At the beginning....

An excerpt from the beginning of my book Daydream Sunset...

https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/26/stones-hendrix-and-altamont/

Goodbye to all That

On February 9, 1970, the NYC underground paper RAT published an all-women's issue, the result of a takeover of the paper by is female staff and their supporters.  The highlight of the issue--for its militant separatism, right-on targeting of male chauvinism in the counterculture, and its fiery use of language and imagery was the piece attributed to Robin Morgan titled "Goodbye to all That."  Here is a link to the piece:

http://blog.fair-use.org/2007/09/29/goodbye-to-all-that-by-robin-morgan-1970/

The importance of this piece to the early feminist movement of the late 1960s and the 1970s is reflected in its availability online.  I discuss it in my book on the Weather Underground and in Daydream Sunset.

Let it Bleed

Let it Bleed was released in the US on December 5, 1969.  As I wrote in a piece that first appeared in the now-defunct Vermont Times (and later appeared in Counterpunch and other zines: "Musically, the Rolling Stones were touring the country promoting their new album Let It Bleed , another of their adventures in reworking North American blues and folk idioms into hard-driving rock and roll. The song of the summer had been Honky Tonk Women, which appeared on the album as a boozy country funk. Perhaps the most important song on the platter, however, was Gimme Shelter, a blistering indictment of the world of war and greed."

He wear no shoeshine, he got

On September 26, 1969 the album Abbey Road was released in the United States.  I remember waiting in line to buy my copy.  I took it home and after dinner my friends and I listened to it.  The song "Come Together" (originally written as a campaign song for Timothy Leary's run for California governor against Ronnie Raygun, among others) had been on the radio for a while.  I listened to that album over and over and over.  It is still on my playlist and it always makes me happy these days then when a song from the album plays in my ears on my walk to work.   Abbey Road and the Stones Let it Bleed made it clear that things were going to be a little different in the 1970s.

Letting it Bleed: Joel Selvin Takes on Altamont

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/09/letting-it-bleed-2/

Let There Be Rock

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/01/let-there-be-rock/

Blast From the Past--1969

This piece first appeared in the now defunct newspaper edited by Shay Totten--the Vermont Times....it was reprinted in Counterpunch a few years later...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/01/13/a-blast-from-the-past/