Category: 1960s

So what happened here.  How, in the span of 19 years, did we go from this to that?  The first image is from a beer ad dated October 31, 1949.  The second image is from a tick spray ad dated August 9, 1968.

Most people might actually be more familiar with the 1949 image.  It’s a common image…the sunny-smiling white-toothed guy with limitless confidence.  It’s almost so common and familiar that we don’t see it anymore.  It has become simply a meme, a symbol.

Now, look at the image from 1968.  Part of what’s happening is this shift in advertising copywriting during the Sixties.  We find a lot of this closed-mouth, we’re-straight-shooters posturing from advertisers and companies.  So, we’ve got a black and white photo of a can of tick spray.  Period.  Copy says, “Sergeants.  The largest selling spray flea and tick killer in the whole world.  Because it works.”

Read that copy again.  “…in the whole world.”  “Whole” gives the copy this faux-juvenile spin, something you start to see during this period.  Then that last line is  understated and flat:  “Because it works.”  Finally, see how they aren’t capitalizing the copy?  We want flat, flat, flat.  Graphically, lower-case is flat.  Also these are not sparkling words.  No “amazing, wow, and gee” kind of words.

All of this is intentional.  I imagine that some bearded, sideburned ad exec said, “Listen Phil, let’s take an understated approach to this next Sergeant’s campaign.”  Phil said, “Kind of like the Volkswagen people?”  And Sideburns says, “Right on, Phil.”

This 2008/9 commercial for Van de Kamp’s fish is another indicator of a cultural shift.  Yes, the kid is a mouthy, disrespectful brat–kids are kids, and they have always been kids*.  So that’s not the point.  Point is that in this commercial we’re saying, “The kid is right!”

No longer is there an authoritarian voice, the over-riding voice of reason (i.e., the parent).  In this day of democratization, everybody is an authority.  Everybody has a say.  Everybody is right.

* Though they may be kids, hopefully we guide them toward better behavior.

At some point in the mid-1960s, we start to see non-centeredness.  This ad for Chevrolet “OK” Used Cars from 1968 is a prime example.  The green box has been added by me.

What’s at the center?  Usually, the most important information is at the center of the image.  But here we’ve got a bored kid who is leaning against one of the products that are being advertised.  The Mom is half-heartedly peeking into the window of the red car (which is halfway cut out of the picture).  Dad is fuzzified in the background doing…something.  It’s meant to be very “human,” a slice-of-life image.

It’s that fake humility again cropping up that we’ll start to see so much of.  It’s that anti-hero posturing that permeates all areas of 1960s culture.

More than anything, it’s saying:  Yes, there is a center, but the center is empty and rotten.

My search for this elusive song began in 1981, when I was 17 years old.  The song itself was rather unremarkable.  If I had to describe it, I would say that it was a peppy cha-cha-esque instrumental song from the 1960s.

I can never know when that song entered my mind.  Using my writerly imagination and bullshit, I would guess that I was in a stroller in 1966.  Or I could have been four years old and with an Orange Crush in my hand.

Fresno, CA:  1980-1982

During this period, I became obsessed with the past, and like any child I had this misguided feeling that I could make something happen if I thought about it hard enough.  Specifically, I wanted to enter the year 1966.

I would hear this song at the Kmart on Blackstone Avenue in Fresno, California, at the old 1967-era Grille that had been so well-preserved that it could have been placed in the Smithsonian’s American History Museum–an absolute period piece with translucent primary-colored plastic panels dividing the dining area from the store.

Often in the 1980s I would visit the Kmart Grille to visit 1967, that gateway year between narrow ties and psychedelia.  But that damn song!  What was it?

Year after year,  I would hear it.  But it was never significant enough for the DJ to mention it (if even played by a DJ – more often, it was administered by the people-less Muzak robots).

Palm Springs, CA:  1982

At age 22, I am driving down that long stretch of mountains down I-10 westward to Palm Springs.  About 40 miles before, a sandstorm pitted my windshield beyond repair.  It’s more like coasting than driving.  And that damn song again on one of these Palm Springs radio stations for retirees.  Here’s the thing – the song dredged up some kind of deep latent memories of being a child in 1967.  God only knows where I had originally heard it.

Over the years, I valued my non-knowledge of that song.  It was the Final Mystery.  It was my personal Sasquatch, my Lochness Monster.  It’s more fun not-knowing than it is knowing.

Secretary (2002)

Watching the James Spader movie Secretary in 2002, I heard this song as part of the soundtrack.  I thought I finally had the song:  credits, right?  Not a chance.

Thinking that it was “Whatchamacallit”, by Esquivel, I purchase the song but am sorely disappointed.  Back to square one.

Seattle, WA:  2008

Alas, the secret would be revealed on August 18, 2008.  I cannot remember the circumstances, but I find that the song is called “Music to Watch Girls Go By.”

This is the Billy May version…

The Lawrence Welk version…