Entertainment of the '60's

Entertainment that arose during the 1960's seemed to outlast the test of time throughout the decades. Bands such as the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Monkees,Simon and Garfunkel and others took the sixties by storm and

The Decade of Bob Dylan

Undoubtedly, no one has defined a generation as much as Bob Dylan did in the sixties and beyond. His lyrics evoke the feelings of an American Society torn up by war, violence, drugs and other unexpected social changes.
Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, during his college years at the University of Minnesota, he began to introduce himself as Robert Allen. But he discovered there was already a musician by this name, as Dylan wrote in his autobiography "I'd seen some poems by Dylan Thomas. Dylan and Allyn sounded similar. Robert Dylan. Robert Allyn. The letter D came on stronger." And thus a 60's icon was born.
After he dropped out of school, Dylan moved to New York City where he began to perform in clubs throughout Greenwich Village. Dylan's raspy voice and unruly curly hair (later known as the Dylan Fro) left an impression on many, but it was his performance that captivated the audience. With a guitar in hand and harmonica attached, he sung ballads with lyrics that spoke to audiences like poetry. By 1962, he was singed to Columbia Records, and released his first self titled album. The album sold barley 5,000 copies and inspired many critics at Columbia to say that Dylan just didn't have it. It was his 1963 album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" which helped make his name an artist and a songwriter. The album contained a plethora of songs about the developing American society; racial relations, war and politics One song of the album titled "Oxford Town" chronicled the experience of James Meredith ordeal as the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. "A Hard Rain's- A-Gonna -Fall" was which warned of a "nuclear apocalypse" was performed by Dylan only weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis

I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

The most infamous song of this album is undoubtedly "Blowin In The Wind" The inspiration for the song came from an old slave narrative called "On the Auction Block" and was used as a protest song during the civil rights movement. Many African Americans were shocked as to how a white man so perfectly captured the frustrations of the Black Community. The song was and is one of the most widely used anti-war songs. While it questions war it also ponders as to how we can have peace.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

That one simple statement: The answer is blowin' in the wind, was as ambiguous as the wind itself and therefore a perfect statement. The answer to war and violence, according to the song, either blows right in front of us or is as intangible as the wind. The album contained another widely used protest song, "Masters of War." Although, thought by many to be an anti-war song against the military and government, the song targets companies who sell and distribute weapons of war and labels them as the "masters of war." Thus, with lyrics like " Come you masters of war, you that build all the guns, you that hide behind desks..." Dylan alludes that the businesses who put the guns in the hands of armies are the true criminals. Simply one statement cannot be isolated from the song, as each line contains a meaning.

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Dylan's third album was appropriately titled "The Times They Are A Changing" which somes up the mid sixties in the simplest way possible. The most infamous song of this record held the same name, and is an apt reflection of the generation gap and consequential difference in beliefs present in America at the time. Lyrics such as "come senators, congressmen, please heed the call" appealed to the young who were struggling to get their elders to understand their cause.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

Dylan later said in an interview that, ""I can't really say that adults don't understand young people any more than you can say big fishes don't understand little fishes. I didn't mean 'The Times They Are a-Changin'' as a statement... It's a feeling."
Dylan's contribution to the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement and to society as a whole, whether intentional or not cannot be questioned and even Dylan himself acknowledges that the sixties were his decade. In a 2006 Rolling Stones Interview, Dylan was quoted as saying, "You know, everybody makes a big deal about the Sixties. The Sixties, it's like the Civil War days. But, I mean, you're talking to a person who owns the Sixties. Did I ever want to acquire the Sixties? No. But I own the Sixties -- who's going to argue with me?"


Audio of Masters of War
Audio of Blowin' In the Wind
Audio of The Times They Are a Changing

Beatlemania and 60's Youth

Beatlemania is the only word that can properly describe the wave of obsession and opposition that hit the United States in 1964. Four shaggy haired British boys: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr entered JFK airport in February, to hundreds of screaming fans, from this point on "Beatlemania" would in sue. In that same year, the Beatles would have six number one hits: I Want to Hold Your Hand, She Love You, Can't Buy Me Love, Love Me Do, A Hard Day's Night and I Feel Fine. During the week of April 4, 1964, they would set a record which has not yet been broken: occupying all five of the top positions on Billboard's Top Pop Singles chart. From their clothes, to their haircuts, to their accents, the Beatles were instantly loved and acquired a loyal fan base. But it was the Beatles's lyrics which captivated millions of teens and young adults during the decade. Lennon and McCartney were the two main lyricists in the band,although George and Ringo also wrote. Together or separate they wrote songs that spoke to their generation. In A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles sing about the endless long days of work and the nights that are soothed by seeing a sweetheart.

It's been a hard day's night, and I'd been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright
You know I work all day to get you money to buy you things

In "Can't Buy Me Love", the boys sing about just that, that everyone tells them money can't buy love.

Say you don't need no diamond ring and I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want the kind of thing that money just can't buy
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love

In "In My Life", Lennon looks back on the life he's lived so far, the song was written as a poem after he took a bus ride through his hometown of Liverpool.

There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

In the eerie, "Eleanor Rigby" the boys reflect on loneliness. This was inspired by a walk the boys were walking around Liverpool when they entered a graveyard and saw a headstone with the name Eleanor Rigby, but no other writing, on its own plot of land, and thus McCartney says, years later the name must have come back into his mind, as he was trying to write a song.

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

In "With a Little Help From My Friends", the boys appropriately sing about friendship and stick in a drug reference while there at it. For their loyal fans, who were entering a mindset of peace and love, nothing could be better than to celebrate friendship.

What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm going to try with a little help from my friends

"Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds", was supposedly written about an LCD trip. Lennon maintained in interviews that the song was written after his son Julian came home one day and could not stop talking about a pretty girl named Lucy, so he then wrote this song inspired by her. However, many fans believed this to be simply about and LCD trip and the Beatles publicized drug use only added to it as Lennon himself claimed to have taken LCD "hundreds of times."

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

"When I'm Sixty-Four" captures the worry of growing older in a more humorous way.

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?

"All You Need Is Love", epitomized the hippie feeling of the sixties, the song assured that answer to everything could be found through love, through peaceful means without violence. To the protesters of war and for civil rights, love seemed to be the most peaceful answer.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy

Nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy
All you need is love

"Revolution", speaks for itself and verbalizes youth frustration, to change the world, without destruction or hate. Lennon said that this song was written in response to they May 1968 uprising in France, where student protests caused the collapse of the government.

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait

These are simply a few of the many hits the Beatles had in the sixties. The upbeat rhythm and inspiring lyrics spoke to fans, who idolized the Beatles and took them as a model for their own lives. While the Beatles obsession grew so did their opposition. Many adults felt the Beatle publicized and idolized drug use made them bad role models, for millions of kids who emulated their every move. In 1966, during an interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave, Lennon made the following remarks, "
Christianity will go,It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity." These comments angered millions of religious conservatives in the United States, especially in the South, where Beatles records wer burned in acts of protest. It seems that the King of American music, Elvis Presley, was not to fond of the Beatles either, he wrote a letter to President Richard Nixon to ban all four members from the country, for he disapproved of their anti-war stance and public drug use. He stated that for him "the Beatles had been a focal point for anti-Americanism. They had come to this country, made their money, then gone back to England where they fomented anti-American feeling." Despite the controversy surrounding them, the Beatles provided a soundtrack for millions of fans who were horrified by the Vietnam War and desensitized to their parents way of thinking. While their pop tracks, provided excitement and escape from reality, the slow ballads slowly drew fans into the struggles taking place in the world around them. The Beatles true legacy is that their fans believed they could get by with a little help from their friends and that all they needed was love.

The Beatles hold many world records in the Music Industry. To name a few titles they told, the Beatles have the most platinum selling albums for any group or artist, they have the fastest selling CD of all time, they have more number one singles than any other musical group, "I want to Hold Your Hand" was the fastest selling single of all time and "Yesterday" is the most covered song in history, with 3,000 different renditions. To top it all off the Beatles are the best selling group of all time, with an estimated one billion discs/records sold worldwide.