“The Year 1967 Seems Rather Golden”

— Paul McCartney

The new year of 1967 was welcomed in with a Psychadelicamania performance by The Who at the Roundhouse, the band was supported on the night by Pink Floyd. Whilst Psychedelia was at its foundations, their performance was a clear message of what was to come ahead.

German art historian Christopher Grunenberg commented that ‘the 1960s were one of those rare moments in history when art, politics and cultural circumstances coalesced to create a favourable environment of imagination, experimentation and commitment’. This statement epitomises the creative and enigmatic spirit that was nurtured into fruition during the 1960s, a spirit that has shaped our societal notions of love, freedom and sex today. Against the backdrop of the 1950s Beatnik generation, in which writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso wrote in the haste of the necessity for rebellion against social norms and confines, it grows obvious how such concepts catalysed a period of mass social upheaval and change. This abandonment of social conformity is well symbolised in the 1967 “Summer of Love” in the UK. This season in 1967 was marked by free love and thus became a melting pot for experimentations of the mind, body and soul for many young people. In amongst these explorations, psychedelics found the perfect conditions to grow and prosper. Reflecting on the creation of his theatre show, “All You Need is LSD”, playwright Leo Butler has stated, ‘Sometimes LSD’s influence is explicit, other times I think it’s the ripple effect on the culture’. Butler's statement resonates, as the ‘Summer of Love’ in 1967 was most definitely facilitated by the acid explosion within the UK that same year. LSD, or Lysergic acid diethylamide in its scientific terms, is a hallucinogenic drug that came to its first height of UK recreational usage during the 1960s. Despite becoming illegal to possess or distribute, a year prior,1967 news reportings, particularly those circulated by News of the World3, secured the drugs’ position within the psyche of the youth of 67’. The reports pivotally related LSD to the lives and lyrics of many 1960s pop and rock idols. Bridging a gap between the starstruck fan and their inspirations and saviours, LSD became the one way of accessing creative parity with the stars. The usage of recreational drugs, most popularly, LSD, created a rift between young people and their parents’ generation, as moral chains were being thrown off and societal expectations tested.

This rift gave way to the counterculture movement of the 1960s, which became characterised by changes in identity, sexuality and ideas surrounding the future of the youth. With the youth of the time expressing discontent with racial, political and gendered injustices, it only alienated them, in the eyes of bodies of authority. They became resistant and rebellious characters, ripping a hole in the social fabric of the UK. It may be this societal perception along with the popularity of recreational drugs amongst the youth, that brought the term, ‘Hippy’ to be multifaceted in its understanding, even today. Being a ‘Hippy’ was a concept that crossed to the UK from the United States during this time, and relates to a person who is up-to-date and free-spirited in their life choices and mindset. Though, during the summer of 1967 it can be said that, hippies gained a negative perception by a large chunk of society, particularly by the previous generation. Their expressions of free love and sexual lasciviousness during that summer, doubled with their outspoken views on current affairs brought them to be seen as almost social rebels, rather than the forward-thinking, creative people that most were. As some sociologists suggest, the hippies are the product of a turbulent society, not the creators of it. With the proliferation of LSD and free love, it was only fitting that at the opening phase of 1967 clothing motivations had changed, while 1966 had given birth to a wider variety of colours involved in clothing, 1967 saw the birth of more ‘crazy clothes’ as described by Bridget Keenan. One example would be the more frequent use of the ‘boating blazer’, the idea behind this came about through the incessantly used term “experimentation”.

1967 clothing was driven by its cultural factors and those were London’s subcultures. The main subcultural divide in London in 1967 was still that of the Mods and Rockers. Mods musicians and bands in 1967 London had turned to the studio as opposed to live performances examples of these would include the Small Faces & The Action but more prominently The Beatles (who defined themselves as mockers) had made this musical advancement the previous year. The rocker movement in 1967 was culturally becoming less prominent due to its 1950s outdated roots, for Music lovers' experimentation had to be met with colour, these are the principle facts that defined 1967.

The Psychedelic movement in 1967 became largely defined by the new Freakbeat scene. This had pushed forward a new wave for the London music scene. Whilst the majority of chart-toppers remained commercialised in essence, there had been vastly more variety in sounds at the top of the UK chart. Examples can be given in June 1967’s Melody Maker where we see future stars such as Traffic reaching number 12 in the singles chart. The Underground scene, however, became more defined by what we know as “Rock” music today developments in PA systems and Microphones allowed for better quality recordings and the introduction of the 16-track tape mixer dubbed the ‘MM 1000’8 had allowed for more experimentation in recordings particularly at EMI where The Beatles had been recording the infamous Sgt Pepper’s. The general conclusion surrounding this is that by the summer of 1967 artists were better equipped to record the music of the future. While this point may seem irrelevant it is these technological advancements which culturally define the change in fashion.

Fashion was by July of 1967 at its peak in advancements, a change in public acceptance had become mainstream and shops became adaptive to these changes. Advertisements and shop interiors had become more dynamic in terms of colour. An example can be seen in the image below:

Carnaby Street in "Swinging London" circa 1966

The “Summer of Love” is in itself the beginning of contemporary Britain as we see it today. It was a period for music and fashion where we thought not about the present but the future. It was a time when we built a greater understanding of the technological advancements around us and used them in a commercialised manner. It was the summer when London was at its peak of fashionable vibrancy. It really was the best of Britain.

Authors:

Harry Hughes (Instagram: @historywithharry) and Millie Coffey (Instagram: mill_history)

Bibliography:

https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2013/06/the-birth-of-psychedelic-london

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20181016-how-lsd-influenced-western-culture

Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain https://a.co/d/cadoyys

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1186&context=the_councilor

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/regulars/44344/the-way-we-were-london-1967the-summer-of-love

https://www.johnsmedley.com/discover/community/mod-culture/

https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Melody-Maker/60s/67/Melody-Maker-1967-0617.pdf

https://www.tecawards.org/node/1623

Image Bibliography: