Intensity of the 1970's

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mark74

Posts: 690
Joined: Jan. 26 2011

Intensity of the 1970's

I feel like Im posting too much, but Paco's death and my father last year just got me thinking

It just seems like the 70's were really intense and produced some intense people

I look at some of the movies from that era and listen to the music and think or people who were forged in that era and it ust seems like a really intense time

I don't know, I'm pretty drunk by now and maybe being stupid, but I think theres something to it....like the 60's destroyed everything before and the 70's generation had to make sense of things again

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 2:32:24

Ruphus

Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010

RE: Intensity of the 1970's (in reply to mark74)

Makes sense.

Another point is that at that time there was still a lot of white spots on the musical map that could be explored and conquered.

Only one thing keeps me really puzzled about that marvelous period, which is the perfection with which much of the creation was done. The white spots were not only claimed by musical pieces but with such perfect rounding of composition and arrangement that they just could not be done better. So perfectly created that hardly any later plagiatism or covering could improve a thing on the originals.

The creation of those hits often spilled out in a row, seldomly going through lengthy development like you´d rather expect, like say with Mike Oldfield´s Tubular Bells which he recorded diversely until finally nailed in a double album of his ( the white one with the slide prints on it ).
The vast of the creations of that time instead and amazingly were done within short time, many on the spot, and some even released as just spontaneous tracks.
All nonethelss in heavenly perfection.

That unique eruption on broad scale of that time is a mystery.
So outstanding that it wouldn´t wonder me if one day it turned out that at that time some physical cosmic kind of radiation had benefitted that period of culture.

In truth likely the relief and gradual recovery after WWII, a so promissing sensation of hope after apparent unchaining from square, neo conservative and fascist reign and obligations must have filled the brilliant musical spirit of that time.

But if some exterristic or whatever physical phenomenon would once be found contributing to the inspiration, it would not be appearing overly surprising to me.

After all the creative output of those decades was really out of this world.

I remember how we kids would turn on the radio in the late sixties and listen to BFBS Germany in the afternoon with that exciting moderation of tunes so rocking that they turn any little tranistor radio into a freaking blaster. ( Though I would not understand a single word of English.) Tunes like of CCR. ( You can say Vietnam. Right. ... After all another impulse for the culture production of that time.)
Everything so beautifully rocking along and like opening a new gate to a future of mutual rights and calm being.
And my sister would hoard those singles from the Beatles, playing them on a mobile plastic turntable with its speaker in the lid.

"Obladi oblada, life goes on bla, la lala lalala la".
It goes on indeed, but that´s no distinct quality by itself.

Ruphus

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 9:03:42

tijeretamiel

Posts: 441
Joined: Jan. 6 2012

RE: Intensity of the 1970's (in reply to mark74)

quote:

ORIGINAL: mark74

It just seems like the 70's were really intense and produced some intense people...

I don't know, I'm pretty drunk by now and maybe being stupid....

Drunken theorising is the best...

You are right about the 70's, touching upon things briefly it was a very eventful time for music be it flamenco or other genres, also includes other arts such as cinema. The latter there was the emergence of 'New Hollywood' which effectively was the dawn of modern American cinema, some great things in Europe too eg Werner Herzog etc.

In American music, there was soul, funk, then disco, the emergence of techno. In the UK, there was punk, etc (not saying these musical genres are exclusive to those countries).

For film and music in the UK, USA, Germany etc Ruphus mentioned the post WW2 impact - most of the key players of were born after the war and grew up in a landscape were there were many factors pivotal for creativity (eg education, training, added to rebellion, social factors, etc)

Not sure how Spain fits into this, they weren't impacted by WW2 as they had their Civil War, but I imagine they had similar factors to the above which created a environment for creative minds and such.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 9:52:54

Ruphus

Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010

RE: Intensity of the 1970's (in reply to tijeretamiel)

quote:

ORIGINAL: tijeretamiel

... some great things in Europe too eg Werner Herzog etc.

In my opinion much better than that: The French cinema. So much more refined and thought through. Even Fassbinder compared like a midget to that.

Dunno why, but have always had difficulties with taking German film making for real. Not just in view of the downhill period until few years ago. To me it just keeps appearing wannabe, eventhough worth acknowledging regarding sequentially realistic detail and before all camera technique which have improved significantly over past years.

Scripts also and unfortunately reflect the intellectual loss with the current generation.
Out there the world is buzzing of urgent and thrilling events and questions while these guys keep mainly putting out autistically premature plots.

quote:

ORIGINAL: tijeretamiel

Not sure how Spain fits into this, they weren't impacted by WW2 as they had their Civil War, but I imagine they had similar factors to the above which created a environment for creative minds and such.

Not too well informed about it either. But as you indicate already, they definitly had their breathing again after Franco too, however only slowly recovering from it. I think they and the Greek of western Europe remained stuck the longest, before realizing the new air.

Ruphus

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 10:55:46

BarkellWH

Posts: 3460
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Intensity of the 1970's (in reply to Ruphus)

quote:

In my opinion much better than that: The French cinema. So much more refined and thought through

I agree, Ruphus. Bertrand Tavernier, Francoise Truffaut, and Luis Bunuel all made and directed superb French films in the 1970s. Although it was made in 1967, my particular favorite by Luis Bunuel was "Belle de Jour," starring Catherine Deneueve. But there were other European directors who made great films as well: Bernardo Bertolucci ("The Conformist") for example; and Ingmar Bergman was still making very good films as well ("Cries and Whispers").

I remember in the late 1960s and early 1970s, while living in a university town, how much we all looked forward to the latest European import to be shown in the local "art house" cinema. Looking back on it, they really were sophisticated, well made films that dealt with interesting themes.

There also was a "New Wave" of very good films directed by Australians during the 1970s and 1980s. My favorite Australian director from that era is Peter Weir. Peter Weir directed "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "The Last Wave," and my favorite, "The Year of Living Dangerously."

It may be that I am getting old and crotchety, but I truly do not think that films made today come close to the high caliber of films made during that earlier era. It was an exciting time to be young and open to all possibilities.

Cheers,

Bill

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With the name of the late deceased,
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Who tried to hustle the East."

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 15:25:32

tele

Posts: 1464
Joined: Aug. 17 2012

RE: Intensity of the 1970's (in reply to BarkellWH)

Tru. Revolution time in music.

Looking back the best music and musicians are from that time in my opinion.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 15:27:21

etta

Posts: 343
Joined: Jan. 20 2010

RE: Intensity of the 1970's (in reply to mark74)

Seems to me that the "intensity" of the 70's really started with the intensity of the mid-60's (I was there). Many boundaries and borders were being broken in that time which gave rise to the new freedoms of expression and rebellion in the 70's.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 16:16:35

Ruphus

Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010

RE: Intensity of the 1970's (in reply to tele)

quote:

ORIGINAL: tele

Tru. Revolution time in music.

Not just in music.
But the well connected and corrupted stole the young´s dreams and turned them into caricatures of ourselves. And today the establishment points back and ridicules the era of hope and promise, with the opportunists of the time who had only ran with the host for chicks and en vogue without though understanding anything, now shamelessly painting it as an illusionary period of the naive.

Actually however it was a departure of people who tried to be brothers and builders of a fair future. So threatening to the exploitative regimes that those would kill spokesmen or let leading individuals disappear in terms of career or even in madhouses. ( The French then besides made some interesting movies about such methods. Some so straight that I was flabbergasted how the makers were left alone with it.)

Remotely connected to progressive circles I had to flee officials at Paris airport in the mid seventies ( they were cleaning the city from opposition before the state visit of a dictator ), and the courier and me ducked away in the opulent place of an industrial whose doughters were progressive. He would respect their opinions as autonomous and generously tolerate their activities.
Those were the times.

Anyway, those were no times of spinners and serious enough to the medusa to show her face here and there and leaving behind ruined lives and bodies.

The indescribable mood and all that came with it however, including the beauty of trust and sharing, sexual electricity, and not at last the musical eruption, are reason enough for the understanding among todays young to feel a longing and sorry for having not seen those decades.
They were really something, man.

Bill,

My alltime hero of roaring silence:

I can´t remember titles of anything ...
You seen that film where he is a teacher who painfully won´t trust the love of his teenage pupil, only to realize in the end that he should had done so?

Or Lino as husband of dear Simone Signoret who again with her mate´s quiet repel and in desperate jealousy in the end kills his beloved cat?

Films I´d call sort of quiet little hydrogen bombs or so.

Ruphus

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 17:13:10

etta

Posts: 343
Joined: Jan. 20 2010

RE: Intensity of the 1970's (in reply to mark74)

Back to the 60's, the greatest existential statement ever put on film--"Zorba, the Greek." I was headed to law school; this film saved me (a flamenco guitar helped)..

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 28 2014 19:49:42