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| 4 dollars to see all that? Damn! |
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| Black Sabbath |
Ok, let's start with '68. I'll begin with what the late 60's in general meant for music. From the early 60's to the late, an important renaissance was taking place. Music was getting more creative and wacky, part of this had to do with the rapidly spreading use of recreational drugs (especially the psychedelic kind). Music was getting edgier and more badass. Emotions were becoming quite uninhibited, protest was happening, forms of release and revolution were happening! In short, one would witness tame hokey folky recycled attitudes and songs become an explosion of colors and experimentation, and primal shamanistic channeling of emotive force. Further abbreviated- KICKASS MUSIC. Now let's look at some details:
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| LedZep |
Earth and the New Yardbirds formed. "Wait, who??" some people might ask. Well, Earth became Black Sabbath, the New Yardbirds Led Zeppelin! Deep Purple and Judas Priest formed as well. Deep Purple released 'Shades of Deep Purple', their debut album, and later that year their second album,'The Book of Taliesyn'.
Steppenwolf was a band that had formed just a bit before '68, but they released their self titled debut in '68, and later in the year their second album, not so mysteriously called 'The Second.' Two of their greatest hits would come from these albums, 'Born to be Wild' and 'Magic Carpet Ride'. Yeah, that's right. Back then bands were cool enough to actually release more than one album in a year.
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| Steppenwolf |
The band Blue Cheer released 'Vincebus Eruptum', a landmark record for bluesy hard rock.
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| Blue Cheer, looking mighty fuckin' cheerful |
Pretty much all bands mentioned so far invented heavy metal...and changed the face of music forever, to the extent that almost any band to follow with even remotely a hard edge or bluesy sentiment would owe some debt to those bands. Yeah, many other bands helped create hard rock and heavy metal as we know it, before and after '68...but think of those just mentioned like a SPINE and the others like bones in a ribcage. You need a central column holding it all together!
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| Aretha- Apparently smoking didn't get in the way of her lovely voice |
The black power movement and black freedom continued to grow in '68, and the freedom given and expressed in black music was no exception. Aretha Franklin, (once voted by Rolling Stone as the best singer of all time), unveiled her glorious Lady Soul album. She belted out those notes like she meant it! Otis Redding was a black soul performer who didn't skimp on his act either, and though it was tragic that he already had just passed from the world by '68, his first posthumous album, 'Dock of the Bay', was released. It was a retrospective of sorts, featuring his most famous song, 'Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay'. Some might have said "let the corpse milking begin" but it was a very good album nonetheless. Blood Sweat and Tears' 'Child Is Father To The Man' came out, this was their debut. They might've had a roster of members more white than black, but they were one of many bands to really carry on the groovin' rockin' jazzy soul kind of sound and feeling that many black artists did create. Sly and the Family Stone's 'Dance To The Music', their 2nd album, hit the scene, and some would say this would be their first where they were getting a comfortable groove locked in. Not too long after, in the same year, 'Life' was released by them. Though less commercial, it didn't suffer for lack of any critical acclaim. Two famous Motown acts, Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Temptations, teamed up for an album. James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, freaked out proper with 'Live At the Apollo vol. II'. Ska artist Desmond Dekker released a great album called 'Action!' in '68 as well.
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| Mister Otis...he really show'd us |
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| Get down with James Brown.. |
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| Who the hell are these guys anyway? I totally forget... |
From the front lines of the British Invasion, several important things happened. The Zombies' classic album, 'Odessey and Oracle' came out. The Beatles completed and published their double sized 'White Album,' to many fans their finest moment. It exemplified what made the Beatles so huge and such a big deal...the sound was accessible with pop sensibility and great songwriting, yet it twisted, explored, and adapted to sonic terrain that was terra incognita at times.
George Harrison did his first solo album, the soundtrack to the film 'Wonderwall'. Wait? Where have we heard that word before? Oasis massively robbed all things touched by the Beatles and all things Beatle-esque!
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| You can feel the danger with this incarnation of the Stones |
The Rolling Stones released 'Beggars Banquet,' positively one of (if not) THE best album released by them. This was them at their peak, before they became a bunch of cash sniffing geezers. This was also the last album to feature legendary guitarist Brian Jones, who later left the band, and very shortly after that was found mysteriously dead in his swimming pool. The Kinks rolled out 'The Village Green Preservation Society', their sixth record...and one of their best.
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| CREAM. To quote my buddy Spike: "I think I hear a train coming".. |
Britain enjoyed a lot of popularity with blues at this time as well, not just with the bluesy metal acts like Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and Deep Purple and Judas Priest. Nor just with other British acts with blues elements in their sound. There were those who took on blues in a slightly more traditional focus. John Mayall's Bluesbreaker's first few albums came out in this year. The importance of the Bluesbreakers cannot be denied. Almost every British blues musician now famous and worth that given attention started out or had a stint in the Bluesbreakers. Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce were in the 'breakers. After their times there, they went on to form Cream around '66. Cream sadly disbanded in '68, but their epic (and best) album 'Wheels of Fire' was unleashed in this year. Part studio and part live, for the live portion it featured an amazing 13 minute drum solo by drum master Ginger Baker-one of the first recorded drum solos of that caliber at the time. The founding members of Fleetwood Mac (originally a very bluesy and less of a soft pop type of group) all met in the Bluesbreaker, and then left to form their own thing. Fleetwood Mac's s/t debut was another album to come out in '68. In an opposite sort of move, several members of Canned Heat left THEIR band to join the Bluesbreakers a few years to come after '68. Canned Heat had two releases in '68: 'Boogie With Canned Heat' and 'Living the Blues'. Mick Taylor,who spent some time in the Rolling Stones, was once a member of the Bluesbreakers. There are many more as well, including Roger Dean, Coco Montoya, Andy Fraser, and Aynsley Dunbar.
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| The Groundhogs had to get a bit wet in their quest.. |
Underrated UK act The Groundhogs released their debut, 'Scratching the Surface.' The Groundhogs had a unique dissonant and grimy blues sound and could have easily been included in the 'metal pioneers' section mentioned earlier. More obscure British blues acts had '68 albums-for example The Undead's 'Ten Years After'.
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| Muddy Waters, feel his presence! |
In America, blues was alive as well. Muddy Waters did his thing with 'Electric Mud', one of the most important blues albums, ever. Speaking of electric, lesser known Electric Flag's 'Long Time Comin' came out. Also, the superclassic 'Electric Ladyland' came out, and it was the last by the Jimi Hendrix Experience proper. Though the band found success in the UK and was 2/3rds British, Jimi himself, the star of the show, was an American import. Another blues artist, Taj Mahal, busted out his debut.
Big Brother and the Holding Company released 'Cheap Thrills', one of the best classic blues rock albums- with Janis Joplin howling like a banshee at the forefront and a now-famous cover drawn by cartoonist R. Crumb. Creedence Clearwater Revival came swinging with their s/t debut, yet another amazing album that'd go down in music history. Though quite the 'melting pot' group, The Doors were heavily blues inspired and they dropped the album 'Waiting For The Sun' to the masses. Perchance not as great as the two Doors releases preceding it, and though it strangely did not include the song 'Waiting For The Sun', it was still a good album.
Songs like 'Hello, I Love You,' 'The Unknown Soldier', 'Not To Touch The Earth,' 'My Wild Love' and 'Five To One' are regarded as just some of the many higher moments of The Doors. Get it? HIGHer? Bad pun.
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| Jimi and friends. Hey, focus on the band! |
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| The Doors: Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain.. |
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| CCR gone fishin' for done somethin' or whathaveyouwill |
Progressive rock...uh...progressed deeper (another bad pun sorry) with the formation of groups Rush and Yes as well. Jethro Tull came out with their debut, 'This Was'. Pink Floyd started to gather more psych-prog steam with their trippy 'Saucerful of Secrets'. Procol Harum put out 'Shine on Brightly' to very warm reception.
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| Pink Floyd continues to bend our minds... |
There were all these crazy psychedelic experimental bands really pushing the edge of things and marking out new territory. Some releases along these lines include:
Firstly (more ban punnage as you'll see in a sec), self-titled debuts from Spirit, Traffic, The United States Of America, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Soft Machine, The Nazz and The Move. Then there's Vanilla Fudge's 'The Beat Goes On', Moby Grape's 'Wow/Grape Jam', The Incredible String Band's 'Hangman's Beautiful Daughter', Eric Burdon and the Animals' 'The Twain Shall Meet', The Small Faces' 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake', Spooky Tooth's 'It's All About', Donovan's 'Hurdy Gurdy Man', Jefferson Airplane's 'Crown of Creation', Country Joe and the Fish's 'Together', The Moody Blues' 'In Search of the Lost Chord',The Strawberry Alarm Clocks' 'Wake Up...It's Tomorrow',The Chocolate Watch Bands' 'Inner Mystique', the Amboy Dukes' 'Journey to the Center of the Mind', and Status Quo's 'Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo'.
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| Clockwise: Nazz cannon, Soft Machine, Moby Grape Land |
The Velvet Underground, who helped pave the way for punk and push many avant garde ideas in music, released their famous 'White Light/White Heat' album.
Crazy beatnik revolutionary band The Fugs released 'Tenderness Junction' and 'It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest'. They acquired many fans, including the Beatles, and Paul McCartney at one point signed autographs as 'Tuli Kupferberg' (the more-or-less leader of the Fugs).
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| Crazy old Frank Zappa on his crazy train, and drinkin' Mountain Dew.. |
Wild, zany, and prolific, Frank Zappa released 'We're Only In It For The Money' and 'Cruising With Ruben and the Jets' with his band, the Mothers of Invention. The former album would especially become a fan favorite out of the blinding number of Zappa albums released (try 62 ALONE while Frank was still living).
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| Silver Apples in action |
A group from New York many have not heard of called the Silver Apples came out with their s/t 1st album. The group consisted of only two members, one an energetic drummer and the other a man who 'played' electronic oscillators. Both did vocals. Their sound was surprisingly full and wide for only 2 people and to me it was one of the first 'electronica' albums. It was really weird and ahead of its time.
Folk was already popular from earlier years in the 60's, and some of the better folk had some good releases, for example John Martyn with 'The Tumbler' and Joni Mitchell with her debut, 'Song to a Seagull' (notice a trend of many debuts yet?) Tyrannosaurus Rex (later to be shortened to just 'T.Rex') released their first two albums all in this year. Buffalo Springfield bid farewell with their appropriately titled 'Last Time Around'. Country legend Johnny Cash released his live Folsom Prison album..actually recorded in the prison complete with sounds of inmates. This would become one of Johnny's greatest albums made. The energy is strange and powerful. Other raw and rootsy country artists made plate offerings. Townes Van Zandt of Texas made his first contribution with 'For The Sake of the Song'. Outlaw country bard Waylon Jennings came out with THREE albums in this year: 'Hangin' On', 'Only The Greatest', and 'Jewels'. Lee Hazlewood made three albums as well. 'Nancy & Lee' was his collaboration with Nancy Sinatra..and one of his more memorable albums. The other two were 'Something Special' and 'Love and Other Crimes'.
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| Johnny Ca$h, the Man In Black and the legend himself.. |
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| Johnny performs in Folsom State Prison... |
Many other great musical things happened in '68 but I'll close it at that with a few odds and ends. William Shatner made his first album, called 'The Transformed Man'. The countercultural hippie rock and roll musical 'Hair' had the score released. Two Canadian legends, The Guess Who and The Band came out with releases. From The Guess Who, it was 'Wheatfield Soul'. Though not their best album, it spawned one of their better known hits, 'These Eyes'. The Band had their debut with 'Music From The Big Pink'..a strong offering and best loved by Band fans. East Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar (who taught George Harrison of the Beatles among many others) released a few albums in '68: 'A Morning Raga/An Evening Raga', 'The Sounds Of India', and 'In New York'. Ravi is widely credited as helping to introduce traditional East Indian music to the Western World.
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| George Harrison & Ravi Shankar feelin' the love |
So, we can see many new ideas and expressions emerging in '68, prolific offerings from many great and legendary artists, expansion of music styles and cultural ideals, and just plain old awesome spirit of ROCK and ROLL! My conclusion: was '68 a good year for music? Fuck YEAH!
Click here to see 1972 in music! -----> http://fox-actors.blogspot.com/2011/10/68-and-72-in-music-part-2-1972.html
