How the 60's Ended
by Jerry Ratch
The Beatles on TV
their last show
together
as a group
and we all
knew it
smoking dope
sitting around in large
groups
in living rooms
across the universe
they sang Let It Be
and The Long and Winding Road
knowing
a man had been stabbed
in the back
by Hells Angels
at Altamont Pass
when Mick Jagger sang
Sympathy For the Devil
and we knew something
big had ended
and the 60's were
over
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Author's Note
not with a bang, but a whimper
Other stories by Jerry Ratch
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I should have lived during thsi time. This reminds me of that fact. So well done.
Yeah...I spelled "this" wrong. I could blame in on vodka, but I'll just let this followup do that for me.
Again, a fine poem, Jerry.
love the poem, disagree with the premise - something ended then, but not the 60's - the altamont slaying an extension of violence that began in the deep south, burned in watts in 65 and countless cities thereafter, kent state in '70. My mind the 60's began in 63 with kennedy's death and the official coffin seal was not til that fuckin bastard tricky stuck his head up his ass and went home. It straggled those last years but was more 60's than the glam/disco/punk and disassociation that dominated the 70's - but that doesn't diminish the poem, I'd just end it and something was
over
right on, bro
Again your title pulled me in. The 60's still live. Yet I like your poem and I agree with your flow of ideas. The Beatles didn't mean that much to me at the time. I appreciate them more now looking back. The Stones had previously passed on the opportunity to perform free in Golden Gate Park by "hippie hill" like so many other name bands had done. The Hells Angels had become the unofficial "security." On October 6, 1966 at a gathering in the panhandle protesting the illegalization of LSD, with local bands performing, the Hell's Angles showed up in force. They became increasingly bold with each gathering after that. The concert at Altamont symbolizes, to me, the end of the Haight-Ashbury scene with a grusome finality.