The first half of the seventies were an extension of the sixties, at least for me. Political turmoil (Vietnam War still going on, Watergate and Nixon, Patty Hurst, etc.). Drugs, sex and Rock n’ Roll was still the mantra. I was living in Canada at the time, and have some strong memories and stories to tell about the Canadian reaction to US politics. Pierre Trudeau seemed like the hippest head of state imaginable, except I was living in BC, where the archaic Social Credit Party still had control.
Things settled down politically in the US with Jimmy Carter as POTUS. There was tremendous inflation. Interest rates were 13-15% for a mortgage, IIRC. Then the eighties. Reagan became POTUS. In many ways he was as corrupt as Trump. For instance it was pretty clear he had made a pre-election secret deal with Iran to kill the negotiations with Carter about the hostages. The Democrats couldn’t get any traction on that issue though, and barely got convictions on the Iran-Contra deal. Americans in general loved Reagan for some reason. Most won’t believe you still today if you point out that in terms of felony convictions alone, Reagan’s administration was the most corrupt in the late twentieth century.
in my 20s for most of the 70s and in my 30s for most of the 80s:
70s: sex, yes please, and lots of it; drugs--except for caffeine, I just said no; rock 'n roll: dies out during this decade--revived somewhat singlehandedly by Springsteen. I disliked disco and heavy metal and the Carpenters/ most "easy listening"--(as a young gay man) I felt both free and yet somewhat constrained and also wired up--all that caffeine, perhaps. People became somewhat more self-absorbed then in the 60s: Saw Ian & Sylvia, The Band, Crosby Stills & Nash, Dylan's Rolling Thunder Express, Bob Seger (wow!), Rod Stewart, the Persuasions, Loudon Wainwright, Joni Mitchell in concert. Began reading Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, V. S. Naipaul, Thomas Pynchon, Iris Murdoch. Also read Maria Campbell's
Halfbreed and John Rechy's
City of Night, which took nearly 30 years until I was experienced enough to get it--originally I felt a fascinated repulsion. Songs of the decade: the Kinks "Lola", Aretha Franklin's "Spanish Harlem" & "Spirit in the Dark", Neil Young's "Tonight's the Night"; Pointer sisters, "Fire", Loran bennet's "Breakfast in Bed" Movies,
Cries and Whispers, ,
Alien,
Dog Day Afternoon,
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
80s: burgeoning of cable t. v. got my first laptop towards end of decade; working on computers at work before then; AIDS--the current pandemic had me singing along in my head to Springsteen's 'Street of Philadelphia"--one felt like a stranger to oneself, and every particular physical twinge was anxiously monitored as a possible precursor; neo-cons galore--an even more self-centred decade than the 70s. Was the least ageist period during my lifetime--elderly people in movies and on t. v. got worse in the decades after. Saw Springsteen, Aretha Franklin (wow!), Etta James (twice), Leonard Cohen, Bette Midler (twice--but the second time may have been in the early 90s) in concert. Saw Thompson Highway's
Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing in performance, and began reading his other work. songs of the decade: Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams are Made of This"; Leonard Cohen, "The Night Comes On"; Bette Midler, "Beast of Burden" as performed on Johnny Carson; Joni Mitchell, "Cool Water"; Eddy Grant, "Electric Avenue": Movies,
Do the Right Thing, "Women in the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown", "Marianne and Juliane"