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REBEAT Magazine

Staff Picks: 6 1960s Rockers You Should Follow on Social Media

One of the perks of the interwebs in 2014 is closer access to folks who, only 40 or 50 years ago, were superstar enigmas. Now they post photos of their takeout Chinese online. (Isn’t the future grand?) Here are six of our favorite ’60s celebs you should probably be following on social media.

1) Van Dyke Parks (Twitter)

Picked by: Carey

It’s no surprise that VDP’s tweets are just as eclectic as his resume. Sure, he does a fair amount of self-promotion, but he’s just as likely to share links to other artists he loves, videos of Sacred Harp singers and Scarlatti sonatas, not-so-subtle political commentary, and terrible puns. Also, sometimes he posts pictures of himself as the Pope.

2) Ringo Starr (Twitter)

Picked by: Erika

You’ve just gotta follow Ringo! The quirky drummer, whose funny malapropisms gave us titles like A Hard Day’s Night and “Eight Days a Week,” is on Twitter in true Ringo style. His tweets are all his own, and while many of them thank the band or the audience for a great show with the All-Starrs, his random observational tweets are weird, funny, and worth the wait. Unfailingly positive, Ringo always signs his tweets with his signature “peace and love” motto, often followed by a ton of cute emoticons. A tweet from Ringo will make your day just a little brighter.

3) Peter Noone (Instagram)


Picked by: Allison

The hardest part of this week’s Staff Picks for me wasn’t choosing a celebrity — Peter Noone is a no-brainer — but which one of his bevy of Instagram pics best represents why his account is so ridiculous that it’s impossible to look away? Noone has long embraced the digital age; in the late-1990s and early-2000s, he could often be found hanging out in a chat room with his Noonatics on peternoone.com. Nowadays, he uses social media to indulge his wealth of alter-egos (also developed in the glory days of PN.com), post gratuitous numbers of selfies (or, as he spells them, “selfys”) taken everywhere from onstage to sitting in 405 traffic (see cover photo), unearth Herman’s Hermits gems, and interact with a new breed of fan. In fact, the most bizarre part of Noone’s Instagram might be the comments. Amid the typical fawning Noonatics are cascading remarks in internet speak like, “Such fashion very fab wow” presumably from the younger peanut gallery. And though he has 3.2K followers, he’s following 3.9K, pretty much guaranteeing a follow-back from a ’60s legend. What more could you want?

4) Yoko Ono (Twitter)

Picked by: Lindsay

I remember when I found out that Yoko Ono followed my husband on Twitter and not me. I was kind of devastated. She is so weird and wonderful and her tweets are no exception. (Does Yoko even count? I mean, she did “sing” on the White Album after all. And she certainly inspired a ’60s rocker. And to this day she embodies a kind of don’t-give-a-fuck [while actually giving lots of fucks, probably] attitude that is very rock ‘n’ roll. So I say: Yes*) Her tweets have a platitudinal feeling, which is odd considering they’re often nonsensical. But they feel important somehow. Her Twitter feed reads like a 21st-century Tender Buttons. And she owns it, totally. You have to kind of respect that.

*See what I did there?

5) Ronnie Wood (Twitter)

Picked by: Jen

Listen, if this one picture isn’t enough to convince you to follow Ronnie Wood, I’m not quite sure you’ve truly been using the internet to the best of your abilities. I’m kind of stretching the ’60s thing here. Yeah, he became most notable in the ’70s as a member of the Faces and later the Rolling Stones, but his career began in the ’60s when he was in the Birds (not the Byrds) and then the bassist of the Jeff Beck Group. This rock legend is a fairly frequent tweeter, sharing tour updates, what shoes he’s wearing, lots of animal pictures, and even paintings he’s working on (which are my favorite posts of his). He’s got humor and he’s not afraid of fashionably showing off his fellow celebrity encounters and friendships. But somehow it’s not braggy. You go, Ronnie. (Also, this picture.)

6) Michael Nesmith (Facebook)

“Touring opens a world of collective expansion and learning to work together and being able to “just get along”. Very little room for entitlement or temper tantrums or discourtesies.”

-Michael Nesmith, May 22nd 2014

Picked by: Louie

It’s surprising how much Mike Nesmith opens up on Facebook. He’s known for being a bit of a recluse: the mysterious Monkee who kept the band from a full reunion for so long. But through Nez’s Facebook updates, we get a taste of his true wit and accumulated wisdom. Nesmith brings his readers in with a warm and folksy style, much like his songwriting. I always learn something about the creative process though Nesmith’s postings and also something about the business-side of his endeavors as well. Endlessly adaptable, endlessly inventive, Nesmith harness the powers of social media for interesting purposes.

Staff