The Groovy Imitation Bands of 1960s Japanese Rock

When the Beatles arrived in Japan in June of 1966, they caused as much pandemonium when they did when they triggered Beatlemania in the United States in 1964. A total of 8,400 policemen were mobilized for security at a cost of 90 million yen and more than 6,500 Japanese teenagers were taken into custody. They had been…

Vintage Muse du Jour: Mina Mazzini

What happens when you put two tons of glitter, a killer voice, and a dash of Surrealism into a blender? You get “the Queen of Screamers”, Italian songstress Mina Mazzini. She was the reigning bad girl of Italy’s airwaves in the 1960s and ’70s, raising everyone’s eyebrows but her own–which she shaved off, naturally– and…

Shopping for Music in the ’60s Was Awesome. Today, Not So Much.

Welcome to the HMV store in mid 20th century London! Why not take a turn in one of the space age listening booths… Or hang out at the Cosmopolitan Corner and be all… cosmopolitan. Meet some other cool cats in this music library / lounge … Toot toot! Beep beep! And you might as well…

The Last Beatles Photo Shoot

You could have cut the tension with a knife (0r with George Harrison’s giant hat) … They had just finished recording the last album they would ever make together, and relations between the four band members of the Beatles were at an all-time low. George Harrison had walked out for five days during the recording…

Vintage Italian Scooter Sale of the Century

In the 1960s, the scooter became as much a fashion statement as humble transport. Vespa and Lambretta were the Coco-cola and Pepsi of the Mediterranean and you couldn’t be a fan of both. They had their own magazines, clubs and mod gangs across the continent. Then there was the Moto Guzzi and the futurist Maico Mobil,…

The 1960s Pucci Air Hostess Uniforms, Ideal for Mile High “Stripping”

I was doing my daily browse through Pinterest and came across this eye-popping photograph of two ladies wrapped around the staircase of an airplane cabin, unmistakably decked out in head to toe Pucci prints. By now we’re probably all aware that mid-century air travel was the bee’s knees, but surely, no airline ever actually dressed their…

The Queen of Rock ‘n Roll, 1969

Tina Turner rocks the stage at the Lake Amador Gold Rush Festival of 1969, when an estimated 40,000 people flocked to the small Californian county and its surrounding hills from all over the country to experience love, peace and rock n roll… Steve Rudzinkski submitted these photographs he took in 1969 to Merced Music: “I was in…

Road Trip to Afghanistan: Snapshots From the Lost Hippie Trail

Before the trail grew cold, you could once catch a bus from London to Delhi with just $45, and for a little extra, you could take the scenic route into the Indian subcontinent via Turkey, Lebanon, Kashmir, Iran and Afghanistan, stopping at hotels, restaurants and cafés along the way that catered almost exclusively to cannabis-smoking Westerners. They…

American Photographer visits 1960s Romania in the Most Communist Photo Story Ever

A booming economy, an abundance of food and fresh produce overflowing from baskets, a seemingly happy and healthy working population, beautifully manicured scenery and immaculate cities– well, heck, who wouldn’t have wanted to go live in communist Romania by the looks of these photos? In 1964, American LIFE magazine photographer Carl Mydans dropped in for a visit to what…

When Exotic Pets were the Accessory du Jour

“The big picture is that we are intimately bound to animals and it is satisfying to take them in and tame them. Subconsciously, we are a mishmash. We don’t know who we are, and so to simplify things, we predicate our individuality on animals.” Dr. Yi-Fu Tuan, a cultural geographer at the University of…