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The Threshold of 1966
In 1965 we were approaching the boundary, in 1966 we crossed it, and by 1967 wehad established a new “sovereignty” of American (and world) culture. By 1970, thepsychedelic period was over, but its after effects are still felt to this day. The mid-1960s period has parallels with other milestones of world history (albeit not asrevolutionary) such as the conquest of Alexander the Great and the rise of Hellenism,the Renaissance, and the Internet boom of the late 20th Century; whereby the worldexperiences a spike of intense cultural upheaval—dies out abruptly--and has a lastinginfluence on world culture. Alexander the Great conquered much of Asia Minor andNorth Africa in only seventeen years, and introduced a completely different culturalblueprint; with completely new directions in art and architecture. Revolutions of thiskind are seldom a sudden event, and can take many years to reach full fruition. Themid-1960s were a time of profound shift in world culture, and on many fronts, 1966seems to be a key year.1966 was a year of rapid acceleration of technology, and an intensification of socialrebellion against the escalating war in Viet Nam and the consequent reinstatement of the draft. The youth culture at that time was almost completely seduced by the “headiness” of world culture, and the sense of boundless frontier, yet the specter of being called into battle was becoming more of a probability. With this sense of freedom came a heightened interest in artistic endeavors, further intensifying thepacifistic ethos. An example of this innocent vulnerability can be seen in the film “Apocalypse Now” when Robert Duvall orders a private into battle, and the pacifistprivate resists saying, “I can’t do that, I’m an artist!” It must have been quiteshocking to become a lowly Army private right out of the flower-child communeswhere finger painting and recreational drugs were a way of life.
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The beginning of the psychedelic era seems to have been in the late 1950s; and itseems almost ironic that people were doing recreational drugs back then too, vis-à-vis the Wonder Bread/suburbia post-WW2 culture. Things came to a head at the “Wholly Communion” June 11, 1965 poetry reading with Allen Ginsberg at AlbertHall, and the formation of the London Underground. In the first few months of 1966the band Pink Floyd (“Floyd”) was experimenting in London clubs jamming on JuniorWalker and Chuck Berry songs, deconstructing them with loud noisy feedback, and ineffect “setting the controls” for the psychedelic era. At the October 1966 Pop OpCostume Masque Drag Ball at the Roundhouse (an abandoned railway shed inEngland), Floyd played their usual blend of blues on acid; on the same bill with theband Soft Machine, doing very experimental, pull-the-stops-out musique concrete,wiring a motorcycle with contact mics, and reving the engine over the P.A. It wasreally the beginning of the whole DIY movement, not only in pop music, but also ineducation, with the formation of the London Free School, also in 1966.It seems that everything in society was being turned inside-out, and there wasn’tmuch that wasn’t affected by the sea change of 1966. America had all these ideasbubbling below the surface, probably since the early 1900s, but the overall sense of shame in society kept it from surfacing.In Joshua Meyrowitz’ book, No Sense of Place he refers to these behaviors as being “backstage” and in the mid-1960s these behaviors moved “onstage.” 
“What delighted many “insiders” was the pubic display of formerly back regionfeatures such as informal dress, obscenity, nudity, intimate self-disclosures,emotions, and admissions of vulnerability. The comfortable intimate sphere had suddenly been expanded. In a sense, the “flower children” went out into the streetsin their pajamas and embraced strangers as if they were brothers and sisters playingin the family den. The disgust felt by “outsiders” at this display was based on thesame dynamic: the movement of back region behaviors into the front region.” 
Since TV was (and is) a revealing medium, it created a “credibility gap” wherebyvisible behaviors had come into conflict with “front region” behaviors, i.e. those
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cultivated from family values and the church. When “back region” behaviors becomevisible, puritanical values get lost in the shadows, and squelched by in-your-facepractices. Once the media simulate exciting new possibilities, there is no crawlingback under the rock of shame, or hiding sexuality under Victorian bustle skirts.
Lag of Culture
In meteorology there is the phenomenon of the “lag of the seasons”, whereby thehottest temperatures in the summer usually occur a month or so after the time of maximum solar energy absorbed on the surface of the Earth. If we apply thismetaphor to culture, (i.e. the “lag of culture”) we can theorize that once BeatleGeorge Harrison started melding Indian culture into pop music with use of the sitar,it took a while for it to reach the masses. In the lag of culture, it takes a year or sofor something to ramp up to its maximum effects. By 1967 the psychedelic era wasin full tilt, partly as the result of this delayed effect. We now had undergroundnewspapers, underground radio, and the influence of psychedelia had found its wayinto fashion, art and literature. Early 1967 saw the debut releases by the Doors(“Light My Fire”, “The End”); Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow (“White Rabbit”, “Somebody to Love”); and by June 1967, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper. Given that itmay take six to nine months to get an album of songs written, produced andrecorded, may indicate that the actual creative work for these albums was takingplace in 1966; with inspiration coming from the prevailing social climate at the time;as well as the experimentation with world music and mind-altering drugs.
“I see the great musical adventure of our time as the emergence of a world-music culture, which crosses lines of geography, race and gender.” – Phil Glass
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