| Listening To Garage Band Music With An Educated Ear |
Don Sucher was a founding member of, and lead guitarist in, The Abstracts (1964 -1966). In November 2011, Break-A-Way Records compiled an entire album's worth of Abstracts songs, including their single, unreleased demos and recordings and live recordings. Titled Hey, Let's Go Now!, the LP is available online at several of the top reissue mail order companies.
| |
 |
| Don Sucher |
|
Okay, I admit it; I have never been much of a party animal. Even in my youth, if I wasn't on the bandstand I preferred to be with just a few good friends in deep conversation. Still, when a friend and co-worker announced he was going to host a "'60s party" I was more than a little intrigued. What did he and his twenty-something friends know about the sixties? How did they view that time period – my time period? I decided I had to go and find out.
"Dress for the sixties!" commanded the party invitation. I thought about digging through that chest of old clothes in the cellar. Would my embroidered vest still fit? How about the Nehru jacket I'd actually worn to my wife's cousin's wedding (shudder)? No, I decided after some thought, I'd skip the costume and let any '60s vibe emanate from my old soul.
"Bring along your sixties music!" was the invitation's second commandment. That I decided to ignore as well, one reason being that there would be no turntable available, just a CD player. But more than that was my very reason for accepting the invitation in the first place: To hear the music of the sixties as this younger audience perceived it. What recordings would they bring? I couldn't wait to find out!
The party was, I have to say, a hoot. How could it not be? These were good people having a good time. And the "sixties vibe" was, if far from genuine, at least a lot of fun.
Dress-wise the theme of the night was bell bottoms and beads. In fact never had I seen so many beads! Beaded headbands. Beaded necklaces. Oh, and peace symbols. Not even at Abbie Hoffman's East Village digs had I seen so many.
And then there was the vocabulary – words and expressions that I have to admit still occasionally echoed in my sixties-fevered brain. Exclamations of "Groovy!" "I'm hip!" and "Wow!" filled the air – air that was, by the way, a bit "cleaner" than I remembered it being at the parties I'd gone to back in the sixties. That was OK. Few people these days use tobacco – a good thing - and that other weed was not to be seen nor, by me at least, missed.
But what about the thing that was dearest to my heart? What about the music?
The Beatles, of course, I expected to hear, and in that I was not disappointed. (Although the selection was far smaller than I would have anticipated.) There were also some Stones - apparently from a "Greatest Hits" collection. Again not unexpected. I was pleasantly surprised to hear some Lovin' Spoonful, a few cuts by Cream, and a few tracks from a Jefferson Airplane CD that some adventurous soul had brought along. Hendrix was, of course, expected, and in that my young friends did not disappoint. But that was about it. What about music that could be considered "garage band?" Of that I heard none. Nor for that matter did I hear anything that hadn't spent several weeks on the AM radio "top ten" chart.
Why do I tell this little tale here? Because I think it well illustrates something that we lovers of sixties music have come to know: That the "real" sixties -- from its art to its attitude -- is lost on the average person today. Yes, some of the songs remain – and always, I think, will. But the true heart and soul of the '60s music scene is being lost. Or it would be if not for sites such as this one – 60sgaragebands.com. And as importantly, if not for people like you – this site's readers.
But if we fans of real sixties music – the stuff that came out of the minds of the era's young musicians and not just the period's studio sales people – want to keep that music alive there are things we have to do...
One is to NOT do what I did. To simply go to a party and only listen to the music that other people bring. We've got to share what we have – our treasures!
Too, we need to keep on learning. To come to better understand and better appreciate the music we love. And that is the purpose of this, the first in what we hope to make a series of articles. Articles that will explore sixties music – not primarily in the form of lists or announcements about newly available recordings or newly rediscovered groups (those we can find well represented elsewhere on this website), but through an exploration of what was and is at the very heart of sixties music.
Some of the subjects we plan to cover are:
The 1960s - a unique time produces a sound all it's own
The Gear That Produced the Sound - Guitars, amplifiers, keyboards and more
The Recording Studio of the '60s - How it influenced the garage band sound
The Music Biz - Garage band music's biggest friend and its biggest foe
I hope you'll join me for this trip into the past; this exploration of the sixties garage band sound. But more than that I hope you will participate -- that you'll share some of your own observations with us here at 60sgaragebands.com.
Email Don at don@60sgaragebands.com.
|
 |
| The Abstracts: Don Sucher, front and center |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
