Sounds of the Sixties: "Gentleman Rock"

[zoomboogity]

Maybe I’m not quite understanding the premise of this thread. It seems to spring forth from the idea that there was all of this great, raw guitar rock -‘and then a wave of 60s gentle-folk performed a testicular separation procedure of some kind.

But wasn’t the truth more that the hard stuff and the softer stuff all existed together on concurrent tracks?

The whole premise of this thread doesn't seem all that serious in the first place. And a lot of the "harder" music was just as lousy as the "softer" stuff. It's like, "Fuck that wimpy shit, we got BALLS" - no, dude, you have a fuzzbox and your guitar amplifier has a blown horn. Your songs still suck.

[pcqgod]

I blame Gerry and the Pacemakers.

[sloopjohnc]

I blame Gerry and the Pacemakers.

Or as Davey might describe it, "Ferry over the testicular separation."

[Bent Fabric]

But wasn’t the truth more that the hard stuff and the softer stuff all existed together on concurrent tracks?

Further to that end, I think if you throw some guitars and wigs on the Four Preps or Mitch Miller, they more or less become the Fortunes.

[bobzilla77]

These guys seem like you could take them home in 1966 and your mom might consider the singer to be a "good catch."

[Bent Fabric]

These guys seem like you could take them home in 1966 and your mom might consider the singer to be a "good catch."

I mean, they are certainly singing about some timeless shit that your folks can absolutely relate to. All of those sort of pre-rock idioms just kind of hanging in there (the Four Seasons minus the working class drama).

You bring Sky Saxon home to your mom in 1966, she probably calls the cops - not least because SHE remembers him from high school

[zoomboogity]

I dunno, they seem to be polite young gentlemen.

[Rayge]

But wasn’t the truth more that the hard stuff and the softer stuff all existed together on concurrent tracks?

That's the way I remember it, and it didn't start in the late Sixties either, went back to at least the Fifties, and rock and roll*. There was always a frantic fringe and the more moderate, wide-appeal crowd, for every Esquireta a Boone.
And even in this period there were bands that straddled the two. The Association were a case in point. Cherish, Never My Love and Windy, and the way they dressed and presented themselves, were pitched at the heart of the mainstream, but the druggy message of Along Comes Mary, the anti- war Requiem for the Masses and whatever the fuck Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies was about (I never really tried with that one, it was the sound of it that grabbed me and suggested outer terrritories) suggested a whole other thing going on. And didn't the Mamas and Papas slip out some nasty sex and drug songs along with the harmonies (although they never really pretended to be straight, tbh)?
Anyway, in case you never heard it, PGHJ – the perverse Follow-Up to their number one with Cherish - barely scraped the top 40



*Hell, back to Romantics vs Classicists in the 18th century if you squint a bit

[Bent Fabric]

There's often a tendency to "go binary" with this sort of thing - and in any "Look - I know it when I hear it, okay?" scenario, one may be courting an even smaller book club than normal.

That Association song is incredible - seems like real acid damaged magic. Not unlike the Turtles or Simon and Garfunkel, it absolutely suggests a firm foot in multiple worlds.

There's a recent comp out there (highly recommended) which is basically "When the squares turned on" - THIS sort of thing:

[Darkness_Fish]

I dunno, they seem to be polite young gentlemen.

I never knew Mick Jagger had a stroke, let alone recovered just enough to mime to a song for them.

[clive gash]

Gentleman’s wash.

[zoomboogity]

I never knew Mick Jagger had a stroke, let alone recovered just enough to mime to a song for them.

He couldn't stay for long, though - Davy Jones needed his maraca and tambourine back.

[Charlie O.]