When I was young and skinny I ardently wished I had been born about 1947 in England – and that I got to see the Who and the Stones at little clubs in London before they were big – and rode a Vespa scooter – and went to groovy parties with cool people – unlike (most of) my high school classmates – and the world was wall to wall with cute girls who had exquisite taste in music (they liked the same stuff I liked!), who went shopping for groovy mod clothes, at places like the one in this video … .
(My adolescent mod dream utopia was set in 1965-66, and this video looks more “Swinging London” 1967-68, but still, close enough).
(Dig the boots on the guy at :33. Nice.)
(The Eyes totally rocked. I previously posted their brooding proto-psychedelic gem When the Night Falls.)
What a fun post.
I lost my interest in “Mod lifestyle” after seeing Quadrophenia in ’83.
‘bloody depressing, it was…”
Of course, I have no idea how accurate the film is to that period. Tho, I still listen to the soundtrack.
My dad and a friend of his actually break down and repair/restore old Cushman motor scooters. They are a lot of fun.
Being a teenager in the 80s, it seemed as if I was awash in 60s nostalgia. Plus, my Dad always liked to watch television movies, especially the kinds of goofy 60s comedies that personified the last bit of Hollywood movie “innocence.” A song and a dance and a smile…. Know what I mean?
Digressing.
Most kids I knew were so late sixties Hippie worshipers. Woodstock and all that.
Instead, I loved the early sixties: the British invasion mod stuff and Pillow Talk, and that clean crisp early 60s mid-modern style that is so popular now thanks to Mad Men.
I loved To Sir With Love, too, and had a post at the old blog where one of the extras in the school dance scene showed up in the comments! I linked it in the comments at Althouse, once….
Need to go dig it up!
Anyway, groovy. How come the side bangs and the long straight hair and the dark-lined eyes popular with all the gals today doesn’t quite have the same “oomph” as that particular look in the early/mid sixties? It was more doe-eyed then, I think, and looks harder and tougher now. Dunno.
– Madhu
Oh, and my Dad listened to the Beatles while still living in India (early Beatles) because everyone was mad about them there, too, and he wore those fitted and shiny little mod suits. He tore up all the pictures of that period, apparently, and now I’m all like, how could you DO that! He rode a motorcycle while wearing in those mod suits!
– Madhu
Really too bad your Dad didn’t save those pictures.
Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
And kept on drinking.
Poor Miniver Cheevy.
I no longer think I was born too late.
But I will keep on drinking anyway.