Rock 'n Roll / 1950-1965

Tubular man

the addams family GIF
 
This is the original by Bo Diddley, 1956.
It's also been covered by Captain Beefheart, Leon Redbone, and many others...






Hard to believe this was from 1965



I quoted some of its lyrics in my strychnine thread:

Strychnine's association with peyote and LSD

You may think it's funny
That I like this stuff
But once you've tried it
You can't get enough


It's absolutely true. Shortly after creating that thread, I tried it—posted in the thread while I was coming up on it—it was one of numerous inspirations to try it. In the 1960s, a company marketed it as an aphrodisiac; they called it Jems (see the thread). Not sure how popular it was as a drug in the 60s, but it appears it was fairly popular in the 19th century and early 20th century.

… “After a time I crawled home, took some food and a strong dose of strychnine, and went to sleep in my clothes on my unmade bed. Strychnine is a grand tonic, Kemp, to take the flabbiness out of a man.”

“It's the devil,” said Kemp. “It's the palaeolithic in a bottle.”

“I awoke vastly invigorated and rather irritable. You know?”

“I know the stuff.”


The Invisible Man. H.G. Wells. 1897. Chapter 20. At the House in Great Portland Street


"Strychnine is one of my favorite medicinal substances. From the moment I obtained authorization to purchase and use strychnine, I immediately did so."

Dr. Henryk Różański. [Ancient and Modern Medicine. Strychnine – Strychninum and Strychnos in Medicine]. Dec 31 2010 [blog entry] [translated from Polish]
 





I quoted some of its lyrics in my strychnine thread:

Strychnine's association with peyote and LSD

You may think it's funny
That I like this stuff
But once you've tried it
You can't get enough


It's absolutely true. Shortly after creating that thread, I tried it—posted in the thread while I was coming up on it—it was one of numerous inspirations to try it. In the 1960s, a company marketed it as an aphrodisiac; they called it Jems (see the thread). Not sure how popular it was as a drug in the 60s, but it appears it was fairly popular in the 19th century and early 20th century.

… “After a time I crawled home, took some food and a strong dose of strychnine, and went to sleep in my clothes on my unmade bed. Strychnine is a grand tonic, Kemp, to take the flabbiness out of a man.”

“It's the devil,” said Kemp. “It's the palaeolithic in a bottle.”

“I awoke vastly invigorated and rather irritable. You know?”

“I know the stuff.”


The Invisible Man. H.G. Wells. 1897. Chapter 20. At the House in Great Portland Street


"Strychnine is one of my favorite medicinal substances. From the moment I obtained authorization to purchase and use strychnine, I immediately did so."

Dr. Henryk Różański. [Ancient and Modern Medicine. Strychnine – Strychninum and Strychnos in Medicine]. Dec 31 2010 [blog entry] [translated from Polish]

It was popular, dr s used it, they were then allowed.
The one that told it, an old psychiatrist loved it.

These praised its invigorating and stimulating properties,
we were taught it was Rat poison.
Later appeared as pollutant in LSD blotter ?
 
What was interesting about the 60s is I don't think there was ever another time period where there was such a shift in the sound:

Baby Huey and The Babysitters - Monkey Man (1965)

The Rolling Stones - Monkey Man (1969)

 
I just thought the other stuff couldn't even come up to our ankles[…]the level that we were on compared to everybody else, I mean they were just painfully stupid—and pretentious, and then when they did try to get, in quotes, arty, it was worse than stupid rock and roll. What I mean by "stupid", I mean like The Doors. … No, no, I never liked The Beatles, I thought they were garbage. If you say like "who did ya like", I liked nobody.

[Lou Reed. 1987-03-20. Interviewer: Joe Smith.]


LOU: We had vast objections to the whole San Francisco scene. It's just tedious, a lie, and untalented. They can't play and they certainly can't write. The Airplane, the Dead, all of them...
DOUG: They lose track of where the music comes from - they start thinking it instead of playing it. Especially the Dead. Now I saw the Dead when they just started, and they were a bunch of scuzzy kids just having a ball playing rock & roll - they were a lot of fun. But then they started thinking about what they were doing too much.
LOU: I can get off understanding the kick it was to play Lovelight.... But they're amateur...they can't play. Jerry's not a good guitar player. It's a joke, and the Airplane is even worse, if that's possible.
DOUG: Jerry, he'll play the same solo for a half hour, but if he'd done it for just two minutes....he plays the same notes over and over again.
LOU: You listen to the Beatles, or you listen to 'Gimme Shelter' by the Stones, and Keith isn't playing many notes, but the notes he's playing are so thought out, so perfect...
Q: But don't you think a lot of people get off on something like the Dead because it's so loose?
LOU: It's what people are settling for....they're getting third-hand blues. It's a fad.... People like Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, all those people are the most untalented bores that have ever lived. Just look at them - can you take Grace Slick seriously? It's a joke. And the whole thing is, the kids are being hyped this on FM radio. Well, now finally it's dead, the whole San Francisco thing is dead.

[1970 interview with Lou Reed and Doug Yule. Copied from deadessays blog, "The Velvets and the Dead", 2010-09-07.]
 
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