By The Time We Got To Woodstock -
The Great Rock n' Roll Revolution of 1969
By The Time We Got To Woodstock - The Great Rock n' Roll Revolution of 1969 1969 was unlike any other year in Rock n' Roll history. Author Bruce Pollack takes us back to this crazy year which produced music unlike anything ever heard before or since. To understand what went down in 1969, one must backtrack and look closely at 1968. President Nixon, the war in Vietnam, student demonstrations, the Civil Rights movement, urban riots, and the assassination of MLK and RFK. Gasoline may have been 29 cents a gallon, but America was a divisive land.
Revolution was in the air, as Thunderclap Newman reminded us. The youth truly did believe it was an 'us against them' scenario. Many of the younger generation turned to music to make sense of it all. Perhaps nothing captured 1969 better than the swan song of the greatest musical group in recording history, The Beatles. 'Abbey Road' truly marked the end for the Fab Four. Bob Dylan, the king of all singer-songwriters headed south to Nashville to escape the trappings of psychedelia. Dylan's friends, The Band, were releasing their second record in '69, which led to the likes of Eric Clapton realizing that music was now headed in a new direction.
What is amazing about the year 1969 is that many artists released brilliant masterpieces that stand as perhaps their career defining recordings. The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Phil Ochs, Dusty Springfield, The Byrds, MC5, Funkadelic, and The Temptations are among the great artists who blessed us with landmark records. These creative explorations led to the many hybrid forms of music that evolved; Country-Rock, Jazz Rock, Proto-Punk, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Soul, and the Broadway Rock Musical. Mainstream America discovered a vibrant music scene in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and London. Pollock also demonstrates the importance of FM radio and the underground press which included The Village Voice, Crawdaddy, and Rolling Stone.
1969 was also a year of musical extremes - from the peace, love, and good vibes of Woodstock in August to the depths of hell at Altamont Raceway in December, and from the freak outs of the Mothers of Invention and mind melting jams of The Grateful Dead to the birth of heavy metal with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. 'By The Time We Got to Woodstock' is a detailed, compelling, and often humorous look at this one year in music history.
Here are Bruce Pollock's Essential Songs of 1969:
1. Aquarius/Let the Sunshine in- The 5th Dimension
2. Get Together- The Youngbloods
3. Lay Lady Lay- Bob Dylan
4. Okie from Muskogee- Merle Haggard
5. Suspicious Minds- Elvis Presley
6. No Easy Way Down- Dusty Sprinfield
7. Kick out the Jams- MC5
8. Volunteers- Jefferson Airplane
9. I Like Marijuana- David Peel and The Lower East Side
10. Another Age- Phil Ochs
11. Fortunate Son- Credence Clearwater Revival
12. Ball of Confusion- The Temptations
13. I Want To Take You Higher- Sly and the Family Stone
14. Whole Lotta Love- Led Zeppelin
15. Sugar, Sugar- The Archies
16. Ballad of Easy Rider- The Byrds
17. Woodstock- Joni Mitchell
18. The Star Spangled Banner- Jimi Hendrix
19. Gimme Shelter- The Rolling Stones
20. Let It Be- The Beatles
By The Time We Got To Woodstock - The Great Rock n' Roll Revolution of 1969
By Bruce Pollack (Backbeat Books/ Hal Leonard)
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By the Time We Got to Woodstock: The Great Rock 'n' Roll Revolution of 1969
Review by Scott Acton:
Host of My Back Pages - airs Sundays 3-4 PM Eastern Time U.S. and Things We Said Today - airs Wednesday 8-9 PM Eastern Time U.S. - airs Sundays 8-9 AM Eastern Time U.S. on 91.9 WNTI & www.wnti.org
