1968 was a helluva year and "the whole world was watching."
I grew up in suburban Rhode Island over here in the colonies (will you take us back?) and turned 14 in 1968. If you've never watched The Wonder Years, it will give you a good sense of life growing up in suburban America in 1968. I still remember much of that year so clearly. The Vietnam War was still raging and January saw the start of the Tet Offensive which led to even greater escalation. President Lyndon Johnson's popularity was plummeting which led to a primary election challenge by Senator Eugene McCarthy who became the peace candidate. Johnson dropped out of the race in March after narrowly defeating McCarthy in the nation's first primary, a win that was viewed by most as a loss. Senator Robert Kennedy, younger brother of the former president, then entered the race. Later, Johnson's Vice President, Hubert Humphrey entered the race. The race for the presidency became more heated and contentious. On April 4th, Martin Luther King was assassinated leading to more riots and demonstrations across the country. Two months later Robert Kennedy was assassinated. By the end of the summer it was apparent that Humphrey would be the Democrat nominee to run against former VP Richard Nixon the Republican nominee. The Democratic Convention held in Chicago was the target for major antiwar protests and demonstrations leading to a severe crackdown by the Chicago Police which was labelled a police riot. As the riots continued outside the convention, the chant of "the whole world is watching" was heard both inside the convention hall and outside in the streets. Humphrey never quite recovered from the disaster of the convention and lost the November election to Nixon. Meanwhile the Prague Spring, featuring reforms and economic liberalization led by Czech leader Alexander Dubcek, was crushed when Soviet tanks and troops rolled into Czechoslovakia.
We were treated to some great movies in 1968. 2001: A Space Odyssey is still a great watch nearly 60 years later. The Lion in Winter featured great performances by Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn. The year also featured Planet of the Apes, Funny Girl and Rosemary's Baby. Meanwhile, Hair went from off Broadway to Broadway.
Now, on to the music . . .
1968 was another incredible year! The Beatles and Rolling Stones were still going strong with release of the White Album and Beggars Banquet. Originally I had songs from these amazing albums on my list. In fact, this list has changed so many times that I have a hard time keeping track of what is still there in the final version. I have had to leave out so many favorites and so many great songs but there will be plenty of time to add them to the playlist. In the end, I decided to focus on 1968 in terms of the evolution that was taking place that year. 1968 saw the beginning of the rise of the singer-songwriter and a more introspective focus on lyrics with the emergence of Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro and others. The other area of evolution was the development of country rock which led to what we now think of as Americana, roots music, etc. So, here we go . . .
Wasn't Born to Follow - The Byrds
As 1968 began, the world was in turmoil and so were the Byrds. During the recording of The Notorious Byrd Brothers in the fall of 1967, David Crosby was fired, Gene Clark had briefly returned and left the group again, and drummer Michael Clarke had quit the band. By the time The Notorious Byrd Brothers was released in early January 1968 only Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman remained from the original band. For the recording sessions, pedal steel guitarist Red Rhodes and the brilliant guitarist Clarence White were added to the mix. Side one of the album was quite remarkable and surprisingly featured two Goffin and King songs. The first was the longingly nostalgic "Goin' Back" which harkens back to simpler more innocent times and features McGuinn's 12 string Rickenbacker. This song could have easily been my choice for the list, but it was surpassed by the other Goffin/King tune on side one. I think I can best describe "Wasn't Born to Follow" as psychedelic country. The lyrics were an expression of the search for freedom and independence in the late 60s accompanied by the striking guitar interplay of Clarence White and Red Rhodes. The song gained greater fame and popularity when it fittingly made an appearance in the 1969 classic film Easy Rider!
Madame George - Van Morrison
Along with most other radio listeners in the mid 1960s, I knew of Van Morrison thru the raw garage band rock sound of Them's Gloria and Here Comes the Night. A little later came his big hit Brown Eyed Girl, a catchy infectious pop tune which reched #10 on the US pop charts. What followed for Morrison was a classic nightmare of dealing with contracts and recording labels (too long and complicated a story to delve into here). While this mess was being sorted, Morrison was living in the Boston/Cambridge Massachusetts area and performing in mostly small clubs working on his new material and sound which developed into the album Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks was a blend of folk, jazz, classical, and blues influences which just seemed to flow out of Morrison along with the impressionistic stream of consciousness lyrics. Madame George at 9+ minutes was one of the album's masterpieces, poetically telling a story of a somewhat mystical mysterious character of the streets. But it is not so much the story that is important, but the words and feelings and melody that flow thru Morrison to his audience.
Stoned Soul Picnic - Laura Nyro
Sadly, when you mention the name Laura Nyro, you get a lot of blank stares even from knowledgeable music lovers. However, when you start to list her songs you get a much different reaction. By the time she was 21, Nyro had written a string of hits made popular by a wide range of artists. Wedding Bell Blues, Blowin' Away, Sweet Blindness and Stoned Soul Picnic were all hits for The Fifth Dimension. Stoney End was a hit for Barbra Streisand. And When I Die made it to #2 for Blood, Sweat & Tears. Eli's Comin' made it to the top 10 for Three Dog Night. In 1968, Nyro released her second album, "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession" which featured Eli's Comin', Sweet Blindness and Stoned Soul Picnic. This critically acclaimed album also showcases a number of other amazing songs and performances with Emmie, a beautifully flowing love song, topping the list. This could easily have been my choice for the list , but I decided to go with the better known Stoned Soul Picnic. Nyro's original is musically rich and melodic, and in my mind easily surpasses the cover by The Fifth Dimension (which is also quite good). It was always hard to figure out where Nyro fits in musically. Pop? Soul? Jazz? Rock? Probably a bit of all of them.
Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield
I have to confess, it was this song that led me to believe for many years that Dusty Springfield was from the southern United States (probably also that it was eventually part of the Dusty in Memphis album). I had heard many of her songs on the radio over the years, but Son of a Preacher Man was what finally got my attention. Rumour has it that the song was originally written for Aretha Franklin, but she turned it down as her father was a minister and it didn't feel right (she did later record her own version as did her sister Erma). The song, which featured the Sweet Inspirations on backing vocals and some of Memphis's best session players, felt like a slice of southern soul delivered by a versatile singer from London who up until then was best known for her covers of Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs.
Urge for Going - Tom Rush
Tom Rush, a fellow New Englander, began his recording career in 1962 and is still going strong today at the age of 84. While an accomplished songwriter himself, he is best known as an interpreter of the songs of other singer-songwriters. After years of performing in clubs and coffeehouses, he finally approached the forefront of the folk scene with the release of his 1968 album The Circle Game. The album featured a cover of Joni Mithcell's The Circle Game, as well as Something In the Way She Moves by James Taylor and a very early Jackson Browne song (Shadow Dream Song). The whole album follows the ups and downs of a relationship and closes with Rush's own composition, No Regrets about the seemingly inevitable breakup. The Walker Brothers cover of No Regrets reached #7 on the UK popcharts in 1976. For me, the highlight of the album has always been his cover of Mitchell's Urge for Going, a simple but beautiful song of longing and regret. Rush's sparse arrangement mainly features his rich vocals and some fabulous guitar work and it doesn't need much else. Mithcell didn't release the song until 1972 when it appeared as the B side for You Turn Me On I'm a Radio.
(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay was co-written by Otis Redding and legendary Memphis guitarist Steve Cropper. The final version was recorded just three days before Redding's death in a plane crash in December 1967 and released in early 1968. Following his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, Redding was staying on the houseboat of concert promoter Bill Graham while trying escape the crowds of fans at his San Francisco hotel. It was there that he wrote the song's opening lines "Sittin' in the morning sun, I'll be sittin' when the evening comes." Redding then returned to Memphis and Stax records where he completed this classic song. The style of the song was softer and mellower and a bit of departure from his prior recordings, and that may have been what Redding was searching for. There are reports that Redding felt that the song was not quite ready and that he wanted to record another version of the song before it's release, but he never got that chance. Cropper completed the mixing and added the sound of seagulls and waves that Redding had requested along with the famous whistled ending. Cropper claims that the whistling was Redding's own recording but there are conflicting stories. Who knows what another version might have sounded like, but Redding's final recording become the first posthumous #1 single and a 1960s classic!
Piece of My Heart - Big Brother & The Holding Company
Piece of My Heart was originally recorded by Aretha Franklin's older sister Erma and her version made it to #10 in the Billboard R&B charts. The song was also offered to Van Morrison who turned it down as he preferred to record his own material. Big Brother and the Holding Company was a San Francisco based band and a part of that City's psychedelic sound. In 1966 the band was the house band at San Francisco's famous Avalon Ballroom when Janis Joplin first joined them onstage. Apparently her style was not well received at first by some of the band's fans as her bluesy style was a departure from the their more experimental sound. The band's big breakthrough came with their performance at 1967's Monterey Pops Festival and in 1968 they recorded their second album Cheap Thrills (original title was Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills but was shortened before release) featuring Janis Joplin. Piece of My Heart was released in August 1968 and made it as high as #12 in the charts and was Joplin's biggest chart success until her version of Kris Kristofferson's Me and Bobby McGee was released after her death in 1970.
The Weight - The Band
Most people reading this thread probably know the background story of The Band and Bob Dylan and The Basement Tapes, so I will skip all of that for now. Music From Big Pink was The Band's debut album released in 1968. Their sound was an ever changing mix of folk, rock, rockabilly, R&B, etc. that was probably the beginning of what we now call Americana and/or Roots Music. The album features three fabulous covers of Dylan songs; Tears of Rage, This Wheel's on Fire, and I Shall be released. Any one of those could have been my choice for the playlist, but I had to pick their best known song from the album, The Weight. Written by Robbie Robertson (although the other members all claim to have had a hand in the writing), The Weight is essentially the story of a journey and it is filled with imagery and characters that leave much for the listener to imagine and interpret. Robertson himself described the song as a bit of surrealism inspired by the films of Luis Bunuel while others have described it as Bergmanesque. I don't think we are supposed to make logical sense of the characters and their stories but just see them as props that are part of this journey. The vocals of Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Richard Mauel are soulful and moving with incredible harmonies throughout. Definitely one for my desert island collection!
Everyday People - Sly & the Family Stone
Everyday People, released in November 1968, became the first #1 for Sly and the Family Stone in early 1969. Sly and the Family Stone was a San Francisco band formed by Sly Stone in 1966. The band played a fusion of soul, R&B, gospel and rock which became known as psychedelic soul and later funk. From the beginning, Sly sought to develop a multi-racial mixed gender band in a time when the US was still struggling with segregation and racial divide. Everyday People was a song about looking past our differences, racial and social, and focusing on what we have in common and what should bring us together. This was also a time of great generational divide, and I recall how divided parents and kids were over music. Everyday People was one song that I can remember my friends' parents listening to and enjoying. It was a small thing, but it was at least a crack in the generation gap.
Hickory Wind - The Byrds
Normally I would not include two songs by one band in a list like this, but I'm breaking my own rule to talk about Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Hickory Wind. As mentioned earlier, by the start of 1968 the only original Byrds were Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. McGuinn's plan for the next Byrds record was a double record concept album dealing with with the history of American music. The band recruited a new drummer, Kevin Kelley, and in searching for another new member decided on 21 year old Gram Parsons who had moved to Los Angeles after the breakup of his early country rock group The International Submarine Band (Safe at Home, their only record, is definitely worth a listen). Parsons was a devotee of traditional country music and his desire was to blend it with rock music and create what he called "Cosmic American Music." Parsons had an ally in Hillman who had a background in bluegrass music. The two of them were able to win over McGuinn to the concept of a country rock album. As with many other Byrds records, there were covers of two unreleased Dylan songs, You Ain't Going Nowhere and Nothing Was Delivered (both later appeared on The Basement Tapes). The record also features their version of Woody Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd along with covers of songs by the Louvin Brothers and Merle Haggard. Hickory Wind, another sadly nostalgic song of longing for simpler times, was a Parsons' original which he also later recorded with Emmylou Harris on his final album, Grievous Angel. The Byrds recorded Sweetheart of the Rodeo in Nashville and as part of the promotional tour performed at the legendary Grand Ole Opry. The long haired hippies from California were not well received, partly because at the last minute Parsons chose to perform Hickory Wind instead of the planned cover of Merle Haggard's Life in Prison. Parsons left the Byrds before 1968 was over and later formed The Flying Burrito Brothers with Hillman before launching his solo career and teaming up with his protege, Emmylous Harris for two glorious albums. Sweetheart of the Rodeo was not a commercial success, but over the years it has been recognized as an essential album laying the foundation for country rock, roots music, alt country and Americana.
