There is a house down in New Orleans They call the Rising Sun The Anmals

And it’s been the ruin for many a poor boy and me
Oh God, I’m one

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Little did we know that we were about to enter Strawberry Fields—where it wasn’t real but I’m jumping ahead of my self…..I’ve told you that the Beatles had their first hit in the US “I Wanta Hold Your Hand” in late 1963, but they didn’t really become a reality to us until they came into the country, which I’ll deal with on Thurs in 1964….but before that I thought it might be appropriate to deal with the facts that The British were COMING again—only this time part of us were welcoming them by land or sea we didn’t care we just wanted them there.

In the world I was brought up in the Brits (we called them British or me dad liked Limeys a name that dated back to when their Navy ruled much of the world and they conquered scurvy with a tiny little fruit. ) were considered a bit on the —ah shall we say “Buttoned Down?” , still upper lip, stogy (is that a word?) in other words it was not a place you went to do much but look at old buildings—though heaven knows they have some good ones.

LONDON and several other cities had been bomb and seriously battered in the war, they lost thousands many of them civilians. Now they even more than us—who while we had lost so much in the war wasn’t digging out of homeland destruction–but we were all making our recovery from the war and they like us were in a baby boom and those children were quickly coming into a new age in the 60s. By the 1960s England had ended their draft and began the “age of the teenager–and what an age it was.

My mother was a tailor
She sowed these old blue jeans

England went from DOWDY to the Kink’s “Dedicated followers of fashion.” Mary Quant, if she didn’t invent the mini-skirt certainly made it world famous and before long the church school I was going to required you to have your skirts touch the floor when you kneeled on it–interesting idea what?

Even their models set the mode and the fact that I can still remember a couple’s name says a lot as I can’t think of another model that I can remember except a few that are on TV now doing ads for anti-aging creams and the like. Jean Shrimpton is the one—the other became an anorexic legend….with her eyes being the biggest part of her….but we’ll deal with her in the years we have yet to review.

And then there was Carnaby St—the shopping center of the world for the young and in the know or so it seemed. Where you purchase the hippest clothes and maybe even see a fab star or in-crowd idol or maybe even a celebrity…and were we all wanted to see and be seen.

My father was a gambler, Lord
Down in New Orleans

and if you were really in the know (in the US—over there it was a complete different matter) there were:

Mods and Rockers were easily identifiable by their distinctive clothing styles: the Mods wore Fred Perry and Ben Sherman designer suits, covered by a Parka jacket; while the Rockers wore leather biker jackets and jeans. Mods also rode European scooters like Lambrettas and Vespas and listened to a mix of Motown, ska and bands such as The Who. The Rockers favoured motorbikes and listened to American rock and roll such as Eddie Cochrane and Elvis. Although the movements were short-lived, violent clashes between the two gangs were seized on by the media and used by moralists to exemplify the outrageous liberties enjoyed by Britain’s youths

http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item105730.html

The Brits had a few hippies too–but they were a cultural phenom from the USA to Britain—

The only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk

Of course there were the Rock groups…it was they that first introduced us to England and the changes that were just getting started—but we may well have had some input into those too–for instance the top picture here is the Who in 1964…those were a bit irregular hair style for us when they introduced them…..but after wandering the US as well as other parts of the world, the second picture is them in 1969.

And the only time he’s ever satisfied
Is when he’s on a drunk

The Beatles were the first of note to come to America, but once that door was open they poured in like an avalanche of sound and colors and accents similar and yet different with the Beatles’ Liverpool bit and the Stones and Who both from London, but their sectional area still making a difference. We watched and I believe it was well over a year maybe two before I bought any non-British music–and before they’d came I had never bought a records (no CDs then sorry) and in fact the ’45 vinyl of I Want to Hold Your Hand was picked by my mum (a word that we picked up with all the British stuff) who had heard all the talk about the new group and thought I might like to try it….something my father insisted he never forgave her for.

The early groups (beside the Beatles of course)I remember were The Kinks, The Stones–in the days before Mick pranced around the stage so much—if you want to see how he started all his acrobatics watch Tom Hank’s The Sixties On Demand—the one on the British Music —I had seen him go from basically holding the mike, to his much more active stage presence and that show was the first I learned (years and years later) of that particular incident that change the Stone’s performance forever. Of course the Who—and the performance at Wood Stock that I one can never forget (sorry I only saw it in the movie. The Small Faces less known but there none-the-less and of course Bowie, whom we just lost, to name a few. Even Jimi Hendrix who was American went to England where he got backing and upped his style to return to the US as a defining presence in Rock and Roll for ever.

It is said that London had met its peak by 1967 at least as the mover and shaker of the 70’s but as one who spent a bit of time there I can assure you that London was always the Grande Dame—she just got down and funky in the 60s and like Marianne Faithful who was from a classy and rich family who sang and spent time as Jagger’s old lady before being wisked away to her old life—London never lost being cool, she just wasn’t 60’s cool or was less so over the years and then the 60’s went out–but in my book London is still very in. But during the 60’s even we–or at least Time magazine called her (1966) “The Swinging City.”

Go tell my baby sister
Not to do the the things I’ve done

And as if fashion, life style and music weren’t enough there were also even a few movies–Like Dudley Moore’s “Bedazzled” Venessa Redgrave’s “Blowup” and even an America’s effort “To Sir With Love” introducing Lu Lu. While the Rock Groups gave us “Ferry Cross The Mercy” Gerry and the Pace Maker The Beatles two: “Hard’s Day Night” and “Help” to name a few

But it wasn’t till the 1970’s that we got a Rock Opera (Tommy based on a song by the Who) from the UK.

So there you are a very short run down on what few things the little country of Britain (population 54 million in 1964) did to influence little ole us (Population 191.9 Million same year). How the big trend setter like us were set back on our heels by the onslaught. I heard one Brit say that the US had been sending them music for year and they just took that and made it into something a bit different and gave it back…and the youth of America sighed THANK YOU.