Way Back In The 1960s

Today I visited the 'Lost Album' exhibition of Dennis Hopper's photographs at the Royal Academy. They cover a period from about 1961 to 1967 and are full of powerful images of the social upheaval and change of that period: Martin Luther King speaking at a civil rights march; the poor and dispossessed in Harlem and in the southern States; hippies and Hell's Angels; American Indians protesting for their right to a place in society that acknowledged their heritage.

And also, of course, photos of the artists of all kinds who helped to change how we perceived our world: Roy Lichtenstein; Robert Rauschenberg; Andy Warhol; David Hockney - just for starters.

It all conjured up some powerful memories for me. Taking part in the demonstration against the Vietnam war and march on the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square (it was the day after my 14th birthday and I'd bunked off Saturday classes at my boarding school and hitch-hiked to London to take part.) Going into a cinema somewhere near Piccadilly Circus on New Year's Eve 1969, mainly to get out of the cold, and being mesmerised by the film Easy Rider. Being allowed to use the Morning Assembly slot at school to hold a memorial service for Jimi Hendrix after his untimely death in 1970.

What was the legacy of those years of heady change? I'm not sure we're ready yet to make that judgement. I frequently meet others who retain the ideals and values formed during that period. Many of us are recently retired, or due to do so shortly, with the prospect of still having the time, energy and financial security to follow those dreams. The world just might be in for some surprises.

"There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that,
And this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
The hour's getting late."
All Along The Watchtower