The Sixties and the Songs of Our Lives
“I have a theory about getting old. First you’re a teenager, and then you’re in your 20s feeling big. Then things get a bit blurry, and the next thing you know you’re 70 and wondering where it all went. But I was a teenager again there for a moment”
YouTube reaction to “Surf City” by The Beach Boys.
“Can you see any of the bonehead “musicians” composing intricate lyrics and music like this today? Truly, the 1960s was the apex of music, fashions, ideas, hope and dreams. Everything has been dumbed down, including the music, in the great wasteland that was once a country like no other.”
The above quote is from a YouTube viewer after watching a clip of “Conquistador” by Procol Harum. The song was released in 1967, and that is when I recall listening to it, but it was re-released and became a big hit in 1972. The music came first in the song then the words to fit the music. I never paid attention to the words. It was the music that really got me in his song and, for example, In “Little Green Bag” by The George Baker Selection.”. Who cared about the words? The music was IT!
That’s the fascinating thing about 1960s popular music. The decade is more less split between a lighter, more fun and innocent earlier and middle part of the decade and a heavier, more serious and somber later part of the decade after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. In addition, the anti-Vietnam War protest movement was gaining speed rapidly with protests taking place around the country on college campuses. Whereas in the mid-60s you heard slightly vapid, but catchy and enjoyable tunes like The Buckingham’s “Kind of a Drag,” “Windy” by The Association and “Build Me Up Buttercup” by The Foundations, you also heard in that tumultuous decade songs like “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield, “The Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire, “Blowin in the “Wind” by Bob Dylan and Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come.”
It was only after I had gone off to college, and in the decades after, that I really began to appreciate harder rock and the protest and social justice songs of the 60s, which had a long history going back o singers of deep social conscience and enduring influence such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
In this essay, however, I’m focusing on the songs I loved to listen to on the radio in the 60s during the years I was in junior and senior high from 1964-69. I’ll never forget those songs which truly were emblematic of a time of great change musically with the coming of The Beatles in 1964. And yes, I watched them on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and danced to “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” at exquisitely painful and awkward 7th and 8th grade dances. How I dreaded going to those social catastrophes, but which somehow I survived with my dignity more or less intact. I think it was because of that spiffy new, navy-blue blazer I wore with gray slacks.
So yes, absolutely I loved the joyous, innocent, silly but fun Top 40 songs I listed to either in the radio while on summer vacation at the beach or at home flipping through my collection of 45s to play on my record player.
Now I’m much older, sadder and wiser, and dealing with all he awful news about a global pandemic that has turned our world upside down. But the music of the 60s lives on , forever in our memories.
What are your favorite songs of the 60s?
Here’s a sampling of mine::
Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations
Windy — The Association
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/top-ten-civil-rights-songs/
These two songs in my view are among very best of the decade:
Sounds of Silence – Simon and Garfunkel
Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys
These were just plain fun:
Green Grass – Gary Lewis and the Playboys
Friday on My Mind – The Easy Beats
Some consider this the best of Procol Harum’s songs, ahead of even “Whiter Shade of Pale.” As a 16-year- old in suburban New Orleans there was just something really exciting about this song. It got me revved up.
Conquistador – Procol Harum
Here is a song I could listen to over and over. It just got me Jumpin, and I normally wasn’t so much into that.
Little Green Bag – George Baker Selection
Just plain fun and innocent and, of course, some of the earliest and best beach and surf music:
Little Old Lady from Pasadena
Surf City – Jan and Dean (original video clip from 1963)
I still think this was the best song by The Monkees, at least according to my 15-year-old musical sensibilities.
I’m a Believer – The Monkees
Very catchy:
Bus Stop – The Hollies
Many consider this one of the best live vocal performances of all time. With 54 million views on YouTube, there’s some strong validation for that claim.
Unchained Melody – Righteous Brothers
The following are just plain great 60 songs. I love them all and listen to them to this day. And what’s really neat is being able to see them perform the songs. Thanks, YouTube!
Treat Her Like a Lady – Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose
You Don’t Own Me – Leslie Gore
Yesterday – The Beatles
Sittin in the Dock of The Bay – Otis Redding
Crazy – Patsy Cline
I’ll Never Find Another You – The Seekers
House of the Rising Sun – The Animals
Bad Moon Rising – Credence Clearwater Revival
California Dreamin’ – Mamas and the Papas
Rolling Stone’s list of the 10 Best Protest Songs
The Nation Magazine’s list of the Top 10 Civil Rights Songs:
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/top-ten-civil-rights-songs/
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. 😊
@wildrose_2 Lol. 1960 Brian Hyland and the novelty song. Lol. Barely a 60s hit, but okay!
@oswego I was born in 1958 – I remember listening to this song on the record player when I was a toddler around the age of 4 or 5. Probably 4 so that would make the year 1962. Sweet memory for me. My mother was alive then, she died just before my 10th birthday.
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OMG I’m salivating with this entry! 🙂 I’m not a 60’s teen but I think I died young in the 60s and was reborn shortly after because that’s always been my go-to music. I detest what they’re doing today (I dare not call it music). Thanks for posting all this 😀
@thenerve Hope you enjoy it. I had a lot of fun doing this entry. It certainly took my mind off the troubles of the day!
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Since we are the same age, you have basically shared the playlist of my youth. I could go on and on and on along with you reminiscing about this music. I actually still have CD’s of a lot of them. I had the LP’s back in the day, and when that went out I bought the CD copy. So much good music!
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Ohhhhh yes! My childhood laid out in songs! YES! Thank you! Conquistador is still one of my favorites! I get chills. So much GOOD music. YES!!
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How wonderful for you to have put all of this together for readers! Thank you.
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