Category 1960s

Welshman Richard Harris originally wanted to become a rugby player. But after a bout of tuberculosis, he became an actor. He’s known for roles in films like The Field (1990), The Guns of Navarone (1961), This Sporting Life (1963), and…

Scott Walker was born Noel Scott Engel, in Hamilton, Ohio. A former child actor, he left his career as a singer to become a session bassist. In 1965, Walker moved to London with his band The Walker Brothers. Scott became…

Given his blatant talents, it’s amazing how long it took James Marshall Hendrix to make an album. Seattle-born Hendrix was caught twice as a youth riding in stolen cars, and given the choice between the army and jail, trained as…

As a casual music listener, it’s easy to hear The Beach Boys’ sun-drenched hits and conclude that the group were all beaches, girls and cars, and no substance. But the group was led by Brian Wilson, one of the most…

The Zombies get lost in the shuffle of British invasion bands. But despite their small catalogue, they’re one of the most accomplished bands to emerge from the scene. They’re mostly remembered for the album Odessey and Oracle and the singles…

1960s New York band The Velvet Underground have been cited as an influence by a legion of followers. Even if the ground rules of the rock album as an art form had been largely written by the time the Velvets’ debut…

Los Angeles teenagers Randy Wolfe, bassist Mark Andes, and vocalist Jay Ferguson formed The Red Roosters in the mid-1960s. The band was put on hiatus when Wolfe’s step-father Ed Cassidy moved the family to New York in search of work.…

Simon and Garfunkel met as teenagers in a school play, where Simon played the White Rabbit and Garfunkel the Cheshire Cat. The pair initially tried to break into the music industry as Tom and Jerry, playing Everly Brothers inspired teeny…

It’s widely acknowledged that The Rolling Stones hit their peak between 1968 and 1972 – right now I’m covering those albums, and a few later highlights, as my Top Rated Albums list feels incomplete without them. I’ll come back and…

New York’s Laura Nyro wrote a batch of hit songs in the late 1960s, and is an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her confessional songs foreshadowed the singer-songwriter movement of the early 1970s. Prestigious artists like…

Aretha Franklin was the Queen of Soul and, according to Barack Obama, “helped define the American experience”. Success, however, didn’t happen overnight – when she delighted the mainstream in 1967 with her cover of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’, she’d already recorded…

Fairport Convention are the focal point for British folk-rock of their generation. While they started their career as a sixties folk-rock band, like a London equivalent to Jefferson Airplane, they started wading through the archives of British folk songs and…

Robert Zimmerman was born in Minnesota in 1941, renaming himself Bob Dylan after Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Dylan started his musical career dabbling in rock and roll, and saw Buddy Holly perform three days before Holly’s death. He shifted his…

I was a teenager during the 1990s but I never went through a rebellious phase. While my cooler peers listened to Nirvana and Green Day, I was absorbed in retro mainstream artists like Paul Simon, Billy Joel, and Neil Diamond.…

1969 and 1970 were flagship years for rock music, with most major 1960s acts still releasing albums, and exciting new acts that would dominate the 1970s emerging. But perhaps the best performing band in this micro-era was a four-piece band from…

Gene Clark achieved fame and success as an early member of The Byrds. As a solo artist, however, he only achieved cult status. Hampered by anxiety, a fear of flying, and alcohol and drug abuse, he received critical acclaim but…

The Byrds started as a folk band, but their cover of Bob Dylan‘s ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ crystallised their distinctive sound, with Roger McGuinn’s ringing twelve-string guitar and the group’s gorgeous harmonies. The ornate yet organic sound with Dylan’s intricate lyrics proved…

From very early in their career and probably until the demise of Western civilization, Liverpool’s The Beatles will stand unchallenged as the world’s greatest rock and roll band. They emerged after a lull in rock music; Buddy Holly died in…

The Band started as The Hawks, backing blues belter Ronnie Hawkins before supporting Bob Dylan on his controversial 1966 electric tour. After the tour, The Band went to earth with Dylan and recorded the Basement Tapes. There they developed their…

Buffalo Springfield were a short-lived, but fascinating band. It’s easy to draw parallels with The Byrds. Both were 1960s Californian folk rock bands, with volatile lineups, who spawned many notable spinoffs. Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay of Poco, and…

Amazingly, for a band divided into factions since the mid-1960s, it took until 1977 for a solo album to emerge from any of the original Beach Boys. Dennis Wilson’s lush, romantic Pacific Ocean Blue sold comparatively to The Beach Boys’ Love…