Sounds of 1967
1967 was an unusually glorious year in the world of music, a year in which it appeared that everything was happening at once. In both the United Kingdom and the United States, it was the year in which rock 'n' roll began to move beyond the primitive qualities upon which it had been founded in the 1950s and went on a mind-expanding trip, quickly growing to become fully psychedelic as it spread its wings and soared toward a higher and more colorful realm. It was the sort of year that probably comes along only once in a lifetime, and, as a young person who loved music and listened closely to new sounds, I reveled in all that I heard.
As with most things in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, The Beatles were at the forefront in 1967, leaping ahead of other musicians and leading the way in creating new sounds. At the end of 1966, after giving up performing and touring, they had withdrawn themselves from public examination, preferring to seclude themselves in a recording studio in London to begin work on their next album. In February of 1967, several months before the album was finished, The Beatles offered two new songs, "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever," on a single. Both songs gave ample signs of mental growth and musical daring on the part of the musicians who, several years earlier, had been known as the Fab Four.
When the new album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was released in June of 1967, it was hailed as an unquestioned masterpiece. It greatly expanded the accepted boundaries of rock 'n' roll, causing The Beatles and their producer, George Martin, to be more highly esteemed than ever. The quartet that had begun its fame by singing "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" was now being taken quite seriously by academics and intellectuals. When the final chord of "A Day in the Life," the last track on the album, thundered down and faded into nothingness, listeners could scarcely believe what they had heard. Rock 'n' roll would never be the same again.
The Beatles released another single in July, making their triumph in 1967 even more complete. Their new song, "All You Need Is Love" (with "Baby, You're a Rich Man" on the flip side), was sung by John Lennon, and embodied a hopeful, almost childlike, outlook that chimed with the sensibilities of young people around the world. The Beatles soon found themselves being reverently acknowledged everywhere as the undisputed kings of hipness, musical and otherwise.
The Rolling Stones, second only to The Beatles in their musical stature, were having a less propitious year in 1967. In February, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the singer and the guitarist who wrote nearly all of the songs that The Rolling Stones performed, were questioned by police officers in England, and then were charged in connection with the unlawful possession of drugs. They were prosecuted as an example to others, and were convicted and briefly imprisoned. Keith Richards later had his conviction overturned, but owing to his dangerous habits, the celebrated trial in 1967 proved to be only the first of many encounters that he would have with the authorities.
Brian Jones, the blond-haired guitarist who founded The Rolling Stones, also came under suspicion in regard to drugs in 1967, and was arrested, charged, tried, convicted, and put on probation. His problems with the law had a deeply injurious effect on his life, deeply unsettling his mind (which already was in a bad state) and sending him into a swift decline. Two years later, in July, 1969, mere weeks after it was announced that Brian Jones had parted company with The Rolling Stones, he drowned in the depths of his own swimming pool.
The infamy that resulted from the trials helped to further the widespread view of The Rolling Stones as outlaws and rebels, a view that the musicians themselves had blithely encouraged in the past, but the attendant stress acted as a hindrance to their musical activities. The album that The Rolling Stones recorded and released in 1967, Their Satanic Majesties Request, was poorly received by many listeners, who judged it to be contrived and uninspired. At best, it clearly was an ill-conceived attempt to match the breathtaking range of musicality that The Beatles had achieved with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones were back in rough-and-tumble form on their next album, Beggars Banquet.
The Kinks, one of the other leading bands in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, released what now is generally regarded as their greatest single, "Waterloo Sunset," in May, 1967. The stately track, which was written and sung by Ray Davies (and enhanced by a dignified underpinning of restrained tones from the electric guitar of Ray's younger brother, Dave Davies), is a tender, yearning description of everyday life among the busy inhabitants of London, as seen from the resigned, melancholy perspective of a lonely observer, who plaintively declares, "As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset, I am in paradise."
In addition to being a praiseworthy single, "Waterloo Sunset" also was the final track on Something Else, the album released by The Kinks in September, 1967. In the context of those experimental times, Something Else was a somewhat contrary offering. It was quaintly determined in its fey expression of English eccentricity, and distinctly out of step with the psychedelic disposition that prevailed in 1967, but it contained a wonderfully varied collection of tracks with "David Watts," "Two Sisters," "Tin Soldier Man," "Situation Vacant," "Lazy Old Sun," and "Afternoon Tea" establishing themselves as being among the best songs that Ray Davies had ever written, and among the best tracks that The Kinks had ever recorded.
Another British album released in 1967, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was much more in keeping with the current mood. It was the first album (having been preceded by two singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play") by Pink Floyd, four students who had turned to making music, and it featured the free-form compositions of Syd Barrett, an unstable guitarist who took too much LSD and later drifted into mental illness. When his madness became pronounced and forced his dismissal from Pink Floyd, his shoes were filled by David Gilmour, a guitarist who had been his friend in younger days. Syd Barrett later recorded two albums under his own name, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, but in time he gave up music entirely and returned to his home in Cambridge, living out the rest of his life as a famous recluse.
"A Whiter Shade of Pale," the first single by Procol Harum, was one of the biggest hits to come out of the United Kingdom in 1967. It featured the soulful voice of Gary Brooker and the haunting organ of Matthew Fisher, and had a plaintive melody that was borrowed from Johann Sebastian Bach. The perplexing lyrics, which were written by Keith Reid, defied all attempts at casual interpretation. It was heard everywhere during the summer months of that year.
Also during the summer of 1967, The Small Faces (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) released a single that became one of their biggest hits (and their only hit in America): "Itchycoo Park." It was a high-spirited record (with a cheerfully impudent vocal by Steve Marriott) that perfectly expressed the heady mood of the times. The trendy quartet of British mods, who were known for their diminutive stature, perky manner, and stylish apparel, followed up with another stirring track, "Tin Soldier," later in the year.
Steve Winwood, a British musician who excelled as a vocalist, a keyboardist, and a guitarist, left The Spencer Davis Group in April of 1967, and then retreated to a cottage in the English countryside, where he applied himself to creating music with the other members (Dave Mason, Chris Wood, Jim Capaldi) of his new band, known as Traffic. Mr. Fantasy, the first album by Traffic, was released in December, and comprised a varied range of tracks, from flights of hallucinogenic fancy ("Heaven Is in Your Mind," "Berkshire Poppies") to heavy freak-outs ("Dear Mr. Fantasy," "Coloured Rain").
Keith Emerson (keyboards), Lee Jackson (bass, vocals), David O'List (guitar), and Brian Davison (drums), known collectively as The Nice, joined their talents in 1967 and released their first album, The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack, at the end of the year. (When David O'List was removed from The Nice in 1968, the others chose to continue as a threesome.) The music of The Nice was mainly shaped by the sophisticated abilities of Keith Emerson, who was both a well-rounded keyboardist, comfortable with either Tchaikovsky or Brubeck, and an extremely active performer, famed for his fearless showmanship, which included his onstage practice of stabbing his Hammond organ with a knife. After The Nice ended in 1970, he achieved even greater fame as one third of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
The Bee Gees, three brothers (Barry Gibb and his twin siblings, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb) who were born on the Isle of Man, and then grew up partly in Manchester, England and partly in Queensland, Australia, had their first breakthrough in 1967. Their single, "New York Mining Disaster 1941," which was recorded after the brothers had returned to England, brought them instant fame in both the United Kingdom and the United States. It was the first of many hits ("To Love Somebody," "Massachusetts," "Words," "I've Gotta Get a Message to You," "First of May") to be written and sung in the late 1960s by Barry, Robin, and Maurice.
Among other British musicians receiving favorable notice in 1967 were The Move, The Creation, The Herd, Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and The Trinity, Eric Burdon and The Animals, Ten Years After, Amen Corner, Tomorrow, The Soft Machine, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Blossom Toes, Cream, The Incredible String Band, and The Moody Blues. British musicians would continue to be in the vanguard of rock 'n' roll through the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s.
As with most things in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, The Beatles were at the forefront in 1967, leaping ahead of other musicians and leading the way in creating new sounds. At the end of 1966, after giving up performing and touring, they had withdrawn themselves from public examination, preferring to seclude themselves in a recording studio in London to begin work on their next album. In February of 1967, several months before the album was finished, The Beatles offered two new songs, "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever," on a single. Both songs gave ample signs of mental growth and musical daring on the part of the musicians who, several years earlier, had been known as the Fab Four.
When the new album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was released in June of 1967, it was hailed as an unquestioned masterpiece. It greatly expanded the accepted boundaries of rock 'n' roll, causing The Beatles and their producer, George Martin, to be more highly esteemed than ever. The quartet that had begun its fame by singing "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me" was now being taken quite seriously by academics and intellectuals. When the final chord of "A Day in the Life," the last track on the album, thundered down and faded into nothingness, listeners could scarcely believe what they had heard. Rock 'n' roll would never be the same again.
The Beatles released another single in July, making their triumph in 1967 even more complete. Their new song, "All You Need Is Love" (with "Baby, You're a Rich Man" on the flip side), was sung by John Lennon, and embodied a hopeful, almost childlike, outlook that chimed with the sensibilities of young people around the world. The Beatles soon found themselves being reverently acknowledged everywhere as the undisputed kings of hipness, musical and otherwise.
The Rolling Stones, second only to The Beatles in their musical stature, were having a less propitious year in 1967. In February, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the singer and the guitarist who wrote nearly all of the songs that The Rolling Stones performed, were questioned by police officers in England, and then were charged in connection with the unlawful possession of drugs. They were prosecuted as an example to others, and were convicted and briefly imprisoned. Keith Richards later had his conviction overturned, but owing to his dangerous habits, the celebrated trial in 1967 proved to be only the first of many encounters that he would have with the authorities.
Brian Jones, the blond-haired guitarist who founded The Rolling Stones, also came under suspicion in regard to drugs in 1967, and was arrested, charged, tried, convicted, and put on probation. His problems with the law had a deeply injurious effect on his life, deeply unsettling his mind (which already was in a bad state) and sending him into a swift decline. Two years later, in July, 1969, mere weeks after it was announced that Brian Jones had parted company with The Rolling Stones, he drowned in the depths of his own swimming pool.
The infamy that resulted from the trials helped to further the widespread view of The Rolling Stones as outlaws and rebels, a view that the musicians themselves had blithely encouraged in the past, but the attendant stress acted as a hindrance to their musical activities. The album that The Rolling Stones recorded and released in 1967, Their Satanic Majesties Request, was poorly received by many listeners, who judged it to be contrived and uninspired. At best, it clearly was an ill-conceived attempt to match the breathtaking range of musicality that The Beatles had achieved with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones were back in rough-and-tumble form on their next album, Beggars Banquet.
The Kinks, one of the other leading bands in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, released what now is generally regarded as their greatest single, "Waterloo Sunset," in May, 1967. The stately track, which was written and sung by Ray Davies (and enhanced by a dignified underpinning of restrained tones from the electric guitar of Ray's younger brother, Dave Davies), is a tender, yearning description of everyday life among the busy inhabitants of London, as seen from the resigned, melancholy perspective of a lonely observer, who plaintively declares, "As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset, I am in paradise."
In addition to being a praiseworthy single, "Waterloo Sunset" also was the final track on Something Else, the album released by The Kinks in September, 1967. In the context of those experimental times, Something Else was a somewhat contrary offering. It was quaintly determined in its fey expression of English eccentricity, and distinctly out of step with the psychedelic disposition that prevailed in 1967, but it contained a wonderfully varied collection of tracks with "David Watts," "Two Sisters," "Tin Soldier Man," "Situation Vacant," "Lazy Old Sun," and "Afternoon Tea" establishing themselves as being among the best songs that Ray Davies had ever written, and among the best tracks that The Kinks had ever recorded.
Another British album released in 1967, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was much more in keeping with the current mood. It was the first album (having been preceded by two singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play") by Pink Floyd, four students who had turned to making music, and it featured the free-form compositions of Syd Barrett, an unstable guitarist who took too much LSD and later drifted into mental illness. When his madness became pronounced and forced his dismissal from Pink Floyd, his shoes were filled by David Gilmour, a guitarist who had been his friend in younger days. Syd Barrett later recorded two albums under his own name, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, but in time he gave up music entirely and returned to his home in Cambridge, living out the rest of his life as a famous recluse.
"A Whiter Shade of Pale," the first single by Procol Harum, was one of the biggest hits to come out of the United Kingdom in 1967. It featured the soulful voice of Gary Brooker and the haunting organ of Matthew Fisher, and had a plaintive melody that was borrowed from Johann Sebastian Bach. The perplexing lyrics, which were written by Keith Reid, defied all attempts at casual interpretation. It was heard everywhere during the summer months of that year.
Also during the summer of 1967, The Small Faces (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) released a single that became one of their biggest hits (and their only hit in America): "Itchycoo Park." It was a high-spirited record (with a cheerfully impudent vocal by Steve Marriott) that perfectly expressed the heady mood of the times. The trendy quartet of British mods, who were known for their diminutive stature, perky manner, and stylish apparel, followed up with another stirring track, "Tin Soldier," later in the year.
Steve Winwood, a British musician who excelled as a vocalist, a keyboardist, and a guitarist, left The Spencer Davis Group in April of 1967, and then retreated to a cottage in the English countryside, where he applied himself to creating music with the other members (Dave Mason, Chris Wood, Jim Capaldi) of his new band, known as Traffic. Mr. Fantasy, the first album by Traffic, was released in December, and comprised a varied range of tracks, from flights of hallucinogenic fancy ("Heaven Is in Your Mind," "Berkshire Poppies") to heavy freak-outs ("Dear Mr. Fantasy," "Coloured Rain").
Keith Emerson (keyboards), Lee Jackson (bass, vocals), David O'List (guitar), and Brian Davison (drums), known collectively as The Nice, joined their talents in 1967 and released their first album, The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack, at the end of the year. (When David O'List was removed from The Nice in 1968, the others chose to continue as a threesome.) The music of The Nice was mainly shaped by the sophisticated abilities of Keith Emerson, who was both a well-rounded keyboardist, comfortable with either Tchaikovsky or Brubeck, and an extremely active performer, famed for his fearless showmanship, which included his onstage practice of stabbing his Hammond organ with a knife. After The Nice ended in 1970, he achieved even greater fame as one third of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
The Bee Gees, three brothers (Barry Gibb and his twin siblings, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb) who were born on the Isle of Man, and then grew up partly in Manchester, England and partly in Queensland, Australia, had their first breakthrough in 1967. Their single, "New York Mining Disaster 1941," which was recorded after the brothers had returned to England, brought them instant fame in both the United Kingdom and the United States. It was the first of many hits ("To Love Somebody," "Massachusetts," "Words," "I've Gotta Get a Message to You," "First of May") to be written and sung in the late 1960s by Barry, Robin, and Maurice.
Among other British musicians receiving favorable notice in 1967 were The Move, The Creation, The Herd, Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and The Trinity, Eric Burdon and The Animals, Ten Years After, Amen Corner, Tomorrow, The Soft Machine, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Blossom Toes, Cream, The Incredible String Band, and The Moody Blues. British musicians would continue to be in the vanguard of rock 'n' roll through the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s.
On the west coast of the United States, in the nightclubs and ballrooms of San Francisco, Jefferson Airplane took the lead in playing new music that was fresh and inventive, along with The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, Country Joe and The Fish, The Steve Miller Band, Santana, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The six musicians of Jefferson Airplane (Marty Balin, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, and Spencer Dryden) all were fearless, forceful figures with restless temperaments, and their unruly sound did not lend itself to easy handling. The full range of their erratic glory was not always evident on their recordings, but when they were onstage, they could be fierce and overwhelming.
I first saw Jefferson Airplane perform in December, 1966, when they joined with several other bands as openers at a concert by the The Beach Boys. Jefferson Airplane gave a brief, and fairly straightforward, performance that evening, but when I saw them perform again in June, 1967, at a time when they were starting to receive considerable praise for their second album, Surrealistic Pillow (which included "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit," two radio hits with dauntless vocals by Grace Slick), I was greatly impressed by the unrelenting strength of their sound. There were moments of impetuous dissonance throughout their set, when each voice and each player was swerving and swooping in their own direction, threatening to pull apart the structure of the song being played, but somehow their fractious music held itself together.
In Los Angeles, where The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Love already had established themselves, four musicians known as The Doors were attracting great interest in 1967. The music of The Doors was dark and carnal, and it was offered to the public in fiery performances that centered on the murky voice and reckless actions of their vocalist, Jim Morrison. Hearing their single, "Light My Fire," on the radio for the first time, I was stopped cold by the slinky, serpentine feeling that it conveyed. When I listened to their first album, The Doors (released on Elektra Records at the beginning of the year), I felt as if I was being drawn completely out of myself and into a shadowy realm. Their songs combined beauty and wildness in equal parts. Their second album, Strange Days (released in September, 1967), contained more songs in the same vein, with one track, "People Are Strange," achieving regular airplay as a single.
Jim Morrison was the well-read son of a military family. He was also a headstrong and outspoken performer whose approach to his audiences was vigorously provocative and boldly extreme, and he soon fashioned himself into a towering figure of rock 'n' roll. He drunkenly creating his own legend, flouting convention at every turn and spouting ornate lines of rebellious poetry, as he swayed and strutted in leather pants. He sought to use concerts by The Doors as a means of revealing, and challenging, all that he held to be false, shallow, and unworthy. Jim Morrison constantly kept reaching toward the furthest edge of his music and his life, until finally, in July, 1971, while he was living and writing in Paris, he reached too far. His life ended at the age of twenty-seven.
The Turtles were another band from California, who had their biggest hit in 1967. They already had released several singles in 1965 and 1966, with "It Ain't Me Babe" (a song written by Bob Dylan, which The Turtles transformed into a driving piece of folk-rock) receiving favorable airplay, but when "Happy Together" (a slick tune written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, and cleverly arranged by Chip Douglas) was released in February, 1967, it quickly became a hit of huge proportions, spending a total of three weeks in the top slot of the Billboard Hot 100. Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, the two singers with The Turtles, later worked (as the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie) with Frank Zappa in The Mothers of Invention, and also were heard doing backup vocals for Marc Bolan on recordings by T. Rex in the early 1970s.
The Velvet Underground, formed in New York City and promoted by Andy Warhol, also released its first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, in 1967. It contained eleven songs, mostly written and sung by Lou Reed, that embodied harsh and uncompromising themes, with frank references to addiction ("I'm Waiting for the Man," "Heroin") and perversion ("Venus in Furs"). Several of the vocals were by Nico, a German actress (she appeared in Frederico Fellini's La Dolce Vita), model, and singer. Although The Velvet Underground never gained wide acceptance in the mainstream of musical taste, their arresting songs and eccentric musicianship have never lost the power to disturb and inspire.
The Left Banke also came from New York City, and also released their first album in 1967. It included their graceful hit from October, 1966, "Walk Away Renee," and its equally graceful follow-up, "Pretty Ballerina," along with "She May Call You Up Tonight," "Barterers and Their Wives," "Shadows Breaking Over My Head," and a handful of other polished songs that featured the baroque keyboards of Michael Brown and the earnest voice of Steve Martin-Caro (with vocal harmonies by Tom Finn and George Cameron). Although the music of The Left Banke had a marked degree of poise and showed great promise, the musicians themselves frequently were distracted by changes in their lineup and problems with money, and after recording their second album, they were unable to go any further.
In December of 1967, Bob Dylan released his eighth album, John Wesley Harding, after having retreated from the realm of public life for many months following an accident on a motorcycle. His new sound was much softer and more reflective than the electric music that he had played during 1965 and 1966, with brief, understated songs that featured a number of references to stories in the Bible. The homespun quality that defined the twelve tracks on John Wesley Harding was in direct opposition to the more adventurous approach being taken by many other musicians that year. It seemed that Bob Dylan, as always, was interested only in doing what he wanted to do.
1967 was also the year of the Monterey International Pop Festival, which was held in California on a weekend in June. The festival, organized by Lou Adler of Dunhill Records and John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas, was the first time that rock 'n' roll had been properly showcased in the USA. Many famous performers of the 1960s were featured, including The Association, Lou Rawls, Johnny Rivers, Eric Burdon and The Animals, Canned Heat, Simon and Garfunkel, The Electric Flag, The Byrds, Laura Nyro, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T. and The M.G.'s, Otis Redding, Buffalo Springfield, and The Who.
In particular, two American musicians were suddenly propelled to a height of lasting fame after their stunning appearances at the Monterey International Pop Festival: Jimi Hendrix, a guitarist and singer who served as leader of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Janis Joplin, a bluesy shouter who performed with Big Brother and the Holding Company. Both Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin took the festival, and later the rest of the world, by storm.
Jimi Hendrix, a black American who grew up in Seattle and came into his own after he moved to England in 1966, was an exceptional musician whose astounding command of the electric guitar has yet to be excelled or equaled. His guitar spoke in a musical language that had never been heard or imagined before, expressing itself freely, in frenzied tones that were hot, molten, and infused with mind-blowing feedback. In addition, he was a brazen showman on the stage, as he famously proved when he concluded his performance in Monterey by playing "Wild Thing" and setting fire to his guitar. His single, "Purple Haze," and his first album, Are You Experienced, stand as primary landmarks of 1967.
Janis Joplin was a bookish outcast from Port Arthur, Texas, who headed to California when she was twenty, with the hope of pursuing a new way of life in San Francisco. She was a raw, throaty singer, whose earthy style was defined by a combination of lusty musicality and yearning expressiveness. Her anguished rendering of "Ball and Chain," filled with regret and longing, was a revelation to the audience in Monterey. She chose to fashion herself into the character of a bawdy woman, becoming known as someone who sang hard, drank hard, and lived hard.
Unfortunately, the music and the lives of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin came to an end only several years after the festival in Monterey, with each of them being destroyed by their careless abuse of hard drugs. They both perished at the age of twenty-seven in 1970, one month apart from each other. The truth and the appeal of their youthful talent, however, has never diminished, and the force of their spirits continues to endure in their groundbreaking recordings.
I first saw Jefferson Airplane perform in December, 1966, when they joined with several other bands as openers at a concert by the The Beach Boys. Jefferson Airplane gave a brief, and fairly straightforward, performance that evening, but when I saw them perform again in June, 1967, at a time when they were starting to receive considerable praise for their second album, Surrealistic Pillow (which included "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit," two radio hits with dauntless vocals by Grace Slick), I was greatly impressed by the unrelenting strength of their sound. There were moments of impetuous dissonance throughout their set, when each voice and each player was swerving and swooping in their own direction, threatening to pull apart the structure of the song being played, but somehow their fractious music held itself together.
In Los Angeles, where The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Love already had established themselves, four musicians known as The Doors were attracting great interest in 1967. The music of The Doors was dark and carnal, and it was offered to the public in fiery performances that centered on the murky voice and reckless actions of their vocalist, Jim Morrison. Hearing their single, "Light My Fire," on the radio for the first time, I was stopped cold by the slinky, serpentine feeling that it conveyed. When I listened to their first album, The Doors (released on Elektra Records at the beginning of the year), I felt as if I was being drawn completely out of myself and into a shadowy realm. Their songs combined beauty and wildness in equal parts. Their second album, Strange Days (released in September, 1967), contained more songs in the same vein, with one track, "People Are Strange," achieving regular airplay as a single.
Jim Morrison was the well-read son of a military family. He was also a headstrong and outspoken performer whose approach to his audiences was vigorously provocative and boldly extreme, and he soon fashioned himself into a towering figure of rock 'n' roll. He drunkenly creating his own legend, flouting convention at every turn and spouting ornate lines of rebellious poetry, as he swayed and strutted in leather pants. He sought to use concerts by The Doors as a means of revealing, and challenging, all that he held to be false, shallow, and unworthy. Jim Morrison constantly kept reaching toward the furthest edge of his music and his life, until finally, in July, 1971, while he was living and writing in Paris, he reached too far. His life ended at the age of twenty-seven.
The Turtles were another band from California, who had their biggest hit in 1967. They already had released several singles in 1965 and 1966, with "It Ain't Me Babe" (a song written by Bob Dylan, which The Turtles transformed into a driving piece of folk-rock) receiving favorable airplay, but when "Happy Together" (a slick tune written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, and cleverly arranged by Chip Douglas) was released in February, 1967, it quickly became a hit of huge proportions, spending a total of three weeks in the top slot of the Billboard Hot 100. Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, the two singers with The Turtles, later worked (as the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie) with Frank Zappa in The Mothers of Invention, and also were heard doing backup vocals for Marc Bolan on recordings by T. Rex in the early 1970s.
The Velvet Underground, formed in New York City and promoted by Andy Warhol, also released its first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, in 1967. It contained eleven songs, mostly written and sung by Lou Reed, that embodied harsh and uncompromising themes, with frank references to addiction ("I'm Waiting for the Man," "Heroin") and perversion ("Venus in Furs"). Several of the vocals were by Nico, a German actress (she appeared in Frederico Fellini's La Dolce Vita), model, and singer. Although The Velvet Underground never gained wide acceptance in the mainstream of musical taste, their arresting songs and eccentric musicianship have never lost the power to disturb and inspire.
The Left Banke also came from New York City, and also released their first album in 1967. It included their graceful hit from October, 1966, "Walk Away Renee," and its equally graceful follow-up, "Pretty Ballerina," along with "She May Call You Up Tonight," "Barterers and Their Wives," "Shadows Breaking Over My Head," and a handful of other polished songs that featured the baroque keyboards of Michael Brown and the earnest voice of Steve Martin-Caro (with vocal harmonies by Tom Finn and George Cameron). Although the music of The Left Banke had a marked degree of poise and showed great promise, the musicians themselves frequently were distracted by changes in their lineup and problems with money, and after recording their second album, they were unable to go any further.
In December of 1967, Bob Dylan released his eighth album, John Wesley Harding, after having retreated from the realm of public life for many months following an accident on a motorcycle. His new sound was much softer and more reflective than the electric music that he had played during 1965 and 1966, with brief, understated songs that featured a number of references to stories in the Bible. The homespun quality that defined the twelve tracks on John Wesley Harding was in direct opposition to the more adventurous approach being taken by many other musicians that year. It seemed that Bob Dylan, as always, was interested only in doing what he wanted to do.
1967 was also the year of the Monterey International Pop Festival, which was held in California on a weekend in June. The festival, organized by Lou Adler of Dunhill Records and John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas, was the first time that rock 'n' roll had been properly showcased in the USA. Many famous performers of the 1960s were featured, including The Association, Lou Rawls, Johnny Rivers, Eric Burdon and The Animals, Canned Heat, Simon and Garfunkel, The Electric Flag, The Byrds, Laura Nyro, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T. and The M.G.'s, Otis Redding, Buffalo Springfield, and The Who.
In particular, two American musicians were suddenly propelled to a height of lasting fame after their stunning appearances at the Monterey International Pop Festival: Jimi Hendrix, a guitarist and singer who served as leader of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Janis Joplin, a bluesy shouter who performed with Big Brother and the Holding Company. Both Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin took the festival, and later the rest of the world, by storm.
Jimi Hendrix, a black American who grew up in Seattle and came into his own after he moved to England in 1966, was an exceptional musician whose astounding command of the electric guitar has yet to be excelled or equaled. His guitar spoke in a musical language that had never been heard or imagined before, expressing itself freely, in frenzied tones that were hot, molten, and infused with mind-blowing feedback. In addition, he was a brazen showman on the stage, as he famously proved when he concluded his performance in Monterey by playing "Wild Thing" and setting fire to his guitar. His single, "Purple Haze," and his first album, Are You Experienced, stand as primary landmarks of 1967.
Janis Joplin was a bookish outcast from Port Arthur, Texas, who headed to California when she was twenty, with the hope of pursuing a new way of life in San Francisco. She was a raw, throaty singer, whose earthy style was defined by a combination of lusty musicality and yearning expressiveness. Her anguished rendering of "Ball and Chain," filled with regret and longing, was a revelation to the audience in Monterey. She chose to fashion herself into the character of a bawdy woman, becoming known as someone who sang hard, drank hard, and lived hard.
Unfortunately, the music and the lives of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin came to an end only several years after the festival in Monterey, with each of them being destroyed by their careless abuse of hard drugs. They both perished at the age of twenty-seven in 1970, one month apart from each other. The truth and the appeal of their youthful talent, however, has never diminished, and the force of their spirits continues to endure in their groundbreaking recordings.