![]() Social unrest in Italy ballooned into the Years Of Lead in the 1970s, as well as the Red Army Faction in Germany while Canada had Quebec separatist riots and terrorist bombings. France nearly had a revolution in May of 1968, with West Germany having massive protests as well. This was not limited to the United States. This was the era of COINTELPRO, with Government Agents surveilling, infiltrating and discrediting Anti-War and other groups to the point of sowing distrust and paranoia among these groups to Philip K. Really, the only important political figures who survived the 60s alive were LBJ and Tricky Dick ( Ronald Reagan was also on the rise, but he didn't count just yet). Kennedy renewed the country's spirits with a message of hope and unity, and then was shot dead. and Malcolm X gave voice to the Civil Rights Movement, and then were shot dead. ![]() Kennedy narrowly averted an end-of-the-world nuclear showdown, then was shot dead. ![]() Of course, much of this great music was made in the context of political unrest: Escalation of The Vietnam War was met with a powerful protest movement, admired (or vilified, depending on your viewpoint) to this day for stopping the war dead in its tracks just nine years later. And then a little later, Altamont, roughly six hours of skull-cracking brutality set to music. At the same time, there's the Harlem Cultural Festival, which is the cultural high point of black pride and the Civil Rights movement concentrated in six weeks of music. The Sixties gave us Woodstock, three days of peace and music. Except to the British, who were way into India. It was all about the music: Mop-topped mods and cock-walking rockers all the rage, and the British were cool for the first time in recorded history. In Britain it includes the rise of Carnaby Street (inevitably accompanied by The Kinks' "Dedicated Follower of Fashion"), Mary Quant (the Mother who Made Miniskirts Mainstream), Harold Wilson, the satire boom, and a bunch of Buccaneer Broadcasters demolishing The BBC's radio monopoly. ![]() The Theme Park Version of the Swingin' Sixties includes: "free love" and beehive and bouffant hairdos, hippies and southern sheriffs, Psychedelic Rock and girl groups, marijuana and the pill, sexy male spies in tuxedos and sexy female spies in leather catsuits (or in miniskirts with go-go boots, or in leather miniskirt catsuits), the Charlie Brown Christmas special, Peter Fonda dropping acid in a graveyard, prim newscasters speaking in clipped tones about those wild youngsters having too much fun, and everybody doing "The Twist". The Swingin' Sixties hold a special place in popular culture, mostly because the people who came of age in that decade cannot stop talking about how great it was. ![]()
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