

There was Happy Days and the Brady Brunch. Good viewing. Not like today's "reality" dating shows with barely twenty somethings bouncing all over men they do not know telling millions of viewers "Hey...look how slutty I am!"

70's does not seem all that bad.

Deadman said...

The 70's:

Moved to the Bay Area, saw the Grateful Dead and many other outstanding live shows too numerous to mention, lost my virginity and had sex too many times to mention, turned 18 and barhopped too many times to mention, went to the beach, hung out in the Haight, partied endlessly and somewhere in there I managed to figure out that life isn't always what it seems when you're under 21.

It wasn't a bad time at all and I remember it fondly.

O' Tim said...

C'mon Lucy, there was scads of great music! The west coast continued to rock out of the sixties with the aforementioned Dead/Bay Area scene and the burgeoning SoCal hippie country. On your side of the pond the Stones were making some of their finest stuff, along with Clapton and Winwood hitting their stride. Led Zep, Tha'OO, ELP, Beck going fusion - powerful!

Me? I was developing my now incorrigible rock snob taste, listening to Steely Dan and Mahavishnu Orchestra whilst my peers were cutting out Jackson Five records off the back of cereal boxes. My anti-pop sensibilities have (usually) served me well.

Falling on a bruise said...

I was so keen to poo poo 70s music o'tim, i forgot about Queen and early David Bowie.
Of course, being 10 in 1979 i got into all these retrospectivly. I was still hoping to marry either Starsky or Hutch in those days.