In late 1968 Bob Dylan was living in seclusion with his family near Woodstock, a small town in upper New York State. In late December of 1967 Dylan released an album of musically austere, Biblically influenced songs that were parables and allegories of Dylan’s own search for salvation against the backdrop of the moral landscape of a collapsing America. Dylan references the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 21 verses 5-9: “And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods He hath broken unto the ground.”
Author: Sheila Gallagher
MUSIC: “All Your Need is Love” – Beatles, 1967
The Beatles songs became increasingly sophisticated, both in theme and musical complexity. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band released on June 2, 1967, was considered a high-water mark of artistic achievement. Just a few weeks after, on June 25, 1967, the Beatles recorded “All You Need is Love,” live on the “Our World” program, which was the first ‘global’ television broadcast. It was viewed by over 400 million people in 25 countries. The song captured the spirit of the “Summer of Love.”
MUSIC: “Like a Rolling Stone” – Bob Dylan, 1965
Bruce Springsteen wrote: “I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody had kicked open the door to your mind.” It was a ‘revolution in the head.’ In 2011 Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at the top of their ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time.’
MUSIC: Beatlemania, 1964
On Sunday evening, February 9, 1964, just over two months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Over 73 million people watched the Beatles perform. Overnight, fashion and hairstyles would change dramatically, as would the sound of popular music. Their ongoing influence in the 1960s was far reaching.
MUSIC: “A Change is Gonna Come” – Sam Cooke, 1964
Sam Cooke, one of the greatest voices of popular music, was inspired by Bob Dylan’s song “Blowin’ in the Wind” and how a white person could write so powerfully about racism. Cooke wrote “A Change is Gonna Come” after he and his friends were refused lodging in a ‘whites only’ motel in Louisiana. Cooke was risking his career in doing so.
MUSIC: “Masters of War” – Bob Dylan, 1963
Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” was written as an indictment of the ‘military industrial complex’.
MUSIC: “The Times They Are a-Changin’” – Bob Dylan, 1963
Bob Dylan was called the ‘conscience and voice of a generation.’ He put into song what people wanted to express but had not the words. The song “The Times They Are a-Changin’” would resound throughout the years of the 1960s.
Angela Davis, ‘If They Come in the Morning’
‘If They Come in the Morning’Angela Davis
Aquarius Rising
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