Lush - De-Luxe

One of the things I most liked about the Sixties was the willingness to try the craziest things. The counterculture, in particular, was a hotbed of innovation.

One crazy thing that happened in the Sixties was the rage for psychedelia. Multimedia was explored as well.

I remember seeing a Beatles multimedia retrospective show that toured the country in the early Seventies. I was fairly-disappointed in it, because it just couldn't capture the right mood. The space was too big. The technology was lacking, among other things. But, as disco music demonstrated, technology can improve.

Around 1981, when I lived in Tucson, I remember attending a multimedia freeform participatory dance. This was better. Over hours, dancing can put one in a trance. The space was the right size for multimedia. But the technology still lagged.

Last night, I saw this video. I was shocked, really. I'd never seen the video before, but it is everything I ever wanted. The apotheosis of psychedelia: the technology, the mood - everything. But it dates from 1990!

So, it figures. Paradise came and went in the early Nineties, and I was not informed. The band Lush had bad luck and dissolved in 1998. Lush is now considered by musical historians as a forerunner of Britpop.

Now, I live in a stony, post-paradise wilderness. Nothing but death to look forward to. But at least I was belatedly informed about paradise, 23 years after the fact.

Maybe not all is lost. There are always raves. Raves are very similar to what I wanted. If I'm nice, they might even play Lush's De-Luxe at a rave.

Toss a bone to the oldsters....