We're all about the history of rock & roll at BoomtownAmerica.com!
Every week, we present “ROCK REMEMBERED,” a deep dive into the hidden history of rock & roll, the stories behind the artists and songs that changed the world. Join host, “Boomtown Bill” Cross each Wednesday at 7 pm (Eastern) with an encore broadcast on Saturday at noon (Eastern).
Join us this Saturday as we explore "Commercial Jingles That Became Hit Songs!"
No other fashion trend quite represents the “swinging sixties” like the miniskirt!
Hemlines had started to creep up as we moved from the fifties into a new decade, moving up above the knee for the first time since the Roaring Twenties. But it wasn’t until the British Invasion moved the center of fashion from Paris and New York to London that skirt lengths shortened radically and the miniskirt was born.
There is some debate over who really started the trend. Carnaby Street designer Mary Quant gets credit, but there is evidence that she wasn’t the first designer in London to come up with the idea. Regardless, young girls all over the world quickly embraced the design.
Here in the U.S.A., the miniskirt gave school principals fits. Schools across the country broke out yardsticks and spent many a morning measuring skirt lengths and sending home those hussies. Of course, many smart girls would begin by wearing a somewhat longer skirt to get by their parents and school officials at the start of the day. Then, they would head to the girl’s bathroom and readjust the length of their skirts to be as short as they thought they could get away with.
(it will seem totally strange to people under the age of 60, but during that decade most schools did not allow girls to wear slacks to school – dresses and skirts only.)
Despite their length, true sixties’ miniskirts were not tight or form-fitting. Instead, they looked like the simply flared, A-line skirts of the 1950s, just cut shorter.
As this style was not conducive to wearing stockings with garters, the miniskirt also helped popularize the recently introduced pantyhose as well as a variety of colored tights.
Of course, a few designers tried going even shorter with the micromini, and skirt lengths continue to go up and down with each new fashion season, but the miniskirt has never really disappeared from the fashion scene.
Tapestry (1971)
Carole King was already one of rock’s most successful songwriters. But no one could have predicted that when she finally started singing her own songs, she would create one of the best selling albums of all-time by a female vocalist, especially when her only previous album had not climbed higher than #84 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tapestry has sold more than 25 million copies and is considered one of the top 50 albums ever released by a rock artist.
Together with her then-husband, Gerry Goffin, King had already secured a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame co-writing such tunes as:
- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
- Take Good Care of My Baby
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- The Loco-Motion
- Chains
- Go Away Little Girl
- Up on the Roof
- One Fine Day
- I’m into Something Good
- Just Once in My Life
- Pleasant Valley Sunday
And so many more.
While King often sang on the demo discs (records produced quickly and only intended to demonstrate the song to potential recording artists), she was reluctant to release an album of her own. Friends, including James Taylor, kept encouraging her. So in the spring of 1970, she released Writer. It stiffed.
Undeterred, the very next year she released Tapestry. It was like a dam bursting. Powered by a monster double-sided single “It’s Too Late” b/w “I Feel the Earth Move,” Tapestry roared up the album charts, becoming the first album by a solo female artist to ever rack up at least 10 million in sales.
She copped four Grammys that year for Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Performance, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Tapestry remained on the Billboard charts for 313 weeks (second only to Dark Side of the Moon).
Her subsequent albums have been very well received, five of them landing in the Top 10.
There is no question that any essential album collection for a Baby Boomer has to include Tapestry. It’s not “too late” to include it in yours.
Research has shown that negative thinking: holding grudges, resentments and negative thoughts can lead to a decline in cognitive thinking in adults 55 years of age and older.
Research has shown that those who engage in prolonged negative thinking have more amyloid and tau deposits in their brain. Those happen to be the biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease.
Of course, we all have negative thoughts from time to time, but here are some ways to make sure they don’t hang around very long:
- Make a list of all the things you’re grateful for. Can you still see? Can you still walk? Do you have a roof over your head and know where your next meal is coming from? If necessary, write the list out on paper or your computer.
- Take some deep breaths. Believe it or not, that can elevate your mood.
- Watch a comedy, be it a movie, TV show or stand-up special.
- Don’t beat yourself up for having a bad thought. Simply acknowledge it and move on.
If you’re looking for a fantasy film that’s well off the beaten path, give Night Tide (1961) a view. Often marketed as a “horror” film (its original distributor was American International, the same people who gave you all those Vincent Price – Edgar Allen Poe adaptations), this little gem is nothing of the sort. It’s a haunting, dream-like study of love and obsession.
Filmed in black & white and starring Dennis Hopper in his first major role, the story involves a sailor who has taken to hanging around a seedy amusement pier in southern California during his summer shore leave. There he meets and falls in love with a beautiful young woman, played by Laura Lawson, who makes her living as a mermaid in one of the pier’s sideshow attractions.
But as Hopper gets to know the woman, he discovers that she believes she really may be an actual mermaid, a descendant of the mythological sirens who lured men to their destruction. She has a father figure of sorts, an old sailor who owns the mermaid attraction and she’s also haunted by a very mysterious older woman, who may or may not be another of the fabled sirens.
As the movie progresses, Hopper definitely seems to be in some sort of danger, but he can’t stay away from Lawson, who previous suitors have all come to a bad end.
The film was one of the first independent productions shot in America. Written and directed by Curtis Huntington, the script was purchased by Roger Corman (director of the aforementioned Price-Poe classics) in 1956, but didn’t go in front of the cameras until 1960. The film did make Time Magazine’s Ten Best list in 1961 but couldn’t initially solve distribution problems caused by Huntington’s use of a non-union crew.
Night Tide finally received a wide release in 1963, but failed to generate much cash at the box office. That was probably because the garish marketing campaign set viewers up for a gory horror fest and not the ultra-atmospheric, moody fantasy the film actually is. Once seen, it is not easily forgotten.
Writer/director Huntington went on to a fairly successful career as a TV director, handling episodes of Charlie’s Angels, Wonder Woman, Dynasty, Baretta and others.
The film itself was designated for preservation by the Motion Picture Academy (the Oscars folks) in 2007. It’s widely available on DVD and Blu-Ray and, in our opinion, well-worth seeing.
