Why I Am Doing This
We are a generation that has shared a time in history like no other! Most of us were born into a post World War II utopia. As we made our way through life, we questioned authority, tried to make the world a better place, spoke out against injustices, and all of the music we listened to were anthems for our generation.
There is nothing like music that can take you back to a place in time where you can experience exactly how you felt the first moment you heard that song!
Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1965. Most of us defined ourselves with the music we listened to.
I grew up 22 blocks north of the Brill Building in NYC. The “Brill Building Sound” may be the only subgenre of pop music named after a building, for it was in that very building, a former monolith of New York City’s Garment District located at 1619 Broadway (between 49th and 50th St., where producer Don Kirshner placed the best and brightest songwriters of the Camelot years. They were early-Sixties mainstays, almost all duos, whose very names became emblematic of great pop songwriting: Lieber and Stoller, Goffin and King, Mann and Weil, Bacharach and David, Pomus and Shuman, Sedaka and Greenfield.
I had this love for music as far back as I can recall. My parents bought the 45-RPM of Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and I played it to death.
I guess that was where it all began. We had a piano that I would bang on for hours on end. I would sometimes grab a badminton racket and make believe I was playing a guitar standing in front of the black and white TV watching the Mickey Mouse Club. Of course, this was before the Beatles! Who would have known?
In the early 1960’s, every kid had a transistor radio. Summers In NY were filled with the sounds of the hits of the day. Every beach blanket from Coney Island to the New Jersey shore had a transistor radio blaring sounds from WABC, WMCA, or WMGM. Who could forget Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, and “Good Guy” Harry Harrison! My sister, who was 3 years older than I, and already embedded in the scene, was President of the local Rolling Stones fan club and was beginning to write songs. I remember one night we were listening to B. Mitchell Reed on WMCA and they had a call in contest for some WMCA sweatshirts. Well Denyse was bound and determined to win it, and of course, she did. A few weeks later a couple of sweatshirts arrived.
WMCA 10/10/63 The Joe O’Brien Show
When I was 7, I attended PS 26, The Rufus King Public School, I signed up for band (yes, schools did have band programs back then!) and got myself a clarinet. I would come home after school and practice every day.
By the time I hit 10, the radio was my best friend. Even though my parents hated rock and roll, we would occasionally drive somewhere and one of “my” songs would come on the radio and they would leave it on. I felt it was a major victory for me.
To me, AM radio was an open palette. There weren’t all the distinctions that radio is today. No AOR, MOR, Pop, Soul. It was music, the charts reflected all of it and I loved it all!
1960 Billboard
1961 Billboard
1962 Billboard
1963 Billboard
AND THEN IT HAPPENED!
Sunday Feb 9, 1964 8 PM 73 million people watched as the Beatles sang All My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and I Want To Hold Your Hand.
Then, Feb 16, 1964 8 PM from their hotel in Miami, the Beatles sang She Loves You, This Boy, All My Loving, I Saw Her Standing There, From Me To You and I Want To Hold Your Hand
Lastly, February 23rd 8 PM the Beatles sang Twist and Shout, Please Please Me, and I Want To Hold Your Hand. Oddly enough, these 3 songs were pre-recorded during the day on February 9th so in essence, they were the real first appearance of the Beatles.
From then on, I and all of my friends wanted to be the Beatles. I think those 3 shows did more to bolster musical instrument manufacturers and retail music establishments than anything since! Everybody had a band!
Then the music just exploded!
The Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Manfred Mann, the Who, the Hollies, the Yardbirds, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, the Animals, Herman’s Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers, the list goes on and on!
My sister took me to see A Hard Day’s Night at the Bay Terrace Theater in Bayside NY and I must have been struck by lightening! I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life!
For about 6 months, I took lessons on the drums. Living in an apartment put a quick stop to that. For the next few months I had no instrument to play. My sister played guitar, piano, and flute. She had perfect pitch! I would sneak in her room when she was not home, grab her acoustic guitar and make believe I was a rock star! My parents ordered her an electric guitar mail order and it arrived to much fanfare. About a month later, an electric bass came from the same store! Neither of my parents ordered it! I was told that if in a month no one asked for it back it would be mine. 30 days later I was a bass player. I have always said the bass came GOD versus COD! Moreover, I have had the opportunity to travel around the world because of this bass!
And that my friends is what brings us to….
Talkin’ About My Generation!
My sister Denyse was already a part of the NY music scene.
She was writing songs for pop groups like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Peppermint Rainbow ( And I’ll Be There ) and singer Karen Wyman. She was friends with many of the British musicians of the era. Tony Hicks of the Hollies, Eddie Hardin from the Spencer Davis Group, and Jim McCarty of the Yardbirds. She always had a large selection of music magazines from England that I would pore over. I would cut out articles and pictures of my favorite bands and put them into a scrapbook.
Recently, after finding the scrapbook, I decided to create this blog and take a trip down memory lane.
Most of the pictures and articles are from Melody Maker, Record Mirror, New Music Express. I was a real Anglophile. Anything British! Fashion, music, culture. I remember one of my sister’s friends coming home from England with the same jacket that Noel Redding wore on the US LP Are You Experienced. It was in bright red and I coerced her to sell it to me!
Being a bass player and wearing that jacket when I played my next high school dance was a highlight for me!
Come follow me as we take a trip back into the 60′s
People try to put us d-down (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we get around (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
Why don’t you all f-fade away (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
And don’t try to dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m just talkin’ ’bout my g-g-g-generation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
Pete Townsend 1965
I didn’t grow up in the 1960s but I was still obsessed with the Beatles and 60s music. I really love the photo of Colony Records and your story about it…must have been an amazing place right here in Times Square.
Keep writing and sharing your great collection David!
It great talking with this morning. David happy new year!!!
i,m enjoyed my visit here,thanks to you,for your good work,i grew up in the 50,s and 60,s,served my country in the millitary in the 60,s. music is my passion in life,love blues and classic country,visit my site sometime,sign my guest book,god bless in all things is my prayer
best to you
jim r duncan,song writer,self taught musician,true hillbilly
Hi Jim,
Thanks so much! I will check out your site.
Happy New Year and thanks for your service in the military! I really appreciate it
Im a 60s nyc gal that really made her second home fillmore east and steve pauls scene.iIve dated a lot of the english INvasion and my longest relation was with John Entwistle bass player of the who!I WOULD LOVE TO WRITE A BOOK WHICH I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN MANY YEARS AGO!IM ENJOYING YOUR SITE AND ITS BRING ME ALOT OF FOND MEMORIES.DO YOU ACTUALLY HAVE ALL THESE ARTICLES KEPT.MY MIND IS JUST GOING BACK TO THE BEST YRS OF MY LIFE! IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN GETS OME OF THESE ARTICLES FROM NWSPAPERS IN LIBRARY OR DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS ? UNFORTUNATELY AT 17 U JUST DONT THINK IT WILL EVER END AND I NEVER SAVED ANYTHING EXCEPT A PICTURE OF ME AND JOHN! OH AND A FEW OF THE STONES.THIS SITE IS BRINGING ME SO MUCH JOY .PLEASE FEEL FRR TO CALL AND CHAT EILEEN CAMPANA IM ON FACEBOOK MY NO IS 210-9614877.
I would think you could go to the archives of the actual newspapers. I cannot beleive I saved all that stuff!
Hi David, Thanks for the work you put into this site. You pretty much layed out my entire life. Like you I’m a bass player. Just picked up a cheap fretless recently, I’m beefing it up. I’m mostly a Fender and Ampeg player. It’s amazing, no matter how many times I look at old song lists from back in the day, the memories it ignites! The Beatles, Hendrix, The Zombies! Music is our spiritual connection and I thank God every day. It’s great you are helping kids get music into their lives. Keep up the great work. Gotta get ready for a local band gig tonight, I’ll be back. B.
What a pleasure hearing from you bob! Thanks for your kind words.
Look forward to hearing from you in the future!
Dave – I love this site. Grew up in NYC in the ’60′s – actually a hamlet called East Atlantic Beach – but went to HS in Manhattan at Xavier. Parents were so happy I wasn’t hanging with local LB degenerates had a free pass to NY on weekends. Roamed NY as the only short hairs but we loved live music and went everywhere – you probably busted on the group of crew cuts in the places you were hanging. Trying to put together a list of every show I have beem to in my life (Starting with Murray the K on 58th Street too) and this brings back and wakes up memories. Yes – some of my feverish dreams did happen. Ungaros’ the Fillmore., Max’s, loved the Action House/Rockpile in Island park, the Scene, and on and one. Thanks
Thank you! Responses like this make it totally worthwhile
Keep posting!
I dont see any mention of The Cafe Au Go Go here…….there I saw the Butterfield Band (with Bloomfield), Steve Miller Band (with Scaggs), John Mayall (with Taylor), Procol Harum, The Electric Flag, The Paupers, Colwell Winfield Blues Band, Richie Havens (he was the opening act for a LOT of the shows that I saw there), David Blue, BB and Albert King and many others in the 66 to 68 period….the Miller and Mayall night was a double bill…
Felix Cabrera
Good point Felix! I saw the Soft Machine and the Mahavishnu Orchestra there as well!
David & all, Quick story, I was diving the other night I heard a young female DJ on my favorite local college radio station (WBJB 90.5 The Night) talking about a contest to win tickets for the up-coming, sold-out Sir Elton John / Leon Russell concert at the Beacon Theater (coming up soon “fall 2010”). The girl remarked about what an odd pair Elton & Leon are to be on stage together. I thought that was a really weird thing to think, no less to verbalize that on radio air. But then she went on to say how this would be the first time that these two performers would play together (“first” meaning = EVER)! Huh – I almost lost control of the car! I’ve learned a long time ago not to believe everything I hear but lol I must admit the comment made me curious! I had to go to the Web to make sure I hadn’t dreamed that I saw Leon & Elton at The Fillmore East. So David thanks for “being there” for me with your Fillmore Page and for helping me prove to myself that I’m not old & nuts, just old! That was a great concert I saw in November 1970! So this concert marks 40 years since they played together at the Fillmore East, how could she know? I’ll be back thanks for all this – it’s great!
Thanks Allan! Great story. Happy to be able to confirm your sanity
I’m glad you saved all this stuff. It’s difficult explaining to foreign students what music and NYC were like during that era. (Do you have any photos of what Greenwich Village used to look like? I haven’t checked all your posts, yet.)
Here are some links that can possibly add to your archives:
Stolf posts 5 minute programs in which he compiles radio commercials pertaining to certain topics — lots of 60s stuff, but also other eras. The programs are downloadable and you can separate them using any sound editing program:
http://stolfpod.podbean.com/
Another guy posts a lot of the generic stock music and stingers used by radio DJs in the 50s, 60s, & 70s as well as other transcriptions (from vinyl and reel-to-reel tape): Quite a few sounded familiar to me:
http://jinglejetsam.blogspot.com
There also are sites that occasionally put up those radio station Top 40 lists that used to be at the counters of every record store, but I haven’t seen any from NYC.
I don’t want to post those addresses here, but if you want them just send me an e-mail.
BTW, thanks for the photo of Colony Records — would you believe I’d been looking for one (also looking for a photo of Triboro Records in Jamaica, Queens)? I remember it when it had an entrance on the corner (I think the photo you have was taken after they moved or remodeled.)
Thanks Kurt for the info. I appreciate your support
WOWWEE!!! Thank you David, for creating a place to share memories from a magical period of time. I was also very fortunate to have grown up in New York City during the era that these memories are based on! I’m very sure our paths have crossed …My love of music was the stimulus for involving myself in different aspects of the business despite feeling that I was not musically good enough to perform. Some of my early recollections: from age 9 being taken to Murray the K’s rock and roll shows at the Brooklyn Fox, as a little kid watching American Bandstand and the Clay Cole TV show, starting my folk music phase watching Hootenanny on TV, hearing the music of the Beatles and wanting with every fiber of my being to either be a musician or to be around them. I too became an Anglophile with the English Invasion hitting America. Buying 16 Magazine and Tiger Beat (and later, Star, when I went glam) and decorating the walls of my bedroom with my musical idols, coming home from school and watching Where the Action Is and in the evenings Shindig and Hullabaloo. Sometimes sneaking out to go down to Greenwich Village…to Cafe Wha and the Purple Onion. I was a baby–13 or 14 yrs old with black-rimmed made-up eyes and a sweet nature. At 14 heard Jimi Hendrix open for the Monkees in Forest Hills (Queens).
Hanging out at places where bands would gather sealed my fate for many years after—I became a groupie (I used the term “band aid” long before the movie “Almost Famous”). From the age of 15 telling people I was 2 or 3 yrs older. Bars/restaurants/clubs like Nobody’ s and the Haymarket, Max’s Kansas City, Steve Paul’s Scene, Ungano’s, Action House, My Father’s Place (on Long Island)…Did a lot of growing up at the Fillmore East
Many wonderful shows in Central Park thanks to the Schaefer Music Festival and also Gaelic Park in the Bronx. Went to many concerts at Madison Square Garden and it’s smaller venue, the Felt Forum. Howard Stein’s Capitol Theater in Port Chester and later, the Academy of Music. John Scher’s Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey. The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. CBGB’s and the Bottom Line.
Moved to London in 1973 to continue my love affair with the British (and a few musicians there). Periodically returned to NY —bounced back and forth until 1980 when I decided to settle in Florida for sun and fun.
I loved growing up in that time…when the music business was more about the music and less about the business. When musicians occasionally played free concerts because they loved to play and wanted to get their music heard. When so much music of all different genres was of superior quality and had substance over style. I smile and shake my head nostalgically at these wonderful memories and am grateful to have survived it all….
Great post Beth! I would figure we probably bumped into one another at some point
Thanks for your input
Hi David,
Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed this. I am actually Nick Ungano’s daughter and I occasionally like to search the web for stories about my dad. He passed away on October 4, 1995. Things like this help me feel connected. Thank you.
Thanks so much Karine! I loved the club. I have so many great memories from there
My condolences to you and your family
I remember I was only four years old when the Beatles come on the Ed Sullivan Show. My parents had been watching that show and I was watching with them. Well…..that one night in 1964 something that I heard, for even a four year old, blew me away. I was just speachless and almost holding my breath in. I loved what I heard. As a teenager I bought my own stereo system with my babysitting money. I bought album after album. Today I am 51 years old and feel that family comes first in my life, but my love for music comes second. I walk two miles a few times a week with music in my ears. I am ever so thankful for such a wonderful thing. It is more beautiful and specail than words can express.
Thanks Sherry! Great memories
Ran across your site while trying to research the current whereabouts of David’s childhood friend Joey Clapper. A very pleasant diversion indeed. Thank you. Don’t know if David Ritchie, was a mutual friend of yours and Joey’s; looks like you all grew up in the same part of town and during the same era but thought I would take a chance and say hey.
Hi,
David Ritchie doesn’t sound familiar to me. Where did he go to school. Also, I haven’t seen Joey in a million years!
Who are you BTW?
Thanks
David went to Browning School. Joey was a neighborhood chum. I was just a PYT that hung with the crowd and played the female roles in some Browning School Plays. Joey was part of a now infamous trip to Acqueduct in the 70s. The oft repeated tale has taken on a life of its own in many ways — at least I have trouble remembering it quite the way it gets retold. Be that as it may, I am not sure if it was Joey’s or another’s guidance that made for a big win and drinking until dawn, but 40 odd years later (not quite your million year mark) David is thinking to bring together once more the entire group of reprobates. So that’s the story.
Did I know you from that time period? Just curious. Your lack of info has me curious
Thanks