Who are icons from the 1970s?

Answer 1

The tumultuous and towering sixties was a time where a distinctly Western Civilization t confronted a distinctly Eastern civilization and the cataclysm that followed shook the world. It was a time that will not soon be forgot and for many a time fondly remembered. Of course, Paul Katner founder of the seminal rock band Jefferson Airplane said sometime years later that; "If you remember anything about the sixties, then you weren't really there.". And you know, that's cool man. I mean I can dig what he's saying, but it also in many ways typifies the general mood of much of the younger generation of that decade. While it was Tom Wolfe, who wrote the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test chronicling the use of LSD, indeed glorifying the use and excess, who later declared the 1970's "the me generation". I don't know about you man, but it seems to me that many of those who were around in the sixties yet can not remember them were necessary prototypes of that so-called me generation. For those who took Timothy Leary's advice and tuned out and dropped in or endeavored to carry monkeys on their backs while shooting heroin or just plain smoking pot, it is most likely those who still had parents alive a decade or two later, their parents remembered the sixties. It was a time where those such as Dr. Martin Luther King continued to "have a dream" and fight for equal justice. Where Kennedy's sat at the court of "Camelot" and Castro and Che took revolution to a whole new level. Where President John F. Kennedy and then his predecessor Lyndon Johnson took young American boys and sent them to the jungles of Vietnam to advise and dodge bullets or die! All this for half a country at civil war in an idealogical battle over communism and making "a world safer for democracy." A time when lifetime administrators such as J. Edgar Hoover escalated "dirty tricks" investigation under the guise of necessary governmental duties and a time when the assassinations of political leaders became the news of the day. It was a time when Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev banged his shoe on a U.N table and pigs were either policeman or risky CIA adventures in a Cuban bay. It was the time of races both species and technos where every day people raced towards equality and nations endeavored to conquer the universe.

The sixties was the time when Elvis went from being the King of rock n roll to a fading star of pop and movie star of little substance. A time when Marilyn Monroe dumped a beloved baseball icon in Joe DiMaggio for dalliances with a President finally waking up dead from an overdose of prescription medicine. A time when Jimmi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Eric Clapton ruled the airwaves while Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Doris Day watched through bewildered eyes as record labels and filmmakers's began showing less interest in them and more in the young rising stars of the new generation. This was the sixties man, and the adolescence of the consumer age was bullish, if you know what I'm saying, because it was where free markets and black markets expanded and flourished. Where all those years later, the British finally invaded America with the likes of the fabulous four that were that liked to be called The Beatles. The Beatles were cool man because they asked the girls to "love, love, me do" with professions of sexual frustration by declaring "I wanna hold your hand." This was the sixities, not the fabulous fifties nor the frugal forties nor the threadbare thirties nor the uproarious twenties. Not this decade, no way man, for this was a time of revolution and this decade was content to just be the sixties. In the fifties what everybody liked was Ike man, for being trustworthy and solid and like...well, old. But this was the sixties can you dig? There was like a whole new counter culture that declared new wisdoms beginning with; "Don't trust anyone over thirty." The status quo was changing baby, and those baby boomer's were booming with the fire of youth and the wisdom of "mind expansion man" It was the decade that gave us the summer of love where Beach Boys would so melodically and harmoniously sing out sunshine and how young lovers dream. There was Sgt. Peppers with their Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, while they had tea with the Dali Lama while looking at works of Salvador Dali, and wondereing why fame and fortune were such a drag. Where Jackie Kennedy nee Bouvier decided to move on to be Jackie O. Oh baby it was the sixties man and they, those in the know, who would not take no for an answer, declared it their time and if you weren't them, or at the very least with them, then you were just a drag. It was a time where right had gone past the point of no return and the new left stood up and said "hey mister if you're such a better man then I" then answer me this, why do cannon balls still fly in the air? It was way past groovy and no one left it to Beaver any longer, no way man, they tuned in for Laugh In's where Dan and Dick made cracks that made no sense at all, and told the man, straight up man, "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnall's"! You get what I'm saying man? No more wacky redheads and stoic wives, it was a time for Dreaming of Jeannie and "going boldly where no man had gone before". Where Mission Impossibles were a piece of cake or magic brownies depending on who's house your watching, if you dig. Sure man, there was still that war over in 'nam, but they were getting things handled while reading good Karl, and Jung and Kant not concerned with what they can't just concerned with scoring and arguing over who buried Paul. Can you dig it man? This was a time for peace and for love so even The Batman was charming and nonviolent in his crime fighting ways.

But don't get me wrong man, it wasn't all peaches and cream. They all stood silently by their color t.v.'s and watched as little John-John saluted his father that day. Sure it was the sixties with love ins and laugh ins but dreams get shattered man, and turning thirty comes sooner than you think. They took away John and then they took away Bobby and Martin Luther King, man! You got any idea how many marched in Washington with the King that day? Things were starting to get out of hand and everyone was just way too far out to cope. But the Feds and the Fuzz had to bash in some heads and keep them long haired hippie freaks out of the parks with their Frisbee's and fun loving ways. The war in South East Asia was only getting worse and heroes who came home with only one leg got spit on and called baby killers because they, those in the know, they with their peace symbols hanging around their neck on brown leather straps, who were righteous and good in their violent passion for pacifism. Can you grasp what I'm telling you man? Things were getting real heavy man, and yeah they were brothers, like Able and Cain were brothers nothing at all like John and Bobby. Ain't a whole lot of sunshine when Manson families could care less about love, more in tune with their Helter Skelter hate so they killed Sharon Tate.

Sure man, there were still victories and celebrations because I'll tell you what, the Viet Cong shocked us all by being offensive during the time of Tet and even though those communist brothers so loved by Jane Fonda failed that time and Americans prevailed, they lost the hearts and minds of the American public man, when dear, dear sweet and trusted Walter Cronkite declared it a lost cause. So they partied at Woodstock and celebrated like it was graduation day before shooting off to the future like 2001 and freaky deakey spacey oddities where darkness and light became gray. One last time they let it all hang out before the party would end. But this was the end my friends as time waits for no one, and in the end there are always those silent majorities. So you wanna know what killed the sixties, man? Because I'll tell you what killed the sixties it was the man! Because I'm telling you man, "when a man come on the t.v. and says you can't be a man like the man because you don't smoke the same cigarettes as he" there just ain't no satisfaction any longer and I can't be an more clear. Forget the grammar forget the diction the sixties were dead when the man gave us Nixon.

Answer 2

The Beatles began the 1970's by fading away. Paul McCartney and John Lennon went their separate ways and Paul formed his band on the run and John got naked with Yoko and declared that all he was saying was give peace a chance. Bob Dylan went electric David Bowie went glam. The happy face just kept smiling and The Rolling Stones just kept sucking in the '70's. Big lips were not just for Jaggers as The Rocky Horror Picture Show rose to cult status and big bit lips became indelibly pressed into our minds.

Tricky Dick fooled no one when he insisted he was not a crook and no one cared that his mother was a saint. There was a streak of streaking throughout the decade and pet rocks fooled those not fooled by Tricky Dick's. Vietnam became America's first televised war and Neil Young sung in outrage of the four dead in Ohio. Gas shortages paved the way for less piston engines that went boing, boing, boing, boing and people bought more Mazda's that went mmmmmmmmm. Kool-aid went through a P.R. nightmare when the Reverend Jim Jones perpetuated his own brand of nightmare in Guyana. Palestinians grabbed the worlds attention through terror and killing Israeli Olympiads in Munch and Elvis left the building for good. Although, he keeps getting sighted at Burger Kings even now.

Farrah Fawcett adorned many an adolescent boys bedroom wall and Charlie's Angels helped bring sexy to feminism. Pamela Grier showed how she was so Foxy Brown and Jim Brown, long since retired form football became a superstar joining the likes of Fred Williamson and baxploitation joined the lexicon. Platform shoes took on a platform of their own while men took to dressing like women and women took to dressing like men and crossdresser's took it all to whole new level. Stevie Nicks danced her swirling dervish and Debbie Harry with her heart of glass kept insisting we call her. Janis Joplin took a little piece or our hearts and made us feel good before departing and Jimmy Hendrix in a purple haze kissed the sky and said goodbye. Doonesbury graced newspapers across the country and everyone went to see Star Wars at least three times. The Brady Bunch told there story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls and then hooked up with a man named Brady who was bringing up three boys of his own while Mary Tyler Moore decided she just might make it after all.

Wolfman Jack howled at the moon every Saturday night with a Midnight Special and Van Morrison shared how it was a marvelous night for a moondance. Wheel of Fortune started spinning its wheel and Archie Bunker kept telling Edith to stifle it. Luke Cage and the Punisher made their debuts in comic books but Wolverine stole everybody's thunder and became one of the most popular superheroes of modern day comics. While Wonder Woman had dominated comics for years in the 1970's she went on to conquer television and Eddies television father, Bill Bixby wandered aimlessly as Bruce Banner while Lou Ferrigno growled menacingly in pasty green makeup as The Hulk. Bob Marley came to America telling us to get up stand up and while insisting he did not shoot the deputy he sang a message of one love. Ram Dass attracted trippy dippy hippies and countered Timothy Leary's message of tune in drop out as so last decade and instead offered transcendental meditation as the new trip. The Grateful Dead continued to tour so dead heads could keep taking their electric kool-aid acid tests and Hunter S. Thompson brought us gonzo journalism.

Herman Hesse wrote of trippy things in Siddhartha while Carlos Casteneda blew our minds with Conversations With Don Juan. Erica Jong admitted to a Fear of Flying while Jonathon Livingston Seagull showed us all how to fly, how to soar in spectacular ways. While Linda Lovelace grabbed attention with her deep throat, Woodward and Bernstein brought us news of Watergate from the very mysterious and different kind of Deep Throat. Xaveria Hollander told us all about her days as a Happy Hooker and Sylvia Plath told us all about her not so happy days of mental breakdowns and suicide attempts in the Bell Jar. Soldiers sang songs of how suicide was painless in M.A.S.H. and Donald Sutherland was replaced as Hawkeye and we were introduced to Alan Alda. While Keith Carridine was assuring us he was easy in Nashville, his bigger brother David was remembering days as a grasshopper while taming the wild west with Kung-Fu. George Carlin told us all about the seven dirty words you couldn't say on t.v. and Richard Prior told us just how funny personal pain could be and Steve Martin played a banjo with a novelty arrow sticking through his head asking us all to get small, assuring us that comedy was not pretty and if we were offended could only respond with; "Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me!"

Disco came and went but not without first gracing us with Patti LaBelle, Summers, and The Bee Gees. John Travolta walked away from Vinnie Barbarino to the hustle in Saturday Night Fever. Marlon Brando made us an offer we couldn't refuse in The Godfather and Al Pacino made his name in the same film. Robert De Nero solidified his own rising star in God Father II while Francis Ford Coppola rose to power and his little sister Talia Shire won Sylvester Stallone's heart as Rocky while Rocky won our hearts. Jack Nicholson was One Who Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Meryl Streep wowed us in movies such as the Deer Hunter and Kramer v. Kramer. Dustin Hoffman, who kept losing out on Oscar night for outstanding performance finally won for Kramer v. Kramer in one of his not so outstanding performances. Gene Hackman impressed everyone in the French Connection which gave Roy Scheider a film career of which he solidified in Jaws. Steven Spielberg gave us that shark named Bruce and gave us Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Coppola ended the decade with an overweight Brando and a haunted Martin Sheen who nearly dropped dead of a heart attack before they could complete Apocalypse Now.

NORML made famous the marijuana leaf and the magazine High Times came to peoples houses wrapped in the same brown covering that would cover Playboy. Bunny ears were big icons then as they are today. Dorothy Hamil became America's sweetheart winning a gold medal in the 76 Olympics and both Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci captured our hearts in gymnastics. Mood rings adorned many girls fingers and even some guys while the Black Panthers scared the bejeezus out of everyone and even some women with their burning bras. Gloria Steinem helped to confuse men and even women by insisting we call women Ms. and Roe v. Wade became the wedge that would keep the United States divided even today. Eight track tapes came and went while cassettes tapes made their debut. Jimmy Carter tried desperately to be taken seriously while his brother hawked Billy Beer. Howard Cosell rode on Muhammad Ali's coat tail and George Foreman was way scarier and meaner then he is today.

This was the decade that lamented the death of the sixties and where everyone hated being in the seventies it is fondly remembered today.