It is amazing the impact that drugs had on the bands of that time. Many musicians were searching for some inner meaning of life through drugs that they never found but it did make for some interesting music and lyrics. And yes, there was also quite a bit of naivete in the words of those songs, which appear kind of silly today.
They were a relaxing yet at times thought provoking band...sort of like Floyd but much smoother and far less angst....and little or no wandering.
That's an excellent assessment of those bands.
I was born in 57 and can timeline my lifeby music pretty well from say the 3rd grade to about age 20. After that my timeline is structured by the women in my life or where I lived.
Music and Women do have certain associative quality. The Beatles were a group that pretty much timelined every grade I was until their breakup in 1970. Speaking of which, a couple of days ago on my way back from a Memorial weekend fishing trip the old Motown Song "Alive and Kicking" came over the radio. That song came out in the summer of 1970 when I was a sophomore in high school (you are a youngster!). Right away a rush of old memories of that summer came back as if it was only a few years ago...the girlfriend that I just had to see so I rode my bike some 100 miles to her house. A wild camping trip in north of Milwaukee. The summer that never seemed to end. These days I try not to think in timelines...just in one blur of a continuum.
My wife who's 8 years my junior and sort of came of age with punk and new wave is much better at contemporary music than me. She likes stuff like The Hives and alternative country like Whiskey Town.
I'm not up to date on contemporary music either but every now and then some new band catches my ear like Nirvana did in the 90s. Recently I saw this band on VH1...forget the name, that has this crunching guitar rhythm that is infectious. The song is a big hit and I know it's one of the hot bands now. I have to find out their name and get my hands on that album.
I am more apt to like older music...which is funny because in the early 80s when classic rock really took off, I hated it..lol...I used to think "been there done that"...plus they played way too much Supertramp, Styx, Queen, and Yes type stuff for my taste. Somebody wants that stuff...aside from May's great occasional guitar stuff....one ought to go back to King Crimson.
I was never a fan of those bands either with the exception of Yes mainly because of Steve Howe's guitar playing. I also had a similar reaction to the retro classic rock fad in the early 80s. There was a lot of cool Punk stuff going on then and I thought why are they playing all this old stuff?
In general there was a lot of snobbishness back in the 60s/70s about many of the more pop orientated bands among serious rock enthusiasts. I remember secretly liking Credence Clearwater Revival, Three Dog Night, the Carpenters and Motown in general but was afraid to admit it because of the scorn I would receive if I mentioned it to my Rock purist friends. I appreciated these bands not so much for their technically ability or originality (because most were deficient in those areas) but because, well, they had ear catching music and good rhythm grooves.
You'll have to forgive me but I was a Deadhead too...not a tie-dyed swirling dervish who liked chicks with hair under their arms but more of a Southern longhair with faded jeans and old flannel shirt dirt freak. I still like their stuff up to Terrapin Station. It grew on me with the years....American Beauty is one of the best ...not a bad song on it...if one likes that sort of stuff.
Nothing to forgive I liked the GD also.
I was a huge Yes and Steve Howe fan back in the day. My favorite album of theirs is one that doesn't get much pub: Relayer (1974). Only three songs (like Close to the Edge, and nearly every minute is worthwhile. I can still listen to "The Gates of Delerium" and it sounds fresh.
Saw them only once, on the '79 Tormato tour (in "the round"), and it was tremendous. Amazing musicians, all of them.
I was too young to care about the snobbishness ..... Credence was my very first favorite band. Man, talk about a hit machine. Fogerty (back then) could write a top-20 FM masterpiece in his sleep. Too many great songs to list. And a very, very tight band with a great and distinctive sound.