1967 - Summer of Love, Beatles, and the Zodiac

There's been a bit of hoopla over the 40th anniversary of the release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album... and it is worthy of hoopla! It was an absolutely groundbreaking masterpiece that has had volumes written over it. There's not much commentary that I can add to that mountain of work. The 60s were an incredible time for music, and when I looked up the wiki entry on 1967 music, it was amazing to go over the list of musical events for the year. So many of these things were (in the long run) every bit as groundbreaking as Sgt. Pepper's.

These artists started their musical careers and/or released their first album:

Toots & the Maytals (released one of the first reggae songs. I understand that Toots was responsible for that music style being called "reggae")
Sly & the Family Stone (maybe the best live dance band ever)
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico* (with the peelable banana). I loved this record. And I loved Nico. I didn't know this before, but she rehabbed from being a heroin addict, got into a healthy lifestyle, but then died after a bicycle accident that was caused by a mild heart attack.
Procol Harum - Procol Harum
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?*
The Doors - The Doors*
Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield* (with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Neil Young as members)
The Grateful Dead - The Grateful Dead
Moby Grape - Moby Grape*
Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant*
Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Cream - Disraeli Gears*
David Bowie - David Bowie

Notable releases:

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow and After Bathing at Baxter's*
The Moody Blues (re-formed and late in the year released Days of Future Passed*, the first real melding of rock and symphony, also arguably the first prog record).
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour*
Love - Da Capo* and Forever Changes.
Cosmic Sounds - The Zodiac* (several artists, including members of The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix have given a nod of influence toward this trippy concept album, which bears the instruction: "Must be played in the dark".)

*we wore these records completely out!!

More 1967 events and trivia:

The Beatles in 1967 -- admitted that they had dropped acid. Later in the year their manager, Brian Epstein, died while they were with the Maharishi.

Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar for the first time. He was on tour with The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdinck. Hendrix, later in the year, was nixed from a support tour of The Monkees after complaints from the conservative Daughters of the American Revolution. Hendrix's manager Chas Chandler later admitted it was all for outrage publicity. Interesting term: "outrage publicity".

Rolling Stone Magazine came out in 1967. I had most of the first several years of issues (it's that old "packrat" gene -- always thinking that things are going to be valuable later -- then there's the "lack of good sense" gene that makes me get rid of stuff at rock-bottom rates when I should have held on to them. Those things WERE valuable).

The Monterey International Pop Festival happened -- the first rock festival, and the "birth" of all rock festivals of its kind. The Rolling Stone's Altamont show in 1969 is considered to be the final death-knell for rock festivals of the "outlaw" variety. Nowadays they work and are profitable but are a very corporate production. Not the same animals at all.

The Monkees were the best selling group of 1967, outselling the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined.

Tags: Music - 1967 - Beatles - Monkees - Hendrix - Sgt. Pepper - Zodiac