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This is the first history of the Hippie Trail. It records the joys
and pains of budget travel to Kathmandu, India, Afghanistan and
other 'points east' in the 1960s and 1970s. Written in a clear,
simple style, it provides detailed analysis of the motivations and
the experiences of hundreds of thousands of hippies who travelled
eastwards. The book is structured around four key debates: were the
travellers simply motivated by a search for drugs? Did they
encounter love or sexual freedom on the road? Were they basically
just tourists? Did they resemble pilgrims? It also considers how
the travellers have been represented in films, novels and
autobiographical accounts, and will appeal to those interested in
the Trail or the 1960s counterculture, as well as students taking
courses relating to the 1960s. -- .
Time marches on: by 2022 it will have been fifty years since the
release of the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. and the epic,
infamous American tour the band undertook to promote that album.
2022 also marks the 60th anniversary year of the formation of the
band. The Rolling Stones In America is published in time to mark
both of these anniversaries. Why were the Stones so successful in
the States when so many other English bands failed to make their
mark? Why was the band so drawn towards American blues music? What
was their relationship with the burgeoning American
counter-culture? What really happened at Altamont, and why? It
could be argued that a marker for the end of the Sixties era might
be the Stones' infamous 1972 American tour. So much had changed in
the three years since their last American tour that the 1972 tour
might deserve deeper attention than it had previously been given;
perhaps it might even be as significant as other events that
cultural historians traditionally identify to mark the end of the
long 1960s - such as Richard Nixon's re-election for a second
Presidential term in November 1971, the Watergate scandal and
impeachment of 1973 that ended Nixon's presidency, or the American
military withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973, with the war ending in
defeat in 1975. This hugely detailed tome addresses those
questions, making this a unique addition to the Rolling Stones'
bibliography.
Published to tie in with the 50th anniversary of these festivals,
Brian Ireland revisits the events, taking stock of their historical
importance, and to note their influence not just on popular culture
and society, but as part of a new musical culture that developed in
the late 1960s and which saw young, similarly-minded people engage
about multiple rights issues such as military draft, free speech,
civil rights, gender equality, drug use, spirituality, capitalism -
even revolution. It explores the festivals' organisation,
promotion, and unfolding, as well as their immediate and enduring
impact. The book is also about the 1960s, particularly the
political, social, and cultural changes that provided the context
for these festivals. A catalyst for these changes was the `baby
boom' that provided the `foot soldiers' for both the Vietnam War
and the counterculture that opposed it. It also provided the
audiences for music festivals such as the annually recurring
Newport Folk Festival, and for one-off events like 1967's Monterey
and of course 1969's Woodstock, and Altamont. The activism of this
young generation, the `New Left', looked to American values of
freedom and democracy, but found them undermined by rampant
consumerism, political assassinations, and by the horrors of the
Vietnam War. All of this is explored behind the backdrop of the
music festivals to form a broad social agenda for change that, by
the time of Woodstock, transformed how Americans viewed themselves
and their society. The Altamont Speedway Free Festival occurred
just a few months later. Meant to be a `Woodstock West' it is
nevertheless remembered as the antithesis of Woodstock, mainly
because of the violence that unfolded and especially the tragic
death of Meredith Hunter - killed by Hells Angels who were employed
to provide security at the festival. Country Joe McDonald, a
notable performer at Woodstock, sums up the popular memory of both
festivals: "Woodstock and Altamont seem like bookends to the great
social experiment of the late sixties.' The former seems proof that
hippie idealism about peace and love was possible; Altamont,
however, seems to reflect the dark side of the hippie dream - the
flip side of the coin which has Charles Manson's face upon it.
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R383
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