Kids today, they don't appreciate how bad the mid-70's really were. They think Raleigh Choppers and muttonchop sideburns are neat. But they don't know about Dralon lounge suites and macrame. They never had to talk to someone whose life has been changed by Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. They never had to sing Morning Has Broken in school assembly. It was rough then.
Look, here are some kids in 1975. They can't dance, their hair is too long and they all have really awful v-necks. Fortunately, some visitors from the future have arrived to teach them Cool. Their lives may never be the same again.
7 comments:
This is probably the result of a New Zealand fashion lag, but I remember macrame owls and Dralon couches from the '80s.
In fact, my mum was particularly taken with Dralon due to it being hard-wearing, resilient and easy to clean. So we ended up with a couple of trendy '80s couches covered in Dralon instead of the more standard country cottage printed cotton.
Can I just say I don't know anybody whose life was actually changed by Godel, Escher, Bach, let alone in the mid-seventies (the book came out in 1979). Still a cracking read, though. Best enjoyed in the Dralon softcover edition.
Fixt.
There is truly an egregious level of knitwear featured in the audience, but this matches with my own memories of the period (in which my mother dressed me funny).
"Can I just say I don't know anybody whose life was actually changed by Godel, Escher, Bach"
No, you can't. Because we are acquainted, and I'm afraid that book is largely if not wholly responsible for me becoming a programmer (and for various other aspects of my outlook on life as well). Dad brought it home from the polytech library some time in the late 70s or early 80s and recursive loops have been bugging me ever since. (I already liked both Escher and Bach before reading the book. Yes, I did have an unusual childhood.)
Not unusual at all. Like most kids our age you would have played Gyruss and Escher is well known to the point of becoming Simpsons fodder. If you had been a fan of Godel, now, that would put you in a special category.
But on the basic point I stand corrected.
Thank you, Paul. Yes, indeed the seventies were awful, apart from punk. Flares, platform shoes, Mary Whitehouse, the Bay City Rollers, Abba, horridly large lapels and other scariness.
Craig Y
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