October 26, 2018

800 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “Positively 4th Street” 1965

“He had also been accused, often enough, of sexism as an artist and as an individual…’Positively 4th Street’…was a young man settling scores on his own behalf. As for his attitude towards women, pick an album. Dylan’s inability to see beyond his precious Madonna/whore caricatures has been criticized for decades” (Ian Bell, Time Out of Mind: The Lives of Bob Dylan, 2013). 

Bob Dylan “Positively 4th Street”

799 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “Desolation Row” 1965

“The individual’s private experiences are needed to understand more fully the nature and aim of the political fight which, in turn, make him more aware of the value and precariousness of happiness. Dylan realizes that his public commitment can only be worth what he is worth; it cannot be a refuge or an excuse for his own failures” (Maurice Capel in The Dylan Companion, 1990). 

Bob Dylan “Desolation Row”

798 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “Ballad of a Thin Man” 1965

“JH: Did you go into the folk field, then, because you had a better chance of ‘making it’?
BD: No that was an accidental thing. I didn’t go into folk music to make any money, but because it was easy. You could be by yourself, you didn’t need anybody. All you needed was a guitar…
JH: Why did you give up the folk sound?
BD: I’ve been on too many other streets to just do that. I couldn’t go back and just do that. The real folk never seen Forty-second Street, they’ve never ridden an airplane. They’ve got their little world, and that’s fine” (Bob Dylan and Joseph Haas in Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews, 2006). 

Bob Dylan “Ballad of a Thin Man”

797 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “Like a Rolling Stone” 1965

Bob Dylan: “If you’re talking about what breakthrough is for me, I would have say, speaking totally, ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ I wrote that after I had quit. I’d literally quit, singing and playing—I found myself writing this song, this story, this long piece of vomit, twenty pages long, and out of it I took ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and made it as a single. And I’d never written anything like that before and it suddenly came to me that this is what I should do” (Greil Marcus, Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads, 2005). 

Bob Dylan “Like a Rolling Stone”

796 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “Maggie’s Farm” 1965

“MM: Do you prefer songs with a subtle or obvious message?
RD: Uh, I don’t really prefer those kinds of songs at all. Message? You mean like…? What song with a message?
MM: Well, like ‘Eve of Destruction,’ and things like that.
RD: Do I prefer that to what?
MM: I don’t know, but your songs are supposed to have a subtle message.
RD: Subtle message? (chuckling). Where’d ya hear that?
MM: In a movie magazine. 
RD: Oh, my God (lighting a cigarette and smiling). We don’t discuss those things here” (Bob Dylan and Michelle McFee in Encounters with Bob Dylan: If you See Him, Say Hello, 2000). 

Bob Dylan “Maggie’s Farm”

October 19, 2018

795 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “Subterranean Homesick Blues” 1965

“Dylan is always dressed informally—the possibility that he will ever be seen in a tie is as remote as the possibility that Miss Baez will perform in an evening gown…A wanderer, Dylan is often on the road in search of more experience. ‘You can find out a lot about a small town by hanging around its poolroom,’ he says” (Nat Hentoff in Bob Dylan The Early Years A Retrospective, 1990).

Bob Dylan “Subterranean Homesick Blues”

794 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “Mr. Tambourine Man” 1965

“On the day he made Another Side in June 1964, Dylan recorded a version of a new song, ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ but he wisely decided it was too important to include in an album completed in a one-off session. He played the song twice at the Newport Folk Festival in late July, to rapturous applause and cheers” (Sean Wilentz, Bob Dylan in America, 2010). 

Bob Dylan (1941- ) “Mr. Tambourine Man”

793 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” 1965

Emerson “merely anticipated nearly every American rebel-hero, whose early defiance and integrity all to often come finally to mean their agents can drive a harder bargain for the ads and product endorsements to which fame must, it seems, inevitably lead…Indeed, the advertising industry above all depends on peddling, as Dylan points out in ‘It’s Alright, Ma’, an Emersonian vision of the individual’s powers” (Mark Ford in Do You, Mr. Jones? Bob Dylan with the Poets and Professors, 2003). 

Bob Dylan “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”

792 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” 1965

“when I first recorded I just went in and recorded the songs I had. That’s the way people recorded then. But people don’t record that way now, and I shouldn’t record that way either because they can’t even get it down that way anymore. To do what I used to do, or to do what anybody used to do you have to stay in the studio a long time to get that right. Because, you know, technology has messed everything up so much” (Bob Dylan and Bernard Kleinman in The Bob Dylan Companion: Four Decades of Commentary, 1998). 

Bob Dylan (1941- ) “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”

791 Jackie DeShannon (1941- ) “What the World Needs Now Is Love” 1965

“Today, she’s considered a pioneer for women in the music industry. ‘I didn’t do it consciously. When I was writing songs or performing or producing or dabbling in movies or even putting my career on hold to go to art school, I was just following my muse. A woman who did that then was criticized for having no direction. Today they call it versatility’” (Biography, April 2002). 

Jackie DeShannon “What the World Needs Now Is Love”

October 12, 2018

790 The Crusaders “Had to Turn Away” 1965

The group formed in 1958 as The Keynotes, renamed the Crusaders in 1960 and Insight in 1966 (not to be confused with the Crusaders based in southern California). They were based at Brownhill Road Baptist Church in southeast London. Their music evolved from southern Gospel to blues to heavy rock (www.1960schristianmusic.com).

“My memories of the Keynotes, Crusaders, Insight. I first attended Brownhill Baptist Church in 1963. I went with my father to see what facilities they had for teenagers as the church I had been attending was small and only catered for children up to about 12 years old. The day we attended was the Sunday School anniversary and I was astounded to see the Keynotes playing a song or two in the service. As a budding guitarist I was sold on the place and have been there ever since, currently playing guitar in the worship band every Sunday. The line-up then was David Hawken – vocals, Keith Churchman – lead quitar, Les Bamber – rhythm guitar, Adrian White – bass guitar and Tim Anderson – drums. Over the years the name changed through the Crusaders to Insight and the line- up changed – Keith and Tim stayed throughout, Bruce Duncan replaced David as vocalist, Bob Frost replaced Adrian as bass guitarist and Les left and wasn’t replaced. I got involved with them as I had a Morris 1000 van and together with Keith who also had a van became their unofficial roadie. They played Christian coffee bars throughout the South-East and either myself or Jeff Whyler would often present the gospel message to the young people. Some of us went most weeks to a local bible study group run by someone from another local church” (Dave Bridle, personal e-mail). 

The Crusaders “Had to Turn Away”

789 The Count Five “Psychotic Reaction” 1965

The band was formed by Pioneer High School students in San Jose and became noted for their hit, “Psychotic Reaction.” “What would such a song as ‘Psychotic Reaction’—or the thousands like it in the garage repertoire—have to do with the idea of an avant garde?...Garage bands discovered the potentially endless variety in their minimal technique. And ironically, their dogged devotion to the fundamentals fostered the more ‘sophisticated’ rock that would follow” (Michael Hicks, Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions, 1999). 

The Count Five “Psychotic Reaction”

788 Albert Collins (1932-1993) “Dyin’ Flu” 1965

“Collins was an exciting blues performer whose records conveyed the euphoria of a blues club on a good night. Initially influenced by Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown and T-Bone Walker, he became a guitarist of comparable status and influence among both black and white musicians. He grew up in Houston, Texas, forming his first band in his late teens but didn't record until 1958, with the locally popular instrumental 'The Freeze'. This was, for him, the birth of the cool: his subsequent singles for Bill Hall's labels in 1962-3 were all given titles like 'Frosty' and 'Sno-Cone' and later transferred to the album The Cool Sound of Albert Collins. His playing is characterized by the use of a D minor tuning and high capo positions, which yield a shrill and biting attack” (Phil Hardy, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001). 

Albert Collins “Dyin’ Flu”

787 The Dave Clark Five “Catch Us if You Can” and “Over and Over” 1965

“Dave Clark was a young movie stuntman who taught himself to play drums and formed a band to raise money for his local soccer team. The bass player was a lighting engineer, the guitarist a progress clerk…Everything the Beatles did, the DC5 did, only later and lamer. Dave Clark made it onto Ed Sullivan, indeed, more times than the Fab Four” (Alex Beam, Forbes, Oct. 1995). 

The Dave Clark Five “Catch Us if You Can”

The Dave Clark Five “Over and Over”

786 Lou Christie (1943- ) “Lightnin’ Strikes” 1965

“His outrageous falsetto was, on its own, enough for me to become a fan, but Lou Christie had plenty more. Unforgettable bubblegum hit? Check. Major statement album? Check. Sexual ambiguity? Check. Four octave range? Check… Lou Christie was raised on a farm near Pittsburgh - the second of six kids - with 200 chickens and crab apple trees: ‘The sophistication level was pretty much nil.’ His dad worked in the local steel mill. Lou wanted to be a singer, and coerced his sister Amy and friends into singing harmonies, working their way through various doo-wop outfits. Lou was adaptable, singing the lowest bass and highest tenor in his school choir. Doing an audition in a local church crypt in the early 60s, Lou first met his future writing partner Twyla Herbert” (Bob Stanley, Record Collector, Sept. 2017). 

Lou Christie “Lightnin’ Strikes”

October 9, 2018

785 Ralph Carmichael (1927- ) “He’s Everything to Me” 1965

Ralph Carmichael had been a popular arranger for stars such Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and Ella Fitzgerald. After being asked to write music for the Billy Graham film, The Restless Ones, Carmichael said, “‘Dear Lord, help me write music to match this magnificent documentation of your love.’ I had already lived through a music change in the secular field with Roger Williams. I had spent years learning to write pretty chords and voicings for strings, brass, and woodwinds. Then suddenly the new ‘kids’ music was influencing even the adult performers…I felt there was a change coming in the gospel field as well. I knew I had to do more than use violins for the ‘good guy’ and oboe for the ‘bad guy.’ The music had to be as relevant as this film and its message” (Ralph Carmichael, He’s Everything to Me, 1986).  

Ralph Carmichael “He’s Everything to Me”

784 The Byrds “Turn! Turn! Turn!” 1965

“If anyone doubted the Byrds’ supremacy as one of the biggest acts in popular music, they couldn’t now. One number-one record might have been considered a fluke, but the Byrds seemed to posses the magic touch. The band’s twelve-string approach had suddenly become the sound of the season. Time magazine went as far as to credit the Byrds with inventing an entirely new musical movement called ‘folk rock,’ and throughout 1965 it seemed that just about everyone and their mother was releasing a jingle jangly folk rock record” (Rick Menck, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 2007).

The Byrds “Turn Turn Turn”

783 The Byrds “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” and “All I Really Want to Do” 1965

“When the Byrds began playing at Ciro’s they attracted a whole new clientele, the likes of which no one in Los Angeles (or anywhere else for that matter) had ever seen before. These were freaky beatnick types dressed in spangles and bells, scantily clad teenage girls from the San Fernando Valley looking for a place to spend the night, painters and poets, drug addicts, young Hollywood starlets and scores of fellow musicians....These strange folks in thir denim and leather and suede, smelling of something stronger than cigarettes, spinning around the dance floor like mad gypsy dancers, would eventually become known as hippies. The whole counterculture youth movement in America started at Ciro’s” (Rick Menck, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 2007). 

The Byrds “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”

The Byrds “All I Really Want to Do”

782 The Byrds “Mr. Tambourine Man” 1965

“How do you describe the moment when something changes your life? You may think I’m exaggerating here. I’m not. When the needle dropped on track one side one of the Byrds’ Greatest Hits and the glorious spiraling riff that begins ‘Mr. Tambourine man’ came wafting out of the speakers into the room it was as if I had suddenly ingested the most glorious drug on planet earth” (Ric Menck, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 2007). 

The Byrds “Mr. Tambourine Man”