1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music
Page 2
15–16
The Vietnam Day Committee helps coordinate the International Days of Protest against American Military Intervention, with antiwar groups in more than forty cities in the United States and Europe.
15
Country Joe (McDonald) and the Fish perform the “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” at a Berkeley teach-in.
15
The Great Society, with Grace Slick, debuts at the Coffee Gallery in San Francisco’s North Beach.
16
Despite Allen Ginsberg chanting “Hare Krishna,” members of the Hells Angels attack antiwar protestors in Oakland.
16
Scenesters from the psychedelic Red Dog Saloon, named the Family Dog, organize the dance party “A Tribute to Dr. Strange” at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) hall, in San Francisco, with Jefferson Airplane, the Charlatans, and the Great Society.
23
The pro-war “Hello Vietnam,” recorded by Johnnie Wright, tops the country charts for three weeks.
24
The Family Dog holds “A Tribute to Sparkle Plenty” at the ILWU hall in San Francisco, with the Lovin’ Spoonful and the Charlatans.
26
Queen Elizabeth II declares the Beatles “Members of the Order of the British Empire” at Buckingham Palace.
26
The Rolling Stones record “As Tears Go By” with strings, in imitation of “Yesterday.”
30
Otis Redding tops the R&B album charts with Otis Blue, which includes his cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.”
30
Supermodel Jean Shrimpton is criticized for wearing a minidress to the Victoria Derby in Australia.
30
Fontella Bass tops the R&B charts for four weeks with “Rescue Me.”
November
1
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles release their Going to a Go-Go album.
6
Bob Dylan’s attack on his former folk community, “Positively 4th Street,” peaks at No. 7.
6
The Rolling Stones’ “Get off My Cloud” b/w “I’m Free” hits No. 1 for two weeks.
13
The Lovin’ Spoonful releases “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” inspiring the melody of Brian Wilson’s “God Only Knows.”
19
Nancy Sinatra records future women’s liberation anthem “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”
19
The Berkeley Barb publishes Allen Ginsberg’s essay “Demonstration or Spectacle as Example, as Communication, or How to Make a March/Spectacle,” which extols the use of flowers in protest marches, the concept later dubbed “flower power.”
19
The Leaves release the garage rock anthem “Hey Joe.”
22
Bob Dylan secretly marries Sara Lownds; their first son, Jesse Byron, is born January 6.
22
Stevie Wonder releases “Uptight,” with a beat inspired by “Satisfaction.”
27
Ken Kesey holds the first public Acid Test, in Santa Cruz, with punch bowls spiked with LSD.
27
The Turtles’ anti-conformity anthem, “Let Me Be,” peaks at No. 29.
29
Johnny Cash records his folk spoof “The One on the Right Is on the Left.”
30
Ralph Nader publishes his exposé of the automobile industry, Unsafe at Any Speed.
December
3
On their Rubber Soul album, the Beatles use the sitar for the first time in a pop song to make “Norwegian Wood” seem less Dylanesque, with lyrics depicting the burgeoning sexual revolution.
3
The Beatles try to match “Satisfaction” with their own soul-inflected dance hit, “Day Tripper,” and try to out-jangle the Byrds with “Nowhere Man.”
3
The Rolling Stones begin recording Aftermath, featuring Brian Jones on a variety of exotic instruments.
3
The Who Sings My Generation album explodes with some of the most aggressive guitar, drum, and bass work yet committed to vinyl.
4
James Brown’s second funk single, “I Got You (I Feel Good),” tops the R&B chart for six weeks with the most prominent bass on the airwaves, courtesy of band member Bernard Odum.
4
The Byrds own the No. 1 spot through Christmas Eve via their cover of Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season),” with lyrics from the Bible.
4
The Grateful Dead play the second Acid Test, in San Jose, becoming Ken Kesey’s house band.
7
The Massachusetts Supreme Court upholds high school officials’ right to suspend students with long hair.
8
With the help of their friend Barry McGuire, the Mamas and the Papas release the folk-rock “California Dreamin’,” with baroque flute accompaniment.
9
A Charlie Brown Christmas debuts on CBS.
11
The Velvet Underground opens for the Myddle Class at New Jersey’s Summit High School.
16
Mary Beth Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt are sent home for wearing black armbands to their Iowa high school to protest the war. The students will take their case to trial, and in 1968 the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in favor of their right to self-expression.
18
The Animals’ anthem of independence, “It’s My Life,” reaches No. 24.
20
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee newsletter announces the formation of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. Its symbol is the black panther.
31
With the help of their new manager, Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground appears in a segment of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
31
U.S. troops in Vietnam number 184,000 at year’s end.
INTRODUCTION
A Change Is Gonna Come
“I guess the Fifties would have ended in about ’65.”
—BOB DYLAN
Nineteen sixty-five is the moment in rock history when the Technicolor butterfly burst out of its black-and-white cocoon. The combined forces of TV, the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the Pill, psychedelics, and long hair gave people a heightened awareness of the ways they were being repressed and led to a demand for freedom in all spheres of life, from the political to the sexual to the spiritual. Musicians gave voice to these passions with an immediacy unmatched by other artistic forms. Unlike artists in film, TV, and print, musicians were largely uncensored and could get their new singles out in a matter of days. The epic cultural changes ignited an unprecedented explosion in creativity, and the performers’ rivalries resulted in the most groundbreaking twelve months in music history. It was the year rock and roll evolved into the premier art form of its time and accelerated the drive for personal liberty throughout the Western world, as artists such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, James Brown, the Rolling Stones, John Coltrane, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, the Byrds, the Supremes, the Beach Boys, the Who, Buck Owens, the Kinks, Otis Redding, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Smokey Robinson, the Yardbirds, Frank Sinatra, Waylon Jennings, the Grateful Dead, the Mamas and the Papas, the Four Tops, Simon and Garfunkel, and Marvin Gaye raced to outdo one another with each successive release.
New sounds were explored, such as the jangle, the sitar, and feedback. Baroque pop blended rock with elements of classical music, using harpsichords, flutes, string quartets, Bach-inspired melodies, and Gregorian chants. Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests with the Grateful Dead—with their liquid light shows, strobes, multimedia projections, and extended instrumental jams (not to mention spiked Kool-Aid)—established the model for rock concerts and raves to follow.
While the musicians birthed psychedelia, Dylan brought surrealism to lyrics. When he and the Byrds defied acoustic purists and matched the visionary depth of folk music with the raw power of electric rock,
they proved it was possible to have both artistic freedom and a hit. Dylan’s tracks on Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited liberated his peers to write about anything they wanted and, along with the Beatles’ Rubber Soul, ushered in the era of the rock album as a cohesive work of art, as opposed to a random collection of hits and filler songs.
As the civil rights movement reached its crescendo, the golden age of soul fused the transcendence of gospel with the catharsis of rhythm and blues. Motown broke pop’s glass ceiling, fueled by competition both inside the company and with other soul labels such as Stax Records. Meanwhile, James Brown invented funk by stripping everything out except the rhythm, and thus built the foundation for all dance music to follow.
In country, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens, and Merle Haggard rebelled against the Nashville sound.
Even Frank Sinatra managed one of his most remarkable comebacks in a career full of them, with the Grammy Award–winning albums September of My Years and A Man and His Music.
You couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing a new classic: “Like a Rolling Stone,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “My Generation,” “People Get Ready,” “Nowhere Man,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “The Sound of Silence,” “Eve of Destruction,” “Freedom Highway,” “It’s My Life,” “Respect,” “I Fought the Law,” “My Girl,” “Go Where You Wanna Go,” “One Love,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” “Do You Believe In Magic,” “We’re Gonna Make It,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” “In the Midnight Hour,” “California Dreamin’,” “Heart Full of Soul,” “I Can’t Help Myself,” “California Girls,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “Norwegian Wood,” “I’ll Be Doggone,” “I Got You Babe,” “Nowhere to Run,” “Let Me Be,” “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better,” “I Ain’t Marching Anymore,” “Till the End of the Day,” “Get Off of My Cloud,” “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
The Beatles loomed over their era like possibly no other artist has since. From January 1965 through January 1966 they enjoyed six No. 1 U.S. singles in a row, a feat unbroken until the Bee Gees tied it in 1979 and Whitney Houston topped it with seven singles in 1988. The emotional arc of those six singles reflects the shifting mood of that extraordinary year. The sunny “I Feel Fine” and “Eight Days a Week” matched the optimism both of America rebounding from President Kennedy’s assassination and Britain proud to be the swinging capital of pop culture. The hopefulness continued through the first half of the year, as blacks secured the right to vote in the South and President Johnson vowed to end poverty with such Great Society programs as Medicare and Medicaid.
But the Beatles turned melancholy in “Ticket to Ride,” and desperate with “Help!,” just as President Johnson began drafting thirty-five thousand men a month to Vietnam and Watts exploded in the worst case of urban unrest since the Detroit race riot of 1943.
The desolate “Yesterday” resonated with millions who felt a stable past was crumbling in the face of social upheaval. Parents began to see rockers as Pied Pipers leading their children to long hair and drug-soaked promiscuity. Rioters, black militants, antiwar radicals, and Acid Test partiers would soon scare enough voters to sweep Ronald Reagan into the governorship of California, an election that prophesized a nationwide shift away from liberalism. The pensive “We Can Work It Out” bemoaned the fussing and fighting that dominated the rest of the decade.
Dylan’s albums followed a similar emotional arc. The ebullience of his first rock album, Bringing It All Back Home, was in marked contrast to the darkness of Highway 61 Revisited, recorded just days after he was vilified at the Newport Folk Festival for going commercial. Buck Owens also weathered the outrage of puritans, for daring to mix country with rockabilly.
In fact, the argument over authenticity was a major theme of the year: the Beatles versus the Stones; the polished sounds of Motown’s session musicians the Funk Brothers and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra versus Stax’s Booker T. and the M.G.s and the Memphis Horns. Nashville’s slick A-Team versus Bakersfield’s steel guitars and Fender Telecasters. Ironically, many folk-rockers were backed by the LA studio pros dubbed the Wrecking Crew.
The biggest battle of all was America’s fight to reclaim its title as the center of pop music from the British Invasion. There were twenty-seven U.S. No. 1 hits that year; thirteen were British and fourteen American. On the British side, five were from the Beatles, two from the Rolling Stones, two from Herman’s Hermits, and four from other British artists. The American effort comprised six Motown hits (four by the Supremes), four folk-rock hits (two by the Byrds), three from the Brill Building hit factory, and one from the Beach Boys.
Probably the musicians’ most recurring struggle that year was the inner battle not to self-destruct. As they raced neck and neck to be the biggest acts on earth, artists such as the Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Supremes, the Who, the Kinks, Marvin Gaye, and Johnny Cash threatened to implode, either from outside pressure or from personal demons.
* * *
At the dawn of 1965, thanks to the postwar baby boom, half the U.S. population was younger than twenty-five, and 41 percent were younger than twenty.1 (By contrast, in 2012 only 23.5 percent of Americans were below the age of eighteen.) It was the most educated generation in history, buoyed by unprecedented prosperity. But the “generation gap” had not yet kicked in; teens mainly followed in the footsteps of their parents as they grew up. The Beatles were shaggy, but Paul McCartney soothed adults by singing show tunes. High school principals ensured that boys’ hair was kept short and that girls’ skirt hems reached below the knee.
If you needed to unwind, you drank alcohol or took pills. Amphetamine and barbiturate use was so widespread that Congress would pass the Drug Abuse Control Amendments on July 15, to rein in the consumption of stimulants and depressants. Eastern traditions such as yoga and meditation were mostly unknown, particularly as Asian immigration was heavily restricted. Many Americans considered psychologists and counselors “funny doctors,” and would not have considered seeing one themselves, as that might have implied there was something wrong with them.
In 1964 only 3.1 percent of American TV owners had a color set, though NBC started broadcasting almost all its shows in color in the fall of 1965, for those who did. Eighty percent of the country was white (11 percent black),2 and many whites were still rural residents, as demonstrated by the shows that were popular then: Bonanza, The Andy Griffith Show, Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, Gomer Pyle, Lassie, The Big Valley, The Virginian, Daniel Boone, The Wild Wild West, and Gunsmoke. Other highly rated programs included The Lucy Show, The Red Skelton Hour, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, The Lawrence Welk Show, The Donna Reed Show, and Gidget. The Cold War was reflected in spy shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart. The wife had magic powers in Bewitched, but her husband tried to squelch her using them.
On the big screen, the top-grossing films were The Sound of Music, Doctor Zhivago, and the James Bond feature Thunderball. Movies almost always had happy endings, unless they were foreign. The Motion Picture Production Code prohibited nudity and scenes that were “unacceptably sex suggestive and lustful.”3 Comedian Lenny Bruce had been convicted for obscenity in April 1964 for, among other outrages, observing that Eleanor Roosevelt had the nicest breasts of all the First Ladies.4
The American economy was booming, and if you wanted a job, you could move to a factory town such as Flint, Michigan, and get one. “Oh God, I’m telling you, you could quit a job one day and get a job across town in another GM plant. They needed workers,” recalled former General Motors employee Don Spillman.5 The company was forced to send officials into the streets to find locals who could staff the assembly lines.
But down south, if you were black, the situation was different. The voting registrar administered literacy tests to dissuade you from voting. If you passed and still tried to vote, there would be reprisals from the Ku Klux Klan. Interracial marriage was still banned
in twelve states. Many concert venues had only just stopped roping off the black section from the white section, per the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s ban on segregation. The Beatles had to put riders in their contracts stipulating they would not play segregated venues.
If you were gay or had bisexual tendencies, your parents might take you to a psychiatrist who would give you shock therapy, as happened to future Velvet Underground member Lou Reed. If you had socialist beliefs, you kept quiet, because the Communist Control Act of 1954 made it illegal to be a member of the Communist Party, and the House Un-American Activities Committee was still investigating citizens with Communist ties.
Yet, recent technological and pharmaceutical innovations had begun to affect the collective unconscious. In 1965 their influence exploded in an unprecedented chain reaction.
Citizens in the North had been able to disregard the horrors of Jim Crow in the southern states, but now television beamed out images of southern police officers siccing their German shepherds on black teenagers and blasting them across the street with fire hoses, which ripped hair off their heads. After ABC interrupted Judgment at Nuremberg to broadcast footage from the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Alabama, public outcry pushed the Voting Rights Act through Congress, and federal monitors were sent to protect blacks as they voted in the South.
When Johnson started the ground war in Vietnam, TV broadcast images of soldiers burning huts while peasant families sobbed, causing many people back home to question the conflict. And televised antiwar demonstrations revealed that there was not complete consensus among the American public with regard to the war, causing many viewers to think harder about their own stance.