Record Companies Learned How To Relax

The music helped to inspire politically aware kids in the streets of Paris, Mexico City, Chicago - and even London.

Governments were forced to re-think how to control their rebellious youth. No more could the Pentagon wage war with an army of unwilling conscripts.

Mexico and France led the way in the violent suppression of student activism while Britain and America’s responses were more subtle.

By the early 70s, excess had claimed the lives of many of music’s pioneers and a constricted post-Oil-crisis economy had clamped down on the carefree hedonism of the mid-60s.

Today, the world is still having trouble coming to terms with the social and political changes born in the 60s.

In music, we are left with box-sets, reissues and sound-alike tribute bands.

Ponderous heavy-metal guitar solos mock Dylan’s night in Newport and Oasis’ pallid imitations do their best to sully the legacy of The Beatles.

“Underground” or “revolutionary” music now comes with a corporate sponsor and doesn’t even try to lead its followers into the streets to protest government misdeeds.

History is cyclical.

- Joe Boyd