Sorry if this has been done before. I'm new wanting to find a forum where people are my age instead of 20 and thirty year olds. I am in my 40's, but I feel like a kid still. Who do you think were the most charasmatic people of the 1960's and 70's? The greatest Icons if you will. MLK, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, JFK, Timothy Leary and Andy Warhol for Americans. Ian Curtis, Mary Quant, Eric Clapton, Bamber Gascoine, and Tiny Tim for the British. Sorry, I'm not familiar with other cultures.
Jill, I vote: Allen Ginsberg,Dennis Hopper,Hunter S. Thompson,Jimi Hendrix,Neil Young,Bob Dylan,Sam Peckinpah,Morrison,Gram Parsons,Muhammad Ali for the US. Harry Fainlight,John Lennon,Syd Barrett,Keith Richards,Marc Bolan,George Best and Joe Strummer for the UK. Plus Bob Marley and Ravi Shankar for the world!
Jerry Rubin was a real rebel rouser. I used to like the shtick between Muhammed Ali and Howard Cossell. The Bobby Riggs / Billy Jean King gender match stuck in my mind. Alan Fundt and his Candid Camera were good. It's one of the few reality shows I ever liked. Sullivan and Carson were admired by just about everyone. One of my favorite interviews in the 70s or perhaps 80s was between Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy (recall Liddy was part of the Watergate break-in). Liddy was talking that he would dream about his body flying and floating. Leary said, "Oh man! That's called getting high! So you dream it too?' or something to that effect. Those two seemed at opposite ends of the spectrum (establishment vs. anti-establishment), yet they were chatting with each other like buddies. Really strange. .
Many of the 60's heroes and icons got old and sold their souls, Jerry Rubin, Jane Fonda, Grace Slick. Screw 'em all. Those who have kept the faith are still my heroes. People like Dolores Huerta, Wavy Gravy and Bobby Seale. They are still fighting the good fight and inciting a whole new generation to action. I truly miss Alan Ginsberg and Abby Hoffman.
Davy, I agree with most of your choices,but Neil is a Canadian. They haven't got much. Let them keep their best export. Have you heard is on the beach album? It's outstanding. Thanks for the story Shaggie. I'm British living in Canada, so I don't know some of your icons. In England there was a Candid camera show I loved. Practical jokes are great as long as I'm not the recipient. Clem, I saw the Abbie Hoffman film. He was a good guy, almost like Che Guevera. Perhaps it's harder to be an activist now than it was then?
I used to like the political humor of George Carlin, and still do. In the Vietnam era, Carlin talked about how the U.S. stopped Ali's boxing career for not going along with his draft. Carlin said that Ali would beat people up but refused to kill them. The government then said, "If you won't kill them, then we won't let you beat people up!" Carlin then went on to say: "And now we're getting out of Vietnam... through Laos and Cambodia. Man! That's the long way out! We have to go through China and Russia that way!" .
Jill, Oh,yeah,of course Neil's Canadian! Ooops.So were most of the Band,right? Muhammad Ali came out with the greatest quote of his generation,as far as I'm concerned: "No Viet Cong ever called me ******." I read Bobby Seale's book "Seize the Time" ... It was Black Panther policy to regard black people as belonging to a separate nation,I recall - in fact it was part of their manifesto that they wanted a part of the country partitioned off for them to populate and govern - so for Ali (I know he wasn't officially a Panther,but he was in sympathy via the influence of Malcolm X) to fight for Nixon in Vietnam would have been as dumb as expecting a member of the IRA to go to war for England.Oh well.Bobby Seale was the one who got bound and gagged at the Chicago trial,wasn't he? I saw the Liddy-Leary film.It was really interesting.Does anyone know what Leary had to say in later life about selling people out when he was in jail?
I suppose it depends what you are being an activist for! George Carlin, is a scream! Davy, I think most of Neil's band were Canadian. I should read his biography one day. I don't know much about Bobby Seale. I'll have to google him.
