Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

For my money 1966 was the best year for am pop radio. All the 'B' groups (Beatles, Beach Boys, Byrds)hit their peak just before psychedilia hit, along w/ great singles by The Spoonful, Stones and Dylan. Even though i was only 12, I recall the distinct feeling it can't get any better than this. When Hendrix and Cream came out, the sheer humorlessness of the music scared me. Nobody smiled, and the blues oriented stuff of the artists i just mentioned did NOT resonate well w/ my psyche. I was used to FUN, good time music. Even the Motown stuff seemed to peak during that period.Many of my seventh grade friends CLAIMED to like the new way out stuff, but for some I think it was just a matter of liking what they were SUPPOSED to like in the cool circles. In contrast, I felt the Monkees thing in fall of '66 was completely fake and imitative of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. Pretty intuitive for a 12 year old.

Frankly, alot of the Hendrix-Cream stuff NEVER found its way to my heart 'til years later when I could appreciate it from a ground-breaking perspective.
I can still hear PAPERBACK WRITER followed by SUMMER IN THE CITY, followed by SLOOP JOHN B, followed by I CAN'T HELP MYSELF (Four Tops), etc.

Er...I hate to mention this, but some stuff was happening on the other side of the world that might have been easy to ignore in '66, but became more and more unavoidable by '68...and it's no coincidence that a former left-handed Airborne Ranger might be at the forefront of popular culture's eventual acknowledgement of it. I love all that older stuff you mention too, Steve...but at some point it stopped describing reality. Unless your only source for news and music was Armed Forces Radio...

Hendrix and Cream weren't doing any of the 'ground breaking'...they were just reporting on it.

Steve,

For me Cream and Hendrix breathed new life into a market that I feared would become dominated by songs like Yummy Yummy, and Hanky Panky. I learned my craft playing blues and switched to beat music because it was cool and the current flavour. I was very happy to see blues based music become mainstream, even if only for a while. It somehow legitimized all of the effort I went through to learn my craft. Plus it allowed me to return to my roots, so to speak.

I do understand your point of view though. I am just giving you my thoughts on the other side of that equation.

1965 or 1979, but as this is a 1960's Forum, 1965 it is, for my money.

"I Wish It Could Be 1965 Again" by the Barracudas sums this up well.

Steve,
You hit it on the head. 1966, without a doubt.

For me 60 to 64

I agree lets stick to early 1960's British Invasion topics here. I believe that was the intent all along? Am I correct on that assumption Roy?

Has anyone seen "The Limey"? Remember the scene where the Peter Fonda character fondly recalls the 60's, then check himself by saying the 60's were really only 1966 and the first part of 1967?

Guess he agrees with Steve and Don.

It was the intent to discuss Britsh Invasion but to preclude 65 to 69 would be rather limiting, but you are correct in that the main thread of topics was going to be biased towards the British Invasion.

I'm in total agreement, '66 is the year. Revolver! When music starts getting about too much reality, it stops being entertaining to me. Blues, heartbreak or a new love, fine. "Ball of Confusion", "Power To The People", no way. I want a slight bit of escapism. Anti-war songs were relevant but not as much fun. Message songs bug me.

Some so-called "message" songs were badly written. The two you mention were two of the worst.

Fo message songs, I do prefer Dave Frischberg.

Music serves different purposes for different people.

To Native Australians, it is religious. Period.

Entertaining is one of the things music can do, certainly...

But if you think back, the reality of the 60's, as they wore on, made it increasingly difficult just to be entertained. For many of us in the U.S., 'escapism' began to take the form of memorizing road maps to Canada...

As the Tubes paraphrased Marshall McLuhan: "The Medium IS the Massage". If one can refer to such a thing as a British Invasion, then Cream were shock troops, Hendrix was a foreign mercenary berserker....and King Crimson was "The Bomb"...

People seem to forget that Cream had their fair share of songs that fit in with the mainstream of the day. I Feel Free is a great example of what I am talking about.

The only thing that sets them apart in that song is Erics solo. That recording did not truly capture his magic that would soon emerge on vinyl. I read somewhere that the studio and the producer actually blamed that poor recording on Eric.

Supposedly he just insisted on playing too damn loud and they could not get rid of the hum that his amp and his SG produced in combination.

I wasn't aware 'Clough's Classics' was supposed to be about the British invasion exclusively. Is that posted somewhere? Brian, i think you'd better tell Peter McCormack to stop posting about LONGBRANCH PENNYWHISTLE. They were definitely not British!

Steve,

That was my understanding and Roy confirmed it, but there again I am not so sure that I should tell Peter to do anything. Threads that have unsuitable content have mysteriously disappeared recently, so it's probably not a good idea to be insubordinate to the host.

Besides, Roy is the moderator. It's really his section of the forum.