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Post by dem bones on Apr 23, 2018 7:11:54 GMT
This one began life as Groovy Age/ Hippy Drugs Era on Vault Mk I where it attracted a competitive if modest zero replies. Try again. Take no notice of the "If it was written between the early sixties and mid-to-late seventies" guideline (too restrictive). You've James Wade's The Silence Of Erika Zann to thank for its return from the grave.« Thread started on: Jul 18th, 2006, 12:09pm » One for Curt of Groovy Age of Horror repute. If it was written between the early sixties and mid-to-late seventies and includes references to hippies, flower children, 'dollybirds', beatniks, mind altering drugs, the counter-culture, beatniks and peaceniks then chances are it qualifies for this thread. Couldn't think of any until I scoured the board, so apologies in advance for cannibalising previous threads. Here goes: Ramsey Campbell's Potential has the lot. First published in 1973, it was written in 1968 and captures a mood perfectly. The setting is 'BRICHESTERS FIRST BE-IN: FREE FLOWERS AND BELLS' and the story is littered with references to 'Make Love Not War' badges, Lovecraft, two prog-rock bands (The Titus Groans and Faveolate Collosi, who shower their fans with flowers; sample lyrics, "Oswald, Kennedy, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe - Kill, Kill!"), LSD and black magic. When one hippy decides the event isn't up to standard, he threatens to report the organisers to The International Times. Bonus point for gratuitous reference to a hairy smoking a Woodbine. This from the Demons By Daylight collection in which probably every story is a depiction of then-contemporary Britain. Michel Parry is a lead character in The Second Staircase (Swinging London), which name checks George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Richard Davis, Castle Of Frankenstein, Wimpey Bars, The Golden Egg, Gothique ... The Pan Horror books are a likely source from around vols. #6 or #7. The 10th (1969) has C. A. Cooper's Magical Mystery Trip , a man lives his days in a constant state of nightmare hallucination after watching the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour promo on TV. A Bengal tiger eats a baby, a Zulu warrior sings God Save The Queen while suspended upside down from the ceiling, a shape-shifting girl quotes from I am the Walrus .... From the same collection, Tom prances around in a caftan, wears flowers in his hair and moans about how suicidal he is throughout B. Lynn Barber's The Flatmate Sydney J. Bounds' three-pager Young Blood ( Fontana Horror #4 is another winner. Mini-skirt teen Joy Eager goes to see her favourite band, the Ghouls, at the Swing-In Club. The band are famous for their smash hit "You're My Meat, Baby", and Joy gets taken to meet them backstage. The hip-speak is terrific: "But they're zany, mum. Way out." I'm sure there are plenty in The Orbit Book Of Horror and David A. Sutton's New Writings In Horror series ( Vol 1: Vol 2) make it - Ken Bulmer's Under The Tombstone and Judas Story, Brian Stableford's tragic tale of soul-sucking hard rock legend Jack Queen King, certainly fit - but will need to recheck unless anybody can provide the dirt?
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Post by Shrink Proof on Apr 23, 2018 11:54:00 GMT
Hey man, like, you know, for your far out, groovy DIY anthology of freaky stuff, you should add Michel Parry's trilogy of psychedelic short stories - "Strange Ecstasies", "Dream Trips" and "Spaced Out"....
What a long, strange trip it's been....
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Post by helrunar on Apr 23, 2018 12:23:34 GMT
Brilliant thread. A recent evocation of some of these themes is Elizabeth Hand's beautifully composed 2015 novella Wylding Hall. From a review on a "blog" site: [snip] The plot of Wylding Hall is straightforward and almost cliched. In the early 1970s, the folk band Windhollow Faire comes to the old and isolated Wylding Hall to work on material for their second album. The group fits with familiar band-member dynamics: the charismatic lead singer and guitar player, the three men of the rhythm section, who are somewhat difficult to tell apart, and the one woman in the band, who is loud and can drink all the men under the table. The narrative encompasses the expected jealousies between the band members and strange discoveries in the old house, which seems to be a bric-a-brac of eras, with a Tudor wing, a Norman wing, a Victorian wing, and so on. Despite the photographs and the sighting in the crowd, both of which take place far from Wylding Hall, the majority of the fantastic is tied directly to the house and to the ancient barrow in the grounds behind the house. Unlike other haunted or fantastic houses, though, there is no clear story to explain the happenings. No one was murdered in the house and now haunts it. No one experienced some other strange and uncomfortable tragedy. Unlike in Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, there is no direct statement in the narrative that the house itself is evil or uncanny. The story never offers a clear explanation for why Wylding Hall would be the location of the fantastic. [snip] Complete review review here: www.bookslut.com/facing_the_ravens_eye/2015_05_021202.phpThis review doesn't mention a couple of the creepiest elements in the story, notably a strange wispy hippie chick who appears out of nowhere and turns out to be "fey" in more than one sense of the word. I still shudder slightly when I think of a couple of the moments involving herself from the tale... Elizabeth Hand has also written a series of novels involving a displaced punk photographer from New York, Cass Neary--those books have a lot about the punk, metal, Goth scenes and related strands--but I don't think any of that is in scope for this topic. Wonderful stories, though, if you like dark, bleak, occasionally gruesome yarns involving depressed people whose lives are catalogues of ambulatory anachronism. cheers, luvs, H.
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Post by andydecker on Apr 23, 2018 17:03:08 GMT
Phil Rickman December: In the ruins of a haunted medieval abbey, four musicians hope to tap into the site's dark history—an experience that almost destroys them. Thirteen years ago on a cold December night, a rock band called The Philosophers Stone gathered in the ancient ruins of an abbey to record their new album.The evening ended in bloodshed and death. Now, the tapes from that fateful recording session have been released as The Black Album, and the scattered members of the band know it's time for a reunion. Time to return to that dark December night—for one final performance.
I have only a hazy recollection of this. Its 600 pages were, well, rather longish.
Guy N.Smith: I don't know which novels, but he really liked to let loose about those "damn hippies".
Ramsey Campbell: Ancient Images: The creepy trek wandering through the country.
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 23, 2018 17:50:07 GMT
Phil Rickman December: In the ruins of a haunted medieval abbey, four musicians hope to tap into the site's dark history—an experience that almost destroys them. Thirteen years ago on a cold December night, a rock band called The Philosophers Stone gathered in the ancient ruins of an abbey to record their new album.The evening ended in bloodshed and death. Now, the tapes from that fateful recording session have been released as The Black Album, and the scattered members of the band know it's time for a reunion. Time to return to that dark December night—for one final performance. I have only a hazy recollection of this. Its 600 pages were, well, rather longish. December is brilliant: one of my favourite Rickman novels, and set squarely in "A View from a Hill" country.
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Post by Dr Strange on Apr 23, 2018 18:06:29 GMT
I'm tempted to suggest Fritz Leiber's Our Lady of Darkness just because it's set in mid-70s San Francisco, but I can't remember if any actual hippies feature in the story or not. There's just got to be some horror stories based around Manson Family type cults - but I can't think of any right now, apart from Adam Nevill's Last Days novel, which features a cult called "The Temple of the Last Days" (partly inspired by the real 60s/70s cult, "The Process Church of the Final Judgement").
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 23, 2018 18:21:49 GMT
I'm tempted to suggest Fritz Leiber's Our Lady of Darkness just because it's set in mid-70s San Francisco, but I can't remember if any actual hippies feature in the story or not. There's just got to be some horror stories based around Manson Family type cults - but I can't think of any right now, apart from Adam Nevill's Last Days novel, which features a cult called "The Temple of the Last Days" (partly inspired by the real 60s/70s cult, "The Process Church of the Final Judgement"). No, no hippies - a bit late for them in San Francisco: it's more the Tales of the City era.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 23, 2018 19:54:48 GMT
Brilliant suggestions, including several I've not read or even heard of. Thanks! Ramsey Campbell: Ancient Images: The creepy trek wandering through the country. Ramsey has of previous. Even the skinhead vandals in The Man In The Underpass ( Orbit Book Of Horror Stories, 1975) are on LSD. Allegedly. More: Michael Newton - Reunion: Freebie Franklin's misadventures at Altamonte II. See Jeff Gelb's Shock Rock (Pocket, 1992). From memory, F. Paul Wilson's Bob Dylan, Troy Jonson, and The Speed Queen (same source) has it's fair share of folkies, etc. Bang up to date. Charles Black - The Con ( A Taste For The Macabre, 2018): Good Samaritan Frampton gets more that he bargained for when he offers a ride to Mary-Jane, a stoned, hippy hitch-hiker making her way home from the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. Guy N.Smith: I don't know which novels, but he really liked to let loose about those "damn hippies". James Moffat lets loose on Hippy Hollywood in The Naked Light (NEL, 1970). And while we're talking great terrible novels, everyone, probably not least the author, is out of their minds on hallucenogenics in Derek Hyde-Chambers The Orgy Of Bubastis (aka "the one with the dwarf", NEL, 1974). Far, far better is Russell Braddon's The Inseparables (Michael Joseph, 1968: NEL, 1970): Eric Strauss, 19 year old medical student, spends Christmas Day 1968 touring the Dachau Concentration Camp. On LSD.
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Post by jamesdoig on Apr 23, 2018 21:07:54 GMT
Could also include M. John Harrison's 'Great God Pan' and Peter Straub's Dark Matter.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 24, 2018 11:36:16 GMT
Hey man, like, you know, for your far out, groovy DIY anthology of freaky stuff, you should add Michel Parry's trilogy of psychedelic short stories - "Strange Ecstasies", "Dream Trips" and "Spaced Out".... What a long, strange trip it's been.... I’m particularly fond of R. A. Lafferty’s “Sky” from Spaced Out. It seems like such a pleasant, if strange, trip on a drug that makes its users experience flight, and then ...
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 24, 2018 12:53:22 GMT
Hey man, like, you know, for your far out, groovy DIY anthology of freaky stuff, you should add Michel Parry's trilogy of psychedelic short stories - "Strange Ecstasies", "Dream Trips" and "Spaced Out".... What a long, strange trip it's been.... I’m particularly fond of R. A. Lafferty’s “Sky” from Spaced Out. It seems like such a pleasant, if strange, trip on a drug that makes its users experience flight, and then ... For cool freaky far-out supernatural fiction, it would be hard to beat Andy Roberts' "Misty Mountain Drop", which starts out like Jamesian folk horror and ends up literally as a trip. And there are hippies! It's the only story in his recent book of essays and interviews: Acid Drops: Adventures in Psychedelia (published by Psychedelic Press). There's lot of other good stuff in the book too, including an interview with our Ramsey ("LSD in the Horror Fiction of Ramsey Campbell").
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 24, 2018 14:04:43 GMT
I’m particularly fond of R. A. Lafferty’s “Sky” from Spaced Out. It seems like such a pleasant, if strange, trip on a drug that makes its users experience flight, and then ... For cool freaky far-out supernatural fiction, it would be hard to beat Andy Roberts' "Misty Mountain Drop", which starts out like Jamesian folk horror and ends up literally as a trip. And there are hippies! It's the only story in his recent book of essays and interviews: Acid Drops: Adventures in Psychedelia (published by Psychedelic Press). There's lot of other good stuff in the book too, including an interview with our Ramsey ("LSD in the Horror Fiction of Ramsey Campbell"). This talk about trips explains a lot!
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Post by Shrink Proof on Apr 24, 2018 16:32:43 GMT
This talk about trips explains a lot! Yeah, well, reality's for people who can't handle drugs...
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Post by dem bones on Apr 24, 2018 19:07:06 GMT
Franklin Marsh on Martin Jenson's Odour Of Decay (NEL, 1975) from Vault MK I. *** Andreas, re GNS. Were you thinking of The Black Fedora? Hope to get going on The Camp again shortly. To date it's the hippie couple and a trade unionist have had the worst of it. From around the board: Andrew Darlington - Foul Moon Over Sticklespine Lane: (Stephen Jones & David A. Sutton [eds.] Giant Fantasy & The supernatural, 1994). Despite his loathing of this particular stretch of Yorkshire, Terry pays a visit to his dealer's caravan, desperate to score more of the stuff he gave him in the car-park of The Duchess last week. Jazz ain't home but Carolyn, his wasted, hippie girlfriend, lets him in, and, over a cup of wine, she tells Terry all about the hallucinogenic fungus and what it's done to the pit men who live beneath the arches .... Julia Clifford - The Looker: (Charles Black [ed.], Third Black Book Of Horror, 2008). It's the summer of '67 and handsome git and all round heartless bastard Johnny hits the Love Inn where it takes him little time to select tonight's lucky victim. Babycham-sipping Carol ticks all the right boxes: "a dolly bird wearing a black and white PVC mini-dress and kinky boots" and a virgin into the bargain - just the way he likes 'em. Trouble is, when he tells Carol he loves her she takes him at his word. She doesn't take kindly to being duped .... Robert Bloch - The Animal Fair: ( Playboy, May 1971. Richard Davis [ed.], Years Best Horror 2, Sphere, 1972). Hitcher Dave thumbs a lift from Carney showman Captain Ryder. As he drink drives, the Captain tells him about what those gd**n drugged up Hollywood hippies did to his innocent adopted daughter Melissa and how he did time for settling with three of them, brooding the while that their leader, Dude, had evaded him. Dave gets to wondering where Captain Ryder's main attraction, Bobo, the flea-ridden dancing gorilla fits into the picture ... Bloch, who, from the late 'fifties onward, seems to have grown increasingly intolerant of all things counter culture if his fiction is anything to go by, hammers extra nails in the coffin and pukes over the grave of the soured beautiful dream in Night-World(1972). Catherine Gleason - A Question Of Conscience: (Mary Danby [ed], 11th Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories, 1978). Pits an idealistic hippy student versus his rich, reactionary uncle, a man given to bullying and blood-sports. I think we’re supposed to sympathise with Mr. Flower Power in this one. Volume also includes Maureen O'Hara's anti-heroin sermon, The Rainbow, named after and set within the famous Finsbury Park rock venue. Vault legend Jenny Harmon is abducted and chained in a dungeon by Satanic hippies in Robert Lory's The Hands Of Dracula. Wannabe Charles Manson Paulus Aliester and his version of the Family are obnoxious for sure, but it's Yorge, a necrophiliac undertaker with a fondness for cold hookers, is the unquestionable star of this early series highlight. Other Charlie clones include Sonny the evil reeking speed-freak in Mark Ronson's Ghoul (Hamlyn, 1980), Jonathan Crawford in Shaun Hutson's Assassin (Star, 1989), and the Count himself in John Shirley's Dracula In Love (Zebra, 1969), a novel I've made at least three false starts on, never made it past 100 pages. Chris Stratton, Then Came Bronson #3: Rock! (1970). Where do I even begin ....
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Post by Swampirella on Apr 24, 2018 19:38:29 GMT
This one began life as Groovy Age/ Hippy Drugs Era on Vault Mk I where it attracted a competitive if modest zero replies. Try again. Take no notice of the "If it was written between the early sixties and mid-to-late seventies" guideline (too restrictive). You've James Wade's The Silence Of Erika Zann to thank for its return from the grave.« Thread started on: Jul 18th, 2006, 12:09pm » One for Curt of Groovy Age of Horror repute. If it was written between the early sixties and mid-to-late seventies and includes references to hippies, flower children, 'dollybirds', beatniks, mind altering drugs, the counter-culture, beatniks and peaceniks then chances are it qualifies for this thread. Couldn't think of any until I scoured the board, so apologies in advance for cannibalising previous threads. Here goes: Ramsey Campbell's Potential has the lot. First published in 1973, it was written in 1968 and captures a mood perfectly. The setting is 'BRICHESTERS FIRST BE-IN: FREE FLOWERS AND BELLS' and the story is littered with references to 'Make Love Not War' badges, Lovecraft, two prog-rock bands (The Titus Groans and Faveolate Collosi, who shower their fans with flowers; sample lyrics, "Oswald, Kennedy, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe - Kill, Kill!"), LSD and black magic. When one hippy decides the event isn't up to standard, he threatens to report the organisers to The International Times. Bonus point for gratuitous reference to a hairy smoking a Woodbine. This from the Demons By Daylight collection in which probably every story is a depiction of then-contemporary Britain. Michel Parry is a lead character in The Second Staircase (Swinging London), which name checks George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Richard Davis, Castle Of Frankenstein, Wimpey Bars, The Golden Egg, Gothique ... The Pan Horror books are a likely source from around vols. #6 or #7. The 10th (1969) has C. A. Cooper's Magical Mystery Trip , a man lives his days in a constant state of nightmare hallucination after watching the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour promo on TV. A Bengal tiger eats a baby, a Zulu warrior sings God Save The Queen while suspended upside down from the ceiling, a shape-shifting girl quotes from I am the Walrus .... From the same collection, Tom prances around in a caftan, wears flowers in his hair and moans about how suicidal he is throughout B. Lynn Barber's The Flatmate Sydney J. Bounds' three-pager Young Blood ( Fontana Horror #4 is another winner. Mini-skirt teen Joy Eager goes to see her favourite band, the Ghouls, at the Swing-In Club. The band are famous for their smash hit "You're My Meat, Baby", and Joy gets taken to meet them backstage. The hip-speak is terrific: "But they're zany, mum. Way out." I'm sure there are plenty in The Orbit Book Of Horror and David A. Sutton's New Writings In Horror series ( Vol 1: Vol 2) make it - Ken Bulmer's Under The Tombstone and Judas Story, Brian Stableford's tragic tale of soul-sucking hard rock legend Jack Queen King, certainly fit - but will need to recheck unless anybody can provide the dirt? For what it's worth (this may be old news) the Internet Archive has a copy of "Splinters" that can be borrowed after joining the site and going on the waitlist. Hopefully the book will become available before a potential borrower looks like the person on the cover (with or without the groovy hat and love beads) NOTE: I only noticed now that it's only (?) available in something called "encrypted Daisy for the print disabled". So chances are I won't get to read/listen to it for free, but it's worth a shot.
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