Saturday, December 29, 2007

Mid-1960s Pop and Rock Music

Having been born in 1959, I was a mere child during the mid-to-late 1960s; however, the pop and rock music of the era played a tremendous role in my development. Not only did I listen to the radio nearly every day as a kid, but my older brothers brought home loads of vinyl 45s, many of which remain among my favorite tunes today. (Anyone remember "Mrs. Bluebird" by Eternity's Children?) Thus it is that my favorite musical genre today is mid-1960s American pop/rock music, bookended by the rise of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in 1963-64 and the advent of "psychedelic" music (e.g., Hendrix, Cream, the Doors) in 1967-68. The music I like is characterized by simple chord progressions, Jagger-esque vocals, and less-than-virtuosic musicianship, but also a definite lack of self-important, wankful pretension. A number of songs exemplify the period of which I speak: "Dirty Water" by the Standells; "Little Girl" by the Syndicate of Sound; "Psychotic Reaction" by Count Five; "Liar Liar" by the Castaways; "Talk Talk" by the (Bonniwell) Music Machine; various tunes by Paul Revere & The Raiders; "Bad Little Woman" by the Shadows of Knight; and "Too Many People" by the Leaves. (Most or all of these songs are contained in a collection called "Nuggets:
Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968," which I highly recommend.) Listening to any of these songs takes me back to a much-simpler time, when anyone with a guitar and a little chutzpah could dream of making a hit record, and when it seemed like there was a record company on every street corner.