I never was a hippie although I have always loved the music and have been to San Francisco more times than I can honestly remember.
I remember The Summer of Love very well. We all knew about the hippies but as a teenager I was working as a management trainee in a large department store where long hair and flowers were not on the agenda ! Besides Hipper were an American thing and not something for Birmingham England.
Paul Alexander has donated a thousand CD's for our September 14th fund raiser supporting Milton Keynes Winter Night Shelter. There are now nine hundred and ninety-nine as I have grabbed this one myself ! SIXTY TRACKS OF FLOWER POWER MUSIC.
Look out Radio CRMK, I will be playing a lot of these tracks on my shows.
Fifty years ago it was WOODSTOCK..................
I have to giggle a bit with a memory. Summer 1970, the year after Woodstock, aged only nineteen I was working as a an unqualified teacher in charge of PE and games in a boys preparatory school. We were on a school trip driving through Oxfordshire. When the boys saw a road sign pointing to Woodstock they screamed out with excitement. Wong Woodstock lads !
That's in the playlist for a future radio show.
Woodstock, half a million people gathering in love. During the festival there was not a single fight, nobody was injured, there was only love and peace.
The festival organisers were overwhelmed by the numbers attending, food ran out ! Local people made food and sent it into the festival where it was given out free of charge. LOVE - love and peace.
Here in Britain I do not think we properly appreciate the Hippie Movement. Peace and Love was a reaction to The Vietnam War.
At school I gained the GCE O'levels I needed to join
Had I been born in America I would have left school, dabbled about for a year or two then headed to Vietnam. I may have come back to live and to be the old man I am now or I could have come back in a body bag and remained for ever young.
The music of the hippies lives on. Cannabis is now legal in San Francisco ! There is no long the Vietnam War and there is no longer the danger of the Cold War turning into a nuclear holocaust.
But as Barry Maguire sang way back in 1965 we are STILL on the eve of destruction. More now in 2019 than in 1965 or The Summer of Love or during the year of Woodstock.
Fifty-two years since The Summer of Love. Fifty years since Woodstock.
Project forward fifty years from 2019 to 2069 - I will be celebrating my 119th birthday. Don't be silly, I won't still be here will I ?
How old are you now ? 20 ? You will be 70 in 2069. 30 ? You will be 80 in 2069. 40 ? You will be 90 in 2069. 20 - 30 - 40 -whatever just as I won't be here in 2069 neither will you ?
We are working so damn hard to destroy the world we live in it simply won't be here in 2019.
This photograph was taken at 2.30am ! Every day, 365 days a year, this obscenity works hard to destroy our planet. I sent it to every national newspaper, not one replied. I sent it to politicians, not one cared ! I sent it to the Department Of The Environment, I am still trying to translate the reply into English.
Woodstock 1969 - half a million people - not a single case of violence. Where you live, where I live 2019 - knife crime is an everyday occurrence. Please do not kid yourself POLITICIANS DO NOT GIVE A DAMN !
We need to bring back the hippies. We need their philosophy, we need their music, we need their peace and love.
Have you seen the musical Hair ? Have you watched the DVD ?
This should be a basic requirement for every member of the human race. Apart from a couple of songs the music is not that brilliant, not up to the standard of the DVD set Paul Alexander donated, but the story line is so powerful.
Bring back the hippies.
In the year 2525 ? FORGET IT ! This world will be long gone !
Not seen it.
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