Stepping into this incarnation in 1963 meant entering the world the year "Camelot" died and at a time when major social changes were at hand. Post war optimism had given way to conspiratorial paranoia and the youth of western culture were about to find a drug fueled revolutionary voice all their own. From a child's perspective, with no previous reference points to work from, it was all bright colors, crazy music and incongruous language projected from a flickering box that was as naturally a part of the environment as sunshine, trees and streams. There was no questioning this entity nor the constant stream of experiences it radiated.

But there were "subversive" forces beginning to work their way into this medium. It was no longer a picture perfect, homogenized and thoroughly censored electronic sensory organ like it had been the previous decade. Father Knows Best was replaced by Frankenstien's monster. There was a witch making Sunday dinner for the boss. Four young men were aping it up with guitars and LSD inspired stories. The Dynamic Duo were flirting with homosexual innuendo & weekly doses of elaborate bondage & fetish gear. Multi racial space ships were quietly spreading the Word of "Do What Thou Wilt" under the guise of a "Prime Directive". And the children of this new Light watched and learned.

By the time the 70's rolled around, the triggers had been set in place. But this new decade was proving to be a profound anticlimax. The slide of the psychedelic culture into harshly addictive body drugs like cocaine & heroine lead most of its voices either to the grave or to mellowed out and pointless introspection and then sheer banality; all flash and fashion with no content or concern. As the so called "ME" decade began to run out, the seeds of subversion planted the decade before began to grow and look for new sources of inspiration.

CONTINUE