Category Archives: Music et al

Beatles, Technology, Today in history

Beatles Love All Our World

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Beatles Love All Our World

June 25, 1967

In 1967  what we watched on TV was mainly local other than the evening shows on the major networks. Cable TV was still in its infancy.

Yet the idea that everyone in the world could watch the same live TV program at the same was not new. The main problem was the technology and organization to do so.

Beatles Love All Our World

Aubrey Singer

Technology was no longer a hurdle. Aubrey Singer, a British Broadcasting Corporation producer, took on the organizational issues.

19 countries were lined up to participate but five Soviet bloc countries [Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, the Soviet Union, and Hungary] withdrew just before the broadcast in protest for the Six-Day War.

Those who did participate were:

  • Austrialia
  • Austria
  • Canada
  • Denmark
  • France 
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Mexico
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Tunisia
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • West Germany

Each country would contribute its own piece. No politicians. No heads of state. A live broadcast. Interpreters for each country’s contribution.

In the end, the broadcast went to 24 countries and an estimated 400 to 700 million people watch.

Some of the segments included:

  • from Canada, a Marshall McLuhan interview, views of Ghost Lake, a rancher and his cutting horse, and views from Vancouver’s Kitsilano Beach.
  • from the USA, views of the house in Glassboro, NJ whre Lyndon Johnson and Soviet premier Alixi Kosygin met; a discussion about the impact of technology.
  • from Japan, views of the construction of the Tokyo subway system. 
Beatles Love All Our World

Beatles Our World

As selfish as I am, I am mainly concerned with the UK’s contribution: the Beatles. They had been asked to contribute a song.    Paul suggested their recent released “Hello Goodbye” but a new song came instead: “All You Need Is Love”.

Although the song lists as usual that it was a Lennon-McCartney composition,  John Lennon wrote it.

They started recording the song on June 14th, with Lennon on harpsichord, McCartney on double bass with a bow, George Harrison on violin (for the first time in his life!) and Starr on drums. (Rolling Stone magazine article)

Beatles Love All Our World

…and invited friends

While the ground rules stipulated a completely live performance, the Beatles and invited friends sang to a pre-recorded track for simplification. Those friends? Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Graham Nash, Mike McGear, Patti Boyd, and Jan Asher.

The single “All You Need Is Love” was released in the UK on July 7 and in the US on July 17. The song hit #1 in both countries.

Beatles Love All Our World

Not all enthusiasm

While the millions of Beatles fans found the show and the performance wonderful, there were some Brits who felt otherwise.

  • “This country has produced something more meritorious and noteworthy than The Beatles (much as I admire them)”
  • “We did not do ourselves justice”
  • “Have we nothing better to offer? Surely this isn’t the image of what we are like. What a dreadful impression they must have given the rest of the world”
  • “We flaunted The Beatles as the highlight of British culture, no wonder we have lost our image in the eyes of the world”
Beatles Love All Our World

Music et al, Music of the 60s

Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

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Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

June 24 & 25, 1966
Not from June 1966: Beach Boys live, “God Only Knows”
Beach Boys Summer Spectacular Beach Boys Summer Spectacular
Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Likely 2 Days

Today’s blog confused me a bit as I thought this “festival” was a one-day event, yet sources suggest it was two days in two different places with nearly the same line-up. I am going to treat it as a two-day event, but with a grain of salt. The second poster with the “KRLA Presents” (as opposed to the first day’s “KFRC Presents”) suggests the two-day two-venue possibility. And I can find no information to distinguish things.

Here we go!

Friday 24 June (San Francisco)

  • Beach Boys
  • The Lovin’ Spoonful
  • Chad & Jeremy
  • Percy Sledge,
  • The Outsiders
  • The Leaves
  • Sir Douglas Quintet
  • Jefferson Airplane,
  • The Byrds
  • The Sunrays
  • Neil Diamond
 Saturday 25 June (Los Angeles)

  • Beach Boys
  • The Lovin’ Spoonful
  • Chad & Jeremy
  • Percy Sledge
  • The Outsiders
  • The Leaves
  • Sir Douglas Quintet
  • Love
  • The Byrds
  • Captain Beefheart
Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Station-sponsored

First of all, this was not a 1969 festival and perhaps was not even a festival, but it was a rock music event that was held by an FM-rock radio station in San Francisco that featured some groups that were emerging on the new FM-rock scene.

The sponsor of the event, KFRC-FM (and RKO-owned station) had joined the growing number of FM stations that saw rock music as a profitable format. Bill Drake, the RKO General’s national program director, created a system that meant a fewer records, but heavier rotation of the biggest hits, very short jingles, and less DJ talk.

Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Seeds of future outdoor festivals

One can see the seeds of the “underground” style and album-oriented selection in Drake’s so-called “Boss Radio” style.

The selection of groups that perform is an interesting mix of styles: the jug band bent of the Lovin’ Spoonful, the soul of Percy Sledge, the San Francisco Jefferson Airplane, the LA folk-rock of the Byrds, some British Invasion with Chad and Jeremy, Cleveland rock with the Outsiders (their big hit, “Time Won’t Let Me,” a bit of Texas/San Francisco mix with the Sir Douglas Quintet,  and of course the surfin’ Beach Boys.

Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Hey Joe 

The Leaves are historically interesting as they were the first rock group to release what would in a year become Jimi Hendrix’s signature song, “Hey Joe.”

I am surprised to see Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (and you should be, too), and Love.

With so many bands (either way), the sets must have been short to accommodate so many groups in what was likely a 3 or 4 hour window.

The ticket prices were $2, $3, $4, and $5 for the first night; $2.75, $3.75, $4.75,  and $5.75 for the second night. The more expensive tickets seem too expensive for 1969. I assume there was no meet-and-greet with the highest priced tickets.

Beach Boys Summer Spectaculars

Anniversary, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Ray Charles Modern Sounds

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Ray Charles Modern Sounds 

#1 Billboard album

June 23, 1962 – September 28, 1962

One of the greatest

Rolling Stone magazine ranks Ray Charles’s Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music at 105 of its top 500 greatest albums of all time. [Rolling Stone magazine article] That is, of course, simply an opinion, but it’s only how the album’s greatness compares that is up for debate. Not whether it is great.

Ray Charles Modern Sounds
Already a star

Ray Charles was already a star by 1962.  He had released his first single, “Confession Blues” in 1949 with the Maxin Trio. In 1953, Charles signed with Atlantic Records and had his first R&B hit single with “Mess Around.”

In 1954 “I Got a Woman,” reached No. 1 on the R&B charts.

Ray Charles Modern Sounds

Nat King Cole’s influence

His earliest style was akin to Nat King Cole’s, but Charles could also play jazz and his combination of gospel and R & B created a genre we now call soul.

In 1959, Atlantic released a sanitized version of “What’d I Say” after criticism of the original’s sexual innuendo and some radio stations refused to play it.

It hit #1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, number six on the Billboard Hot 100, and it became Charles’ first gold record. It also became Atlantic Records’ best-selling song at the time.

In November 1959, Charles left Atlantic for a much better deal with ABC-Paramount Records. He immediately produced two classic hits, “Georgia on My Mind” and  “Hit the Road Jack.” He won Grammys for both.

Ray Charles Modern Sounds

Question of direction

Peers and ABC executives questioned the idea of Charles doing  a country and western genre album, but Charles liked that style and felt he could do as good or better a job.

Obviously he won the discussion. Obviously he was correct about how well a job he could do.

Channeled through Charles’s love of blues, jazz, and R & B, Sounds in Country and Western Music was like and unlike any C & W music of its time.

Nashville music writers were suddenly on the national radar for material. Writer Daniel Cooper stated, “There is no telling how many people, who perhaps never paid much attention to country music or even had professed to dislike it, listened anew based on the impact of having heard what Ray Charles was capable of doing with that music.” [Wikipedia entry]

At a time when singles ruled, Ray Charles’s Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music produced four and all in 1962:

  1. “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (#1 from June 2 – July 6)
  2. “Born to Lose”
  3. “You Don’t Know Me”
  4. “Careless Love

60 albums +

Ray Charles went on to have an astounding career. In 2003, Charles had to cancel his tour for the first time in 53 years. Hip surgery and liver disease.

He died on June 10, 2004. Charles had recorded more than 60 albums [All Music list] and performed more than 10,000 concerts.

Ray Charles Modern Sounds