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Book 69 - Danny Goldberg "In Search Of The Lost Chord"

Danny Goldberg "In Search Of The Lost Chord" (Icon Books)



I've always found it kind of interesting to look back on this particular part of history. Interesting and confusing, because I inevitably find that my feelings towards these members of the 60s counterculture consist of equal parts admiration and disdain. The admiration is for their belief in many causes I think were absolutely right, for their ability to speak with sincere earnestness about subjects like peace and love that we can't seem to approach today without ironic cynicism and an almost reflexive desire to cringe away from anything "corny," and for their dedication to being the change they wanted to see in the world. Not to mention the fact that they produced some darned good music. The disdain is for their often painful naivete, for their embracing of New Age gobbledygook and other forms of irrationality, for what often seems to be a baby-with-the-bathwater approach to the rejection of mainstream society, and for their downright unhealthy obsession with hard drugs.

It's basically an overview of the hippie movement, focusing primarily on 1967, the year the counterculture wave seems to have crested. The author, Danny Goldberg, graduated from high school that year, and is thus describing the world he came of age into and considered himself a part of. He also happens to to have had a number of connections to significant people in the hippie scene, directly or indirectly. He calls this a "subjective history" of the subject, interspersing straightforward reporting about the events of '67 with occasional comments about his own thoughts and experiences. In theory, this sounds like a good idea, avoiding creating the misleading impression of distance and complete objectivity and adding a little bit of an immediate, personal touch. In practice, I'm not sure it works all that well, as Goldberg's interjections about his own life sometimes seem out of place, grafted awkwardly onto more journalistic writing. And, while I doubt it was deliberate, I couldn't help feeling like it consisted largely of a lot of authorial name-dropping.

That aside, though, this was generally well-researched and informative, and given its ostensibly narrow focus on one particular year, it actually covers quite a lot of ground. I will say that I found some sections a lot more interesting than others. The discussion of the relationship between the hippie movement and the civil rights and Black Power movements, for instance, I found illuminating and engaging. Long summations of what festivals were held where and who organized them and who said what from the stage, however, was much less so, and there were times, especially in the early chapters, where my mind started wandering slightly.

But even if my feelings on the book were a little bit mixed, I did find it worth reading. If nothing else, it's useful to be reminded, in times like these, that social turmoil and political divisiveness are nothing new. I'm not sure whether it's a thought that's comforting or frightening, to be honest, but it is definitely one we ought to keep in mind.

A patchy uneven read but still an easy to digest read.

The Friday Five

1) What is the first song you remember from your childhood?

2) What is the first music you purchased with your own money?

3) What's a piece of music that you know by heart?

4) What's a song that makes you turn off the music right away?

5) And why?

In Sittingbourne

Another sunny but very windy and warm day again in which I popped over to Sittingbourne to do one mystery shop. A bingo hall visit, and now that it is done and the report finished, can I just say I hate bingo.m  But for twenty-five quid I kept quiet. and fabbed my dabber in the afternoon sessions. Did not win though.

I also popped into the latest micropub, and this is the third one in town now, had a lovely stout there. Welcome to the Yellow Stocks.