Last night @dismayedworld (my teenage daughter) asked me about the repository of selected singles music I have on my hard drive. I find it refreshing that someone of her age is asking me about music from the decades gone by.
‘Today’s music is mostly crap’, she tells me nonchalantly. I have to agree, but if I had to rewind many years back to 14 years myself, I would not have said the same thing.
This would have been the 70’s for me, a time when in my opinion, music was at its’ finest. Is music really so bad that my teen is asking me to give her advice on what to listen from the past, or is she just different from the rest?
The ‘Slobberchops Choice Cuts’ folder contains .mp3 files from the decades and is made up of popular music. Did you hear me right? POPULAR music? But I don’t like popular music as its played to death on the radio, I have heard it 10000 times blah blah..
Well you may be surprised that I do like some pop music, but don’t tell anyone OK, as I have a reputation to maintain.
So let’s get back to @dismayedworld and her sudden interest in all this ‘old stuff’. Further interrogation revealed that she wants to learn about a ‘broad range of music’ regardless of when it was released. This brings me to the point of this article.
Most of my readers will be younger than me, fact whether I like it or not. If @dismayedworld wants to know about the past, then maybe others do to.
My ‘1960's’ folder has only 41 tunes in it, though I could easily add more. I do like 60’s music, the closer to the end of the decade the better. I see it as the starting point before we got on to the much more interesting 70’s.
All this is my opinion and you are quite free to disagree and tell me that ‘David Guetta featuring Travis Scott and Dennis Lloyd and also featuring Tyga’ are much superior.
I randomly stole these names from the current UK top 40 by the way. It seems that most artists can’t do anything alone now and need to ‘feature’ someone else.
If you are old enough to do the challenge then please try it. It will go easier as I advance into the later decades I promise you.
The Rules
Link SIX singles from the 1960’s and let us know why the song is memorable to you.
Make sure they are not too obscure, we are trying to teach the younger readers what was good, not about old ‘B-sides’.
State the year of release, we are trying to educate people!
Add a Wikipedia link to each song so the uneducated can learn a little about the song. If there isn’t one available, then choose something a little more popular.
Use the # sixtieschallenge tag in your article.
It’s been a while since there’s been a music challenge, and not one of these ‘you must do one every day’ ones. No big commitment needed.
If you are not slightly ancient like me, then just take it in and listen to the music. These were hot songs in the day.
End of Rules! Not many for this one; over to the music.
Cream – Badge (1969)
OK, I just want to say that I was in single figures when ‘Badge’, the farewell single from Cream was released. The band that featured Eric Clapton on guitar were on their last legs, but not before this epic single was given to us.
The solo in the middle was a sign of things to come. Hendrix had given us the foundations of rock, some years before but at this point in time there wasn’t much like this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badge_(song)
Love Is Here and Now You're Gone - The Supremes (1967)
Motown, oh how I love it. Melancholy tunes up the arse, forgive my french.. but weren't most of them? Diana Ross had an incredible vocal. Listen to those Supremes songs and most of them are sad sad songs with unhappy themes.
Maybe that’s why I was drawn to them, not now but years ago when I was a lad. This pick is a ‘supremely’ unhappy song about loss, and still has me listening to this day. Forgive the pun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Here_and_Now_You%27re_Gone
California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas (1965)
Like Ms Ross, Mama Cass Elliot had a wonderful vocal and what happened to her was a real shame. I was too young to remember of course, yes really… I not in my 60’s and will strongly deny such claims.
Most people will have heard this classic, and isn’t it just that! If you haven’t heard it, then switch on the radio as it’s still played to death. Fortunately I refuse to listen to 'the radio' otherwise I wouldn’t be featuring the song in my list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Dreamin%27
Petula Clark - The Other Man`s Grass ( Is Always Greener ) (1968)
Petula and her sound just epitomised the late 60’s for me. I think I have a subconscious memory somewhere of this song from when I was very young.
I didn’t choose ‘Downtown’ which was her big hit, but this one was a single in its own right and much more memorable to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Man%27s_Grass_Is_Always_Greener_(album)
Fleetwood Mac - Man of the World (1969)
Fleetwood were a big band in the 60’s before Nicks/Buckingham joined and they became a supergroup with the release of Rumours.
A lovely melancholy tune that is a little short and even shorter with this one as the YouTube uploader clipped off the start a little. Still it’s a ‘live’ performance despite being somewhat blurry.
The song is characteristically melancholy and very much in the theme of their huge hit, ‘Albratross’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_the_World_(song)
The Rolling Stones - Jumpin' Jack Flash (1968)
I am not really a big fan of the Rolling Stones; too mainstream for me I’m afraid, so why the inclusion? For me, it’s that’s guitar riff; it’s incredible!
Keith really nailed this one and it made the song so much more interesting. You can keep your Honky Tonk Women and Satisfaction, this one is for me,
Who would have had the insight to make a video in 1968? These guys were thinking about the future, or one had travelled in time to see what the crack was!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpin'_Jack_Flash
The most musical people I know on Steemit are @steevc and @verhp11. Maybe neither are old enough to remember such tunes, but I think they are. I challenge you both to give me Six from the Sixties!
If you want to do the challenge yourself without a personal goad from me, then feel free to.
If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.