Five Years 1965-1970

The following is adapted from the work I did for an hour long radio show on Bucks101 last year.

There are many approaches that I could take to this period and many narratives that I could spin, but the fact of the matter is most listeners will be at least aware of these tales, if not bored of them already, and also other sources have done them a lot better. 
I could wax lyrical about the importance of vinyl, how it gave a canvas to artists to create something bigger and more important, moving pop away from live sets and singles to the album format. I could talk about how Pet Sounds pushed the Beatles to explore the studio more. 
Or I could progress through the discography of Bob Dylan, and explain how his movement away from an established folk songbook to original compositions kick started a new breed of singer-songwriters, or how his movement from acoustic to electric shook the Greenwich Village scene he was established with, or how by releasing a 6 minute single he set a precedent for more challenging pop music. 
Or the influence of LSD, and the civil rights movement, and generational shifts, and ‘Nam. Or I could shut up and play some good music.

The story behind this song is broadly representational of the 60’s relationship with albums. Originally on their debut, Wednesday Morning 3AM, the album flopped and the duo called it quits before even starting. It took producer Tom Wilson to overdub electric guitar, bass and drums to their acoustic rearrangement, and rerelease it as a single for it to become a number 1 smash hit and kick start their reformed career. 
In hind sight the legacy of brilliant albums the 60s left can make it look like the LP reigned supreme, when in actuality it was the still the singles that dominated the era. 
Outside the pantheon of now classic albums, many great works were at the time completely ignored. Take for instance The Zombies. Today their second album Odessey and Oracle is considered an all-time great of pop; alongside The Beatles and The Beach Boys. 
At the time of release though, the album came out to almost no reception. This was because the time spent recording it in the studio meant the band weren’t touring, and thus had entered financial difficulties. 
When the singles failed to make an impression, The Zombies agreed to disband as soon as the album was released, and the label unceremoniously dumped it onto the market so quickly they missed the spelling mistake in the title. 

Another almost perfect 60s album ignored at the time was Forever Changes by Love. It only reached 154 on the US billboard, partly because the way it captured the beauty and dread of the evolving 1960s perfectly didn’t make for an easy sell, but most likely cos half the band was black, making them a tough sell outside of liberal California.

                                         

So if the people of the 60s weren’t listening to the great albums, what were they listening to? It wasn’t so much that pop wasn’t respected as an artform, although that was certainly true, but that the attitude to pop was that a song should glimmer and shine like an exquisite gem, with lush harmonies and timeless arrangements. 
Perhaps the perfect embodiment of this ideal was The Supremes. Dianna Ross perfect voice coupled with the song writing genius of Holland-Dozier-Holland and the wall of sound production technique invented by Phil Spector culminate to create great aural gold.

Some more gorgeous sounding Motown pop records from the 60’s, here’s the Jackson 5 with I Want You Back and Be My Baby by The Ronnettes

Motown wasn’t all sparkle and no substance. Aretha Franklin brought sheer power to the cocktail of funk and gospel provided by the Muscle Shoals rhythm section

Detroit wasn’t the only place pouring out fantastic music by black artists. In Jamaica the sounds of gospel and blues were warping under the sun into a new form of pop. Lee Scratch Perry, Toots Hibbert and Desmond Dacres all claim to be the fathers of reggae, the truth is probably a compromise, all three contributing at least something to the others. 
This track was the first big hit from Jamaica, reaching the top 10 in both America and here, and what a track it is. Absolutely glowing and overflowing with emotion, this is Israelites by Desmond Dekker and The Aces followed by Pressure Drop by Toots and the Maytals

There was also this little genre that exploded in the 1960s. You might have heard of it. It’s called rock n roll man

There are so many more tracks I'd want to share but I feel this post has gone on long enough. But, you know what they say. You can’t always get what you want