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1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music
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To Dad, for getting Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) at the used-record store, and to Keira, for singing “Stop! In the Name of Love”
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
1965 Selected Time Line
Introduction: A Change Is Gonna Come
Prologue: I Shall Be Free
I. WINTER
1. I Got a Head Full of Ideas
2. Hitsville USA and the Sovereigns of Soul
3. The Brill and the Beach Boys Fight Back
4. Resolution: A Love Supreme, Malcolm X, and the March from Selma to Montgomery
II. SPRING
5. Nashville versus Bakersfield
6. West Coast Nights
7. England Swings
8. Satisfaction
9. Long Hair and the Pill on Trial
III. SUMMER
10. The King of Pop Art and the Girl of the Year
11. Masterpiece Highs and the Boos of Newport
12. Hello, Vietnam
13. Folk-Rock Explosion, Part One
14. Soulsville and the Godfather Challenge Hitsville to Get Raw
15. In the Heat of the Summer
16. Help!
IV. AUTUMN
17. Next Day You Turn Around and It’s Fall
18. Folk-Rock Explosion, Part Two
19. It Came from the Garage
20. Anarchy and Androgyny, British Style
21. Got to Keep on Moving
22. Warhol Meets the Velvet Underground and Nico
23. Acid Oz
24. Rubber Soul
25. Christmas Time Is Here
Epilogue: Strike Another Match, Go Start Anew
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Photos
Acknowledgments
Also by Andrew Grant Jackson
About the Author
Copyright
1965 Selected Time Line
Unless otherwise noted, all chart positions reflect the Billboard U.S. pop chart.
January
1
The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” holds the top spot for the second of three weeks with the first intentional use of feedback on a record.
4
President Lyndon Johnson announces plans for Great Society government programs such as Medicare to create “abundance and liberty for all.”
11–12
The Rolling Stones record their version of the Staple Singers’ gospel (“The Last Time”) and baroque chamber pop (“Play with Fire”).
13–15
Dylan records Bringing It All Back Home, fusing psychedelic folk lyrics with rock and roll.
16
Connie Smith’s “Once a Day” ends its eight-week run at the top of the country chart, the record for a female artist until 2012.
20
Lyndon Johnson’s inauguration draws the largest crowd until Barack Obama’s in 2009.
20
The Byrds record “Mr. Tambourine Man,” matching the Beatles’ jangling guitar and beat with Dylan’s surreal lyrics and an intro inspired by Bach.
February
1
John Coltrane releases his magnum opus, A Love Supreme, in February (exact date unknown).
1
James Brown records “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” in one hour, inventing the funk genre.
6
“You Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” becomes the longest No. 1 record to date, at 3:45.
10
Martha and the Vandellas release “Nowhere to Run,” a future anthem to soldiers and rioters, and inspiration for the riff of “Satisfaction.”
18
While demonstrating for the right to vote, a black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, is fatally shot in the stomach by a state trooper in Selma, Alabama.
20
Buck Owens’s “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” tops the country chart, epitomizing the Bakersfield sound.
21
Malcolm X is assassinated.
March
2
President Johnson orders the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
6
The Temptations’ “My Girl” (co-written/co-produced by Smokey Robinson) tops the charts.
6
Sam Cooke’s civil rights anthem “A Change Is Gonna Come” peaks at No. 31.
7
ABC interrupts the Sunday Night Movie (Judgment at Nuremberg) to broadcast images of civil rights demonstrators being beaten by Alabama state troopers, an incident that will be dubbed “Bloody Sunday.”
8
The Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed civil rights organization, incorporates in Louisiana.
8
The first combat troops arrive in Vietnam. Thirty-five hundred marines land at China Beach, joining twenty-three thousand American military advisers training the South Vietnamese.
8
Brian Wilson’s precursor to Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys Today!, is released, boasting a stunning array of instrumentation.
15
President Johnson vows “We Shall Overcome” in a televised speech supporting protestors in Selma.
16
Eighty-two-year-old activist Alice Herz sets herself on fire in Detroit to protest U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
24–25
Thirty-five hundred people attend a teach-in about Vietnam held at the University of Michigan and organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
25
The March from Selma to Montgomery concludes with twenty-five thousand gathered at the Alabama State Capitol. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his “How Long? Not Long!” speech.
27
Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions’ civil rights anthem “People Get Ready” peaks at No. 14. Bob Marley and the Wailers rework it into “One Love” in Jamaica later in the year.
27
Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home is released.
27
John Lennon and George Harrison are dosed with LSD without their consent for the first time by Harrison’s dentist.
April
3
Solomon Burke’s “Got to Get You Off My Mind,” inspired by the death of his friend Sam Cooke, tops the R&B charts.
4
The Staple Singers record “Freedom Highway,” about the Selma-to-Montgomery March, at Chicago’s New Nazareth Church (on an undetermined Sunday during April).
13
Guitarist Eric Clapton leaves the Yardbirds because he considers the harpsichord-laden “For Your Love” too pop. The band tries to recruit Jimmy Page, who declines and suggests Jeff Beck.
20
The Pawnbroker is released in American movie theaters, featuring the first bare breasts approved by the U.S. Production Code.
May
1
The civil rights anthem “We’re Gonna Make It,” by Little Milton, tops the R&B charts.
5
The Grateful Dead (under the name the Warlocks) debut at Magoo’s Pizza, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
6
James Brown recuts “I Got You (I Feel Good)” in Miami, Florida, in his new funk st
yle.
6
The Rolling Stones write “Satisfaction” at a hotel pool in Clearwater, Florida, as a Dylanesque folk song.
8
The British Invasion of the United States peaks as eight of the U.S. Top 10 singles are English (and one Australian).
12
The Rolling Stones rework “Satisfaction” with the beat of the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).”
21–23
Between ten thousand and thirty thousand people attend an antiwar teach-in in Berkeley, California.
21
The Who release “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” with an avant-garde feedback instrumental.
22
Marvin Gaye’s “I’ll Be Doggone” (produced/co-written by Smokey Robinson) tops the R&B charts with a riff influenced by the Searchers’ proto-folk-rock “Needles and Pins.”
22
The Beatles top the charts with the jangle pop of “Ticket to Ride.”
22
Van Morrison and Them’s garage rock anthem “Gloria” peaks in the United States at No. 93.
June
1
Bob Marley and the Wailers release the ska anthem “Rude Boy” (approximate date).
2
James Brown’s “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” is released; starting on August 14, it will top the R&B charts for eight weeks.
5
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ “Wooly Bully” reaches No. 2. Billboard later determines it the best-selling song of the year.
6
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is released. Starting July 10, it will top the pop charts for four weeks.
7
The U.S. Supreme Court decides in Griswold v. Connecticut that states cannot outlaw the birth control pill (a.k.a. the Pill) because the Constitution guarantees “marital privacy.”
12
The Supremes and production team Holland-Dozier-Holland score their fifth consecutive No. 1 with “Back in My Arms Again.”
19
Phil Ochs performs “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” at the New York Folk Festival.
20
Three members of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.) give their last performance for twenty-three years.
21
The Byrds release their Mr. Tambourine Man album with a psychedelic cover shot taken using a fish-eye camera lens.
23
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles release “The Tracks of My Tears.”
26
The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” single hits No. 1.
28
The Red Dog Saloon opens in Virginia City, Nevada, with a performance by the Charlatans and LSD provided by Owsley Stanley, kick-starting the San Francisco psychedelic scene.
July
4
The East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) protests at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. It becomes a yearly event for the rest of the decade as the “Annual Reminder” for gay rights.
8
Nina Simone’s “I Put a Spell on You” peaks in the United Kingdom at No. 49. Later in the year, the Beatles adapt the song’s “I love you” bridge for “Michelle.”
15
Barry McGuire records “Eve of Destruction” in one take.
17
Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions’ civil rights anthem “Meeting Over Yonder” peaks at No. 48.
19
The Beatles release John Lennon’s confessional single “Help!” Their film of the same name premieres ten days later.
20
Dylan releases “Like a Rolling Stone,” which reaches No. 2 in September. At 6:13, it’s by far the longest single to hit the pop charts, with the most expressionistic and jaded lyrics heard on AM radio to date.
20
The Lovin’ Spoonful debuts with their folk-rock anthem “Do You Believe in Magic.”
23
Paul Simon performs “I Am a Rock” solo on the British television program Ready Steady Go! in London.
24
Jackie DeShannon hits No. 7 with Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s idealistic anthem “What the World Needs Now Is Love.”
25
Bob Dylan is booed at the Newport Folk Festival for playing an electrified “Maggie’s Farm.”
26
John Coltrane performs A Love Supreme live for the only time, at Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, in France.
26
The New York Times proclaims model Edie Sedgwick Andy Warhol’s latest star.
28
President Johnson doubles the number of men per month to be drafted to Vietnam, boosting the figure from seventeen thousand to thirty-five thousand.
30
As part of the Great Society and the War on Poverty, Johnson signs into law Medicare and Medicaid.
30
The Kinks release “See My Friends,” imitating the music and vocals they heard while in India.
August
5
The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite airs footage of American soldiers burning the huts of Vietnamese villagers. An outraged Johnson complains to the network’s president.
6
President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law in the Capitol Rotunda with Martin Luther King Jr. in attendance.
7
Herman’s Hermits top the charts with “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” a cover of a 1910 music hall song. Soon other British bands will rediscover the genre, akin to American vaudeville.
7
Hunter S. Thompson, the Hells Angels, Allen Ginsberg, and Neal Cassady attend an LSD-fueled party at Ken Kesey’s.
7
Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour” hits No. 1 on the R&B chart with the delayed drumbeat that will become a Stax Records staple.
9
Massachusetts Institute of Technology implements the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) with the earliest-known form of e-mail, MAIL.
11–15
Riots erupt in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.
13
The Jefferson Airplane debuts at the San Francisco club Matrix.
14
Cher defends Sonny’s long hair in “I Got You Babe,” which tops the chart for three weeks.
15
Donovan releases his cover of Buffy St. Marie’s antiwar anthem “Universal Soldier,” which goes head to head with Glen Campbell’s version. In October, Campbell will say draft card burners should be hanged.
15
Otis Redding releases his composition “Respect.”
15
The Beatles play the first concert in a sports arena, Shea Stadium, with an attendance record (55,600) that will stand until 1973.
21
Waylon Jennings releases his first Nashville single, “That’s the Chance I’ll Have to Take.”
24
The Beatles trip with the Byrds and Peter Fonda in Los Angeles, and then visit Elvis Presley three days later.
25
Three members of the Sexual Freedom League are sentenced to three months (suspended) for staging a “Nude Wade-in” in San Francisco.
28
The Beach Boys reach No. 3 with “California Girls,” featuring Brian Wilson’s Bach-inspired intro.
30
Bob Dylan releases his visionary masterpiece Highway 61 Revisited.
31
President Johnson decrees the burning of draft cards a crime punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a thousand-dollar fine.
September
1
Mary Quant’s eight-city “Youthquake” tour of U.S. department stores climaxes in New York, featuring models in miniskirts dancing to the band the Skunks.
6
Bakersfield’s Merle Haggard releases his first album Strangers.
13
Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” is rereleased after being electrified by Dylan’s producer, Tom W
ilson, in the style of the Byrds.
15
Bill Cosby becomes the first black actor to star in a TV drama with his role in I Spy. Four southern stations decline to air the show.
25
Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” becomes the most topical song to hit No. 1. Along with attacking southern racism, it spotlights the injustice of being too young to vote but old enough to be drafted.
25
The Yardbirds reach No. 9 with “Heart Full of Soul,” in which Jeff Beck imitates the Indian sitar on his guitar with a fuzz box.
25
The Animals’ “We Gotta Get out of This Place,” by Brill Building songwriters Mann and Weil, peaks at No. 13.
25
The Barbarians make it to No. 83 with their long-hair anthem “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?”
October
1
The Yardbirds emulate Gregorian chants in the U.K. B side “Still I’m Sad.”
9
The Beatles’ “Yesterday,” with baroque string quartet, tops the pop chart for four weeks and becomes the most covered song of the decade.