The death knell for the innocence of the flower power years of the 1960s was first sounded by the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy in 1968 with the latter resulting in the eventual election of Richard Nixon to his first term as President of the United States and an escalation of the war in Vietnam. With Nixon in office, and the body count rising in South East Asia, the non-violent protests of the 1960s were soon a thing of the past. In 1971 Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students demonstrating against the war at Kent State university resulting in the deaths of four protesters. All of a sudden music about love, peace and LSD making the world a better place wasn't such a good fit for the times as people didn't really want to be reminded about what was going on around them but preferred entertainment which would help them forget their troubles.
The glam - short for glamour - rock movement which saw rock bands doing everything from wearing their girlfriends' clothes on stage (The New York Dolls) to wearing elaborate costumes, dying their hair and slathering on the make-up, was, on the whole, escapism to the max. More concerned with style than substance the music was a harbinger of what was later to become known as the ME decade. Self indulgent, flashy and quite often musically simplistic, glam rock wasn't about social change, it was about everybody having a good time and rock and roll superstars preening in the spotlight. Of course that wasn't true of all those at the time, there are always those who find a way to transcend a genre and make a definitive statement about themselves and their music at the same time.
According to a new documentary, The Sacred Triangle: David, Iggy & Lou 1971 - 73, being released on DVD November 23, 2010 by Chrome Dreams on the and distributed by MVD Entertainment, three such exceptions at the time were David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed. While these three men are now well-known singers and songwriters for a variety of reasons, the early 1970s saw each of them at a crossroads in their respective careers. Bowie was still looking to breakthrough as a popular performer; Reed was looking to start a solo career after his break with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground; and Pop was trying to recover from the excesses of the original Stooges.
Article comments
1 - Lionel Ulloa Jr.
This documentary vault filmwork just see the light of the day very just on time!.. and that's the deal it's about time, this is a timeless jewl.