Spirt of ‘69

As a true crime buff and student of all things ‘60s, I had been excitedly awaiting Quentin Tarantino’s comedy/drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood since last summer and, having just watched it on my laptop, I wish I had seen it in a theater with people, the smell of popcorn, and the sound of shared laughter- all of which would have added to the retro feel of the experience. With the exception of Inglourious Basterds (in which Brad Pitt’s memorable performance as Aldo Raine made the film more enjoyable for me), I’m not a fan of Tarantino’s movies which are- let’s be honest- cinematic junk food that too often include disturbing images of rape and violence simply because it’s what the audience has come to expect from the director. But, thankfully, this was not an issue for me with Once Upon a Time.

The movie begins in early 1969 in Los Angeles and follows the lives of two actors who are next-door neighbors: Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). Dalton is fictional- an alcoholic cowboy actor whose life and career are in a downward spiral. The only thing keeping Dalton alive is his buddy and stunt double- Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Sharon Tate, of course, was real- a bright, beautiful, up and coming actress (we share the same birthday) who was married to the hottest director at the time, Roman Polanski. Tate was eight months pregnant when in August 1969 three members of the Manson family broke in just after midnight and murdered her and four others. This true event hangs over the film with impending doom right up until the shocking finale which takes place on that August night.

DiCaprio turns in a great performance but this is Pitt’s movie in which to shine and he deservedly received an Oscar. With a killer AM pop soundtrack and wonderful shots of the L.A surroundings, the movie really puts you in 1969 Hollywood with all the players including Sharon and Roman partying at the Playboy Mansion with Steve McQueen and members of the Mamas and the Papas; Bruce Lee teaching the martial arts; and Booth and his pit bull, Brandy, just scraping to get by. There are also creeping in the background Manson and his dirty, barefoot hippies who eat out of dumpsters and plot murder. I like the way the movie shows the ‘60s as a time when people still helped each other. Perhaps all that started to change when a group of hippies became homicidal maniacs and went on a killing spree. Grade: A

Recommended Links:

Helter Skelter

KHJ, L.A.’s Coolest AM Radio Station

Folk-Rock Explosion! – Part 3

As an institution, the Catholic Church is nearly 2,000 years old and so, as Catholics, we tend to have a very long view of history and our place in it as individual persons. In this life- as in the Church- there will be long periods of suffering but also some brief, golden periods of glory- and I guess that’s how I feel about ‘60s folk-rock and the pitiful state of today’s popular music. Like other ‘60s music movements, folk-rock did not survive the end of the decade but its influence continued and continues to inspire people around the world. Good music will return, I’m sure of it, but it just may not happen in my lifetime. Good thing there is still enough of the old good stuff to help get me through my earthly pilgrimage. Here are some more of my favorite folk-rock songs. Enjoy!

The Beatles

01. The Mamas and the Papas – “Monday, Monday” (1966)

02. The Mamas and the Papas – “Do You Wanna Dance” (1966) 

03. The Gants – “My Baby Don’t Care” (1965)

04. Crosby, Stills & Nash – “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (1969)

05. The Searchers – “Take Me for What I’m Worth” (1965)

06. The Byrds – “Time Between” (1967)

07. The Byrds – “The World Turns All Around Her” (1965)

08. Scott McKenzie – “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” (1967)

09. The Gants – “(You Can’t Blow) Smoke Rings” (1966)

10. Grateful Dead – “Uncle John’s Band” (1970)

11. The Turtles – “Happy Together” (1967)

12. The Mamas and the Papas – “My Heart Stood Still” (1966)

13. The Mamas and the Papas – “California Dreamin’” (1965)

14. The Mamas and the Papas – “Straight Shooter” (1966)

15. The Beatles – “In My Life” (1965)

16. John Phillips – “Topanga Canyon” (1970)

17. The Beatles – “Nowhere Man” (1965)

18. The Turtles – “Eve of Destruction” (1965)

19. The Lovin’ Spoonful – “Summer in the City” (1966)

20. Bob Dylan – “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

Recommended Links:

The Beatles – “In My Life”

Bruce Springsteen inducts Bob Dylan Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 1988

Monterey Pop Official Trailer

Folk-Rock Explosion! – Part 2

For many, the mid-60’s was the most exciting time in the history of popular music thanks in large part to the novel sounds of folk-rock. Even though I was not yet born, I imagine for many of the young people who were there- like my parents- it must have felt like the great music would go on forever. Some have tried to define folk-rock’s distinctive sound- chiming, jangling guitars with soaring, butter rich harmonies- and for me the Byrds and the Mamas and the Papas are perhaps the best personification of the sound while Bob Dylan epitomized the spirit of freedom and change this new rock movement represented. And, like any massively popular product, people back then were not buying folk-rock; they were buying the feeling they got from listening to folk-rock. Here are some more of my favorite folk-rock songs. Enjoy!

01. The Byrds – “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” (1965)

02. The Mamas and the Papas – “The ‘In’ Crowd” (1966)

03. Bob Dylan – “Positively 4th Street” (1965)

04. Bob Dylan – “Love Minus Zero” (1965)

05. The Mamas and the Papas – “Dancing in the Street” (1966)

06. Jackie DeShannon – “What the World Needs Now” (1968)

07. The Turtles – “We’ll Meet Again” (1966)

08. Jackie DeShannon – “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” (1969)

09. The Turtles – “Outside Chance” (1966)

10. Simon & Garfunkel – “Cecilia” (1970)

11. The Searchers – “Needles and Pins” (1964)

12. Richie Havens – “Morning Morning” (1967)

13. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – “Teach Your Children” (1970)

14. The Turtles – “I Know That You’ll Be There” (1966)

15. Grateful Dead – “Ripple” (1970)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

Recommended Links: 

Don Henley Inducts the Byrds into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Echo In The Canyon (2020) Official Trailer | Trailblazers

Roger McGuinn Explains Folk-Rock

Shania Twain Inducts the Mamas and the Papas at the 1998 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Folk-Rock Explosion! – Part 1

In 1965, a double shotgun blast exploded through popular music with the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” and Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” establishing folk-rock as the latest hip sound to accompany a worldwide youth movement. By year’s end, the Mamas and the Papas and the Beatles had added their contributions with “California Dreamin’” and Rubber Soul respectively. Dylan’s folk and the Beatles’ rock had influenced the development of folk-rock years earlier- Dylan had even gone electric on Bringing It All Back Home months before the Byrds’ electric version of his “Mr Tambourine Man” was released. Yet now the two genres had merged into something new and folk-rock- with roots in both folk revival and British Invasion- was where the money was. Here are some of my favorite folk-rock songs. Enjoy!

Bob Dylan

01. The Byrds – “Mr. Tambourine Man” (1965)
02. The Byrds – “Mr. Spaceman” (1966)
03. Simon & Garfunkel – “At the Zoo” (1968)
04. The Mamas and the Papas – “Words of Love” (1966)
05. The Lovin’ Spoonful – “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice” (1966)
06. The Byrds – “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)” (1965)
07. Grateful Dead – “Friend of the Devil” (1970)
08. The Turtles – “You Baby” (1966)
09. The Mamas and the Papas – “For the Love of Ivy” (1968)
10. The Turtles – “Cat in the Window” (1967)
11. Simon & Garfunkel – “The Only Living Boy in New York” (1970)
12. Bob Dylan – “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965)
13. The Lovin’ Spoonful – “Butchie’s Tune” (1966)
14. The Searchers – “When You Walk in the Room” (1964)
15. Tim Buckley – “Once I Was” (1968)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

Recommended Links:

No Direction Home

Roger McGuinn Interview

Channeling AM Pop – Part 2

For decades, Top 40 radio formats made sense since they were data driven and based on record sales. But what is popular is not always good for us- or at least does not have a very long shelf life. There was garbage on AM radio, to be sure- even when the songs were new- but the best of AM pop has proven to be indestructible to the forces of time. Call it nostalgia, but I find a certain comfort in enjoying music most listeners would agree is pretty faultless and thoroughly pleasurable, though- when it comes to AM pop- some listeners sadly will never be able to get past the ick factor of listening to something old.

ABBA: All smiles just before the divorces

Then why don’t we burn down the libraries and museums, and banish Mozart and Beethoven? Their stuff is old, too. But I ask you- is there anything new worth listening to, or is music finally going the way of other unfortunate art forms such as radio, television, and movies (all of which require some sort of attention span and seem to have hit a dead end)? As for the Jean, I will continue to go where the good stuff leads me- even if that means going alone backwards through time to discover hidden treasures in locked rooms. Anyway, I’ve never been one to follow any particular order when wandering through a museum. I just stop and dig whatever grabs me. Here are more of my favorite AM pop songs. Enjoy!

01. ABBA – “The Winner Takes It All” (1980)

02. Scott Walker – “Joanna” (1968)

03. Paul Simon – “Mother and Child Reunion” (1972)

04. Looking Glass – “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” (1972)

05. Astrud Gilberto – “Never My Love” (1968)

06. Spiral Starecase – “More Today Than Yesterday” (1969)

07. Jim Croce – “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” (1972)

08. Herman’s Hermits – “I’m into Something Good” (1964)

09. Carpenters – “Superstar” (1971)

10. The Original Caste – “One Tin Soldier” (1969)

11. The Searchers – “When You Walk in the Room” (1964)

12. Johnny Rivers – “Positively 4th Street” (1968)

13. Jackie DeShannon – “Needles and Pins” (1963)

14. Jackie DeShannon – “What the World Needs Now” (1968)

15. Jackie DeShannon – “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” (1969)

16. Maureen McGovern – “The Morning After” (1972)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

Recommended Links:

ABBA – “The Winner Takes It All”

WKRP Censorship

Channeling AM Pop – Part 1

No matter how much grown-ups try to shield us from the truth, as children we all eventually learn about violence, death, and heartbreak. As a small boy on Long Island in 1980, I can still remember the somber mood, Jimmy Carter, and all those yellow ribbons tied around trees in support of the American hostages in Iran. One October morning, I stumbled into the kitchen for breakfast and found my mom weeping at her sewing machine. She saw me, tried to compose herself, and then told me dad’s cop buddy down the street had shot and killed himself during the night, leaving behind a widow and a small child.

American hostages in Iran

Two months later, John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment building in New York City, leaving behind a widow and a small child. Three months after Lennon, President Reagan was shot in Washington (and, as we did not have cable television, the few channels we had just kept showing the shooting over and over). Six weeks after Reagan, Pope John Paul II was shot in Vatican City. By the time Marvin Gaye was shot and killed in 1984, shootings seemed like old hat. Anyway, guns don’t kill people, right? People kill people. And guns make it a whole lot easier.

John Lennon signing an autograph for the man who shot him hours later

As a kid I often found myself in the car with either mom or dad- and listening to the radio. With dad, it was FM, but with mom it was AM. What was the difference? Well, that is a complicated question but there were times in America when the distinction between FM and AM radio was well understood. Back in the day, FM stations were known for playing longer album cuts while AM’s focus was on shorter singles. But in my experience- in New York in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s- FM was for classic rock and driving around with dad listening to the Eagles, the Charlie Daniels Band, and Bad Company, while AM was for ‘60s oldies and songs that were a bit more peaceful and eclectic and driving around with mom listening to the Beatles, the Mamas and the Papas, the Association, and lots of one hit wonders.

Pope John Paul II shot in St. Peter's Square

At least on Long Island, the FM radio signal was always crystal clear while the AM signal was scratchy. By the late ‘80s, the AM dial on Long Island was nearly devoid of music and mom eventually moved onto FM adult contemporary. I was not there for most of AM radio’s ‘60s and ‘70s hey day- when it and not FM ruled the airwaves and Top 40 music included Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, and Motown- but it must have been a wonderful time; and this explains why there is still such fondness and nostalgia for music now called AM pop. For me, the best of AM pop is top shelf and helps to soothe me in what sometimes feels like a harsh and challenging world. Here are some of my favorite AM pop songs. Enjoy!

The Beatles

01. Neil Diamond – “Brooklyn Roads” (1968)
02. Don Mclean – “Vincent” (1971)
03. The 5th Dimension – “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All” (1972)
04. The Beatles – “In My Life” (1965)
05. Marvin Gaye – “What’s Going On” (1971)
06. Paul McCartney and Wings – “Silly Love Songs” (1976)
07. Seals and Crofts – “Summer Breeze” (1972)
08. The Turtles – “Me About You” (1967)
09. The Beatles – “Let It Be” (1970)
10. Tommy James and the Shondells – “I Think We’re Alone Now” (1967)
11. The Walker Brothers – “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress” (1975)
12. Marvin Gaye – “God Is Love” (1971)
13. Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah – “Lake Shore Drive” (1971)
14. The Beatles – “Here Comes the Sun” (1969)
15. Jim Croce – “Photographs and Memories” (1972)
16. The New Seekers – “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” (1971)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

Recommended Links:

“Are You John Lennon?”

Mad Men - Final Scene

In Search of Baroque Pop

Before you accuse the Jean of being too wrapped up in music labels- sunshine pop, baroque pop, etc.- let me say in my defense I, too, abhor labels that limit or constrain artistic freedom. But, I find labels useful when learning about something new since labels can actually help to enhance understanding and enjoyment of music, wine, architecture, or whatever. Few musicians set out to create sunshine pop or baroque pop, but nor do such sounds appear out of thin air. Labels can be an efficient tool in studying the origins, development, and influence of any art form. If you hear a piece of music and like it, then labels may be the only way to help you find similar music.

Lee Hazlewood

While on my never-ending quest for more sunshine pop, I stumbled across baroque pop which for lack of a better definition is overly dramatic pop/rock incorporating classical music elements such as brass, strings, wind, or harpsichord. Comparisons with sunshine pop are inevitable and really there is not much difference between the two genres (in fact, some songs can qualify as both sunshine pop and baroque pop, not to mention psychedelic). But to me, baroque pop usually feels a bit more European whereas sunshine pop feels more Californian. There is also chamber pop used to describe contemporary artists who emulate ‘60s baroque pop masters, but- with the exception of the Divine Comedy- I am distrustful of these latter-day imitators and prefer to go to the source material.

Richard Harris

When searching for baroque pop, it is often the strings, harpsichord, and overblown drama that are the dead giveaways. And if it’s music to which you can picture Richard Harris in a pirate shirt dancing around a park with his arms in the air with a bunch of hippies, then it is also most likely baroque pop. Here are some of my favorite baroque pop discoveries. Enjoy!

01. Scott Walker – “Duchess” (1969)

02. Burt Bacharach – “South American Getaway” (1969)

03. Bee Gees – “Turn of the Century” (1967)

04. The Beatles – “Eleanor Rigby” (1966)

05. Bee Gees – “Had a Lot of Love Last Night” (1974)

06. Lee Hazlewood and Suzi Jane Hokom – “Summer Wine” (1966)

07. The Kinks – “Village Green” (1968)

08. Honeybus – “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (1968)

09. The Kinks – “Two Sisters” (1967)

10. Lee Hazlewood and Suzi Jane Hokom – “Sand” (1966)

11. Bee Gees – “Please Don’t Turn Out the Lights” (1972)

12. The Turtles – “Like the Seasons” (1967)

13. Scott Walker – “Two Weeks Since You’ve Gone” (1969)

14. Scott Walker – “Best of Both Worlds” (1968)

15. The Beach Boys – “Fallin’ in Love (aka Lady)” (1970)

16. The Divine Comedy – “A Lady of a Certain Age” (2006)

17. The Divine Comedy – “Absent Friends” (2004)

18. Simon and Garfunkel – “Leaves That Are Green” (1966)

19. The Association – “Birthday Morning” (1966)

20. Richard Harris – “Paper Chase” (1968)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

In Praise of Sunshine Pop II

It makes sense that during tough times we not only look back and remember the good times but also seek respite and escape from the ceaseless, daily problems associated with our human existence. For me, a good dose of sunshine pop is usually just what the doctor ordered and can help to soothe and fill me with feelings and memories of childhood happiness, innocence, and contentment.

But even sunshine pop usually contains twinges of sadness and wistfulness- just like childhood- and while many writers have tried to explain sunshine pop’s appeal through words, it is probably a pointless endeavor- like trying to explain the beauty of a tree in summer. Good sunshine pop is hard to find. Here are more of my favorites. So grab your harpsichord and picnic blanket- and enjoy!

01. The Arbors – “I Can’t Quit Her/For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her” (1969)
02. Sagittarius – “Song to the Magic Frog (Will You Ever Know)” (1968)
03. The Yellow Balloon – “Stained Glass Window” (1967)
04. The Association – “Never My Love” (1967)
05. The Left Banke – “Walk Away Renée” (1966)
06. The Mamas and the Papas – “Safe in My Garden” (1968)
07. The Left Banke – “She May Call You Up Tonight” (1967)
08. The Sunshine Company – “Back on the Street Again” (1967)
09. Roger Nichols & the Small Circle of Friends – “Didn’t Want to Have to Do It” (1968)
10. Sidewalk Skipper Band – “Cynthia at the Garden” (1968)
11. The Peppermint Trolley Company – “Baby You Come Rollin' Across My Mind” (1968)
12. The Mamas and the Papas – “Look Through My Window” (1967)
13. The Mamas and the Papas – “No Salt on Her Tail” (1966)
14. The Association – “P.F. Sloan” (1971)
15. The Peppermint Rainbow – “And I’ll Be There” (1969)
16. The Association – “Birthday Morning” (1966)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

... or check out the playlist on YouTube

(To open music in separate window, click title bar at top of video box)