Stooges: First song is bad. Best songs are I wanna be Your Dog and No Fun. Kinks: A pretty weak album. Wasn't critically acclaimed but now considered their best. Will have to listen again now, torture myself, and be back and admit if you are right. Banana Velvet Underground: Great album. Nick Drake: Good not Great. Not into the rest. Don't know "Friends". because Capo doesn't have my taste. Only in it for the Money sounds good but I don't like anything by Zappa. Sweetheart of the Rodeo: The Christian Life and plenty of our poor twangy songs. Best counterculture songs: Love's A house is not a Motel. Neil Young: Down by the River. MC5: Kick out the Jams. The 13th Floor Elevators. You’re Gonna Miss Me. Standells - Dirty Water. The Seeds - Pushin too Hard. The Stooges: I wanna be your dog. Beatles: Tomorrow Never Knows.
My cool uncle gave me that Stooges album when I was 6 or 7 years old. I didn't 'get it' or like it, so I gave it to my cousin lol. About 10 years later, I heard it again and thought it was one of the best records ever. Ended up being friends with Ron, doing some recording sessions together and a live gig on Sunset Strip in 1992. The Stooges were WAY ahead of their time.
I used to live around the Pittsburgh area for 30 years and got my rock and roll schooling listening to WDVE. At the time it was the top AOR station in Pittsburgh and I used to think Deep Purple was one of those "evil" bands that your parents warned you about. Not ONE time can I recall that station playing anything by the Stooges. It took a 1 -page magazine article (SPIN) written by Black Flag's Henry Rollins mentioning WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT and FUNHOUSE as his 2 all-time favorite albums. that I sought out the Stooges first 3 albums and was absolutely hooked.
@@Sanguillen39ifyWell, Boston radio (especially WBCN)did play those albums (and many more obscure rock albums from that era) before the stations developed playlists in the mid 1970s and business decisions controlled airplay -but Lou Reed and some Stooges made it on there. Oedipus was the big punk DJ, but I heard this stuff long before the late 1970s when he was a big influence. I guess time and place make a huge difference. What annoyed me was the absence of littler known progressive rock or avant garde rock on the air. I had to go to college and put it on the radio myself before I heard it on the radio at all!
@@neilclark1681 We might have. My godmother lived within walking distance from Hollywood on Sunset. By the way, I'm assuming you are referring to Steubenville ?
How could your list of "Albums out-of-step with counterculture" and NOT include "Kick Out the Jams" by MC5??? They say that the "Summer of Love" never made a stop in Detroit and THIS album proves this!
It's a little complicated. MC5 was the only scheduled group not to chicken out of performing in the Chicago park during the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. That put the group itself at the epicenter of the counter-culture movement at that particular moment.
@@xavstarclp Perfect response. Not to mention John Sinclair trying to mold them into counterculture icons even if this was really only recognized in Detroit. White Panthers, etc
In 67 I was living around Cleveland and got my DL. I started driving up to Detroit on weekends to see some buddies who lived there. I was blown away by the music scene there at the Grande, Cobo Hall and many venues. So many great rock, blues and Motown artists. I saw Iggy & the Stooges at least a dozen times. Every time they were outrageous and Iggy was mesmerizing. Usually half naked and lean, wirey and muscular. It was crazy in Detroit in the 60s.
@@EastSider48215 Somebody said, "Music is an umbilical chord to nature." I think music is as close as we mortals will ever get to actually speaking with God. Bach was also of this opinion.
Don't forget about other iconic Detroit groups such as the MC5, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Amboy Dukes, Salem Witchcraft, the early work of George Clinton laying down what would become Parliament. It was an iconic scene very much at odds with the hippie music of the time. Working class sensibilities laying down disillusionment and alienation. It's why Detroit adopted The Who early on, very much sharing that sensibility.
Great idea. In her incredible album, New York Tendaberry (1969), Laura Nyro exposed the counter-culture delusions of free love, drugs and peace with songs covering themes such as infidelity, betrayal, heartbreak, poverty and the killing of the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King Jr in the track Save the Country. IMO, this album is the artistic pinnacle of modern songwriting. Joni Mitchell simply called it "beautiful". Miles Davis was dropping in while Nyro was recording. Roy Halee, the producer, stated in an interview 5-6 years ago that Nyro was the best he ever worked with. Olivia Rodrigo's mega hit Drivers Licence is based on Nyro's You Don't Love Me When I Cry, the opening track. Its a unique and difficult album. It took me 6 listens to get it. The track Captain for Dark Mornings is one of Joni Mitchell's top ten ever, and an obvious influence on Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights.
Rock *is* countercultural by definition. Psychedelia was influenced by and influenced the artists presented here. What was great about ‘60s music was that it defied niches, unlike music today, and it wasn’t a product of ideologues trying to hijack the culture but of artists who were experimenting with new forms. You could argue that Lou Reed and Mothers of Invention were a counterculture within a counterculture. The sex and drugs were and are today part of the scene and were during the 60s an expression of freedom from the rules placed on them by squares.
@@DJ-bj8ku Freedom without restraint equals death, destruction and pain. For example, see the 27 club and ruined health and careers, such as Eddie Hoh. Altamount killed the utopian delusion of indulgent, naive, stupid idealists who ran out of food at Woodstock and had to be fed by the local hard working community rooted in reality.
I'm a big fan of 'Eli and the 13th Confession.' I confess I don't know 'New York Tendaberry,' but I'm not surprised to see her work recommended here, as she was definitely someone charting her own course.
@@DJ-bj8ku 'The sex and drugs were...an expression of freedom from the rules....' But precisely as such, they were ripe for manipulation and commercialization -- as Zappa so explicitly called out. (Or as the Who summed it up, 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.')
Ray Davies called it "the most successful flop of all time." even though it didn't sell well at first, over time it became the Kinks' biggest selling album.
The Kinks were already pulling back from hard rock by 1966. In fact, their first album that went against the prevailing rock trend was the one before "Village Green," called "Something Else by the Kinks" (1967). It already had the diversity of music that is found on "Village Green."
@@paulgoldstein2569 I would have mentioned "Face to Face," but they really hadn't completely left behind their hard rock sound yet, so I went one album later.
I’ve never said this before, but I think Something else by The Kinks might be as close to a perfect record as one could make. This is coming from someone who isn’t a huge Kinks fan, but that record is so good.
@@tomrobinson5776 I listened to this album totally by chance when I was 16. I was at a rented cottage and Ogden's Nutgone Flake just happened to be one of the many cassette tapes that the owner had and I played it. This album would shape my musical future! I never knew that such an unassuming young Brit could have such an epic, soulful voice as Steve Marriot! Glad that you feel the same way!
Although i wouldn't call it a near masterpiece like most of the albums mentioned here, but the self titled Silver Apples album from 1968 is the first one that always comes to mind for me when thinking about albums that sound nothing like anything else from the 60's.
I obtained a copy of the s/t Silver Apples LP along with 3 more albums at a swap meet in 1976 when I was 14. $2 for all. The Silver Apples completely warped my brain as a teenage pothead kid. I have an original on KAPP, and the reissue as well. Essential 60's LP!!
Absolutely love Silver Apples, I feel Contact is maybe even a bit better than the first one (scored an original with the poster a couple years ago), just a bit more production and realization of the potential of the 'Simeon'. I also have both of their 45s on Kapp, You and I is one heavy track despite the lack of a solid low bass, it's good stuff all around.
Heck yeah! I thought the mentions on here were great but I immediately thought Silver Apples would have been perfect on this list! And I didn't even have to scroll far to find a mention of it! I would also add White Noise's An Electric Storm as well - both were pioneering works for the electronic music genre!
This video was wonderfully produced. Simple, direct, and articulate with no distractions. Thank you for sharing your obviously extensive knowledge of music & music history. Your vinyl collection must be to die for!! -Just subscribed & look forward to checking out your other videos. ❤❤
You have an excellent show. Your presentation stirs tremendous curiosity about theses albums. The truth is most of the pop music and what passed for rock music in the 60s was pretty cheesy and inauthentic.
Yes DEFINITELY Hot Rats, so glad you mentioned that one! I would also add Lothar and the Hand People “Space Hymn” also from ‘69, always dug that one. What a time for individual, free thinking music!
@@MichaelHansenFUN Ha ha. I was thinking of the Good Rats. Long Island NY band. They are pretty good. Never made fame outside the NYC area. But check them out if you like.
You could have included one or two albums by Creedence Clearwater Revival, as CCR in no way attempted to cash in on the Psychedelic or Progressive Rock styles that dominated most of the late sixties. Instead, they stuck to this no-nonsense Rock 'N' Roll which was totally out of fashion for the late sixties, even occasionally reviving Rock 'N' Roll classics of the fifties which was even more out of fashion by then, and eventually, even a cover of Roy Orbison's Ooby Dooby. Yet they still managed to get a booking for the Woodstock music festival, along all the hippie acts, and then released a live album of their performances there. Maybe you could have have included The Pretty Things' S. F. Sorrow. But I was already thinking of The Kinks.
Excellent topic ! Without a doubt, that Stooges album was the absolute origin of Punk. Many people might argue that Punk was born in the Empire State because of the New York Dolls and the Ramones. But of course, Motown wins the bragging rights on that issue. I do have a CD copy of Stooges debut, but it would be really nice to own a vinyl copy. It’s a very special album.
You can't mention punk without mentioning the MC5 as well. Look who Patti Smith married for God's sake. Fred "Sonic" Smith used to hold court at CBGB's in the early days with all the punks basically worshipping him as a near god. They were one of the original garage bands. If Iggy was the spiritual father, the MC5 were the holy spirit of Punk energy and abandon.
I don't think so. Protopunk goes back to Kingsmen, early Kinks, Troggs, etc. Stooges sound like they were trying to the Doors, veering into hard rock of their era.
Glad you mentioned One of Us Cannot Be Wrong from Songs of Leonard Cohen - one of my favorites of all time! The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society is one I got into fairly recently but can't put down! Masterpiece! If you haven't checked out White Noise and their album An Electric Storm, it would fall into this category of out-of-step with the counterculture albums as well. It was an early electronic album, which also featured other unusual instrumentation as well, and featured Delia Derbyshire, the woman who made the original Doctor Who theme by splicing sounds together on tape!
Delia Derbyshire was a true innovator, genius and pioneer. She deserves to be honored, not because she was "the first _woman_ to do blahdeblah" but because she was the first _human_ to create the sounds and techniques she invented.
Frank Zappa himself summed it up with one sentence on the song "Absolutely Free" about his opinion of the counterculture and hippies in general: "Flower Power Sucks." He also fired members of his band who did drugs, particularly Lowell George who overdosed in 1979. Frank told Lowell to form his own band after hearing a rough draft of his song "Willin'". Lowell did form a band of his own on Frank's firm advice, and that band became Little Feat, formed in 1971. In spite of being against heavy street or psychedelic drugs, Frank was addicted to cigarettes and coffee. They kept him awake at night when he was mixing and recording his many albums, he claimed, as he was a notorious workaholic in the studio.
@@RadicalCaveman I never thought Flower Power was too bad myself. Zappa was a genius, but he was very cynical about optimism, and he was unafraid to let it be criticized on both the conservative and liberal sides, whether it was Nixon, LBJ, Regan, or Tipper Gore. The "We're Only In It For The Money" album cover design by Cal Schenekel was an attack on The Beatles and "Sgt. Pepper's". John Lennon could be as easily as snarky and cynical as Zappa, but remember, he and Zappa fought over the rights to "King Kong" rewritten as "Jamrag". They were bitter freinimies as a result over that jam session.
Nice concept for a list. Being pretty old I can say I have heard OF all these, but heard few of them at the time. My (future but now ex) wife introduced me to Leonard Cohen about 1971. Her girlfriend introduced VU around 1973. A school friend played me Zappa around 1971. I will have to confess my youthful unconventionality was pretty conventional
I could sense the later The Band’s “Northern Cross Southern Star” had the Byrd’s “Sweethearts of the Rodeo” influence with Acadian Driftwood, you know, that “pure feel”, but when I first heard Music From Big Pink’s “Chest Fever”, I felt The Band was indeed feeding off of 60’s heavy psychedelia somewhat, so maybe that’s why it did not get on this list! I just subbed this gentleman‘s work, it felt like I was gathering around a warming fire of familiar greatness, I felt home with this list, and mostly it makes me want to get these tracks popping again on my stereo!!
These ten are all long time faves in my record collection and you nailed the fact that they were out of step with the peace and love thing. Well done video.
What is the peace and love thing in music? If it’s psychedelia you’re referring to, it influenced and was influenced by the bands presented in this video.
@DJ-bj8ku The self-appointed hipsters at the time thought these records were nowhere. That's the point. Not trying to make working definitions for psychedelic music or anything like that because it's too vague and who cares anyway? These records were thought to be out of step by the people who cared about that sort of thing. Got it?
@@buzzawuzza3743Who were the self-appointed hipsters? Did you live through the era? I did. There was no such thing as “out of step.” These artists and bands were influenced by, reacting to or influencing other artists at the time, meaning they were all experimenting with the form. Got it?
I always felt that the Beach Boys' mid-to-later-60s genius and influence on others (McCartney/Sgt Peppers) was overshadowed by the legacy of their poppy, clean-cut image, not to mention the band name. Maybe they should have changed it to something like "The Sea Men" and done a re-launch :)
Some obscure/underground albums to add to this list: Silver Apples - Silver Apples (1968) Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969) The Red Krayola - God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It (1968) Cromagnon - Cromagnon (1969) White Noise - An Electric Storm (1969) Lothar and the Hand People - Presenting... Lothar and the Hand People (1968) The Outsiders - CQ (1968) The Peter Brötzmann Octet - Machine Gun (1968) Blues Climax - Blues Climax (1969) Nihilist Spasm Band - No Record (1968) AMM - AMMMusic (1967)
I appreciate your love of the music, you obviously know your stuff and I share your taste, but this is all music from within the counterculture, even if only in tone, and all of it impossible to imagine without the societal and musical changes of time.
Great title....didn't know what to expect... and then you came out with 10 really interesting choices. One could quibble but it's a tricky topic so fair enough. Keep up the good work.
Days was on the original album, but only in Europe and New Zealand, it was a No 12 hit single in the U.K. 1968. No other Kinks album charted in the U.K. after this one, all the Kinks albums charted in the U.S. except Village Green, apart from Percy. Another interesting fact, The Beach Boys released Do It Again, just two weeks after Friends and became a No1 single in the U.K, the only other No1 Beach Boys single in the U.K. was Good Vibrations! Of course all these are classics, but for me, I was born October 1952, there was still a very straight mainstream culture, in the 60’s, it was a very small clique of people that were counter culture, or turned on hippies really. That’s what made the era a fascinating time to grow up, there were clashes of culture change happening virtually everyday 😊
Man, great job! You hit that nail right on the head! Thanks, my aunt was alive during that time, she was cool, she told me they made lots of fun of the folks running around, jumping on the bandwagon of hippie everything. That Zappa album is straight up crazy, thanks again.
This was an excellent video. Great choices. Although it completely took me by surprise. I really thought you were gonna head down the path of bubblegum pop. But instead, your picks were very diverse.
I think you could do another episode featuring albums of the early seventies, like bands that were influentual later on, but ignored at the time. It is a great theme for a podcast. e.g.Big Star
"The Counter Culture" was called that for a reason... The reason being, is that "mainstream culture" was STILL GOING STRONG. Most of the music made was NOT BY (or for) THE COUNTERCULTURE! You didn't mention that they were STILL making 45's of the latest Pop HITS played repeatedly on AM radio... Cars rarely even had FM radios in them during the late 60s. Motown music and Soul Music were GOING STRONG along with Country Western and frikken Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, Englebert Humperdink, and Tom Jones.. It's just that the GREATEST musical innovations that changed the cultural musical landscape came from "the Counterculture"... and "the Counterculture" WASN'T JUST about peace, love, and hippie life either. And the term "hippie" can't even be nailed down in a tidy way. The only way I can get on board with your characterization of the late '60s is if I pretend that MOST of the music was expressions of the COUNTERCULTURE'S sensibilities, in fact, MOST of it wasn't. So your list of albums that you characterize as being SURPRISING for its time is nonsensical when actually, just par for the course. But the list of albums that would be counterculture is LONG and GLORIOUS... and that is where my musical tastes lie... I was 14 years old in 1969 and remember it well.
Literally the only reason I clicked on this video, and I have never seen or heard of you before, was because I thought "if he doesn't have Sweetheart of the Rodeo he doesn't know shit." God job, you know you got a new sub.
"We're Only In It For The Money" is worth the price for the album cover alone! If you read Frank Zappa's book, it ties everything together, like we find our who Ronnie and Kenny are and othe little tid bits of Frank's esoteric humor.
Great video, many of my favourite albums, and delighted to see The Byrds and Burritos on there, I was even thinking you looked a bit like Roger McGuinn!
Loved this segment, Tom. I agree with all your choices, but the absolute standout being the Kinks, always against the grain, never compromising and always true to themselves. Question: Did the Kinks ever play any of the rock festivals or for that matter, were they ever invited?
They didn’t play any of the famous ones like Monterey Pop, Woodstock as they were banned from ‘65 thru late ‘69 in the states. Once their fame skyrocketed in the late 70’s/early 80’s they did play the first US Festival in San Bernardino in 1982. You are right. The Kinks never compromised and many times were out of fashion. They never did a psych album, or sold out in spectacular fashion like so many of their contemporaries. They always had integrity even at their lowest commercial points.
@@tomrobinson5776 Speaking of 'lowest commercial points,' I think the word you were reaching for during the video for 'peak' low point was 'nadir' -- lowest point reached.
@@ronmackinnon9374 I think Ray had a physical punch up with someone from the US Musicians Union during their first tour of 1965. There’s were insults thrown at Ray and a fight ensued. Plus unruly behavior on the tour got them banned as well. They lost 4 crucial years in the US (65-69) and once the ban was lifted in ‘69 they basically had to start from scratch on the touring circuit.
Don't agree that these albums are out of step with the counter culture. The counter culture was a very diverse thing, not just "peace and love" rock bands. All the artists featured would be classed as underground/counter culture at the time.
What about Leonard Nimoy's albums?! Spock singing 'Humans Are So Illogical' or the 'Ballad of Bilbo Baggins' didn't really jive with the '60s counterculture either.
I was first introduced to the velvet underground and nico album around 1978,at age 8,through a friend of my moms.I was instantly drawn to it! Classic album! I like the song sister ray as well
How about entire bands that walked upstream during the 60's flower power hour? When invited to Woodstock, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull asked, "Will there be lots of naked ladies? And will there be taking drugs and drinking lots of beer, and fooling around in the mud?" When the answer was "yes," he replied: 'Right. I don't want to go.' ... I don't like hippies, and I'm usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right. Well, indeed, unless the money's right."
Out of step with the Sixties? All of these fit perfectly into the era. I was there, and unless you're taking "the Sixties" to mean some reductive Life magazine flower child article, this is way off.
I'm 67 with two big brothers. In my house were The Velvet Underground and Nico, at least 3 Mother's albums, and my favorite of your list, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. I could go on about the jazz and blues and rock. Oh, and the younger of those brothers went on to become Leonard Cohen's musical director and bassist, working with him since the late 1970s. Oh, The Fugs?
Love's 'Forever Changes' could almost fit into this list. It has an eerie detachment to it and its view on flower power is skewed and dark. And again, it's an album that a lot of people discovered in later years after it initially flopped in the States.
Great list! I think I've owned about 7 of these (well, 8, as we're including "White Light/White Heat") during my now-long years. 3 of these I've genuinely never heard of: The Kinks record, that Beach Boys record, and the Byrds record. When it comes to the Kinks, I've always been indifferent: there were so many other British bands around, you know? Never really liked the Beach Boys, and as for the Byrds record, I'm interested in that one and am going to check it out. Amusing to hear your description of the critical reception to the Stooges, demonstrating how mainstream the "counter culture" had actually become. No longer so "counter". Zappa understood this from the beginning. Watching your video at first, I was all, "Where's the Doors?" - but they don't really belong here. I'd been thinking of Morrison's Oedipal anguish and attraction to death and how "out of touch" those themes were, but the music was, sonically speaking, about late-Sixties as you could possibly get.
I have THE STOOGES and those two VU lps(and three others). I THINK a late friend of mine(he died two years ago) had that Kinks lp and had EVERYTHING by Cohen. He had some Zappa lps,but I don't recall if he had the '''MONEY'' one. I THINK he had that Byrds' lp(my memory is hazy here;sorry). I didn't discover VU until the late 70s(I'm 61). My late friend grew up in the 60s. He wasn't a VU fan and later in life gave me a couple of Lou Reed lps he no longer liked,THE BELLS and CONEY ISLAND BABY. His lp collection generally lined up with his era but he did have an adventurous side. I wish I could remember the name of one lp he played for me that featured a high and grating female singer who clearly was out of step with the late 60s. He admitted he sometimes did this as a joke to annoy his guests. Have never heard of that Beach Boys' lp. Interesting list.
They weren’t out of step. They were *in* step with the era in which new musical forms were being experimented with. The 1960s, led by the Beatles, reimagined rock and roll from the 1950s and took it in directions no one could have conceived of. The artists here weren’t defying a trend; they were part of it.
Come to think of it, i'm surprised that Iggy and Lou Reed never collaborated together. They seem to have had common ideas, and both were good friends with David Bowie.
Well. We Are Only in it for the Money, though it is making fun of the hippie scene, is itself also a product of the psychedelic milieu of the times and is a very psychedelic record. In fact, I would say much of Zappa's output runs in the same vein as the psychedelic and progressive rock stuff , and has affinities to things like King Crimson, Jethro Tull, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys, and others, as well as the orchestral arrangements and other influences like jazz and Avant-garde.
In the process of lampooning the flower power scene (not to mention youth culture pretty much as a whole -- 'I can't wait until our record comes out and all the teenagers start to buy it!'), Zappa even had the foresight to include the word 'punk,' in the song 'Flower Punk': 'Hey, punk, where ya goin' with those beads around your neck?'
@@ronmackinnon9374 True. The record was prescient in many ways. The record came out on the heels of Srgt Peppers, and the cover, inside and out, is a marvelous parody, and they had the insight to include Jimi Hendrix on the cover, who was just hitting the scene at that point. Not to mention the lampooning of the fake commercial hippy culture and its ideals. Yet, Zappa is also very much a product of that culture, especially the sexual revolution aspects of it, so one might argue that the extent of his insight and critique only went so far.
I think you may be overgeneralizing a period of music that lasted from 1966-1976 as being cut from the same cloth, and this ignores how quickly things changed from 1966-1969, for example. Freak Out was released prior to Sgt. Pepper's and the Beatles themselves stated they took inspiration from both the Beach Boys and Zappa. Zappa and the Beatles influenced a great number of groups, like the Nice and Hendrix (both of which were also influenced by Cream) and because of studio techniques and instrumental prowess increasing, groups like Soft Machine, Bonzo Dog Band, Colosseum, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Jethro Tull emerged...who also influenced Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant. It's easy to lump these groups together now, but there was what I would call an accelerated development and ambition that developed over That was astonishing. As a point of fact, many fans ignore the fact that the Velvet Underground had similar influences to bands like Soft Machine and Zappa, but employed them differently. Cale's and Reed's first solo albums, in choice of personnel and material, are VERY progressive. Zappa showed it could attract a mass audience (more so the Beatles) and that boom in creativity and complexity took hold almost immediately because bands were competing with each other. Virtually every major development in rock started between 1966 and 1969. However, I think, as soon as "the kids" took over record production, marketability became THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. So...punk came out of fashion in a manner of speaking, not out of musical need. Also, just because there were similarities in a confined period of time does not make them identical. It's called the fallacy of composition. While it's true a template was established, that template was established by many different groups, including the Graham Bond Organization. But Zappa was the first, to my ears, to combine jazz, 20th century composition, live electronics and even conceptual works and new tape composition techniques in rock. Some of the electronic manipulation can be traced back to Joe Meek, but the merging was all Zappa. And Zappa introduced Hendrix to the Wah Wah pedal...
@@peterv7258 The sexual revolution occurred after the advent of birth control and affluent youth, I think. Freaks hit LA before the Hippies hit San Francisco. Any similarity between Zappa and hippies is coincidental.
Iggy from Detroit, yeah I grew up in Toledo, I remember Iggy. you name such a wide range of artists here, it's hard to argue they all fall outside the mainstream of popular music in their day, only by the standards of a very narrow view of music history,
I remember vividly the music that we listened to in college in 1971 in 1972. For some reason, we were listening to people like James Taylor, and Carly Simon, the nitty-gritty dirt band, The J Geils band, and Carol King. More and more of our music was pretending to be country music. I still remember the byrds and how they released sweetheart of the rodeo. When I listened to Crystal Gayle on rock ‘n’ roll stations, she sounded like a country western singer
Never realized that The JGB had roots going to 1971 and 1972. There is a certain Musical mixture that I call "Crop." Country. Rock. And Pop. Strong 1970s California Singer Songwriter style influence with James Taylor, Eagles, The Byrds, Pure Prairie League, Miss Linda Ronstadt, Poco, Don McLean, John David Souther, Miss Carly Simon, Jimmy Buffett, Gordon Lightfoot among others. And yes not everyone who played and crafted and shaped this Subgenre of Music was a native Californian. They just strummed a sixer as though were "Golden Staters" is all.🤔😂🎤🎼🎵🎶🎸🎹🎻🥁B.W.
And yes even on Her Pop Records such as "Why Have You Left The One You Left Me For?" Miss Crystal Gayle is straight up C&W. As is befitting the Baby Sister of Miss Loretta Lynn and distant Cousin of Miss Patty Loveless and a proud member of The Lynn Family. To say nothing of being from the same Kentucky that also gave the World: Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Keith Whitley, John Conlee, Ricky Skaggs, The Whites (Buck & Sharon & Cheryl), Miss Lorrie Morgan, and Miss Wynonna & Miss Naomi Judd.🤔🎤💃👒🎼🎵🎶🎸🎹🎻🥁B.W.
@@madbrowniac7871 The J. Geils Band's debut album (eponymously titled, if I'm not mistaken) was released in 1970. It featured a great cover of a song by the Motown band the Contours, called 'First I Look at the Purse.' (Maybe you've heard it, without knowing it was that early.)
Chris Berman of all people used to introduce footage of Garrison Hearst when he played for The 49ers except he said "First I look at The Hearst!" And I thought that he was talking about Hearst Publications or something. Patty Hearst also stayed in The News as well at the time. The Contours were more famous for their Classic party raveup "Do You Love Me?" when they were renowned.🤔😉🎤🎼🎵🎶🎉🎸🎹🥁🗞🏈B.W.
Cool video, I'll have to check out some of these that I haven't listened to. I'll throw in Bob Dylan's John Westley Harding, an album that spared no thought for commercial viability.
Pleasantly surprised that this showed up in my suggested videos. I actually have a couple of these ('The Velvet Underground and Nico' and 'We're Only In It for the Money'). Glad to see the Kinks' 'Village Green Preservation Society' included. I know I caught a video of them performing the title song, I believe from soon after it was released (I think it may have been from the show 'Beat Club,' on West German TV). I also notice that the Stooges' debut was on the same label as the Doors (Elektra), and that the jacket design looked like it might have been going for a Doors look.
Some superb albums there. Also Nico's Marble Index is incredibly sad and gothic like, no mellow yellow vibes from her. The Kinks album Something Else had a slight nod to psych with Lazy Old Sun but otherwise had that lovely , timeless autumnal feel❤ The one i thought should have been massive was Goodbye And Hello by Tim Buckley, it never took off but to me is a gorgeous album. Best wishes from England mate. Great upload.
Great concept! There was a time when Western society encompassed both a mainstream mass culture and a countercultural mass culture. I don't think we have either of those anymore, just a performative "indie" aesthetic (still largely funded by a handful of large corporations)... and Taylor Swift. My theory about 2020s socio-political fragmentation is that it's a reflection of our cultural "niche-ification." With the media landscape so splintered (apart from the monolithic dominance of the "social media" platforms themselves), it's easy for people to dwell inside their own little pop-culture silos. Where are the larger established structures for new pop culture rebels to rebel against? It's fascinating to me that, for example, when Dylan went electric, many of his fans saw it as a cheap, flashy sellout to commercial pop and rock 'n' roll, rather than an adventurous step in his artistic evolution (which is easier to see now). I'm not old enough to remember how "Sweethearts of the Rodeo" was received (basically, it wasn't), but the Byrds and Dylan (with "John Wesley Harding" and "Nashville Skyline") definitely did something disruptive by expanding youthful pop into "country" country. I don't think the Stooges or the Velvets were consciously reactionary, but they were certainly expressing themselves in ways that felt transgressive and subversively exciting to many (including themselves) at the time. And while the Kinks may have been self-consciously backward-looking, even their quaint-seeming "village green" sensibility (which some dismissed as conservative or sentimental or nostalgic) can be seen as a defiant assertion of individuality! Ray Davies was never shy about doing that.
@@tomrobinson5776 I have a 2LP on 1 CD by silver apples.in my opinion,silver apples was a band years ahead of its time.i was first introduced to silver apples in about 1978,when I was age 8.a friend of my mom's gave me a copy of their self titled debut album,and I was drawn to it right away
I'll tell ya, back from 1966-1971 I felt like a closet Beach Boy fan.. lol All BB albums mentioned were great, like nothing else goin on...took balls in my opinion, they paid for it, unfortunately, but every album is considered classic and fans and critics...great vid
Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends were *not* great albums, and the Beach Boys were badly out of step with the times. Things improved when they and everyone else went back to a more basic rock style at the beginning of the 1970's.
Lady Godiva's operation from White Light White Heat has such a lovely melody, but is ignored because of the creepy strange background noises and lyrics. Had it been written with innocuous lyrics and released as a single, it would have been another melodic mega-hit like California Dreaming
I really like this kind of video. I don’t have any of these though I used to have the Stooges. But just hearing what you had to say about them was really interesting. I checked out The Velvet Underground with Nico some years back. I think I should again and the other album too.
Every one of those albums was influential in a big way. They all seemed to get big years later: Stooges led to Punk Rock, along with the Velvet Underground. The Sweetheart of the Rodeo album led to Cosmic Cowboy, then the more commercial Country Rock.
I like the information and background, but here's a question: Why would the Velvet Underground song about heroin be out of step with the Summer of Love? It should have fit right in.
Where is The Band? Bob Dylan's country albums? Creedence Clearwater Revival? There were a lot more bands going against the counterculture ethos by 1968.
Village Green Preservation Society is brilliant. I never tire of it.
Stooges: First song is bad. Best songs are I wanna be Your Dog and No Fun. Kinks: A pretty weak album. Wasn't critically acclaimed but now considered their best. Will have to listen again now, torture myself, and be back and admit if you are right. Banana Velvet Underground: Great album. Nick Drake: Good not Great.
Not into the rest. Don't know "Friends". because Capo doesn't have my taste. Only in it for the Money sounds good but I don't like anything by Zappa. Sweetheart of the Rodeo: The Christian Life and plenty of our poor twangy songs.
Best counterculture songs: Love's A house is not a Motel. Neil Young: Down by the River. MC5: Kick out the Jams. The 13th Floor Elevators. You’re Gonna Miss Me. Standells - Dirty Water. The Seeds - Pushin too Hard. The Stooges: I wanna be your dog. Beatles: Tomorrow Never Knows.
My cool uncle gave me that Stooges album when I was 6 or 7 years old. I didn't 'get it' or like it, so I gave it to my cousin lol. About 10 years later, I heard it again and thought it was one of the best records ever. Ended up being friends with Ron, doing some recording sessions together and a live gig on Sunset Strip in 1992. The Stooges were WAY ahead of their time.
That is an awesome story. 😉
My stomping grounds in 1992 was Sunset Boulevard/Hollywood Boulevard. - We might have passed each other on the street.
I used to live around the Pittsburgh area for 30 years and got my rock and roll schooling listening to WDVE. At the time it was the top AOR station in Pittsburgh and I used to think Deep Purple was one of those "evil" bands that your parents warned you about. Not ONE time can I recall that station playing anything by the Stooges. It took a 1 -page magazine article (SPIN) written by Black Flag's Henry Rollins mentioning WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT and FUNHOUSE as his 2 all-time favorite albums. that I sought out the Stooges first 3 albums and was absolutely hooked.
@@Sanguillen39ifyWell, Boston radio (especially WBCN)did play those albums (and many more obscure rock albums from that era) before the stations developed playlists in the mid 1970s and business decisions controlled airplay -but Lou Reed and some Stooges made it on there. Oedipus was the big punk DJ, but I heard this stuff long before the late 1970s when he was a big influence. I guess time and place make a huge difference.
What annoyed me was the absence of littler known progressive rock or avant garde rock on the air. I had to go to college and put it on the radio myself before I heard it on the radio at all!
@@neilclark1681 We might have. My godmother lived within walking distance from Hollywood on Sunset. By the way, I'm assuming you are referring to Steubenville ?
How could your list of "Albums out-of-step with counterculture" and NOT include "Kick Out the Jams" by MC5??? They say that the "Summer of Love" never made a stop in Detroit and THIS album proves this!
Word to your mother. Love the MC5. A great album from start to finish. A,sadly overlooked band.
NRBQ anyone?!?
I was thinking the same thing myself. I'm a dinosaur. But I also got a lust for life.😊
It's a little complicated. MC5 was the only scheduled group not to chicken out of performing in the Chicago park during the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. That put the group itself at the epicenter of the counter-culture movement at that particular moment.
@@xavstarclp Perfect response. Not to mention John Sinclair trying to mold them into counterculture icons even if this was really only recognized in Detroit. White Panthers, etc
The Band’s Music from Big Pink, Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, and Creedence Clearwater Revival come to mind.
In 67 I was living around Cleveland and got my DL. I started driving up to Detroit on weekends to see some buddies who lived there. I was blown away by the music scene there at the Grande, Cobo Hall and many venues. So many great rock, blues and Motown artists. I saw Iggy & the Stooges at least a dozen times. Every time they were outrageous and Iggy was mesmerizing. Usually half naked and lean, wirey and muscular. It was crazy in Detroit in the 60s.
Detroit’s music scene is still as vibrant as it was in the 60’s. This is a great town for people for whom music is life.
@@EastSider48215 Well, I guess that's me. YTM informs me that I listened to 56,000+ hours of all genres of music in 2023. 10% of my life!
@@johnallen6945: That’s a good way to be.
@@EastSider48215 Somebody said, "Music is an umbilical chord to nature." I think music is as close as we mortals will ever get to actually speaking with God. Bach was also of this opinion.
Don't forget about other iconic Detroit groups such as the MC5, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Amboy Dukes, Salem Witchcraft, the early work of George Clinton laying down what would become Parliament. It was an iconic scene very much at odds with the hippie music of the time. Working class sensibilities laying down disillusionment and alienation. It's why Detroit adopted The Who early on, very much sharing that sensibility.
Great idea. In her incredible album, New York Tendaberry (1969), Laura Nyro exposed the counter-culture delusions of free love, drugs and peace with songs covering themes such as infidelity, betrayal, heartbreak, poverty and the killing of the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King Jr in the track Save the Country. IMO, this album is the artistic pinnacle of modern songwriting. Joni Mitchell simply called it "beautiful". Miles Davis was dropping in while Nyro was recording. Roy Halee, the producer, stated in an interview 5-6 years ago that Nyro was the best he ever worked with. Olivia Rodrigo's mega hit Drivers Licence is based on Nyro's You Don't Love Me When I Cry, the opening track. Its a unique and difficult album. It took me 6 listens to get it. The track Captain for Dark Mornings is one of Joni Mitchell's top ten ever, and an obvious influence on Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights.
Laura Nyro is one of the greatest. A truly unique artist. Eli is one of my fave albums of all time. Poverty Train is an amazing track.
Rock *is* countercultural by definition. Psychedelia was influenced by and influenced the artists presented here. What was great about ‘60s music was that it defied niches, unlike music today, and it wasn’t a product of ideologues trying to hijack the culture but of artists who were experimenting with new forms. You could argue that Lou Reed and Mothers of Invention were a counterculture within a counterculture. The sex and drugs were and are today part of the scene and were during the 60s an expression of freedom from the rules placed on them by squares.
@@DJ-bj8ku Freedom without restraint equals death, destruction and pain. For example, see the 27 club and ruined health and careers, such as Eddie Hoh. Altamount killed the utopian delusion of indulgent, naive, stupid idealists who ran out of food at Woodstock and had to be fed by the local hard working community rooted in reality.
I'm a big fan of 'Eli and the 13th Confession.' I confess I don't know 'New York Tendaberry,' but I'm not surprised to see her work recommended here, as she was definitely someone charting her own course.
@@DJ-bj8ku 'The sex and drugs were...an expression of freedom from the rules....'
But precisely as such, they were ripe for manipulation and commercialization -- as Zappa so explicitly called out. (Or as the Who summed it up, 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.')
Great topic! "Village Green" is what first popped into my mind.
Ray Davies called it "the most successful flop of all time." even though it didn't sell well at first, over time it became the Kinks' biggest selling album.
The Kinks were already pulling back from hard rock by 1966. In fact, their first album that went against the prevailing rock trend was the one before "Village Green," called "Something Else by the Kinks" (1967). It already had the diversity of music that is found on "Village Green."
You can go back just one album before that, Face To Face.
@@paulgoldstein2569 I would have mentioned "Face to Face," but they really hadn't completely left behind their hard rock sound yet, so I went one album later.
So true about Something Else. Some of songs would have sounded right at home in the Village Green...... (album).
I’ve never said this before, but I think Something else by The Kinks might be as close to a perfect record as one could make. This is coming from someone who isn’t a huge Kinks fan, but that record is so good.
@@deathxcountry It's a classic if you are not expecting rock and roll! But Ray Davies was some kind of songwriter, eh?
"OGDEN'S NUTGONE FLAKE" by The Small Faces? This album was like NOTHING ELSE in the 60s!
Flawless record. Love Rene and Song Of A Baker. That second side is amazing.
@@tomrobinson5776 I listened to this album totally by chance when I was 16. I was at a rented cottage and Ogden's Nutgone Flake just happened to be one of the many cassette tapes that the owner had and I played it. This album would shape my musical future! I never knew that such an unassuming young Brit could have such an epic, soulful voice as Steve Marriot! Glad that you feel the same way!
Friends by The Beach Boys is such a great album. Great inclusion.
Although i wouldn't call it a near masterpiece like most of the albums mentioned here, but the self titled Silver Apples album from 1968 is the first one that always comes to mind for me when thinking about albums that sound nothing like anything else from the 60's.
I obtained a copy of the s/t Silver Apples LP along with 3 more albums at a swap meet in 1976 when I was 14. $2 for all. The Silver Apples completely warped my brain as a teenage pothead kid. I have an original on KAPP, and the reissue as well. Essential 60's LP!!
I’ve heard Silver Apples mentioned a lot over the years. I need to check them out today. 😉
Absolutely love Silver Apples, I feel Contact is maybe even a bit better than the first one (scored an original with the poster a couple years ago), just a bit more production and realization of the potential of the 'Simeon'. I also have both of their 45s on Kapp, You and I is one heavy track despite the lack of a solid low bass, it's good stuff all around.
Heck yeah! I thought the mentions on here were great but I immediately thought Silver Apples would have been perfect on this list! And I didn't even have to scroll far to find a mention of it! I would also add White Noise's An Electric Storm as well - both were pioneering works for the electronic music genre!
I had exactly the same thought! Trout Mask Replica was my 2nd.
This video was wonderfully produced. Simple, direct, and articulate with no distractions. Thank you for sharing your obviously extensive knowledge of music & music history. Your vinyl collection must be to die for!! -Just subscribed & look forward to checking out your other videos. ❤❤
Thank you so much 😉
You have an excellent show. Your presentation stirs tremendous curiosity about theses albums. The truth is most of the pop music and what passed for rock music in the 60s was pretty cheesy and inauthentic.
Yes DEFINITELY Hot Rats, so glad you mentioned that one! I would also add Lothar and the Hand People “Space Hymn” also from ‘69, always dug that one. What a time for individual, free thinking music!
Dearest Jesus. I have not heard of the Hot Rats for 40 years. I sill remember them. By brother in law was an insane fan of them.
hot rats?
@@MichaelHansenFUN Ha ha. I was thinking of the Good Rats. Long Island NY band. They are pretty good. Never made fame outside the NYC area. But check them out if you like.
The late 60s were loaded with individualistic artists.
As soon as I saw that the TH-cam algorithm recommended me this video, I knew it was because it knows I like Frank Zappa.
Same here!
You could have included one or two albums by Creedence Clearwater Revival, as CCR in no way attempted to cash in on the Psychedelic or Progressive Rock styles that dominated most of the late sixties. Instead, they stuck to this no-nonsense Rock 'N' Roll which was totally out of fashion for the late sixties, even occasionally reviving Rock 'N' Roll classics of the fifties which was even more out of fashion by then, and eventually, even a cover of Roy Orbison's Ooby Dooby. Yet they still managed to get a booking for the Woodstock music festival, along all the hippie acts, and then released a live album of their performances there.
Maybe you could have have included The Pretty Things' S. F. Sorrow. But I was already thinking of The Kinks.
You’re right. CCR really were doing their own thing in the late 60’s. Those are great bare bones rock and roll albums. Great stuff.
CCR for sure
Excellent topic ! Without a doubt, that Stooges album was the absolute origin of Punk. Many people might argue that Punk was born in the Empire State because of the New York Dolls and the Ramones.
But of course, Motown wins the bragging rights on that issue. I do have a CD copy of Stooges debut, but it would be really nice to own a vinyl copy. It’s a very special album.
You can't mention punk without mentioning the MC5 as well. Look who Patti Smith married for God's sake. Fred "Sonic" Smith used to hold court at CBGB's in the early days with all the punks basically worshipping him as a near god. They were one of the original garage bands. If Iggy was the spiritual father, the MC5 were the holy spirit of Punk energy and abandon.
@@donpietruk1517
Oh, I haven't forgotten MC5. They were the absolute roots.
I don’t consider the dolls or ramones as punk. Iggy though… definitely.
I don't think so. Protopunk goes back to Kingsmen, early Kinks, Troggs, etc. Stooges sound like they were trying to the Doors, veering into hard rock of their era.
@@cejannuzi If you've ever read any histories of punk you'd find many artists cutting Iggy and The Stooges as a direct influence.
Glad you mentioned One of Us Cannot Be Wrong from Songs of Leonard Cohen - one of my favorites of all time! The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society is one I got into fairly recently but can't put down! Masterpiece! If you haven't checked out White Noise and their album An Electric Storm, it would fall into this category of out-of-step with the counterculture albums as well. It was an early electronic album, which also featured other unusual instrumentation as well, and featured Delia Derbyshire, the woman who made the original Doctor Who theme by splicing sounds together on tape!
Never heard that one. I’ll check it out. 😉
Delia Derbyshire was a true innovator, genius and pioneer. She deserves to be honored, not because she was "the first _woman_ to do blahdeblah" but because she was the first _human_ to create the sounds and techniques she invented.
I KNEW that the Kinks Village Green just HAD to be there.
Full cred to ya!
Frank Zappa himself summed it up with one sentence on the song "Absolutely Free" about his opinion of the counterculture and hippies in general: "Flower Power Sucks." He also fired members of his band who did drugs, particularly Lowell George who overdosed in 1979. Frank told Lowell to form his own band after hearing a rough draft of his song "Willin'". Lowell did form a band of his own on Frank's firm advice, and that band became Little Feat, formed in 1971. In spite of being against heavy street or psychedelic drugs, Frank was addicted to cigarettes and coffee. They kept him awake at night when he was mixing and recording his many albums, he claimed, as he was a notorious workaholic in the studio.
Flower Power was fine. Libertarianism sucks.
@@RadicalCaveman I never thought Flower Power was too bad myself. Zappa was a genius, but he was very cynical about optimism, and he was unafraid to let it be criticized on both the conservative and liberal sides, whether it was Nixon, LBJ, Regan, or Tipper Gore. The "We're Only In It For The Money" album cover design by Cal Schenekel was an attack on The Beatles and "Sgt. Pepper's". John Lennon could be as easily as snarky and cynical as Zappa, but remember, he and Zappa fought over the rights to "King Kong" rewritten as "Jamrag". They were bitter freinimies as a result over that jam session.
Nice concept for a list. Being pretty old I can say I have heard OF all these, but heard few of them at the time. My (future but now ex) wife introduced me to Leonard Cohen about 1971. Her girlfriend introduced VU around 1973. A school friend played me Zappa around 1971.
I will have to confess my youthful unconventionality was pretty conventional
My future ex-wife doesn’t even like Leonard Cohen..! 😮 💁♂️
Can’t believe he left out The Band’s Music from Big Pink, and The Brown Album!🤷🏼♂️
I could sense the later The Band’s “Northern Cross Southern Star” had the Byrd’s “Sweethearts of the Rodeo” influence with Acadian Driftwood, you know, that “pure feel”, but when I first heard Music From Big Pink’s “Chest Fever”, I felt The Band was indeed feeding off of 60’s heavy psychedelia somewhat, so maybe that’s why it did not get on this list! I just subbed this gentleman‘s work, it felt like I was gathering around a warming fire of familiar greatness, I felt home with this list, and mostly it makes me want to get these tracks popping again on my stereo!!
These ten are all long time faves in my record collection and you nailed the fact that they were out of step with the peace and love thing. Well done video.
What is the peace and love thing in music? If it’s psychedelia you’re referring to, it influenced and was influenced by the bands presented in this video.
@DJ-bj8ku The self-appointed hipsters at the time thought these records were nowhere. That's the point. Not trying to make working definitions for psychedelic music or anything like that because it's too vague and who cares anyway? These records were thought to be out of step by the people who cared about that sort of thing. Got it?
@@buzzawuzza3743Who were the self-appointed hipsters? Did you live through the era? I did. There was no such thing as “out of step.” These artists and bands were influenced by, reacting to or influencing other artists at the time, meaning they were all experimenting with the form. Got it?
@@DJ-bj8ku Lots of words typed, just to completely miss the point.
@@mikeymutual5489 Bro, sit down. You’re a troll. Go back to listening to Bjork.
The first Alice Cooper album came out in 1969 and it’s way out of step with what was going on when it came out.
I always felt that the Beach Boys' mid-to-later-60s genius and influence on others (McCartney/Sgt Peppers) was overshadowed by the legacy of their poppy, clean-cut image, not to mention the band name. Maybe they should have changed it to something like "The Sea Men" and done a re-launch :)
Some obscure/underground albums to add to this list:
Silver Apples - Silver Apples (1968)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969)
The Red Krayola - God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It (1968)
Cromagnon - Cromagnon (1969)
White Noise - An Electric Storm (1969)
Lothar and the Hand People - Presenting... Lothar and the Hand People (1968)
The Outsiders - CQ (1968)
The Peter Brötzmann Octet - Machine Gun (1968)
Blues Climax - Blues Climax (1969)
Nihilist Spasm Band - No Record (1968)
AMM - AMMMusic (1967)
I appreciate your love of the music, you obviously know your stuff and I share your taste, but this is all music from within the counterculture, even if only in tone, and all of it impossible to imagine without the societal and musical changes of time.
I was born in 73 but I have too imagine when Black Sabbath came out that had to blow everyone’s mind
I saw an interview where they said every band from every city in the country that were fans of the stooges ended up in London, New York or Los Angeles
Great title....didn't know what to expect... and then you came out with 10 really interesting choices. One could quibble but it's a tricky topic so fair enough. Keep up the good work.
Days was on the original album, but only in Europe and New Zealand, it was a No 12 hit single in the U.K. 1968. No other Kinks album charted in the U.K. after this one, all the Kinks albums charted in the U.S. except Village Green, apart from Percy. Another interesting fact, The Beach Boys released Do It Again, just two weeks after Friends and became a No1 single in the U.K, the only other No1 Beach Boys single in the U.K. was Good Vibrations! Of course all these are classics, but for me, I was born October 1952, there was still a very straight mainstream culture, in the 60’s, it was a very small clique of people that were counter culture, or turned on hippies really. That’s what made the era a fascinating time to grow up, there were clashes of culture change happening virtually everyday 😊
I’ve always been amazed that albums like Village Green, Arthur, and Muswell Hillbillies did nothing on the charts in England.
All great picks my friend. That Mothers album is far out and I love it. I really dig what FZ did from 1966 'til about 1975.
I agree. A great period from Frank.
Man, great job! You hit that nail right on the head! Thanks, my aunt was alive during that time, she was cool, she told me they made lots of fun of the folks running around, jumping on the bandwagon of hippie everything. That Zappa album is straight up crazy, thanks again.
Thanks 😉
Don’t forget Wicked Annabella on Village Green, a proto-goth banger!
This was an excellent video. Great choices. Although it completely took me by surprise. I really thought you were gonna head down the path of bubblegum pop. But instead, your picks were very diverse.
I think you could do another episode featuring albums of the early seventies, like bands that were influentual later on, but ignored at the time. It is a great theme for a podcast. e.g.Big Star
That’s a great idea. I think I may do that. 😉
I Was also listening to Cat Stevens and Elton John in 1971 and 1972
They were just more brutal and dirrect,no flowers,no sunshine in Detroit. It's still counterculture
"The Counter Culture" was called that for a reason... The reason being, is that "mainstream culture" was STILL GOING STRONG. Most of the music made was NOT BY (or for) THE COUNTERCULTURE! You didn't mention that they were STILL making 45's of the latest Pop HITS played repeatedly on AM radio... Cars rarely even had FM radios in them during the late 60s. Motown music and Soul Music were GOING STRONG along with Country Western and frikken Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, Englebert Humperdink, and Tom Jones..
It's just that the GREATEST musical innovations that changed the cultural musical landscape came from "the Counterculture"... and "the Counterculture" WASN'T JUST about peace, love, and hippie life either. And the term "hippie" can't even be nailed down in a tidy way.
The only way I can get on board with your characterization of the late '60s is if I pretend that MOST of the music was expressions of the COUNTERCULTURE'S sensibilities, in fact, MOST of it wasn't. So your list of albums that you characterize as being SURPRISING for its time is nonsensical when actually, just par for the course.
But the list of albums that would be counterculture is LONG and GLORIOUS... and that is where my musical tastes lie... I was 14 years old in 1969 and remember it well.
Literally the only reason I clicked on this video, and I have never seen or heard of you before, was because I thought "if he doesn't have Sweetheart of the Rodeo he doesn't know shit."
God job, you know you got a new sub.
Thanks for subscribing 😉
The first time I ever smelled marijuana smoke, "I Wanna Be Your Dog" was on the turntable. Talk about primal memories!
Very good idea putting this together,well done
Great selections, nice descriptions of why they were (eventually) influential. Keep it coming!
"We're Only In It For The Money" is worth the price for the album cover alone! If you read Frank Zappa's book, it ties everything together, like we find our who Ronnie and Kenny are and othe little tid bits of Frank's esoteric humor.
“Friends” is one of the best BBoys albums ever
I always thought Holland was very underrated. Almost perfect.
Great video, many of my favourite albums, and delighted to see The Byrds and Burritos on there, I was even thinking you looked a bit like Roger McGuinn!
I still listen to Sweetheart of the Rodeo, because of Gram Parsons, it's a classic country rock album, before the Eagles.
Loved this segment, Tom. I agree with all your choices, but the absolute standout being the Kinks, always against the grain, never compromising and always true to themselves. Question: Did the Kinks ever play any of the rock festivals or for that matter, were they ever invited?
They didn’t play any of the famous ones like Monterey Pop, Woodstock as they were banned from ‘65 thru late ‘69 in the states. Once their fame skyrocketed in the late 70’s/early 80’s they did play the first US Festival in San Bernardino in 1982.
You are right. The Kinks never compromised and many times were out of fashion. They never did a psych album, or sold out in spectacular fashion like so many of their contemporaries. They always had integrity even at their lowest commercial points.
@@tomrobinson5776 Speaking of 'lowest commercial points,' I think the word you were reaching for during the video for 'peak' low point was 'nadir' -- lowest point reached.
@@tomrobinson5776 Why were the Kinks banned from the States in those years ('65-'69)? Had there been a drug bust?
@@ronmackinnon9374 I think Ray had a physical punch up with someone from the US Musicians Union during their first tour of 1965. There’s were insults thrown at Ray and a fight ensued. Plus unruly behavior on the tour got them banned as well. They lost 4 crucial years in the US (65-69) and once the ban was lifted in ‘69 they basically had to start from scratch on the touring circuit.
Don't agree that these albums are out of step with the counter culture. The counter culture was a very diverse thing, not just "peace and love" rock bands. All the artists featured would be classed as underground/counter culture at the time.
What about Leonard Nimoy's albums?!
Spock singing 'Humans Are So Illogical' or the 'Ballad of Bilbo Baggins' didn't really jive with the '60s counterculture either.
Glad you included sweetheart of the Rodeo.
I was first introduced to the velvet underground and nico album around 1978,at age 8,through a friend of my moms.I was instantly drawn to it! Classic album! I like the song sister ray as well
super interesting to come across this. I will ^ these out right quick
The members of the Ramones said they met each other because of a shared interest in Iggy pop
That’s right 😉
And the Bay City Rollers
And who can ever forget The Fugs doing River of Shit. (1969--ish)
How about entire bands that walked upstream during the 60's flower power hour?
When invited to Woodstock, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull asked, "Will there be lots of naked ladies? And will there be taking drugs and drinking lots of beer, and fooling around in the mud?"
When the answer was "yes," he replied:
'Right. I don't want to go.' ... I don't like hippies, and I'm usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right. Well, indeed, unless the money's right."
Out of step with the Sixties? All of these fit perfectly into the era. I was there, and unless you're taking "the Sixties" to mean some reductive Life magazine flower child article, this is way off.
Solid List.
Odessee and Oracle, The Zombies. Has some psych elements but doesn’t fit into counterculture. Truly unique masterpiece.
Danny Fields call’s I wanna be your Dog, the 1st punk song
Really interesting discussion. Well done.
If you do a part 2 you should include Cruising with Ruben & the Jets by Frank Zappa it was a Doo Wop album in 1968 lol
The Stooges!!!!! Yay!!!! 💟
I'm 67 with two big brothers. In my house were The Velvet Underground and Nico, at least 3 Mother's albums, and my favorite of your list, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. I could go on about the jazz and blues and rock.
Oh, and the younger of those brothers went on to become Leonard Cohen's musical director and bassist, working with him since the late 1970s.
Oh, The Fugs?
Great story regarding Cohen. That’s fabulous.
All my favorite albums of the time. I owned most of them and bought them when they came out.
Love's 'Forever Changes' could almost fit into this list. It has an eerie detachment to it and its view on flower power is skewed and dark. And again, it's an album that a lot of people discovered in later years after it initially flopped in the States.
Great list! I think I've owned about 7 of these (well, 8, as we're including "White Light/White Heat") during my now-long years. 3 of these I've genuinely never heard of: The Kinks record, that Beach Boys record, and the Byrds record. When it comes to the Kinks, I've always been indifferent: there were so many other British bands around, you know? Never really liked the Beach Boys, and as for the Byrds record, I'm interested in that one and am going to check it out. Amusing to hear your description of the critical reception to the Stooges, demonstrating how mainstream the "counter culture" had actually become. No longer so "counter". Zappa understood this from the beginning. Watching your video at first, I was all, "Where's the Doors?" - but they don't really belong here. I'd been thinking of Morrison's Oedipal anguish and attraction to death and how "out of touch" those themes were, but the music was, sonically speaking, about late-Sixties as you could possibly get.
All right , Kinks. Avant-guard composing.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Trout Mask Replica and God Bless Tiny Tim. I like your choices of Velvet Underground, Kinks and Stooges.
I have THE STOOGES and those two VU lps(and three others). I THINK a late friend of mine(he died two years ago) had that Kinks lp and had EVERYTHING by Cohen. He had some Zappa lps,but I don't recall if he had the '''MONEY'' one. I THINK he had that Byrds' lp(my memory is hazy here;sorry). I didn't discover VU until the late 70s(I'm 61). My late friend grew up in the 60s. He wasn't a VU fan and later in life gave me a couple of Lou Reed lps he no longer liked,THE BELLS and CONEY ISLAND BABY. His lp collection generally lined up with his era but he did have an adventurous side. I wish I could remember the name of one lp he played for me that featured a high and grating female singer who clearly was out of step with the late 60s. He admitted he sometimes did this as a joke to annoy his guests. Have never heard of that Beach Boys' lp. Interesting list.
I love Village Green. I'm so glad more people finally started to get it.
Thanks
Going along with the Stooges angle, mention could also be made of MC5, Kick Out the Jams from 1969...definitely out of step with the times
No doubt about it. 😉
They weren’t out of step. They were *in* step with the era in which new musical forms were being experimented with. The 1960s, led by the Beatles, reimagined rock and roll from the 1950s and took it in directions no one could have conceived of. The artists here weren’t defying a trend; they were part of it.
Strange as this may sound, all of those albums were played routinely on KSAN (Jive 95 San Francisco.)
Wow...Really impressive analysis! Thanks so much!
Thank you 😉
John Cale plays violin on We Will Fall, the weirdest Stooges track.
Come to think of it, i'm surprised that Iggy and Lou Reed never collaborated together. They seem to have had common ideas, and both were good friends with David Bowie.
Well. We Are Only in it for the Money, though it is making fun of the hippie scene, is itself also a product of the psychedelic milieu of the times and is a very psychedelic record. In fact, I would say much of Zappa's output runs in the same vein as the psychedelic and progressive rock stuff , and has affinities to things like King Crimson, Jethro Tull, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys, and others, as well as the orchestral arrangements and other influences like jazz and Avant-garde.
In the process of lampooning the flower power scene (not to mention youth culture pretty much as a whole -- 'I can't wait until our record comes out and all the teenagers start to buy it!'), Zappa even had the foresight to include the word 'punk,' in the song 'Flower Punk': 'Hey, punk, where ya goin' with those beads around your neck?'
@@ronmackinnon9374 True. The record was prescient in many ways. The record came out on the heels of Srgt Peppers, and the cover, inside and out, is a marvelous parody, and they had the insight to include Jimi Hendrix on the cover, who was just hitting the scene at that point. Not to mention the lampooning of the fake commercial hippy culture and its ideals. Yet, Zappa is also very much a product of that culture, especially the sexual revolution aspects of it, so one might argue that the extent of his insight and critique only went so far.
But, if we're honest about it, Zappa basically did EVERYTHING first.
I think you may be overgeneralizing a period of music that lasted from 1966-1976 as being cut from the same cloth, and this ignores how quickly things changed from 1966-1969, for example. Freak Out was released prior to Sgt. Pepper's and the Beatles themselves stated they took inspiration from both the Beach Boys and Zappa. Zappa and the Beatles influenced a great number of groups, like the Nice and Hendrix (both of which were also influenced by Cream) and because of studio techniques and instrumental prowess increasing, groups like Soft Machine, Bonzo Dog Band, Colosseum, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Jethro Tull emerged...who also influenced Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant. It's easy to lump these groups together now, but there was what I would call an accelerated development and ambition that developed over That was astonishing. As a point of fact, many fans ignore the fact that the Velvet Underground had similar influences to bands like Soft Machine and Zappa, but employed them differently. Cale's and Reed's first solo albums, in choice of personnel and material, are VERY progressive. Zappa showed it could attract a mass audience (more so the Beatles) and that boom in creativity and complexity took hold almost immediately because bands were competing with each other. Virtually every major development in rock started between 1966 and 1969. However, I think, as soon as "the kids" took over record production, marketability became THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. So...punk came out of fashion in a manner of speaking, not out of musical need.
Also, just because there were similarities in a confined period of time does not make them identical. It's called the fallacy of composition. While it's true a template was established, that template was established by many different groups, including the Graham Bond Organization. But Zappa was the first, to my ears, to combine jazz, 20th century composition, live electronics and even conceptual works and new tape composition techniques in rock. Some of the electronic manipulation can be traced back to Joe Meek, but the merging was all Zappa. And Zappa introduced Hendrix to the Wah Wah pedal...
@@peterv7258 The sexual revolution occurred after the advent of birth control and affluent youth, I think. Freaks hit LA before the Hippies hit San Francisco. Any similarity between Zappa and hippies is coincidental.
Great video. You name dropped Uncle Tupelo. You're a ok in my book 🤣😂🤣
Great idea! So many classic Albums.
I'll have to check these out. Thanks!
Iggy from Detroit, yeah I grew up in Toledo, I remember Iggy. you name such a wide range of artists here, it's hard to argue they all fall outside the mainstream of popular music in their day, only by the standards of a very narrow view of music history,
I remember vividly the music that we listened to in college in 1971 in 1972. For some reason, we were listening to people like James Taylor, and Carly Simon, the nitty-gritty dirt band, The J Geils band, and Carol King. More and more of our music was pretending to be country music. I still remember the byrds and how they released sweetheart of the rodeo. When I listened to Crystal Gayle on rock ‘n’ roll stations, she sounded like a country western singer
Never realized that The JGB had roots going to 1971 and 1972. There is a certain Musical mixture that I call "Crop." Country. Rock. And Pop. Strong 1970s California Singer Songwriter style influence with James Taylor, Eagles, The Byrds, Pure Prairie League, Miss Linda Ronstadt, Poco, Don McLean, John David Souther, Miss Carly Simon, Jimmy Buffett, Gordon Lightfoot among others. And yes not everyone who played and crafted and shaped this Subgenre of Music was a native Californian. They just strummed a sixer as though were "Golden Staters" is all.🤔😂🎤🎼🎵🎶🎸🎹🎻🥁B.W.
And yes even on Her Pop Records such as "Why Have You Left The One You Left Me For?" Miss Crystal Gayle is straight up C&W. As is befitting the Baby Sister of Miss Loretta Lynn and distant Cousin of Miss Patty Loveless and a proud member of The Lynn Family. To say nothing of being from the same Kentucky that also gave the World: Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Keith Whitley, John Conlee, Ricky Skaggs, The Whites (Buck & Sharon & Cheryl), Miss Lorrie Morgan, and Miss Wynonna & Miss Naomi Judd.🤔🎤💃👒🎼🎵🎶🎸🎹🎻🥁B.W.
@@madbrowniac7871 The J. Geils Band's debut album (eponymously titled, if I'm not mistaken) was released in 1970. It featured a great cover of a song by the Motown band the Contours, called 'First I Look at the Purse.' (Maybe you've heard it, without knowing it was that early.)
Chris Berman of all people used to introduce footage of Garrison Hearst when he played for The 49ers except he said "First I look at The Hearst!" And I thought that he was talking about Hearst Publications or something. Patty Hearst also stayed in The News as well at the time. The Contours were more famous for their Classic party raveup "Do You Love Me?" when they were renowned.🤔😉🎤🎼🎵🎶🎉🎸🎹🥁🗞🏈B.W.
And I appreciate You Ron for bringing me up to speed.😊B.W.
Cool video, I'll have to check out some of these that I haven't listened to. I'll throw in Bob Dylan's John Westley Harding, an album that spared no thought for commercial viability.
Astral Weeks and Music from Big Pink. 1 & 2
Pleasantly surprised that this showed up in my suggested videos. I actually have a couple of these ('The Velvet Underground and Nico' and 'We're Only In It for the Money').
Glad to see the Kinks' 'Village Green Preservation Society' included. I know I caught a video of them performing the title song, I believe from soon after it was released (I think it may have been from the show 'Beat Club,' on West German TV).
I also notice that the Stooges' debut was on the same label as the Doors (Elektra), and that the jacket design looked like it might have been going for a Doors look.
Some superb albums there. Also Nico's Marble Index is incredibly sad and gothic like, no mellow yellow vibes from her.
The Kinks album Something Else had a slight nod to psych with Lazy Old Sun but otherwise had that lovely , timeless autumnal feel❤
The one i thought should have been massive was Goodbye And Hello by Tim Buckley, it never took off but to me is a gorgeous album.
Best wishes from England mate.
Great upload.
Thanks 😉
You remind me of a guy I used to know in northern Jersey back in the 90s...
Great concept! There was a time when Western society encompassed both a mainstream mass culture and a countercultural mass culture. I don't think we have either of those anymore, just a performative "indie" aesthetic (still largely funded by a handful of large corporations)... and Taylor Swift. My theory about 2020s socio-political fragmentation is that it's a reflection of our cultural "niche-ification." With the media landscape so splintered (apart from the monolithic dominance of the "social media" platforms themselves), it's easy for people to dwell inside their own little pop-culture silos. Where are the larger established structures for new pop culture rebels to rebel against?
It's fascinating to me that, for example, when Dylan went electric, many of his fans saw it as a cheap, flashy sellout to commercial pop and rock 'n' roll, rather than an adventurous step in his artistic evolution (which is easier to see now). I'm not old enough to remember how "Sweethearts of the Rodeo" was received (basically, it wasn't), but the Byrds and Dylan (with "John Wesley Harding" and "Nashville Skyline") definitely did something disruptive by expanding youthful pop into "country" country. I don't think the Stooges or the Velvets were consciously reactionary, but they were certainly expressing themselves in ways that felt transgressive and subversively exciting to many (including themselves) at the time. And while the Kinks may have been self-consciously backward-looking, even their quaint-seeming "village green" sensibility (which some dismissed as conservative or sentimental or nostalgic) can be seen as a defiant assertion of individuality! Ray Davies was never shy about doing that.
You got that right. Well put. 😉
Forever Changes - Love.
Amazing record. Incredible band.
Oh,TROUT MASK REPLICA. My late friend played that one for me. Just remembered it. lol
COVEN - Witchcraft Destroys Minds And Reaps Souls (1969) is really missing here.
There was a band called silver apples,who put out 2 albums in the late 60s..those albums sounded like they could've been done in the 80s
I checked out some Silver Apples cuts. Really cool. Need to pick up a few of those albums.
@@tomrobinson5776 I have a 2LP on 1 CD by silver apples.in my opinion,silver apples was a band years ahead of its time.i was first introduced to silver apples in about 1978,when I was age 8.a friend of my mom's gave me a copy of their self titled debut album,and I was drawn to it right away
I'll tell ya, back from 1966-1971 I felt like a closet Beach Boy fan.. lol All BB albums mentioned were great, like nothing else goin on...took balls in my opinion, they paid for it, unfortunately, but every album is considered classic and fans and critics...great vid
Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends were *not* great albums, and the Beach Boys were badly out of step with the times. Things improved when they and everyone else went back to a more basic rock style at the beginning of the 1970's.
@@mikeymutual5489 That's what I thought. But Wild Honey was better than the other two, possibly their best post-Pet Sounds album.
@@paulgoldstein2569 The best post-Pet Sounds albums have to be 20/20 and Sunflower. It's just not the Beach Boys without their amazing harmonies.
@mikeymutual5489 Not gonna lie, I love Friends. Smiley Smile...not so much.
yeah its a stretch, imagine being 13 and hearing this haha I didnt know what to make of it, especially after Pet Sounds!@@MKE_Mike
Lady Godiva's operation from White Light White Heat has such a lovely melody, but is ignored because of the creepy strange background noises and lyrics. Had it been written with innocuous lyrics and released as a single, it would have been another melodic mega-hit like California Dreaming
The freaks were counterculture though
I really like this kind of video. I don’t have any of these though I used to have the Stooges. But just hearing what you had to say about them was really interesting.
I checked out The Velvet Underground with Nico some years back. I think I should again and the other album too.
Every one of those albums was influential in a big way. They all seemed to get big years later: Stooges led to Punk Rock, along with the Velvet Underground. The Sweetheart of the Rodeo album led to Cosmic Cowboy, then the more commercial Country Rock.
Great selections, but surprised that MC5’s 1969 Kick Out the Jams was omitted?
Almost put it on the list. Great album.
I like the information and background, but here's a question: Why would the Velvet Underground song about heroin be out of step with the Summer of Love? It should have fit right in.
Music From Big Pink by The Band would be excellent on this list
As always I’ve gone away a little more informed. Thx Tom.
Jim Osterberg is still an intellectual
Where is The Band? Bob Dylan's country albums? Creedence Clearwater Revival? There were a lot more bands going against the counterculture ethos by 1968.