Catholic Answers article concerning Woodstock and John Lennon

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The music industry had legitimate business interests and concerns. But the marketing changed. Disco was not organic, it was an invention tied to a movie. Motown and other groups/bands had different, stronger roots.
 
Disco dates back to club music in the early 70s. The Bee Gees didn’t invent it, and Donna Summers was releasing records like this before they were.

I’d say by the late 1960s the record business couldn’t figure out how to make a hit record, and album oriented rock meant singles began to diminish in importance. Acts like Led Zeppelin rarely even released singles, and many rock acts were taking the lessons from Sgt Pepper and releasing concept albums of one form or another. I mean, sure, Money is a great song, but Dark Side of the Moon as a whole record sounds a lot better.

But the ship did right itself by the late 70s, and the template for taking underground music and making it commercial was built on top of making a pack of semi literate kids who knew maybe four chords between them into a hit act called the Sex Pistols. When grunge came along in the 1990s, the record executives knew just what to do.
 
Just like Hollywood today still does not have a formula for a hit movie. Saturday Night Fever was a just a big ad for Disco.

Yeah, the Sex Pistols, a new, uncivilized low for the time. I ignored them. Grunge = junk.
 
Just like Hollywood today still does not have a formula for a hit movie. Saturday Night Fever was a just a big ad for Disco.

Yeah, the Sex Pistols, a new, uncivilized low for the time. I ignored them. Grunge = junk.
I’d say by and large the guys making the Marvel superhero films seem to have a machine for printing money.

I don’t hate all punk and grunge. There were some good acts like The Clash, but by and large it sounded like really bad garage bands where the guys had just picked up their instruments the day before. The really good punk bands like The Ramones actually knew what they were doing; they took 1950s rock and roll and sped it up. Slow it down and it doesn’t sound that much different than what Link Wray had been doing 20 years before.
 
Disney is the largest player right now. They can afford to hire top talent and they have a reputation to look out for. I read the three big Hollywood trades daily. Disney is outdistancing competitors with a bigger existing library and the MCU has its limits. Some of the planned movies and TV shows will not do well. Mismatches with concepts, actor selection and other factors will rein some of it it in. The recent Disney/Sony problem over the last Spider-Man movie raises real concerns about where that’s headed.

The Ramones were good, not great.
 
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Disney is the largest player right now. They can afford to hire top talent and they have a reputation to look out for. I read the three big Hollywood trades daily. Disney is outdistancing competitors with a bigger existing library and the MCU has its limits. Some of the planned movies and TV shows will not do well. Mismatches with concepts, actor selection and other factors will rein some of it it in. The recent Disney/Sony problem over the last Spider-Man movie raises real concerns about where that’s headed.
Well, they’ve had their misfires. The very poor performance of Solo suggests the Star Wars franchise isn’t quite the guarantee of a hit as they thought (and frankly, the Last Jedi was even worse). Not that I watch many superhero films. Frankly, I like the first two Superman films and Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. Other than that, it’s like watching cartoons.
The Ramones were good, not great.
Great by punk standards. By the standards of accomplished musicians, yeah, not so much. But at least I can listen to it. Most of the punk-era stuff is just awful; bad songs by bad bands recorded badly.
 
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I was part of the punk scene in a major US city. It was not not done well for the most part. There are standards that can be stretched only so far.
 
I was of the so-called hippie generation and in 1969, my friends and myself heard about it and thought gee, wouldn’t it be great to get there ? However, we would’ve had to hitchhike and being we had PT jobs that we had to be at, we decided not to.

It didn’t take me long to see that the hippie generation were a self-serving egotistical generation. I think the movie Forest Gump, when Forests beats the face of the hippie who assaulted Jenny, pretty much summed up what the hippies were more like than not.

Anyway, one year later and I found some basic values, joined the Marines and became an outstanding US Citizen.

Two years in the Marines and I learned how the Vietnam War was a lie and many of the draft dodgers, especially those who went to Canada, were right. Most however, just didn’t want to serve in the military, which to me, they had a point.

Four years after getting out of the Marines, 1976, I was married with a child and Christ came into my life and transformed me to where I never looked back.

The 60’s were the result of a society that began to question everything, and in doing so, discovered many lies, but that generation also created many lies to which we’re still struggling with. Abortion, same-sex marriage, transgenderism, etc are the fruit of the 60’s mindset.

It’s why we need to be Christ Centered more than ever today.

Jim
 
The falsehood that anyone had to question anything should be discarded. Rabble-rousers came into our neighborhoods and said, in effect, “Don’t listen to mom, dad or the Church. Listen to us.” They put wrong ideas in people’s heads and yes, they lied. We were taught not to lie.
 
I saw the Ramones in concert more times than I can remember. Somewhere between 9 and 11.
 
Your opinion. Revisionist history. And so forth.
You obviously hated it. Just say, but don’t use your opinion as fact.
By the way, it was Richard Nixon and the presidents that came before him who lied about our involvement in Viet Nam.
If Woodstock was so entirely forgettable, how come people still write about and how come the music is still being played?
 
Two years in the Marines and I learned how the Vietnam War was a lie and many of the draft dodgers, especially those who went to Canada, were right. Most however, just didn’t want to serve in the military, which to me, they had a point.
Thanks for your service.
Some who did not go into the military went into the Peace Corps.
 
You’ll have to go further back than that. Two world wars did more to damage the institutions you hold dear than some kids dropping acid and listening to some bands.
 
Back to Woodstock. At the event even conservative people praised the crowd for their behavior. Site owner Max Yasgur, a Republican and and supporter of the War, stood on stage during the fest and said:

"I’m a farmer…(interrupted by a cheer from the audience)…
I don’t know how to speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County, or New York State; you’ve proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you’ve had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you’re taken care of… they’d enjoy a vote of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you’ve proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I – God Bless You for it!”

The locals praised the attendees for their politeness and courtesy. Do a search for “locals on Woodstock 1969 abc news” . A YouTube video should come up.
 
I have all of the references. I suspect there are some who don’t want to hear it.
 
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