Category Archives: Music of the 60s

Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history

January 26 Music et al

Leave a comment

January 26 Music et al

I Should Have Moved the Dial Sometimes

Listening to the so-called underground FM rock in the late 60s exposed me to a greater variety of music than had I continued listening to Top Ten AM radio stations, but even FM rock was light on the amazing music that jazz artists were playing.

For me, Hendrix and Clapton were THE guitarists. How could anyone surpass either of them?

I should have moved the FM dial a bit and found a jazz station where I certainly would have listened mouth-agape to Wes Montgomery. It certainly was not the Purple Haze or White Room I was familiar with, but my my my!

January 26 Music et al

Wes Montgomery

On January 26 & 28, 1960 Wes Montgomery recorded “The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery” at Reeves Sound Studios in New York City. The four musicians needed only two days to record all that music.

  • Wes Montgomery- electric guitar
  • Tommy Flanagan – piano
  • Percy Heath – bass
  • Albert Heath – drums

All About Jazz  critic Chris May wrote “The Incredible Jazz Guitar burst onto the US scene in 1960 like a benign hurricane, and it still sounds like a gale almost 50 years later....” Take a listen to the album’s opening cut “Airegin.”

Jen Reviews has published a comprehensive guide on how to play guitar like Wes Montgomery on its  sister site, Beginner Guitar HQ. It is completely free and you can find it here: https://beginnerguitarhq.com/wes-montgomery/

Let us know how you do!

January 26 Music et al

Fear of Rock

January 26, 1962:  Catholic Church Bishop Joseph A. Burke in Buffalo, NY banned the The Twist, from being heard or danced to at any area Catholic school or event. The announcement on this day was one of many in the early years of rock and roll in which authority figures were convinced that the music would undermine public morals.  (Bowling Green State University article) (see May 17, 1965)

January 26 Music et al

“Walk Right In“

January 26 – February 8, 1963: “Walk Right In” by The Rooftop Singers #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was a country blues song written by Gus Cannon and originally recorded by Cannon’s Jug Stompers in 1929.

Trivia: the song has been covered by others, among whom was French singer Claude François. It was not a big hit for him…

…but another song of Claude François (Comme d’habitude) became a hit for him in 1967. The very roughly translated lyrics of  “As Usual” for the first verse are:

I get up and jostle you

You do not wake up as usual
I raise the sheet
I’m afraid you’re cold as usual
My hand caresses your hair
Almost in spite of myself as usual
But you turn your back on me
As usual

Paul Anka heard the song while in Paris,  got the rights, and re-wrote the lyrics.  The song became, My Way.

January 26 Music et al

Rage Against the Machine

January 26, 2000: Rage Against The Machine was in New York City to shoot the video for its new single, with activist film director Michael Moore.

The band set up and shot the clip in front of Federal Hall in downtown Manhattan, drawing a crowd of several hundred people, according to a representative for the city’s Deputy Commissioner for Public Information.

After shooting the video, Rage, Moore, and a camera crew attempted to walk into the New York Stock Exchange, located across the street from Federal Hall.

New York Stock Exchange security officers denied their entrance (as was protocol)  and suggested that they head over to the publically accessible Visitor’s Center instead.

The band  got into a shouting match with the security officers, but the band and crew left. Police did not arrest anyone. (MTV news article)

January 26 Music et al

Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history

January 23 Music et al

Leave a comment

January 23 Music et al

January 23

Bert Kaempfert

January 23 – February 12, 1961: Bert Kaempfert’s Wonderland by Night is Billboard #1 album. Bruce Eder of AllMusic dot com writes: 

Wonderland by Night was Bert Kaempfert’s first big international success — propelled by the presence of the number one charting title track, a moody, wistful instrumental authored by Klaus Gunter-Neumann that recalled the late big band era, it also reached the top spot on the American charts and became a favorite of middle-brow listeners just getting into the new innovations of hi-fi and stereo. Today it all seems tame, mostly because it was safe retro-pop-instrumental music executed with a great deal of elegance, which overcomes the sappiness of material such as “Tammy.” The title track is the most recognizable piece here, but all of the album will sound familiar, pieces like “The Aim of My Desires” and “This Song Is Your Alone” having become the stuff of “respectable” pop-instrumental music — the American big band sound recycled by its German admirers — until the mid-’60s. It all sounds like stuff that you’ve heard, probably because, if you were born before 1956, you likely did, in those moments when your parents settled down after dinner (assuming that you lived in someplace like the Cleaver household on Leave It to Beaver). But seriously, this is nicely executed, safe, uncompelling but appealing pop music wallpaper from that period when the 1950s were ending but the 1960s hadn’t really begun.

January 23 Music et al

Janis Joplin Chet Holms 

January 23, 1963: along with her friend Chet Helms, Janis Joplin, a 20-year-old college dropout from Port Arthur, TX began hitchhiking to San Francisco in order to become a singer.

Chet would become one of the major concert promoters in San Francisco with his “Family Dog” series of concerts. (see Janis Joplin for more)

January 23 Music et al

Petula Clark

January 23 Music et al,

January 23 – February 5, 1965: “Downtown” by Petula Clark #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. A young Jimmy Page had played as a session guitarist on the track, giving him his first US No.1 hit.

 

January 23 Music et al

January 23 Music et al

Crawdaddy magazine

January 23 Music et al,
Crawdaddy

January 23 – February 7, 1966: first issue of Crawdaddy! magazine: You are looking at the first issue of a magazine of rock and roll criticism. Crawdaddy! will feature neither pin-ups nor news-briefs; the specialty of this magazine is intelligent writing about pop music….” see Paul Williams Crawdaddy for more)

January 23 Music et al

Ken Kesey

January 23, 1966: Ken Kesey fakes his suicide and fled to Mexico to avoid imprisonment.  He had arranged to leave his car near the ocean and left a note: “”Ocean, Ocean I’ll beat you in the end.”  (Vintage News article) (see Jan 29)

January 23 Music et al

Roots of Rock

January 23 Music et al,

January 23, 1986: the first annual induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was held in New York City. Inductees were:

  • Chuck Berry
  • James Brown
  • Ray Charles
  • Sam Cooke
  • Fats Domino
  • The Everly Brothers
  • Alan Freed
  • John Hammond
  1. Buddy Holly
  2. Rober Johnson
  3. Jerry Lee Lewis
  4. Little Richard
  5. Sam Phillips
  6. Elvis Presley
  7. Jimmie Rodgers
  8. Jimmy Yancey

(see Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for more details)

January 23 Music et al
Music et al, Music of the 60s

January 22 Music et al

Leave a comment

January 22 Music et al

Sounds of Silence

January 22 Music et al

January 22 – 28, 1966: “The Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was the second version of the song. Columbia producer Tom Wilson had taken their acoustic version from the unsuccessful first album and added a bit of electricity by plugging into Bob Dylan’s studio band. Voila! (see Wednesday Morning 3am for more)

January 22 Music et al

Aretha: Lady Soul

January 22 Music et al

January 22, 1968: Aretha Franklin released Lady Soul album. Lady Soul was Franklin’s the fourteenth studio album and her second R&B chart-topper. The album had some of her biggest hit singles, “Chain of Fools” (#2 Pop), and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (#8 Pop), and “(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone” (#5 Pop).

John Bush wrote in an AllMusic.com review: “Appearing after a blockbuster debut and a sophomore set that was rather disappointing (in comparison), 1968’s Lady Soul proved Aretha Franklin, the pop sensation, was no fluke. Her performances were more impassioned than on her debut, and the material just as strong, an inspired blend of covers and originals from the best songwriters in soul and pop music.” 

January 22 Music et al

Annie Leibovitz w John & YokoJanuary 22 Music et al

January 22, 1981: Rolling Stone magazine’s John Lennon tribute issue published. Its cover was a photograph of a naked John Lennon curled up in a fetal embrace of a fully clothed Yoko Ono. Annie Leibowitz‘s portrait would become the definitive image of perhaps the most photographed married couple in music history. The photograph was all the more poignant for having been taken on the morning of December 8, 1980, just twelve hours before Lennon’s death.

Rolling Stone sent Leibowitz to take a photo of Lennon alone, but Lennon insisted on one with Yoko.  Leibowitz recalled, “…I walk in, and the first thing [Lennon] says to me is ‘I want to be with her.'” Leibowitz reluctantly agreed, Lennon told her on the spot that she “captured [his] relationship with Yoko perfectly.”  (2011 LOMOGRAPHY article) (next Beatles, see Feb 6)

January 22 Music et al