Episode 18: 1969 Part I
We’re putting down a marker with this episode, and the follow-up: the highest highs and the lowest lows of the entire Rock Era occurred in 1969. It’s a year so big, we had to cut it in two, in order to serve it up properly.
We start in January, with The Beatles on The Roof, a 42-minute outdoor concert that definitely warmed up the neighborhood of Mayfair, London, England. Then we catch up with their friends and rivals, The Rolling Stones.
The Stones broke out HUGE in 68 and 69, the beginning of an incredible five-year run: from Beggars Banquet on through to Exile On Main Street. Peak Stones, the sweet spot for the World’s Greatest Rock N Roll Band.
Brian Jones is out, Mick Taylor is in. We talk about how that happened, and how it impacted the Stones’ sound and attitude. Another influence starts seeping in: American Country Music, thanks to Keith’s new best buddy, Gram Parsons.
Brian’s tragic--and still unexplained--demise changes the Hyde Park Concert from a coming-out party into a memorial service. Emotion and conviction carry the day, and Hyde Park sets a very high and hopeful bar; it’s an early example of How To Successfully Pull Off A Really Big Concert.
During that “Moon-Crazy Summer” of 1969, NASA pulls off something really big. It’s the single greatest feat--so far--of human exploration: The Apollo 11 mission to the moon and back. We look at the moon landing through the Rock N Roll lens; we’ll talk about space travel, science fiction, and fantasy...in books, film, television, and most of all, in Rock Music.
Then David Bowie, with his lifelong knack for being ahead of his time, said take your protein pills and put your helmet on.
And we did.
And in just a short time we got used to it, became a little jaded about it.
That comes later. Here and now in the summer of 1969; stardust, golden, billion year old carbon...got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We’ll open Part Two at Yasgur’s Farm in upstate New York, and we’ll light a candle in the rain.
Episode 18 Songs, Show Notes, and Synopsis
The Beatles: “I’ve Got A Feeling,” From Let It Be, 1970
The Beatles: “Hey Jude,” single released 1968
The Beatles: “I’m So Tired,” from The Beatles (White Album), 1968
The Beatles: “Get Back,” from Let It Be, 1970
The Beatles: “Two Of Us,” from Let It Be, 1970
The Beatles: “You Know My Name (Look Up My Number),” single released 1969
The Beatles: “Across The Universe,” from Let It Be, 1970
The Beatles: “Don’t Let Me Down,” from Let It Be, 1970
The Rolling Stones: “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” single released 1968
The Rolling Stones: “No Expectations,” from Beggars Banquet, 1968
The Rolling Stones: “She’s A Rainbow,” from Their Satanic Majesties Request, 1967
The Rolling Stones: “Stray Cat Blues,” from Beggars Banquet
The Byrds: “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, from Sweetheart of the Rodeo, 1968
Flying Burrito Brothers: “Six Days On The Road,” from Burrito Deluxe, 1970
Flying Burrito Brothers: “Wild Horses,” from Burrito Deluxe, 1970
The Rolling Stones: “Honky Tonk Women,” single released 1969
The Rolling Stones: “Live With Me,” from Let it Bleed, 1969
The Rolling Stones: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” from Let it Bleed, 1969
The Rolling Stones: “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’” from Sticky Fingers, 1970
The Beatles: “Dig A Pony,” from Let It Be, 1970
The Beatles: “Let It Be,” from Let It Be, 1970
The Beatles: “The Ballad of John & Yoko,” single released 1969
The Beatles: “Come Together,” from Abbey Road, 1969
The Beatles: “Here Comes The Sun,” from Abbey Road, 1969
Wendy Carlos: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, from Switched-On Bach, 1968
The Beatles: “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” from Abbey Road, 1969
Norman Greenbaum: “Spirit In The Sky,” single released 1968
Steve Miller: “Space Cowboy,” from Brave New World, 1969
The Moody Blues: “Departure/Ride My See Saw,” from In Search of the Lost Chord, 1968
Gil-Scot Heron: “Whitey On The Moon,” from Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, 1970
David Bowie: “Space Oddity,” single released 1969
Pink Floyd: “Astronomy Domine,” from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967
Elton John, “Rocket Man,” from Honky Chateau, 1972
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: “Woodstock,” from Deja Vu, 1970
Books
Sam Cutler: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Steven Davis: Old Gods Almost Dead
Sean Egan: The Mammoth Book of the Rolling Stones
Todd Gitlin: The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage
Jason Heller: Strange Stars: How Science Fiction and Fantasy Exploded Popular Music
Robert Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land
Rob Kirkpatrick: 1969: The Year Everything Changed
Ken Mansfield: The Roof
David Meyer: Twenty Thousand Roads,
Keith Richards: Life
Bob Spitz: The Beatles, A Biography
Paul Trynka: Brian Jones; The Making of the Rolling Stones
Tom Wolfe: The Right Stuff
Documentaries, Films, and Television Shows
2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick
Apollo 13, directed by Ron Howard
CBS News Coverage of the Apollo 11 Mission, retrieved from YouTube
The Beatles: Anthology, DVD Box Set, produced by Neil Aspinall
Dr Who, produced by the BBC
Star Trek, produced by Gene Roddenberry
Internet Resources
President John F. Kennedy’s speech in Houston, TX, September 12, 1962