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Bohemian Breeze

@boho-hippie-breeze

The Sixties were a brief flowering when people thought they could change everything for the better. In the 1960s you had sex and drugs and rock and roll and you felt a greater sense of freedom. There was this explosion in popular culture of the best kind. There’s a reason why The Beatles are still named as the most iconic artists of all time and why they’ve sold around 600 million records. They really were exceptional. There was a whole new wave of stars too. Working-class lads like Michael Caine appearing in movies whereas before you just had posh actors with posh voices. It was like coming out of the dark ages and so exciting. The counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in 1969. Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized by Timothy Leary with his slogan "Turn on, tune in, drop out". Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters also played a part in the role of "turning heads on". Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and a number of prominent musicians died of drug overdoses (see 27 Club). There was a growing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, and many attempts were made to found communes, which varied from supporting free love to religious puritanism. It’s true to say that from the early 19th Century the creatives and bohemians embraced the Carnaby area with a passion, due to its close proximity to London theatres, galleries, West End shops and Savile Row tailors. But it was in the 1960s when it became the epicentre of what is famously known as ‘Swinging London’. Anyone who was ‘hip’ came to Carnaby to hang out, and get kitted out in a vast array of brilliant boutiques. There was Lord John, Lady Jane, I was Lord Kitchener’s Valet and John Stephen – once known as the ‘King of Carnaby Street’ with his string of super cool shops under different names. As well as making the sharp suits for the 60’s Mods, Stephen’s clientele included the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Kinks, the Small Faces and Jimi Hendrix. The battle between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones has been going on ever since they first crossed paths on the charts almost 50 years ago. The argument at the time, and one that still persists, was that the Beatles were a pop group and the Stones were a rock band: the boys next next door vs. the bad boys of rock.These bands have more in common than their respective critics acknowledge: They’re both British, they both grew up with American rock ‘n’ roll records that made up their early repertoires and they both shaped 20th-century music as we know it. But only one group continued to cut new paths at every step: the Beatles. That’s not to take anything away from the Rolling Stones’ greatest achievements of the ’60s and ’70s. Indeed, the band’s four-year string of classic records starting with ‘Beggars Banquet’ and ending with ‘Exile on Main St.’ has never been, and probably will never be, matched. They were often called “the best rock ‘n’ roll band in the world,” and for a long stretch there, there was no denying that claim. But the Beatles got there first. They were innovators where the Stones were practitioners. The Stones covered Chuck Berry, but so did the Beatles … a couple of years earlier. The Stones perfected the art of the rock ‘n’ roll single in the mid ’60s, just as the Beatles did several months before. And the Stones dabbled in psychedelic music on the clumsily executed ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ album, following a template laid out on the Beatles’ revelatory ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.’ In a way, the Beatles’ breakup in 1970 sealed their legend and marked the beginning of the inevitable end of an era.

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