The Sixties, Drugs, Music: Achievement

I'm winding through Tom Brokaw's, Boom, determined to finish it over the next week or so. It's been on of the most interesting books I've read. As such I've just finished reading the section where he targets a discussion on the roll of Hippies, Drugs and even Music. What caught my attention most recently was the discussion surrounding Dr. David Smith and Berry Gordy.

"I had a drinking problem in 1966- and I took LSD. I was studying psycho pharmacological effects of drugs on the mind and I must say, taking LSD was an incredibly positive experience....to be truthful, I wouldn't have opened the free clinic if I hadn't been taking LSD."

(Smith, Boom!, Brokaw)

Whether or not Smith was truly taking the drug as an experiment or not is a bit irrelevant at this point, but the fact that he moved on to open the first free clinic to help youth, poor and addicts is an important contribution. He noted that in the 60s, at the San Francisco General Hospital, the Hippies were often treated "like garbage," and turned away, brushed up to be druggies and their problems were not important as they may have been "self-imposed." Smith's clinic became more than just a treatment center, they quickly became a center for helping people obtain better health knowledge and even a recovery center. The need for his clinic(s) became greater as many veterans were returning and the VA could not support the number of people that needed recovery and assistance. And the money? It came from bands and artists who realized their fans needed the clinic, from the VA who was sending vets to the clinic and a number of other resources.

Today- Smith's non-profit organization, Free Clinic Cooperative helps support free clinics across the country. The National Association of Free Clinics, alone, total to about 1200. There are far more however, that are provided by branches of hospitals, both religious and non-religious.

How unique- that even in the midst of the "Hippie Movement," great things came. Health care is an important part of longevity and with so many Americans struggling without insurance, there are still resources for them to receive medical care. In other words, it is Americans taking care of their own, good people who believe in taking responsibility for their community. Something to think about.

"...1968 and the loss of Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy, Gordy says, it was the year 'when the bad guys were cutting off our dreams.' He says, 'I think we lost our innocence,' at that time. But, he insists, although the world was going sour, the fundamental Motown message through its songs and artists remained essentially the same..."

(Berry Gordy, Boom!, Brokaw)

Gordy was one of the most prominent music producers in the 60s & 70s. And three years following the explosive events of 1968, Marvin Gaye came to Gordy with "What's Going On?" The producer admitted that he did not want to put the song out there. He told Gaye that Motown was supposed to be songs of love, heartbreak and hope, not war on the streets of America. But Marvin Gaye, Motown's number one artist at the time, threatened to quit and was just as adamant about recording the song. So they did. And today, it's one of his greatest classics. The music was real and reflected what Gaye felt about life & society, it communicated something that Motown hadn't before.

Certainly, Motown, in all its glory has motivated and inspired many artists. While Gordy's reputation has often been the center of controversy, he took a risk in mounting black artists and made the successful - pushing forward and rejecting a status quo. He was even quick to say that he wasn't trying to produce "black music," but rather music that happened to be sung by black artists. It was an opportunity in which he took to live out equality, in a peaceful way.