Newsletter for July 2017

BIRMINGHAM RECORD COLLECTORS

DEDICATED TO THE COLLECTING OF MUSIC, ITS PRESERVATION, AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP

MONTHLY MEETING THIS SUNDAY, JULY 9th 2017

2:00 PM HOMEWOOD LIBRARY – 1721 OXMOOR ROAD 35209

NEXT MEETING SUNDAY, AUGUST 13th, 2017 THE SECOND SUNDAY

 

THIS MONTH’S MEETING

 

Thanks to Phillip Rumore for being with us last month as he told about his dad, Joe Rumore, one of Birmingham’s, and Alabama’s favorite DJ and radio personality. We all had a great time hearing some of Phillip’s insights into the way it was having a popular radio show presented from the basement of the house he grew up in. It really was ‘from our house to yours’.

 It’s time to get things ready for our upcoming record show. At this month’s meeting we’ll be preparing our postcards used to advertise the show. We’ll need all hands on deck as we label and stamp over 1500 postcards. Come and help with this very important part of show prep.

 BRC’S 33RD ANNUAL RECORD AND CD SHOW

We are just 1 month away from presenting the 2nd largest record show in the US. Over 125 tables of vinyl, CD’s, and memorabilia will fill the Gardendale Civic Center August 18-20. For the first time ever we will be open to the public on Friday this year.

We will need lots of volunteers to make the show run as smoothly as possible so be sure to pitch in and help somewhere – set-up, front table, clean-up, runner, whatever is needed I hope you can help out.

Here is the schedule for the weekend. Information is also available on the BRC website, birminghamrecord.com

  1. Friday, August 18. 7:00-11:00 set-up and dealer load-in. 11:00-4:00 BRC members and 2017 dealers only. Not a member? Join during this time for our early-bird for $25 (1 year) or $50 (lifetime). 4:00-9:00 open to the public. 
  2. Saturday, August 19. Doors open from 9:00-5:00.
  3. Sunday, August 20. Doors open from 10:00-4:00.

 Facebook Users!!!!

One thing I would like to ask those of you on facebook is to be sure to put the record show info on your page so all your ‘friends’ will see it and hopefully the message will continue to be spread on social media. Facebook, websites, and other social medias such as this has become the best way to make sure all ages of people hear about events and happenings such as ours. Please help out. Thanks

Special Note To Local Former Band Members And To Those Who Collect Local Music

There is always a good selection of local music for those who want to find it and those who were in the bands that recorded the songs who may want a copy for their own but I wanted to mention that I know of two new collections being sold this year that has many, many of the 45’s from this area and all across Alabama.  So drop by and hopefully you can add to your own Alabama collection.

2017 Birmingham Record Collectors Music Hall of Fame

Our 17th class of inductees include two well known Birmingham radio personalities. Joe Rumore and Paul Dudley White, aka ‘Tall Paul’ White. If you grew up in the Birmingham area you know these names. They were such an influence on their listeners and special in the lives of all Birmingham residents. I’ll have the bios for you next month.

‘Way Back When’

 A line from the Steely Dan song, ‘Hey Nineteen’ goes, ‘Way back when, in ‘sixty-seven’. It’s funny the composer used the term, ‘way back when’ since the song came out in 1980 only 13 years since ’67. That is not a long time compared to what is now, 50 years. I saw an article that mentioned the 50 year anniversary of the release of The Beatles, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band LP and started thinking about 1967 and the term, ‘summer of love’ came to mind. Who, what, when, where was the summer of love? I will attempt to give a concise history of those times and what it was all about although it will be a poor man’s version but hopefully it will be fun.

 The 1967 ‘summer of love’ actually had its beginnings in 1966. A gathering called the Love Pageant Rally took place on October 6, 1966 in an area of the Golden Gate Park in San Fran. California had just passed a law against a new drug called LSD which went into effect on that date and the counter-culture group met to show opposition to it. At that event some of the organizers decided to have an even larger event to celebrate what was the birth of the hippie generation.

 The next event took place on January 14, 1967 also at the Golden Gate Park. It was called the Human Be-In. It supported all the same ideas and counter culture thoughts that was put forth at the Love Pageant Rally. Many things would come from this event including the musical, ‘Hair’, psychologist and writer Timothy Leary’s rallying call of ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’, hippie fashions would go public due to the media coverage, and the summer of love was about to come about with the convergence of tens of thousands of young people coming to San Fran beginning with the spring breaks of ’67.

The Human Be-In had about 30,000 in attendance while about 100,000 young people would come to San Fran not for an event but to stay for a while causing overcrowding, no housing, hunger, drug problems, and crime. Local officials were determined to stop the influx of people but the media coverage only publicized the gathering and the crowd just grew. A free clinic and a free store were established to help those in need.

John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas wrote the song, ‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)’ to popularize the ‘flower children’ of San Fran and also to promote an upcoming concert he was helping organize, the Monterey Pop Festival. The song was recorded by Scott McKenzie, a friend of Phillips and was released on May 13, 1967. It would chart at # 4 in the US and # 1 in the UK. The pop festival was held June 16-18. The crowd started at 30,000 the first day but swelled to 60,000 by the third. Acts included The Who, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Animals, The Byrds, and Otis Redding.  Otis’ manager wanted to use the event to expose him to more than just the mainly black audiences he had played for. It was one of his last major performances. He would die 6 months later in a plane crash.

I am in no way educated enough on the subject to know what the 100,000 people who took over the Haight-Ashbury area of San Fran were offered to do other than the Monterey Pop Festival, which was about 100 miles from them, or go to a protest every now and then. I guess there was enough of something or nothing to keep everyone around. 

Other cities had similar crowds arriving during that summer. At a concert in Manhattan held on Memorial Day of 1967 an incident with the police made one local underground newspaper predict that 50,000 young people would flock to the area. I didn’t read anything that said how many, if any came. The incident, by the way, occurred after police asked that the volume of the speakers be turned down and in response the crowd started throwing thing. Thirty eight people were arrested. In London there were ‘gatherings’ at different places mainly for concerts and although the events in London and Manhattan were in conjunction with the convergence on San Fran as far as I know the crowds at the other cities came and went during that summer and didn’t stay around as long as what occurred in San Fran.

At the end of the summer as the young people were leaving San Fran and heading back to college those who remained held a mock funeral to commemorate the event. Called, “The Death of the Hippie”, the organizers wanted to get a message out to the young people. One of the organizers explained it this way, ‘We wanted to signal that this was the end of it, to stay where you are, bring the revolution to where you live and don’t come here because it’s over and done with.”

Events in San Fran will be held throughout this summer to commemorate the 50th anniversary. In Liverpool, England a festival called ’50 Summers of Love’ was staged based on the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band LP.

Some writers and journalist have written that what came out of the summer of 1967 had its beginning of the end during the summer of 1969. That summer the Manson Family murders took front page all across the US. When pictures of Charlie Manson and his ‘family’ members were published showing their ‘hippie’ look and stories were told about the drug use in the group, the American public became very leery of the hippie culture. Later in 1969 at a free concert put on by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway near San Fran four people died including one who was stabbed and beaten by the security the Rolling Stones had hired. The security was the Hell’s Angels. Again, this event, where long hair, drugs, free love, flowers in their hair, and hippie fashions were on parade tarnished the ‘make love, not war’ image the hippies had hoped would catch on across America.

Two things I take away from the summer of love. First off, how many of the young people involved in going to San Fran are still in the ‘hippie’ mode. How many got jobs in large corporations such as IBM, Dupont, 3M, Bristol-Myers, General Mills, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor, GM, etc, etc, etc. How many had 2 ½ kids, a dog and a 2 car garage. How many never left the campus life becoming grad students and then profs. I jest a little but I wonder what became of those 100,000. Second of all, I have always been intrigued by the way the baby boomer generation gets a lot of blame or glory for changing our culture. But the thing to realize is that all the ‘leaders’ at the time, Timothy Leary, Michael Bowen, Abbie Hoffman, Ken Kesley, Jerry Rubin, etc were products the late 1920’s through the early 1940’s. One, David Dillenger was born in 1915. To me it seems a much older group wanted to change what was culturally acceptable and lead younger people into helping with their causes.

So, have a great summer full of fun, good memories, love and music, and lots of vinyl. Come to the BRC record show and find that LP or 45 from the Summer of Love and enjoy!

HEY! HAVE YOU HEARD THIS ONE?

Women Is Losers

Big Brother & The Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin

(1967)

 

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HEARD THIS HIT?

San Franciscan Nights

Eric Burdon & The Animals

(# 4 1967)

See ya,

Charlie

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