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[av_heading heading=’JUST ANOTHER DAY | ‘People are strange’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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Friday, June 2, 2017
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“When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
when you’re strange
No one remembers your name”
– The Doors
LET’S take a break from the politicians, the “yellow ribbon devotees” and other despicable characters and talk about the other side of life, the artistic and creative, the more pleasant ones, so to speak. We’ll open the doors of perception and go into what was then the counterculture, particularly the music of that generation. And probably the best band that represents the music of the counterculture is the Doors.
Before you get lost in translation, let’s define a few terms first, from that free encyclopedia called the internet:
Counterculture is a subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores.
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed first in the United Kingdom and the United States and then spread throughout much of the Western world between the early 1960s and the mid-1970s, with London, New York City, and San Francisco being hotbeds of early countercultural activity.
As the era unfolded, new cultural forms and a dynamic subculture which celebrated experimentation, modern incarnations of Bohemianism, and the rise of the hippie and other alternative lifestyles, emerged.
And what is or what are the Doors?
“The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. The band got its name at Morrison’s suggestion from the title of Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception, which itself was a reference to a quote made by William Blake, ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.’ They were unique and among the most controversial and influential rock acts of the 1960s, mostly because of Morrison’s lyrics and charismatic but unpredictable stage persona.”
The counterculture concept and lifestyle eventually reached these islands and most of the restless youth embraced it mostly from the middle and upper class.
We became hippies living the Bohemian lifestyle of “sex, drugs and rock and roll”. We were out to change the world; the hotbeds of the counterculture/ hippie movement were Greenhills, Sta. Mesa, Cubao and Malate today only Malate still retained its Bohemian ambiance.
The music of the “Doors” was the soundtrack of those “dazed and confused” times, the establishment called the hippies “freaks” not only because of the lifestyle but also the way we dressed.
A typical hippie would have shoulder length hair (for men), faded Levis, tie-dyed t-shirt and other funky stuff, the women would be in mini-skirts, braless tank tops or skimpy cut-offs.
Now compare this to the uniform of the establishment, double knit polyester pants and polo barong for men while the women wore the feminine version.
Hence the song People are Strange:
“People Are Strange is a single released by the American rock band the Doors in September 1967 from their second album Strange Days which was also released in September 1967.
“According to its Allmusic review, the song ‘reflects the group’s fascination with the theatrical music of European cabaret.” The song is about alienation and being an outsider, and Jim Morrison may have addressed the song both to the hippie culture, to outsiders in general or to users of drugs such as LSD, or both.’
“Jim Morrison was depressed. He went to Robby Krieger’s house, they went to a canyon to watch a sunset, at which time Jim realized he was depressed because ‘if you’re strange, people are strange.’ He then wrote the rest of the lyrics, which are about feeling alienated.”
People are strange when you’re a stranger
Faces look ugly when you’re alone
Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted
Streets are uneven when you’re down
When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you’re strange
No one remembers your name
When you’re strange”
The counterculture and the hippie movement begun in the Philippines sometime in the late ‘60s till about the mid-‘70s this was also the period I was in University so you can say I totally embraced and lived it and I can say this, that decade was probably the best times in my life’s journey.
Jim Morrison is dead so with Jimi Hendrix what was revolutionary then is now mainstream we’re all aging hippies now.
As Jim Morrison sang at the end of every Doors live concert:
This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend, the end. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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