60s Sexual Liberation

The late 1960s was also a time of sexual liberation for many. The song of the period which best captured that sense for me was David Crosby's "Triad" written in 1968. While the "Stonewall Rebellion" of 1969 was a watershed event in the modern gay rights struggle, it would be another nine years before I would come out as a gay man. In 1969 I had a journey ahead of me before I would get to that point. In the meantime I could only listen to songs like "Triad," watch film clips of lovers romping naked at Woodstock, and dream of my own personal sexual liberation.

Jim


"Triad" - by David Crosby

You want to know how it will be
Me and him OR you and me
You both stand there your long hair flowing
Your eyes alive your mind still growing
Saying to me--"What can we do now that we both love you",
I love you too--
I don't really see
Why can't we go on as three

You are afraid--embarrassed too
No one has ever said such a thing to you
Your mother's ghost stands at your shoulder
Face like ice--a little bit colder
Saying to you--"you can not do that, it breaks
All the rules you learned in school"
I don't really see
Why can't we go on as three

We love each other--it's plain to see
There's just one answer comes to me--
Sister--lovers--water brothers
And in time--maybe others
So you see--what we can do--is to try something new--
If you're crazy too--
I don't really see
Why can't we go on as three.

Hear Crosby perform the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69s9giw5EoA

Enjoy!

My Late '60s Nostalgia

There was a special time, beginning about 40 years ago with the "Summer Of Love" in 1967, when many young people, including myself at age 18, were attracted to the gentleness, optimism, and the promise of peace and love that marked the late 1960s. However, not all of us so affected became "hippies," did "Acid," or moved to San Francisco. I was busy trying to figure out what to do in college besides avoiding the draft. I had no money so the summer of 1967 was a working summer for me. I needed to make some money to cover expenses when I returned to school.

In mid 1967 I was just becoming aware of the counter culture that was developing. A friend "turned me on" to the Beatles "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. Sometime that year or in early 1968, I discovered "The Marconi Experiment," a free form, progressive FM radio show hosted by "Herman" (Dave Herman) on WMMR in Philadelphia. This show was my connection to the "movement" of the late 60s. Contemporary music was so much a part of what was happening then in the country. Musicians and their songs were often unabashedly political. Country Joe And The Fish, Big Brother And The Holding Company With Janis Joplin, Donavan, The Jefferson Airplane, It's A Beautiful Day, Spanky And Our Gang, The Doors, Phil Ochs...these were just a few of the bands and performers that I was listening to during the 1967-1970 period. Songs like "White Bird," "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," "Small Circle Of Friends," and "Give A Damn," seem naively Utopian to us today, after the past 40 years that brought us the cynicism, greed, and war mongering of Nixon, Reagan, and the Bush father and son acts, interrupted only briefly by the mediocrity of Gerald Ford, the incompetance of Jimmy Carter, and the grave disappointment of the Clinton years.

I would gladly return our country to the late 1960s promise of a decent, peaceful, love-filled society if I could. Since then we've gone awry as a nation with both domestic and foreign policies that are selfish, arrogant, and reactionary. Unfortunately, I don't see the possibility of this turning around anytime soon, especially when I look at the front runners in the current crop of presidential wannabees. I yearn for a return to the promise and hopefulness of the late 1960s even as I realize the improbability of it. It was a great time to be alive and young. My idealism, instilled in me then, still remains even if tarnished and buried under the weight of the decades that have passed since those special few years that came and went all too quickly.

(Thanks to psychedlix.com for the graphic)

Jim