It has been nearly a decade since I released my first solo CD THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT … damn.

There are no more original CD copies left in the closet (but if you want one I can make you a copy) I think I only pressed 100 … it was an experiment.

It was an experiment and an experience, I had been writing and playing my original songs in open mics for a time, seeing if they made an impression while I was working on my delivery, stage presence, solo performing and experience in the music scene as it was. I found I needed to have some material to promote my act to venues, bookers, festivals and the like … I needed a DEMO.

So off I went to Incubator Recording Studio in Thornbury, I had called around to some studios and engineers and Adrian Akkerman seemed to understand the Folk Rock genre and what I was trying to accomplish. I recorded 15 songs 9 originals and 6 covers in one day, just me and the guitar. It took about 12 hours if I remember correctly and I heard this repeatedly from Adrian “I think you have a better one in you Bob”.

I did all the art work and got a small run pressed “DEMO not for sale” because it had covers on it and had a few people listen to it, the response was generally favorable. Whilst I was getting it around a bit the comments were coming back that some of the songs were really good and you have to get this out there to the music world … OK great. So I went back and pressed 100 copies of the CD with just the originals and that is what you see today.

The title song The Hippies Were Right is still in the set list today, I have played it solo and in band incarnations past and present … it’s a true story.

The song Fossil Fuels is on the Bob Crain LIVE digital release … one of my many “environmentally friendly” songs. Industrial Revolution is another one that was regularly in the set list back in The Likely Suspects days.

Forsaken Veteran Of The Drug Wars maybe the best song I have written, one of them anyway. There is a Folk Rap Version of the song too, my Hip Hop Rapper friend produced it adding his rap to my folk song, it was released on his label got a bit of airplay and some nice reviews which you can read on the Media Page  .

I believe that art should deliver a message so it is no wonder that I have written songs with titles like Lotto World, Role Models and Book Of Fools but then there is one out of the box, a relationship song Dogs And Horses … Folk Rock you never know where its going to go.

All of my songs are like my children love the all and they are each special in their own way but I think my favorite song from this CD and the most introspective is The Music Led The Way . A song about the Folk Rock music of the ’60s and 70’s that helped to shape not only my life but the lives of a generation … the Woodstock Generation, with guest appearances by some of the most influential artists that marked that time in history.

Through the course of writing, practicing, recording and performing the songs from THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT I learned a lot, experienced a lot there is still plenty to learn and plenty of material to write about. One thing I learned for sure is there are no Dead End signs on the roads in Rock n Roll you just gotta run down the road and see where it leads you.

THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT – LYRICS

Seems like every time you look around the Hippies were right about what’s going down

Natures spring water right from the ground now sold in plastic by the pound

Forests of trees, they’re oxygen producin’, for corporate greed they’ll soon be reducin’

Livin’ on the land down in New Mexico plantin’ your seeds and makin’ ‘em grow 

Enlightened in thought, a pure future was sought, dismissed as a plot and affected by pot

But as it turned out the Hippies were right just look around it will give you a fright

Now there are wars all around us at home and abroad some maybe ligit some born of fraud

But kids are still dying for somebody’s God thought we put a stop to that in Viet Nam

Our leaders are liars, power junkies and thieves, addicted to tax, our money, their needs

At some point in time they will pay for their deeds but right here and now it’s up to you and me 

Enlightened in thought, a pure future was sought, dismissed as a plot and affected by pot

But as it turned out the Hippies were right just look around it will give you a fright

We don’t really think for ourselves anymore we got plenty of masters to tell us what for

We don’t see the sky like they did before or hear that sweet music waft through the door

The Hippies were right, they were on a good flight, could’ve been the acid, the pot or sunlight

 Don’t know how it happened how we came to lose sight but looking back the Hippies were right.

 

The corporate cowboys are selling us down they don’t want us gumming up their part of town

If it was sink or swim they would let us all drown no flower children dancin’ round and round

Are they corporations or is it organised crime they got the food, the gas and the time

They hold us up for ransom gotta tow the line we need to love one another all of man kind 

Enlightened in thought, a pure future was sought, dismissed as a plot and affected by pot

But as it turned out them ol’ Hippies were right just look around it will give you a fright

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