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0bMusic bridges cultural chasm?9$IIm0ft#ft*ININ#*flitoI*fftm!• ..toit•*«t**ivft*#itoIIm000ftftmIt00r|p|pmftHftftftmft#ftfIPftIisIk*ftftft#IPftKRIPftftm*»ifPftbftft•#-»#ftIIftpftftftliftftftft’ftBy LEE MUELLERNEW YORK (NEA)For the most part, rock music is an enigma to the working world, a screeching, amplified distortion of sound that has more relevance to breaking dishes than it has to satisfying esthetic yearnings.Businessmen still make jokes about “kids’ music” and how nobody can understand what it’s saying because the noise is too loud Their investigation into the subject usually goes no further than an accidental twist of the radio dial.Then one morning, trying to shave with one hand and tune his radio with the other, the businessman makes an accidental twist that leads to one of those happy, wideawake disc jockeys, who is saying:“The world is full of cultures, friends. The drug culture, outh culture, black culture, Indian culture, horticulture._ g _ ,culture. There really is a generation yap out there, love, and it's filled with music'. . . like the sound by the B, Sand T . . A gap filled with music? The imagery is fantastic. Light, breezy puffs of quarter notes, floating in a gaping canyon. A transparent wall of language, undecipherable for oneside, gospel for the other.Many things have been blamed for the generation gap in America, most of them tied to communication. Sinceow we are engaged in the greatest culture yet—rockmusic seems a logical means of communication, and since 1 happen to be intrigued by generation gaps, I decided tostop and gawk at one.The place in New York to observe a generation gap is a large, dusty theater on the Lower East Side called Fill-more East. (It is called Fillmore East, presumably, to distinguish it from Fillmore West, which is in San Francisco.)The Fillmore is the Carnegie Hall of rock music. All the nation’s leading rock groups play here, mostly to full houses. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are studied here as assiduously as Sibelius studied Tchaikovsky,The first thing a visitor notices about the Fillmore is not the music or the theater proper. The first thing he notices are the “kids”—rock aficionados and dilettantes—in their element; locked away, for the price of admission, from the intrusions of the real world.The dress is outrageous, of course. Styles range from the long dresses of the 1920s to near-nudity. Shoes are at a premium and so, one thinks, are soap and scissors. Marijuana, however, is plentiful.Upstairs, over the main lobby, is a refreshment stand and two telephone booths. The doors on the telephone booths are glass, but all one sees when he looks at themis smoke.Downstairs in the lobby, zonked patrons lie or sit on the carpeted floors like satiated zombies, eyes closed, groovingto the music.In the audience, occasional flickers of fire and the smell of marijuana smoke blend with the music to create an atmosphere of illicit intimacy not available in your favorite Rock Hudson movie. To keep up appearances, blase ushers, wearing T-shirts with the word “PLEASE” stenciled onthem patrol the aisles with flashlights. The guy next to you lights a joint, takes a couple of drags and the usherhits him with a flash of light.“Put out that cigarette,” he says, gently. The patron smiles, responds and the usher moves on. The patronrelights.On the stage, B, S and T (Blood, Sweat and Tears) playswith enthusiasm. The music is an accurate reflection ofroung thinking a new day, a new way and peace Some ofI is musically flawless All of it is sincere.The generation gap, it seems, will he difficult to bridge.
Newspaper Details
Ames Daily Tribune
Ames, Iowa, US
Thu, Jul 23, 1970
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Los A.
CA, USA 17 Dec 2020
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