Hippies! New Model Army Are Hippies!

[Space]

Let's put this into proper time context. Acoustic guitars were the tools of hippies. Donovan, The Beatles with their "Mother Nature's Son," The Mamas and the Papas, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Crosby Stills Nash...all hippies, all strumming their acoustic guitars.

Now after the '60s and that hippy flower power nonsense faded, the only acoustic guitars on Earth were played by country western artists, the solo Beatles, and Jimmy Page. That was it. Punk came around, disco...and thankfully the acoustic guitar was set aside with love beads, acid, and lava lamps.

So in the early/mid '80s I am into this band New Model Army. Great rock band. Yeah, in the pictures I saw of them I saw that they had long hair and wore blue jeans. Hmmm. Thought that was a bit strange, but I just ignored that. Then I go to my music store and buy their new release, something called "The Acoustic E.P." Huh? I put it on my turntable and it is the band singing along to strumming acoustic guitars! HIPPIES! I knew these guys were hippies!

I laughed to myself. Hippies after all. You know The Clash had not one acoustic guitar on their albums. The Specials, none. Joy Division, none. The Gang Of Four, New Order...short hair and no acoustic guitars. I loved all those bands, so imagine my surprise when I played "The Acoustic E.P" for the first time. Hippies! For those that weren't around then, have to remember this acoustic release by NMA was years before MTV's unplugged. Years before acoustic guitars were seen as normal tools for rock bands. I now sure do give NMA a lot of credit for being so far ahead of the curve with this acoustic E.P., but back then when I first bought it...HIPPIES!

Well, I gave the acoustic E.P. a good listen and sure enough, I loved it. "Better Than Them" may be played on the same instrument The Cowsills used, but it sure wasn't hippy music.

I am new to this forum and want to say that nearly 30 years after that "New Model Army are hippies!" moment, I still follow the band, still love them, still buy all their releases. And, yes, I am still waiting for their "The Sitar E.P."

[Amandistan]

But hippies are awesome!   

I believe in some interview JS actually said he was a hippy or would have been were it the 1960's. 
I have been a fan since about a year after High and am fairly younger (26) so i was not around when acoustic guitars weren't in rock bands.

I would consider NMA to be hippies too. If I were alive in the 60's I would be two. I actually stayed at a hippy family's home when visiting Hebden Bridge this autumn to see a hippy  acoustic JS and Joolz gig. If ever anyone gets a chance.... stay in the homes of hippies as much as possible. They share everything with you. From food to stories to even giving you a coat off of their own back. Hippies are some of the kindest, most accepting people you will ever meet. 

Welcome to the board Space. I hope you like it here. There are many hippies and all other types of people. 

[Space]

Hippies are some of the kindest, most accepting people you will ever meet. 

Yeah, but they make lousy music.


And, believe it, acoustic guitars in the early/mid '80s were nowhere to be seen in cutting edge rock music. Acoustics were seen as an ancient tool of folkies and hippies. No rock band would be strapping on for a full acoustic release back in those days. NMA did have guts. Yes, The Jam released the acoustic tune "That's Entertainment" back then, but that was a one-off release. NMA released a full acoustic E.P. and then incorporated the acoustic guitar on all their albums. It was definitely different and bold.

But I still laughed them off as hippies when I bought that E.P.

[huwcamden]

Acoustic guitars/emotional lyrics with a love of nature/long hair etc you could say is "hippy" for sure and thats cool as **** to me but they fuse it with angry punk metal to create something virtually no one has the guts to do, its the ying and the yang to me and what makes them interesting and unique.

[Pazza]

Define a hippy anyway. It's all about a state of mind. I have been cheerfully learning the acoustic guitar via playing JS's acoustic 'hippy' songs for the last four years now and love it, his acoustic shows are as good as if not better in some cases than the full band, cos they're different and a good song is a good song stripped down or with the full tribal drums 'n bass.. For me NMA have always been ahead of the curve, they just make the best dammed music out!

[Pol]

Don't really agree with the term hippy. Punks with feelings maybe.
Anyway don't forget there was a big alternative scene in the 80s, bands like the shakin pyramids the pogues, the men they couldn't hang , the boothill foot-tappers etc etc all played acoustic instruments.
I've banged on about this cd before. I fckin love it and think its the best acoustic cd I've heard.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oDqJ3m7gSAM

[lotus]

NMA and Hippies?
Have a look at the Woodstock Bands (a festival near the beginning of the end of the hippies) - that had not so much to do with having long hair, beeing singer/songwriter and only playing an acoustic guitar ....
Hippies for me were people standing for love&peace, stop the war on earth, be friendly to other people and nature, don`t follow your parents or the church saying sex is only for married ones and to make as much money as you can can`t be your aim and women have the same rights as men ...
Hanging around without a job and money, playing a cheap guitar, sing along  and refusing the normal life didn`t work that long, but some parts of the spirit of that days are still there in the brain of peopöe >60
The 80th became the opposite of Hippies, money, looking stilish, having fun (and had not so much to do with the the aims of the 60th), so the punks came up with a way to life without following the rules of the established ones

NMA was and is NMA - a mix of lifestyle and music of their own during all the years and that`s why I`m a fan 

[Guillaume]

NMA is somewhat close to the "hippie" Neil Young...Justin said many times that Neil Young was one of his very favourite artits and i can see the link between Neil Young and NMA: raw guitar sound and feelings, half electric half acoustic sound, etc.
"Thunder and consolation" is NMA's "Harvest"!

[Anna Woman von NRW]

We're all hippies really aren't we? In the same way we're all punks aren't we?

It's that yin and yang thing surely, 2 sides of the same coin. On the one hand the sentiment of say No Greater Love on the other that of Vengeance  We're all a mix of both and NMA tell tales from both sides. Dunno what that makes me then, is it a Hipunk? 

On the Accoustic guitar thing, it's true that it's associated with airy fairy flowers in the wind hippy drippy turgid smoked too much dope drivel but it's a tool just like any other and what it makes depends on whether a craftsman is using it or an idiot. It can be a quiet reflective think or something much bigger, I've been surprised to see in xmas show vids that JS was using an acoustic during Angry Planet - that's not really a hippy song is it?

Like the cut of ya' jib with this thread Space - Hello 

p.s. @ Pol - enjoying that cheers dude.

[Space]

NMA is somewhat close to the "hippie" Neil Young...

I can definitely see that. But when NMA first came out, they really were (in my eyes) seen as being a new Clash -- great songwriting that could incorporate both brute strength and melody. And The Clash could be gentle and melodic without using an acoustic guitar. They sure were no hippies.

But looking at it from the Neil Young hippy angle as you suggest, yeah, NMA can surely be seen as that. Neil could come up with the gentle "Harvest Moon" stuff and the brutally powerful "Ohio." I do see NMA fitting in next to Neil Young. 

[szmurf]

How about this hippie?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tBK5Ri91To

[Amandistan]

I personally like the hippy subculture better than punk. It's more about nature and reading poetry while drinking espresso and smoking weed. 

So if my history is right, the Hippy movement started in America after a very conservative era that was after the second world war until the mid 60s. It surfaced right in the middle of the civil rights movement so there was still a lot of racial injustice. They did drugs such as weed, LSD and mushrooms, were against any form of violence, loved and respected nature, Embraced healthy life-styles, Were anti-establishment and stood up for what was obviously right, Were  open about sex and embraced it.Though their music may not have seemed remarkable..
It opened many doors musically.

 People actually ask if i am a hippy and my lifestyle is pretty much the same but only it's a different era. 

Punk would not have existed without the previous subculture. There are many, many similarities between the two subcultures. I never understood why in the past the two have butted heads. The are basically the same with different names and some different characteristics. It's more aggressive and a different fashion.

Punk also came from America. While the U.S. has giving the world some horrible imports, These two sub-cultures are fairly productive.

Honestly it doesn't matter which subculture (if any) that NMA fall under. Music is music. If, i like it, I like it.  If i hate it, I hate it. However i never got the goth culture that spun off from punk. It seems to be more fashion than ideology. But please educate me if i am wrong. I am just too young to claim to have experienced any.

[Pol]

I'm not totally sure that the Americans can claim to have given us punk. Fair enough there was the spine of punk in the new York dolls and the stooges etc, but punk would have never have been punk without the pistols the damned and the clash

[Anna Woman von NRW]

Reading through this has made me wonder,

Were hippies the first punks? If punk was about kicking against the established order and freeing yourself to be yourself then surely the hippies got there first? After all given the society and state they faced, you couldn't get more anti-establishment, counter-culture and revolutionary could you?

You know what this means don't you? we're all the bastard offspring of free love and LSD.......... Far out Man 

[Pol]

Don't think my parents would have know lsd if it hit them on the head and as for pot well those were for cooking in.