What Happened, 1963-1965

September 8, 2017 at 7:05 am (Music What Happened Mixes)

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Everyone knows that on the evening of February 9th, 1964 The Beatles made their first appearance on national TV in America, simultaneously kicking off the British Invasion and the modern era of rock and roll. What’s a little less known is that by the time the Beatles showed up on the Ed Sullivan Show, they were already a big deal in the States, having begun a decade-long assault on the US singles charts weeks earlier, in 1963.

Thus the start of the Beatle era–usually tabbed at 1964–is properly placed sometime in 1963, when followup singles to “Love Me Do” began to move units, as they say. This era is also the high and low tide of surf music, as well as the last time — other than some oddities, novelties, and some individual performers (Dylan, etc.)– that socially conscious, intellectual folk music would be massively popular across a wide swath of the pop music listening audience.

For me, the happiest discovery in Scott Miller’s excellently chosen selections from this era is just how good some of that early 60s folk was. My perception, filled in by snide caricatures in movies like Animal House and TV shows like the Beverly Hillbillies, was that folk music during this huge era was over-earnest and hyper-serious, and that’s what eventually doomed it commercially. Perhaps that’s so, but the five or six folk selections Miller’s chosen for 1963 are absolutely lovely and gob-smackingly good. To illustrate, I’ve always found Sinatra’s “It Was A Very Good Year” version to be pretty off-puttingly shallow. (You’re Frank Sinatra in the 1960s. Every year is a very good year, dude.) The hard-to-find (trust me) Brown & Dana folk version that Miller uses here is aces though, and restores all the longing that song deserves.

We need to cover some mix notes, too. For starters, with 1963 and on through 1970, Miller breaks one of his self-imposed rules: only one song per year by any one artist. As he states in justifying the need to bend that rule, how the hell are you gonna pick just one Beatles’ song in any given year in the 1960s? I mean….right? So, for the 1960s, multiple Beatle tracks are allowed in a year, as long as they’re by different primary writers. So…possibility of a John song, a Paul song, and a George song in each year.

Some year specific notes also:

In 1963 there’s nothing too noteworthy to discuss. The vinyl pops on that Brown & Dana track are authentic though. Also, the version of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” is the mono mix. I accidentally put a stereo mix on an earlier version of this and boy howdy is that terrible to listen to. Also, that John Fahey track is just goose-bump inducingly awesome. The live versions of “Mrs McGrath” by The Womenfolk and “Gantanamera” by The Weavers are intentional. Miller deliberately chooses these two versions (and describes the live stage patter well enough to make them easy to track down) and so that’s duplicated here.

For 1964, we have our first accidental anachronism from the book with the song “Secret Agent Man,” although it isn’t as egregious as I first feared. “Secret Agent Man” didn’t get released as a single by Johnny Rivers until 1966…but it existed before that. It was the theme song for the American series called “Secret Agent”, which was actually a re-run of a UK series called “Danger Man”. And, Wikipedia tells me that for Season two of “Secret Agent”, the theme song was indeed changed to “Secret Agent Man.” Unfortunately, season two of the show didn’t air in the States until May of ’65, meaning the song was likely recorded in January or February of that year. Still. Close enough. Just wanted to provide a heads-up.

Also, I need to talk about “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals. In the book, Miller opens his passage on this song by saying that this song should be ripped from a worn 45, preferably. As you’ll hear, the version in this mix has that provenance. Also in 1964, don’t sleep on that Skeeter Davis track. It’s absolutely aces.

1965 is pretty straightforward, although it is largely our last fling with jazz, at least in this context. Also the choice of “Think for Yourself” as one of three Beatles cuts is inspired. As Miller notes, it’s one of the most obvious early showcases of their adventurousness with melody, and happens to be a personal favorite of mine.