1966 Activist Music

1966 Activist Music

Janis Ian, Society’s Child

Janis Ian, Society’s Child recorded in 1965 and released in 1966, 15-year-old Janis Ian’s song about teenage interracial romance was daring even in an age of openness. She was criticized by both conservatives because of the song’s topic and by folk musicians because of the song’s use of drums and harpsichord.

1966 Activist Music

JB Lenois’s “Vietnam Blues”

 Lenoir. “Mister President you always cry about peace, but you must clean up your house before you leave”

Pete Seeger  Bring ‘em Home.

Bruce Springsteen in 2006

1966 Activist Music

Nina Simone’s Four Women

1966 Activist Music

Fugs

Kill For Peace from the Fugs first album.

1966 Activist Music

Simon and Garfunkel

In December 1966:   Simon and Garfunkel’s Seven O’clock News/Silent Night. Beginning softly at first, a newscast reports various discomforting events and gradually overrides Simon and Garfunkel singing of Silent Night.

1966 Activist Music

Steve Reich

Come Out (1966) Steve Reich’s avant-garde piece dealing with riots in Harlem in 1964. Come Out premiered at a benefit concert for the retrial of the “Harlem Six,” a group of black youths charged with committing a murder during the 1964 Harlem riots. The voice of Daniel Hamm, a 19-year-old member of the Harlem Six–five of whom, including Hamm, were later acquitted–is first heard clearly saying, “I wanted to come out and show them.” The phrase “Come out and show them” is then transformed through phasing to become an evolving series of rhythms, timbres and pitches.

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