Youthful magic

The sixties gave birth to some of the best songwriters of the whole century whose music resonates still today. On my radio show, I limit myself to songwriters in English, but, the interesting thing is that these writers really had more of an impact on world music than Gershwin and Irving Berlin in the half century before. YouTube has Beatles tunes in many other languages to back up my point.

Another facet of the sixties' artists is their willingness even as  songwriters themselves, to do each other's famous songs. [Here are two I played recently:Things we said today from the Beatles movie Hard Day's Night done by Bob Dylan. Then Dylan's If not for you done by George Harrison.]  

One group that were eager to meld music and pop-art into rock were the Who. Their pop-art tune of Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere  is a classic example of how pop music at the time was very anti-establishment and trying to widen its influence. The Who's shows were quite the Happening back then. And if you don't know what a Happening is, then, any written explanation will simply fall flat. As the saying goes, you had to be there.

If you were young and a music lover in the UK in the sixties, your weekend began with Ready, Steady Go. The youth show for quite awhile. Its first theme song was  5-4-3-2-1 from Manfred Mann. It was released as a single and was their first hit. They went on to many more hits. Made great interpretations of Dylan tunes too.

Liverpool was not only home to a great number of groups that found fame in Britain and the rest of the World when the youthful music and joy of the Beatles became a true sociological phenomenon. However, it was not just music that caught our attention. There was a vibrant arts scene there too, specifically poets and poetry readings. When I say they attracted attention, I'm not kidding. One particular group, incorporated poetry and music into their act and have carved out a career as long as the Beatles. It was the Scaffold. They had a number of pop hits and even a No.1 chart hit, Lily the Pink.  The Scaffold consisted of 3 people, Mike McGear, real name Michael McCartney, yes, Paul's brother, John Gorman and Roger McGough. McGough was a poet, who along with Brian Patten and Adrian Henri had a Penguin Modern Poets Volume 10 published to huge success. My friends and I all bought it and read it constantly. Their style was modern and very much sounded like the life we wished to live. It has gone on to become the most successful poetry publication in Penguins long list of poetry books.

Ah, we were full of  bliss under our blue suburban skies. (Thank you Penny Lane.)