13. Peak 1960s Energy: A Playlist
13. Peak 1960s Energy: A Playlist
The explosive events of 1965-'71 bookend the rise and fall of a counterculture that shook America to its core. It was also a great time for music.
Note to Readers: I was in the 7th grade in Cleveland, Ohio when JFK was assassinated in 1963. When National Guard troops killed four students at Kent State in 1970, I was just down the road at Ohio University.
In other words, the music of the 1960s was literally the soundtrack of my adolescence and young adulthood, which makes it the most important music of my life. I hope you’ll enjoy revisiting a few highlights with me.
My Generation, The Who (1965)
It was early media-hype culture clash, circa 1964. Youth riots in English beach towns, pitting scooter-loving Mods against motorcycle Rockers! It also gave Pete Townshend the inspiration for this iconic hit on The Who’s first album.
For What It’s Worth, Buffalo Springfield (1966)
This powerful antiwar anthem helped stir up opposition to America’s war in Vietnam, which President Lyndon Johnson was rapidly escalating.
[Vocalist Stephen Stills and guitarist Neil Young subsequently joined another band.]
Somebody to Love, Jefferson Airplane (1966)
The Grateful Dead. Jefferson Airplane. Janis Joplin. Carlos Santana. Sly Stone.
All of them soon-to-be-legendary but as-yet-unknown San Francisco musicians, laboring at the dawn of the psychedelic 1960s.
Vocalist Grace Slick and the band shot quickly to stardom on the strength of Somebody to Love and the rest of Airplane’s second album Surrealistic Pillow, a name their friend Jerry Garcia suggested.
Respect, Aretha Franklin (1967)
24-year-old Aretha Franklin took Otis Redding’s hit record Respect, shook it upside down and made it her own. No longer was it Otis singing the song, insisting that his woman take better care of him, the breadwinner.
No way! Aretha Franklin had her own money, thank you very much, and if you’d like to see any of it, you better be able to spell r-e-s-p-e-c-t, which was a musical innovation she added to the tune, as was the “Sock It to Me” refrain.
Manic Depression, Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
According to the American Heritage dictionary, a supernova is “a rare celestial phenomenon involving the explosion of a star and resulting in an extremely bright, short-lived object that emits vast amounts of energy.” In other words, Jimi Hendrix.
Monterey, Eric Burdon and The Animals (1968)
The most underrated music festival of the ‘60s took place two hours south of San Francisco and two years before Woodstock. The 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival is lovingly recalled in this masterpiece by Eric Burdon, himself one of the decade’s most underappreciated performers.
Sympathy for the Devil, Rolling Stones (1968).
Please allow him to introduce himself.
Woodstock, Joni Mitchell (1969)
She missed going onstage herself due to a travel snafu, so Joni Mitchell transmuted disappointment into art with her customary genius.
Stand, Sly and the Family Stone (1969)
I struggled over using this particular video but it’s just so fucking poignant. Sly Stone is high as a kite here and it shows. At times he can barely sing or play.
But by sheer force of talent, charisma and will — and a boost from the Family Stone band and backup singers — his grit and spirit manage to shine through.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Gil Scott-Heron (1969)
I’ll never forget an afternoon I spent interviewing and smoking a fat joint with Gil Scott-Heron in San Francisco in 1977. What a talent! And what a sweet, modest man. A godfather of spoken word poetry and a key progenitor of hip-hop.
Let It Be, Beatles (1970)
If you haven’t already seen Peter Jackson’s documentary “The Beatles: Get Back” then you simply must. That is all.
Instant Karma, John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band (1970)
Instant Karma was the first recording by one of the former Fab Four (although George did sit in on the recording session). It was produced in the midst of the Beatles protracted break-up and issued just before the release of Let It Be, their final album.
The single sold more than a million copies in the US alone. “Who in the world do you think you are? A superstar? Well right you are!”
Southern Man, Neil Young and Crazy Horse (1971)
Nearly 40 years after the song’s original release, Young’s intense passion still resonates in this blistering solo takedown of America’s unfinished legacy of racism. Recorded at Carnegie Hall.
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), Marvin Gaye (1971)
In 1972, Richard Nixon was going to be re-elected President over Democratic challenger George McGovern. Watergate crimes were being hatched. The Vietnam war raged, as did the war against Mother Earth prophesied ten years earlier by Rachel Carson in Silent Spring. So what did we do in 1972? We lamented. We listened to this song. And then we fought on into the next generation, just as Marvin Gaye would have us do today.
Not bad for a boomer dad!
Excellent selection. Music is indeed the mirror of the soul - loving the inclusion of sympathy for the devil!