Us 40-60 year olds who are now getting laughed at for being a part of the great
decade of Rock and Roll from approximately 1965 to 1975 have one great
compensation for our wrinkles and creases: WE WERE THERE!  And, it's worth
every ear-hair, every love handle, and every VH1 druggie story we are currently subjected to.

   If you weren't around at the time, you have to remember that the entire dynamic was different.
From bookings at the Fillmore West, to who was on the radio (back before it became a museum);
to who was allowed on the "In Concert" TV show was a great hodge-podge, colorful quilt of a thousand
different styles of music, which fell under the general category of "Rock".  You have to look past
the current TV commercial mentality that everyone back when was "stooooned, dude", get past
the head-band and the love beads, and realize that the era sizzled with a beautiful, intense
electricity, which, sadly, has fizzled out in recent years.

   Why?  Rock went corporate, just like America.  This was a time when DJs made their radio play list
based on requests, not marketing calculations. A time when a band could get signed because some producer
was moved by their music, not some accountant projecting X return on investment Y.  A time, which could be
summed up in one powerful word: BELIEF!  It wasn't a belief in any religion or creed, but a belief in the power
of the music to SET YOU FREE.  We really believed in it back then.  As cornball as it may seem to those
who grew up in the corporate music era, we really felt that we had the power to CHANGE THE WORLD.

   Vinyl gets a lot of bad press now days.  Sure, it was scratchy, and crude, compared to CDs.
But, there were two major advantages to them, which are sorely needed now:

  With 45-RPM records, it was true populism in its most noble form.
Anybody could scrape together a buck or so, and get a copy of that energy which was setting the world
on its ear this week.  That was the pace back then, something majorly wonderful happening every other
week or so, musically  speaking.

   With Albums, a pallet was presented for the cover to be more than just a protector; it became a piece of art,
a beautiful statement of a mindset. Several of these masterpiece album covers come to mind when I say this.
Just check out "Axis, Bold as Love" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, or Blue Oyster Cult's first cover,
a maze of rooms opening into other rooms.  Hasn't been topped yet!

It is a boring corporate approach to try to spin a sociological thesis as to why the girls all screamed when the
Beatles played live.  The same reason wolves bay at night, ENERGY!  They FELT it, and nothing else was
necessary.  I had the privilege of being there when the Beatles originally descended.  I saw sane, sober kids
jump out in the middle of the road and just start dancing out of sheer joy, because the music coming out of their
"transistorized radio" was going through them like a house fire!  I would like to share some of my recollections
of the greatest recordings of that era:

1. THE BEATLES: HEY JUDE:  The Beatles shattered the 3.05 minute airplay
rule for a single.  It seems like it was late summer of 1968, driving down
the road in my brother's '57 Matador, IT came on the radio, and my brother
and I just looked at each other in some kind of stunned disbelief.
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Hey Jude!  We sure got caught up in the majesty of
that slow ascent into ecstasy.  Radio stations would give announcements 3-4
hours in advance for the first little bit of its airplay.
I never once got sick of hearing it.  Na-na-na-na-I believe!

2. THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE: AXIS, BOLD AS LOVE.  This record was
so "far-out" (yes, people actually said that back then) that it seemed to
be some kind of relic from another civilization, on another planet.
The Hindu motif, the backward tape loops may seem a bit dated now, but at
the time, people were so "wierded out" by Hendrix that you had to love him
or hate him.  I think the world could use some more black light experiences!

3. JIMI HENDRIX: BAND OF GYPSIES:  This New Years 1970 concert ranks as
the as yet unrivaled most intense sounds ever coaxed out of a guitar.
Listen to "Machine Gun".  There are sounds on it that I still haven't
figured out, been playing 33 years!  People used to ask Hendrix his
secret, and he would smile and say "Rainbows".  He knew more than anyone
realized at the time.  It still sounds very modern today.
Personally wore out 3 copies of it!

4. SAVOY BROWN: RAW SIENNA:  I borrowed this one off a guy in 1970, and
I really should look him up, I guess.  Still have it!  There was something
about the Savoy Brown delivery, a well tuned chunka-chunka rhythm machine
which introduced me to the Blues.  Of course, we didn't call it that at the
time. You can feel the groove of "the train to nowhere" like we did then, it
still sounds as fresh today as it did then.

5. GRAND FUNK: LIVE ALBUM.  I personally didn't care for this record,
but I distinctly remember everyone who didn't listen to Lawrence Welk or
George Jones had a copy of it.  I suppose it stands as a cultural record
of what was going on back then "Brothers and Sisters".
There was a time when we BELIEVED in the family of man.
That was back before "every man for him self", which is all that most
of the young people of today have ever been exposed to.  Pity.
It's worth the wrinkles to remember it wasn't always that way.

6. GEORGE HARRISON: ALL THINGS MUST PASS.  This record made me
So certifiably insane that it's a wonder they grant me a driver's license to
this day.  George said at the time he was "keeping the Beatles' flame alive",
and you can certainly feel it all over this 3 record set.  Of course, there
are a couple of klinkers on it (I dig love, ooh, I love digà), but for the
most part, this is the HOLY GRAIL of my consciousness.  I can't keep track
of how many copies of this I have worn out over the years, vinyl and
cassette.  I guess I figured at the time that life in England was on a higher,
purer frequency than life in America.  It wasn't until I finally made it
to Britian 15 years or so later that I realized the "higher frequency" was
going on in George's head.  Hare Krisna!

7. LED ZEPPELIN IV:  I have very vivid memories of the early summer of
1972, when we first heard "Stairway to Heaven".  The song that "classic rock"
stations has turned into an old, drab workhorse was something out a miracle
that summer.  "There's a feeling I get, when I look to the westà".  I knew
exactly what Robert Plant was talking about; it's a great big, beautiful
world out there, for those who don't wind up being the prisoner of their
own attitudes.  I also remember "Black Dog" that preceding winter.
It's hard to explain exactly the strange brew of sexuality and spirituality that this
record held.  It blew all of us non-comatose listeners into speechless gibberish.

8. PINK FLOYD: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: I have learned to appreciate
this record more and more as time goes by.  At the time I first heard it
(must have been spring '73, or so), I felt it was very sad.  I just hadn't
gotten used to Roger Waters' particular brand of insanity.  This jewel is
of course, the audiophile's dream, with all the stereo panning and special
effects.  Something ELSE, which came out of Abbey Road studio #2, in case
you didn't know.  This was another one of those records, which you of
course owned, if you had a beating heart.

9. BLACK SABBATH: BLACK SABBATH.  When this bare-boned masterpiece
(recorded in 2 days for $2000) came out, it was a sentiment that was timely
and genuine.  Black Sabbath spent the '70s and '80s being copied by all the
leather-heavy metal excesses of the time, which left me cold as a stone.
All their snarls are as genuine as those of WWF personalities.
Yeah, you're bad, get over it.  But, listen to the first track
"BLACK SABBATH", and see if you don't experience in your mind a
fantastic, classy gothic piece of beautiful angst!  2 K-bills well spent!

10. JOHNNY WINTER AND: LIVE: Can't remember exactly the date when one
of my buddies brought this one over.  I had never heard such a smokin'
non-stop kick it to pieces kind of a performance.
Just listen to "Mean Town Blues" and see if it isn't one of the most frantic
romps around the block you ever heard.  I thought to myself as I peeled the
plastic off of my OWN copy: "God, it don't GET much better than this!"

11. T-REX: ELECTRIC WARRIOR.  There was a time when you could feel the
Sexuality of a performer without having to worry about what people thought.
I was SO WILD about "Bang A Gong"!  This is the most deliciously syncopated
piece of sex-sex-sex since Sun Records Elvis, and it causes shivers.
I noticed that it has the same effect on the ladies as well.
Wore out several copies, get it?

12. YES: FRAGILE.  Everybody and their brother played "Roundabout" on
their FM Rock station every night for years.  I blame it on my southern
sort of simplicity, but I appreciated YES more than I actually liked them.
I would listen to all the 11/16 timings and quatrons and all this
Oxford Music School stuff going on during this recording and say to myself
"How do these guys remember all these changes?"  I must have seen YES about
3 times during the years, and I always asked myself during the show
"How do these guys remember all of these changes?"

13. THE DOOBIE BROTHERS: TOLOUSE STREET.  Another song ruined by
Overplay on the classic stations is "Listen to the Music".  It's hard for
anyone who wasn't there to remember that at one time it was fresh and
beautiful.  The autumn of '72, we had reason to believe Viet Nam was not
going to drag on much longer.  It was a short-lived time of optimism.
This song came out just about the same week the PLO terrorists killed the
Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.  I remember hearing this song,
and going on a long twilight stroll to contemplate things.
It seemed to me that the power of these Doobie Brothers would eventually
overtake that of the evil assassins.  Of course, it doesn't work that way.
But, there was a time when you wouldn't be laughed at for considering
that maybe, some day, it couldà.

14. THE ROLLING STONES: EXILE ON MAIN STREET.  When this came out
During the summer of '72, there were the Rolling Stones, and there was everyone else.
They were literally on the top of the heap.  A lot of critics were hinting
around that this might be the Stones' swansong, because there was a lot of
CRAP on it, just like the Beatles' White Album.  But, the songs, which
rose above the mundane, rose so far above that we still hear them on
the radio on a regular basis.  There was a sort of gritty mascaraed
innocence about hearing "Tumbin' Dice" or "Happy" on the radio.
Something magic about the way those guitars all made us feel sleazy and
wonderful at the same time.  If you measure a guitarist on how their music
makes their audience FEEL, and not some kind of notes-per-second scale,
Keith Richards was, and is, a monster!  I felt it, I'm still feeling it!

15. LYNYRD SKYNYRD: PRONOUNCED.  A lot of people are turned off by
Skynyrd's "Billy Bob and Bubba" mindset.  I assure you in the spring of
1973 when I first got wind of this record, I thought of them as a major
piece of Rock Artillery.  It was hard not to!  In fact, persons famous for
being skimpy on the compliments such as Pete Townsend raved over this one.
"Free Bird" is one of the few classic rock anthems, which hasn't turned into
 soggy old potato chips by now.  Why?  God, listen!  Guitars on fire!

I hope you realize this list is only personal to me.  I left out many
wonderful records by greats like JJ Cale, Creedence Clearwater Revival,
Deep Purple, oh, I could go on for days.  The major difference between then,
and now, is, as I have said before, simply BELIEF.  Belief that WE CAN
make things better, we CAN unite, we ARE brothers and sisters.

I suppose it took Viet Nam to bring us to that mindset.
It gradually died a slow death, through the fa_ade of disco,
the pointless violence of punk, the well-scripted venom of metal.
It was starved to death by the cynicism that it seems all modern individuals
wear like plates of armor around themselves.  It happened without a plan,
and I suppose if it happens again, it will be without a plan.

Somehow, somebody's song is going to get past the accountants
and programming managers, and it will ring a bell in America's
collective psyche. The music will find a way to waffle around in the
air at the soda shop, the basketball court, the pool, and people will
look up and say "WHA" again. I hope I am around to see it when it happens.

Truly grateful you gave me this chance to share my recollections of a far better time.

Ken Bailey
Ironton, Ohio