Hippies

A youth movement that changed the world – for a while

Background

Growing up in the 1960s, the hippy era felt like it would last forever. As the first new cultural development in the lives of baby boomers, they had no experience to draw on to suggest what might happen next, if there was a next. Or, now that life changed, did the future continue to be flamboyant clothes, communes, protest songs, flower power, foreign war and rock and roll?

While their elders nursed memories of WW2, baby boomers, on the other hand, knew nothing of turmoil and hardship growing up, except what they saw in newsreels. They emerged at a time of peace and growing prosperity and found it difficult to understand the need for continuing old world thinking with all the restrictions and rules, sometimes referred to as the Victorian era moral code.

To their delight, they saw parts of their fledgling lives being rewritten by new products, new ideas, new fashions and new music. The youth challenged etched in stone beliefs, which were, in some cases, overruled before their eyes. Some old standards could be set aside, if they chose to go that way.

It felt custom made and spurred on youthful rebellious desires. After years of being told what to do by parents and schools, the ‘My Generation’ the Who sang about preferred to drop out and join what came to be called the counterculture. They felt a better future lay ahead by following new youthful ideas becoming socially recognized. Of course, everyone decided for themselves how far they wanted to delve into this new lifestyle. Enough did to create a movement, a new phenomenon. Enough followed this in part to make it look universal.

Freedom

They called it freedom. Liberation offered options, carry on as usual or decide for themselves what the rules should be. What they didn’t understand yet was adopting these freedoms automatically meant accepting the results of their choices wherever they might lead. New powers did not come with immunity from the consequences of acting on them. A heavy burden as some found out. For the lucky ones, who could handle the new powers, who didn’t OD or be sent to war, life just kept getting better.

Relaxing restrictions meant relief from unnecessary social pressures, which felt therapeutic. Right or wrong, songs talked about and even promoted enjoying what was previously considered taboo: sex, drugs and rock and roll. Youth was everything. The, ‘I hope I die before I get old’, idea from the ‘Who’, changed thinking and encouraged living in the now and not worrying about later.

Feeling out of touch with parents, the youth quickly took to the loud music and wild clothing colors and styles of bell-bottom pants and anything goes shirts. Of course, this annoyed parents and widened the already hard to traverse generation gap. To the young, it felt like revenge for all the constraints and don’ts, only meant to protect.

Approaching adulthood, life handed them, and the world, a huge gift, the pill, which changed thinking and behavior even more. Fear of unwanted pregnancy, which was, according to Victoria, as bad as it gets, was pushed aside by the new medical advance. This, for the first time in human history, encouraged a ’sex is free’ attitude. Talk about freedom. One comedian called the reaction a copulation explosion.

Young people acted as if there were no consequences anymore, except this wasn’t always true. Why not try new things? Why not experiment? The sweet and wholesome girl next door suddenly blossomed into a mature, but maybe not that mature, adult, experienced at things her mother had never heard about. Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane belted out, ‘I’m doing things that haven’t got a name yet.’ Like other generations of young people before and since, they thought they had the answers the world was looking for and needed. In the song, ‘Monterey’, Eric Burdon advised, ‘You want to know the truth in life, don’t pass music by.’ And they didn’t. Referring to the Monterey Pop festival in 1967, he described it as, ‘Three days of understanding’. New choices and new freedoms came with friends to discuss and share the experience.

Communes rattled traditions and became the model for free living, free love, if it feels good do it, and the ultimate caring and sharing lifestyle. Always a crowd pleaser, rumors of nudity stirred imaginations even more. In a movie about the time, one actor asked, ‘Where else can you live for free and naked girls bring you food?’ The media jumped on this as representing the new youth, even though, most likely, a lot fewer joined communes than they suggested. However, this version of utopia wasn’t enough, as the movie heroes only stayed a few days then moved on.

Rock and Roll

At first banned from public airwaves, rock and roll played only on underground radio stations. When it started to become popular, pushback from churches and the older generations created a huge media storm, calling it the devil’s music. Nothing since equals the hell, fire and brimstone preaching generated by the introduction of rock and roll and the lifestyle of its perpetrators. Possibly the comedy show ‘Laugh-in’, was right with their often used punchline, ‘The devil made me do it.’ Or maybe the rock song nailed it with the comment, ‘Rock and roll is just rock and roll’. As we know now, time and exposure created acceptance. The evolution from hated influence to embraced entertainment is epic.

As record stores stocked copies for sale and radio stations gradually slipped it into the play list, the new music took hold and dominated youthful preferences. While the Bing Crosby and Perry Como genre still dominated TV entertainment, variety shows slowly added a rock band as a novelty and to attract younger viewers. When British bands such as the Beatles and Stones appeared on Ed Sullivan, the resistance lost momentum.

As the new electric sound mesmerized the youth, friends celebrated what was to become one of the greatest new stimulating experiences of the past sixty years. Drugs heightened the experience or ruined it, but the chemistry, the catalyst that brought people together was music. It showed the youth everywhere how similar they all were, as bands toured the globe, sharing this new form of expression promoting love, peace and understanding.

After the new sound gained acceptance, a sensational transition took place. Electric guitars and drums appeared in churches creating their own version called, ‘Christian Rock’. And the restrictive Iron Curtain countries, with their hatred of all things western and American, also produced pressings of long-play vinyl records by well-known American and British rock bands. By then, Soviet Communism appeared to be less about ideology and more about power and control, though it was still decades away from disintegrating and making way for an attempt at democracy.

For a taste of this revolutionary time and the ban on Rock and Roll, some well-known stars made a movie called, ‘Pirate Radio’, based on a true story in England. Viewer discretion advised for this unfiltered view of the changing times and attitudes.

Victoria – Long Live The Queen

For context, the Victorian Era encouraged old rules and guidelines with an emphasis on morality and appearing to be above criticism because that protected from life altering mistakes. Topping the list was the age-old forbidden delight, no intimacy before marriage. And it included having all the interesting body parts properly covered to shield against temptation. Didn’t work, but she tried.

Then came rock and roll to tempt and teach new things to eager youth searching for alternatives. If that wasn’t enough to deal with, the hippy movement introduced growing long hair and outrageous clothing styles. While not everyone joined in on the fashion, except for the bell-bottom pants, the movement adopted different thinking including tolerance, attempting to live in peace with everyone, and beliefs in getting what you want not by aggression but by sharing, symbolized by wearing and giving away flowers. The age of the Flower Child was born. Victoria might have agreed with this.

Vietnam

The hippy movement started in the US and took on new meaning with the escalation of the Vietnam War, complicating things more, as if all this wasn’t enough. Reacting to the loss of life and constant fear of conscription led to protests. A natural response to friends and family returning home in body bags or with parts missing and many mentally changed forever, war being what it is. Recall this description of a politician: someone who is willing to let you die for your country. Hung in store windows at the time, a poster read, ‘What if they held a war and no one came?’ Good in theory, but silly to consider when everyone knows the truth. As Plato said so many years ago, ‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’ Those involved with Vietnam wondered if they would see the end of war and be able to go home or live in peace. For a glimpse into the public reaction and the protests, the movie, “The Trial of the Chicago Seven”, sets the scene, shows how intense it all became.

Resistance

The hippy era touched most young people in some ways and concerned others to some extent. Turning their backs on the call to duty, some conscripts burned their draft cards in protest over the war. In support, or lack of it, women fueled the fires with their bras. Others just abandoned bras completely, letting their free flags fly, announcing their new-found freedoms. A few advertised their liberty with see-through tops, not advised at the office, though it was tried. Productivity decreased, wives protested, while managers conducted thorough investigations before suggesting a change.

In today’s culture this might not feel outrageous but consider that just a couple years before, young women were ejected from church for wearing makeup or pants. Boys in high school suffered a three-day suspension for daring to sport Beatle haircuts. (see their earlier pictures) Yes, it happened. Rules were that strict.

Thinking Back

So many crazy things happened during this time as the pendulum swung from one extreme to the other. Welcome changes, new freedoms and excitement waited around every corner. Outrageous DJs stoked the fervor with what seemed like a new rock hit every week. Creativity flourished with each artist pushing it a little further, adding to momentum. It was a movement, apparently with no one in charge. Possibly this could happen because what was promoted and what concepts survived were ideas focusing on peace, unity, sharing by choice not by dictates, freedom, fun, the summer of love, the peace movement and flower power. Woodstock, 400,000 music fans celebrating for a weekend, is still considered the ultimate concert venue, remarkable for the music, a time of comradery and the lack of violence. Harmony, not division.

For a time, the youth enjoyed a rare and wonderful era where life was roses, (except for the war), with happy clothes, great music, an emphasis on nature, living in peace, less concern about money, and freedom to live a more relaxed and natural lifestyle. A few friends, a frisbee and a park, was enough. No one checked their phones repeatedly because their phones were still hanging on the kitchen wall at home.

The Aftermath

As the years rolled by, the boomers discovered that trends and new social concepts may not last forever. Long hair slowly gave way to shorter styles. The no-bra look firmed up. Some very strict school dictates mellowed to more relaxed policies. Bellbottom pants and tie died clothes faded from view. With the end of the Vietnam War, protests disappeared along with protest songs, a big part of the music themes.

Some things lived on. Regrettably, the use of foul language, another new freedom over exercised, still invades movies, music, public life and even the news, though with abbreviations to be acceptable. Give us an ‘f’, but don’t give a ____. George Carlin’s unacceptable words became tolerated if not welcomed. One movie line said, ‘Stop swearing, It makes you sound stupid.’ And, all these decades later, people using that favorite of expletives still think they’re being clever.

As music evolved through different styles, attitudes and expectations changed. ‘I want to be your one and only’, turned into, ‘I want to be the next to be with you’. However, the sixties and seventies classics and rock music surprisingly continued with a large following. Did anyone see that coming? Teens watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show couldn’t have imagined they’d still be singing along to, ‘I want to hold your hand’, played on the radio long past their own retirement. Maybe Strawberry Fields are Forever.

At that time no one had any idea what might be in store come the new millennium, and no one predicted the several ‘last tours’ by the ‘Who’ while they were getting old. One so called expert in the sixties forecast the demise of the electric guitar by the end of the seventies.

Music trends faded away. Styles morphed. Wars ended in peace or something like it. The US discontinued conscription. Later came Disco music, a huge hit for a while, also drifted away. 80s fashion trends didn’t last. Each had their time in the sun, then were eclipsed by a new trend. Some things lasted, took a place in history. It may be necessary for the greater good that new ideas be tried, experimented with, kept or discarded with time, while people evolve and learn.

Since Then

As the hippy era ended, no one appeared to mourn the demise. The youth moved into their next stage in life with responsible jobs, kids and mortgages and took on usual concerns of career and getting ahead. Gone were the ideas of living on nothing by sharing. Money slid right back in as a major priority. Life for the most part returned to what it had always been with a few exceptions and addons.

Today, the newfound freedoms still exist, though many people find it more convenient to again let society establish the standards, make the decisions and have TV and the news report on what they are. Why else would they be so susceptible to ideas and to comply without question?

In a way, this feels similar to the movie, ‘Same Time Next Year’. Two people, a man and woman, rendezvous once a year after a chance meeting at a hotel. In the movie, the hippy era made up one episode of the several years highlighted, as it did for everyone alive at the time. A bit of fun for a while, with many changes, a few barriers broken and a few casualties. But the era passed as times changed, priorities evolved, and the youth of the day matured into different segments of their lives.

Now they do the retirement shuffle, enjoying new freedoms of spending time with family without all the responsibilities and not needing to work while benefiting from financial security. (Lately, this is not true for everyone.) They also deal with various ailments attached to old age. All this as they tune in to classic rock stations and reminisce about the one that got away and remember how it felt to be young and free and thirty pounds lighter.

© Tom Schmor 2024

PS: Just a few years ago, a man walked a park wearing bellbottom pants. An observer commented, ‘Tell that guy the seventies is looking for him. They want their pants back.’