“You’ll Never Be Sixteen Again” – Episode 5 (1969-1975) – Narrated by John Peel – BBC Radio 1 – 1983 –
Continuing with Episode five of “You’ll Never Be Sixteen Again”, narrated by John Peel and covering the period of 1969 to roughly 1975.
For a lot of people, these were the Limbo Years. America was going through increasing pressure to end the war in Vietnam. The era of Nixon and later of Watergate was putting the country through changes which would only intensify as the decade went on. The years of the British Invasion were behind us – radio was taking sides, between AM and FM Underground, and even the BBC was catering more to a younger audience than it had before. Top Of The Pops was the be-all/end-all program for anyone growing up in Britain during the 1970s.
And if you were in Britain at the time, you were going through your own social upheavals. Unemployment was on the rise and disenfranchised youth were turning to more diverse, and in some cases more violent movements. The rise of the Skinhead and race riots on the one hand. The birth of Glam and Glitter Rock, Teeny-bopper Rock and a lot of drugs on the other hand turned the UK into something of a ball of confusion.
The world was losing it’s icons to drugs and wretched excess – Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison were the first, and most notable to go – and it was pretty much agreed the 60s were definitely over.
In this episode of “You’ll Never Be Sixteen Again”, the exploration of kids coming of age after 1970 – Hard Rock taking center stage and the split between Rock and Progressive audiences – the further split between Teen Idols and the Age of the Androgynous with David Bowie, T. Rex and many others.
And like every stretch of time and every coming-of-age, the 70s represented the absolute doldrums to those who came of age in the 60s and the world on the cusp of the Next Big Thing for those who were coming of age during the 1970s. Different things to different people.
A round-about way of saying whatever year it was you came of age was the best year of your life, and now it was the 70s.
Next installment: Punk.
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