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My Music Years 60's/ 70's


kenneth Cooke

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Some one finally digitised my archive of images taken, mainly by myself during the 60's and early 70's. They are mainly taken at The Cambridge Folk Festival/ Islington Country Music Festival including backstage and picking sessions. Although most of my images are with Martin Guitars I did own a J45 and a Blonde Southern Jumbo which sadly do not feature in the images. I mainly played old timey and bluegrass, old time being my favoured genre. I am now 66 years of age, clean and sober but due ti 4 strokes in the 80's which resulted in brain damage effecting my left hand my playing is somewhat dramatically effected but I started to pick again a couple of years back and although I will never play on stage again I felt unable to turn my back of something that gave me so much pleasure. I hope you enjoy the enclosed images and they stimulate some happy memories for you after all this was an amasing time, the like of which we may never see again My Music Years 60's/70's

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Love it. Good to see another geezer with similar experiences here. I recently posted here about somebody finding a reel to reel tape from 1966 with one of my bands on it. As far as I know it is the only surviving musical record from those days. One of these days my analog brain will get around to figuring out how to post sound clips. I never played anything as big as the Cambridge gig but I was all over the place for the Great Hudson River Revival /Clearwater Festivals which started in 1966. Also was a mainstay at Arlo Guhtrie's early Strawberry Festivals. Nothing official and nothing like what these Festivals later grew into. Just sitting in and doing some backup but I really did have a lot of fun and do miss those days.

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Good to see a few old American friends in some of the photos. Brings back a lot of memories of folk festivals from the 60's and 70's.

 

While those days are long gone, and most of us of a certain age are not quite what we were 45 years ago, many of us still enjoy playing to the best of our limited ability. You are not alone in your travails, or in your history of coming back to playing after decades of life getting in the way.

 

Welcome aboard!

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Ooooooo these are buckets of water right down my stream.

 

Having 1963 to 1974 as my absolute favorite period in beat-music, this material shines.

 

I was was there - and had my ears and eyes open - tho not more than a child.

 

First Lp - 1965 (Help!). First festival approx 1972. First song learned on guitar - 1973.

 

So guess I'm just an 'eezer'. . .

 

Thanks for posting - and keep sharing photos and memories.

 

Something huuuuge was born during those days

 

 

 

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Ken, I feel you brother!!! Just looking at your pics I can see my life also. Funny, music can be a staple in all of our lives. Thanks to the music that comes out of all of us, we all can appreciate where we've been and where we're going. Hats off to ya, my friend! Rock on!

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Hard to think of sitting around playing Tom Paxton's "Last Thing on My Mind" (which I think everybody in their 60s has played even if only in the bathroom) as "huge"

 

Been playing that tune since 1992 - and respect it a lot.

 

A trio-record with Eric Andersen, Jonas Fjeld and Rick Danko opened my eyes for the song (which had a diffuse life in there anyway).

 

You got reasons of plenty for goin' - this I know this I know

 

And these seeds have been steadily growing - please don't go please don't go

 

, , , are my top-lines

 

 

 

 

 

But Zomb, , , there were other tunes-trips'n'tours aboard the carousel, weren't there. . .

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Great to see pics like these. A real trip down "Memory Lane." Makes you think about how many of those folks are no longer with us. I have no idea how many people I've met at music festivals, coffeehouses, churches, etc. So many of them now left behind due to the miles, the times, and just living our lives. These pictures are easily "worth a thousand words." All of those people were/are sinners. A few maybe saints. Some losers, but still all winners. Some Hollywood faces. There's definitely a song in this kind of material........... Thanks for sharing. Great to have you back playing.

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Hard to think of sitting around playing Tom Paxton's "Last Thing on My Mind" (which I think everybody in their 60s has played even if only in the bathroom) as "huge"

 

Believe it or not, I just thought of that song recently, and started playing it again after not even thinking about it for 40 years. It was one of those songs that I loved to play for the girls back then.

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Great pics. Thank you. I was in Boston in college from 64 to 68, so that's right up my alley. I believe I saw a shot of Tom Rush and his Texan in your collection.

 

I met Tom Paxton at our local book store about 20 years ago. He was signing a children's book he had written. He played "Where I'm Bound" and when he finished I told him I had learned to finger pick using that song. He said "Me too!"

 

I still have several copies of the Boston Broadside from 1965 and 66.

 

Thanks for the memories.

 

Rich

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Believe it or not, I just thought of that song recently, and started playing it again after not even thinking about it for 40 years. It was one of those songs that I loved to play for the girls back then.

That's one of my "go to" tunes. I heard it first by Doc Watson and play it sort of like he did, not the Paxton version I finally heard later. When I say "sort of" I mean you would recognize it after I told you what it was. Maybe.

 

Rich

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My Last Thing On My Mind moment :

 

22 years ago I was recording and mixing in a gigantic studio overhere (place where Elton John have recorded fx).

It's located on the far countryside and there's not much to do but to work and walk the nature, read and listening to music.

So therefor they have installed a big swimmingpool and a 'Leisure-room' and this and this and you name it. . .

Among all that gear also a sun-box, , one of those 1-man rockets or , , , , fridge-like coffins. I had never used such thing, but thought, what the heck, why not give it a try.

Lying inside claustrophobic and hammer-bored was an ideal chance to learn the lyrics for Last Thing - which I had just encountered on the Andersen/Fjeld/Danko record.

And yes - it's a fine finger-p teacher

 

Then, , , a few months later, I got a new girl-friend, who soon invited me home to a family-dinner.

Musical folks they were - mother, mothers sister, bigger brother, his silent French wife - and during coffee with brandy, the guitars came up.

"You can play", her mom said, , , "do you know Last Thing On My Mind, it's one we sing here. . . ".

 

I had my answer ready, , ,

 

and naturally was glorified. .

 

,-)

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Hey, I wan't picking on Tom or his song. Just whenever I think of a tune that everybody but everybody played that one is it. I only met Paxton once and that was in the early 1970s when I was working for Lee Hays. But it seemed that everybody would stop by to have a chat with Lee.

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Cool. I cut my teeth on British Invasion, Buffalo,Springfield, the Byrds, CCR...does that make m e a youngster?

 

P

 

 

Yup, cuz the American guys were mostly folkies who picked up electric guitars after seeing the Beatles on the Sullivan Show. So if you were not there before all that happened you are a young 'un (at least to me).

 

I heard the best description of the British Invasion I ever heard a whole back. Think it was Tom Petty. H stated the key to the Beatles and Stones is they were white kids trying to play black music and doing it poorly. And we should all be thankful for it as if they did it well they never would have become what they did.

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Cool. I cut my teeth on British Invasion, Buffalo,Springfield, the Byrds, CCR...does that make m e a youngster?

 

P

 

Depends on how old you were when you cut your teeth. Rubber Soul came out my freshman year in college; Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" a year later. If you were still in high school at the time of Woodstock, you ain't quite a geezer yet, depending on your state of mind......

 

Some here, like Em7, were pretty precocious in their musical tastes for their tender years. The rest of us were just along for the ride.

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Ken, kudos to whomever did all that photo scanning - fun collection. Rubber Soul was my first record album, but it wasn't until maybe 5 years ago that I had ever heard of Tom Paxton - tragic, eh? Going to have to track down a couple of songs and stick them on the "Songs to Learn " pages.

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OK, a show of hands. How many of you started drooling over those Silvertone electrics in the Sears catalog after seeing the Beatles on Sullivan (well they did look like the guitars the Fab Four were playing). My hand is up. I first tried slapping Dearmond pickup on an acoustic to make it an electric but it just was not the same thing. The Beatles killed he careers of more budding folkies than a zombie apocalypse plague.

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OK, a show of hands. How many of you started drooling over those Silvertone electrics in the Sears catalog after seeing the Beatles on Sullivan (well they did look like the guitars the Fab Four were playing). My hand is up. I first tried slapping Dearmond pickup on an acoustic to make it an electric but it just was not the same thing. The Beatles killed he careers of more budding folkies than a zombie apocalypse plague.

 

 

Nah, I was still in my folkie phase, and at the end of the day, I still am some 50 years later. Still have a couple of ES 335's, but they haven't been out of their cases in several years.

 

Not that I didn't listen to and love rock, but I was still more into solo performing, particularly if there was a girl to play for and sing to.....

 

Girls. It was usually about the girls back then. Oh yeah, and the music. Still is. Probably more about the music now. But I still think about the girls.......

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OK, a show of hands.

 

Me and good buddy Kim made cardboard electrics with wooden braces on the back around 1970 and performed play-back like mad.

We would stand in the light from a colored bulb all evening recycling Beatles For Sale, which I had traded for Waiting For The Sun with an older hippie.

The real electrics were only tried in short glimpses when the bigger boys of the hood threw mercy on our green souls. .

 

But I swear to the lords above he we rocked with badminton-rags as early as '65.

Again imitating The Fabs, we found out there was a problem.

One of us was Ringo at the time - the most popular role - and if we had to get it right, the guitar-player would stand with his back against the drummer.

Hehe, , and that just would mean no fun as we wouldn't be able to see each other. .

 

After playing we emulated the newly married Ringo and Maureen and as a couple moved into his parents closet - at the age of 6 we were already 100 % crazy. .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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