1966 - A Very Good Year!!

I turned 40 on January 10th (thank you!), and in doing so, I've been thinking back to the year I was born. I've been shocked and surprised to realize how many significant events took place (particularly in pop culture) during that year. This here groovy page will help familiarize you with some of the big stories and events of 1966!

WORLD EVENTS in 1966:
- The closest event to my actual birthday took place on Jan 12th: when US president Lyndon Johnston announced that America should stay in Vietnam until Communist aggression has ended. This was the year that war protests and a general consciousness about the war in Vietnam came into peoples' households on a regular basis.
- On March 1st, the Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashed on Venus, making it the first space craft to land on another planet's surface.
- On March 4th, the now legendary article about John Lennon having said "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ" became known of in America, fueling a massive Anti-Beatle campaign in the American South, whereupon there were actual Beatle Burning ceremonies, where people would bring their Beatle "filth" to a burning "station", but sadly.. most people burned their fingers attempting to burn their Beatle albums!!
- On the lighter side of things, on July 14th in Chicago, Richard Speck murdered 8 student nurses in their dormatory!! A few days later he was arrested, and soon after that he attempted suicide but failed. What a loser!
- While I'm on the subject, on August 1st, sniper Charles Whitman opened fire at the University of Texas at Austin killing 13 people. Only in Texas!
- On November 8th, Edward Brooke becomes the first black man to be elected to the US Senate.
- On December 26th, the first Kwanza is celebrated.

- Perhaps one of the most noteworthy events in the history of mankind took place on September 8th:
The airing of "The Man Trap," the first ever episode of STAR TREK!!!

"I want to live!  I want to live!!"

Famous People (other than me!) born in 1966:
- Rob Zombie was born 2 days after me. (Now it's all starting to make sense!)
Hootie, John Cusack, Adam Sandler, Keifer Sutherland, and finally the great Jeff Buckley...sigh

Famous People to move on celestially in 1966:
- Bobby Fuller, the guy who gave us "I Fought The Law and The Law Won" was murdered by gangsters of some sort in July… perhaps the first rock star to be murdered in such a fashion. His death was officially ruled a suicide, but his body showed distinct signs of a beating, and he was found in his car. Hmm…
- Lenny Bruce (took his own life after years of obscenity charges against him, which rendered him broke, out of work and unable to function… he died on August 3rd)
- Margaret Sanger (an advocate for the birth control pill. Perhaps she should have done some research into the death control pill!)
- Walt Disney died on December 15th, and we all know now that he was the Anti-Christ!

1966 in the world of "literature":
Author Jacqueline Susann has her first novel, Valley of the Dolls published. From a friend, she obtained a list of the bookstores upon which the New York Times relied for sales figures to determine its bestseller list. Ms. Susann then used her own money to buy large quantities of her own book at these selected stores resulting in her novel going to #1 on the "Times" bestseller list. Valley of the Dolls is the second best selling novel of all time.

Three (and a half) Great Albums Released in 1966:


The Beatles: Revolver (August 5th)
(It is impossible to understand the shock this album must have been to the music world and to Beatle fans in 66'. The Beatles were still a touring group, and when they'd perform they would still play the oldies, "She Loves You," Long Tall Sally", etc. It was barely two years since their debut on the American music scene, so to compare "I'm A Loser" or "Hard Days Night" to "Eleanor Rigby" or "Tomorrow Never Knows" would have been impossible to consider! This was the album that ushered in a whole new artistic direction in popular music. Although drug use in pop music may have not been public knowledge up to this point, the lyrics, the bizarre sounds and the Revolver artwork must have been a secret handshake to all the hipsters out there who also knew the attraction and effects of LSD.)


The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (May 16th)
(Although Brian Wilson was increasingly getting more mature and artistic in his direction, this album still must have come as a bit of a shock to the "Barbara Ann" fans out there!  Certainly our beloved Mike Love (!) saw that this album could have been the end of The Beach Boys. However, by the end of 1966, this album edged out Revolver to be Britians #1 album of the year. Unfortunately, America wasn't quite as "tuned in" as England, and this was a low selling album compared to their previous relaeses. Change in hard to swallow when you have done such a good job of marketing yourselves as a bunch of surfer wannabees!  Of course we now know that the respect and accolades which came to Brian Wilson led him into even more bizarre territory in the summer of 66' with "Good Vibrations," their last #1 hit of the 1960's. From here, Brian really went into the stratosphere with the experimental album "Smile", which was left unfinished and unreleased until 2005!)


Bob Dylan: Blonde On Blonde (May 16th) (the first-ever double album)
(This again was a monumental album in Bob Dylan's catalogue. Considered by many to be his greatest album, it was the full expression of his expansion from folk to rock, or whatever it was Dylan wanted to call this new sound. Certainly there had never been music that sounded like "Everybody Must Get Stoned!" in 1966. Lyrically, Bob really went off on an acid-influenced direction with songs like "Stuck Inside Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again" and "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands."This was his personal high-water mark, but it was also the end of an era for Bob, who went into seclusion for many years.)


(Honorable mention goes to the debut Frank Zappa album, "The Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out",
the first debut double album!)
(The pop music scene got a taste of paprika when it first witnessed the sneer of Freak Out! . Although most of the summer of 66' was filled with groovy, happy, sunshine pop, Freak Out showed a very dark, cynical underbelly especially with songs like "Who Are The Brain Police?" and  love songs like "I Ain't Got No Heart To Give" !!  Frank would get increasingly more edgy to the point where he was pretty much not part of any scene at all any longer.)

Why 1966 Was So Significant to Pop Music History!
- On January 3rd, The Beatles issued promotional films of their newest singles (Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out) – quite possibly the birth of the music video.

- Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin perform at the Fillmore West, possibly indicating the on-coming popularity of the counter-culture in California and the birth of the underground music scene. (The Velvet Underground, Nico, The Greatful Dead, etc.)

- In May, Bob Dylan outrages his British, Australian and European fans by doing his second set with a full-on rock band. With cries of “Judas” and “Traitor” from the audience, numerous walk-outs and thunderous boos, it was one of the most brave actions a pop musician ever made. It could have been commercial suicide, but it helped bring in an entirely new sound in music. With "Blonde On Blonde", Dylan re-wrote what Folk Music could mean and forced the old guard to “admit that the waters around them had grown.” Fueled on a diet of heroine, acid and dope, Dylan needed to escape from the enormity of his celebrity. In July of 66' immediately following this intense tour, Dylan was in a minor motorcycle accident, which he used as an excuse to disappear for awhile. At this point, he cleaned up, rested, raised 5 kids with his wife in the country, and did his best to not be the "voice of a generation" any longer. He did not go on tour again for another 8 years. In many ways, although Dylan would continue to write and record many great albums after this, it is widely believed that he was never the same after the summer of 66'.

(Brian Wilson would reach a much worse creative end by the summer of 67', when he went into a creative and personal slump from which he never fully recovered. )
(oh, and let's not forget Syd Barret, who made The Pink Floyd famous in the mid 60's and then himself became a massive creative casualty, as the flood of early success, massive acid intake and a growing mental disorder caused him to disappear almost entirely for the rest of his life.) (More reasons to live drug-free I suppose!)

-August 29th: The Beatles perform their last-ever concert appearance in America at Candlestick Park.

-On September 12th, The Monkey’s TV show premiered. Was it just cheesy entertainment for the teens or was there something more subversive and counter-culture going on?

-October 8 - WOR-FM in New York City becomes the first FM rock music station, under the leadership of legendary DJ Murray The K.

- 1966 was also the year that saw the formation and development of The Pink Floyd, Neil Young and Cream. Artists like Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell and The Doors were just around the corner, soon to explode on the music scene in 1967.

- The Jazz world was also rapidly progressing, as innovators like Miles Davis, and John Coltrane pushed the boundries of what Jazz could sound like. In the next 3 years, Jazz would (like Dylan!) go electric and eventually usher in a genre now known as Fusion. 1966 and 67' would be the last years Miles Davis would perform with entirely acoustic instrumentation behind him.

At The Grammies in 1966:
A Taste Of Honey by The Tijuana Brass won the Grammy for Record Of The Year!
Tom Jones won the Grammy for Best New Artist!
Barbara Streisand won Best Pop Female Vocalist
The Beatles won a Grammy for Song Of The Year for Michelle

Hit Songs Of 1966: (in no particular order!)
- Cherish - The Association
- Eight Miles High - The Byrds
- Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
- We Can Work It Out - The Beatles
- These Boots Are Made For Walkin' - Nancy Sinatra
- Monday, Monday - The Mama's And The Papa's
- When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge
- Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones
- Kicks - Paul Revere And The Raiders
- Born Free - Roger Williams
- Strangers In The Night - Frank Sinatra
- Summer In The City - The Lovin' Spoonful
- Reach Out (I'll Be There) - The Four Tops
- Last Train To Clarksville - The Monkeys
- Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
- Mellow Yellow - Donovan
- I'm A Believer - The Monkeys
- King Of The Road - Roger Miller
- It Was A Very Good Year - Frank Sinatra

Songs With "Summer" or "Sunshine" In The Title In 1966:
Good Day Sunshine, Sunshine Superman, Summertime,  Summer In The City,  Sunny, Feelin’ Groovy,
Summer Wind,  Good Lovin’…
Was there a more positive summer for pop music than 1966??!!!

Television in 1966:
- In September, ABC becomes the last of the 3 networks to go to Color. Canada went colour on July 1st/66.
-The phrase “"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives" was started and would continue seemingly forever!
-Batman, the TV series debuted on January 12th.
-Other shows to premiere in 1966: That Girl, Family Affair, The Newlywed Game, The Monkeys, Star Trek, and W5 for all you Canadians out there… (it’s still on!!  Only in Canada eh?!)
-Other popular shows of 1966: Candid Camera, The Ed Sullivan Show, What’s My Line, Gunsmoke, The Laurence Welk Show, The Lucy Show, Dr. Who, Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, Get Smart, Hogan’s Heroes, I Dream Of Jeanie, Lost In Space.
-The Flinstones came to an end in 1966, as did: The Addams Family, The Munsters, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Adventures of Ozzie And Harriet (which had been running since 1952!)

And if that wasn't enough to prove what a sensational year 1966 was, keep in mind the Oscar Winning movie for Best Picture was "The Sound of Music!!"

Well, thanks for reading this. I hope you enjoyed this brief, low-budget trip back to the pre-Summer of love!
Remember, you're only as old as your memories and music make you feel!  Oh crap!
See ya in another 40 years!
Ian

Get back to the topper-most!