Glimpsing a pair of blue crystal cufflinks sparked my memory bank taking me back to 1969 and a hit song by Tommy James and the Shondells titled "Crystal Blue Persuasion". Tommy James and The Shondells were also one of the first acts to experiment with Music Videos of their hits starting with "Mony Mony" in 1968, thirteen years before MTV.
Some may argue the side of Michael Nesmith, one of the Monkees who is also credited for conceiving the idea for MTV. He was the first to win an Emmy award for a music video "Rio". According to history Michael got the idea while touring Australia. En route, driven by curiosity, he visited an outback town, the back of beyond, the whoop whoops, beyond the black stump, down under. And while in a pub with no beer, an unlikely character recognised him as the Monkee with the woollen hat.
This made Mike realise the power of media and thus began the idea of music videos. He made Elephant parts, and experiment, now con-cult, which later inspired the "Friday Night Live" TV series, the birth place of comedians like Chevy Chase, John Candy, Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd. An aside, Michael's mother invented Tipex and sold the rights while electronic typewriters were still hot for $50,000,000.
I recognise the man for his multi talents, no doubt, but equally for his unusual collection of designer silk ties. Not just the for choice of styles but the way he wore them at a length about 4 to 5 inches above the belt line, like they did in the thirties. He can be seen consciously displaying his collection during many appearances on the Monkees TV series, his music videos and PR photo shoots. One in particular caught my attention; it was what appeared to be a Texas landscape, with characteristic cactus etc.
TJ and company began writing and producing their own records. Their first project, released in early 1969, was the unforgettable CRIMSON AND CLOVER album which, in addition to going multi-platinum, spawned three more monster hits for the group: DO SOMETHING TO ME, CRIMSON AND CLOVER, and CRYSTAL BLUE PERSUASION.
Listen carefully to TJ music; this was techno pop in its infancy, 10 years ahead of its time. The CELLOPHANE SYMPHONY album featured the newly developed Moog Synthesizer, a prelude to the VC3 and eventually computerised keyboards.
Also in the 60's cufflinks peaked. Swank were making 12 million pairs a year. Even though these were aimed at the lowest end of the market, retailing for an average of $2.50 a pair, that still adds up to a lot of men wearing cufflinks. These days the figure is closer to 200,000, but cufflinks are making a strong comeback with gross sales having increased consistently over the last ten years
MTV was born and traditionally hosted pop music shows like Countdown and Top of The Pops died a rapid painful death.
Music lovers, do you remember "The Alan Parsons Project"? Well Alan Parsons made is debut as second engineer along side Beatles producer George Martin in January while recording "Get Back" and Paul McCartney actually played base and some drums with The Steve Miller Band.
The same year (1969) George Harrison left the Beatles, and I left school aged just fifteen years and one day. I bought my first Jaeger sport Jacket and have been a fan of theirs ever since, a year later I discovered Harris Tweed and so began a life of indulgence in the art of fashion, now experiencing the joys of reward selling fashion accessories on line, I've rubbed shoulders with Timothy Everest and hope to do the same in person with Vivienne Westwood. Eventuality; "six degrees of separation" I believe it.
I'm still a big fan of Jaeger, there is no tweed as fine as Harris and I'm continually impressed with Westwood's endurance and her ability to subvert from with in.
It's all about collaboration, after all what would Bob Dylan be without his associations with The Band, Bob Knoffler, The Heart Breakers, Mick Taylor and Rick Bloomfield. He employed them to produce the music styles he visualised.
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