What a Time it Was (2018)
Honorary mention at the 2019 San Diego County Fair in the “Recycled Art” category.
This is my personal ode to the 60s and really the first one of mine that has a clear theme. The title of the song and the album are Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel in 1968:
Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, A time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; They’re all that’s left you
The last line is a flash forward from the 28-year-old me to the 70-year-old me.
Once again, the title is at the top, this time in sort of 60s theme lettering. At the top are objects that reflect me growing up in the 60s. The top right is an Apple disk drive from an early machine, probably a IIe. Scattered around the top half are (1) old record company labels (Dot, Decca, RCA Victor, etc.) surrounding a clock; (2) a 5 ¼ “ floppy disk to fit into the disk drive with the Rolling Stones emblematic tongue; (3) A 45 of “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, by the Iron Butterfly (loved the band names in the 60s and 70s); and (4) my usual mass of circuit boards and wires leading to nothing and everything. At the far right, next to Bobby Kennedy, is the first of a few of my own buttons (yeh, I was a hippie) that says, “Join the Sexual Revolution. Come Home With Me Tonight” and to the right of the big clock with “Please, Please Me (Beatles, of course, on a record company called Vee Jay) is another sort of anti-war pin, “No More Koreas. Win in Vietnam.” In the top right corner, hooked onto a pair of “3D glasses” is an LBJ pin.
Around the middle is KHJ’s (an old L.A. radio station) “Boss 30” from December 5, 1968 with Yesterday as #1 (solo McCartney) and also including such one-hit wonders as “A Lover’s Concerto” by the Toys and other forgettable hits. If you look carefully you will see songs by the Stones, Jan and Dean and the Grassroots, three of my favorites in three different genres. Others on the chart are Otis Redding’s Respect and Donovan’s Universal Soldier.
Just below the “Boss 30” are records by Donovan and the Chambers Brothers who I saw at Newport ’69, a three-day pop festival on June 20-22. I was one of 200,000 who was there and it was a phenomenal experience. Here are the highlights. Day 1: Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Taj Mahal, Spirit. Day 2: Creedence, Jethro Tull, Eric Burdon, Buffy St. Marie Love. Day 3: Chambers Brothers, Marvin Gaye, Grassroots, Three Dog Night, Byrds, Poco and the Rascals. I remember the Chambers Brothers closing and singing a long version of Time Has Come Today. Hendrix closed the first day but played lousy (rumor has it that he took some bad acid) and came back and played the third day (I swear he set his guitar on fire that night BUT I think that I am misremembering). The three-day concert pre-dated Woodstock by 3 months but was marred by rioting (Hell’s Angels?) outside the venue. We didn’t know this until we read it in the LA Times the next day.
At the bottom are a cassette player, an Instamatic camera, a pair of hip sunglasses and another button: “Do YOU Believe the Warren Report?” At the far bottom right is a Rolling Stone Holographic cover (for their 1000th issue) and a button for Johnson Humphrey 1964 and another one on the bottom left under the glasses that says “McCarthy Peace Equality. Around the sides and all over are early technologies connected to each other and going nowhere. Finally, my signature is on the bottom right with LDR 2018 spelled out in keyboard keys.