‘Revolution in the Head’: How the Beatles and Bob Dylan made the 1960s

Reform, Revolt and ReactionLecture Fourteen, Term 2 Week 7

Billie Holiday, ‘Strange Fruit’ (1939)

• Always played as the last song of her set at Café Society

• Considered too controversial to release by Columbia – recorded by Commodore instead

Josh White

• ‘Trouble’, Chain Gang (1940)

• ‘Uncle Sam Says’, Southern Exposure: An Album of Jim Crow Blues (1941)

• First African American to give a White House Command Performance (1941)

Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers

• Guthrie, ‘Talking Dust Bowl Blues’ (1940)

• Guthrie, ‘This Land Is Your Land’ (1944)

• Almanacs, Songs For John Doe (1941)

• Almanacs, Talking Union and Other Union Songs (1941)

• Almanacs, Dear Mr President (1942)

Old Man Atom (Atomic Talking Blues)

• Vern Partlow (1945)• Sam Hinton (1950)• Ozzie Waters (1950)• The Sons of the

Pioneers (1950)

Pete Seeger• ‘Where Have all the

Flowers Gone’ ([1955] 1961)

• ‘If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)’ (1949): Peter Paul and Mary (1962)

• ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ (1959): The Byrds (1965)

• ‘Waist Deep in the Big Muddy’ (1967)

Bob Dylan• ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’

(1962)• ‘Masters of War’ (1963)• ‘Oxford Town’ (1963)• ‘The Death of Emmett

Till’ (1963)• ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna

Fall’ (1963)• ‘Only A Pawn in Their

Game’ (1963)• ‘The Times They Are A-

Changin’’ (1964)

Phil Ochs, ‘I Ain’t Marching Anymore’ (1964)

Joan Baez, ‘We Shall Overcome’

• Had relationship with Dylan

• Sang ‘We Shall Overcome’ at the March on Washington (1963)

Sam Cooke, ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ (1964)

Nina Simone

• ‘Mississippi Goddam’ (1964)

• ‘To Be Young, Gifted and Black’ (1970)

James Brown

• ‘Say it Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud’ (1968)

• ‘I don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I’ll Get it Myself) (1969)

Sly and the Family Stone

• Stand! (1969)– ‘Everyday People’– ‘Don’t Call Me Nigger,

Whitey’• There’s a Riot Goin’ On

(1971)

Sgt. Barry Sadler, ‘Ballad of the Green Berets’ (1966)

Country Joe & The Fish, ‘The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag’ (1967)

The Beatles

• ‘All You Need Is Love’ (1967)• ‘Revolution’ (1968)• Lennon, ‘Give Peace a Chance’ (1970)

The Manson Murders and ‘Helter Skelter’ (1968)

“Look out… Helter Skelter… She’s coming down fast… Yes she is”

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, ‘Ohio’ (1970)

Marvin Gaye, ‘What’s Going On’ (1971)

Helen Reddy, ‘I am Woman’ (1972)

Key Questions to Consider…

• What is a ‘protest song’?• Did artists lead protests or just reflect on the

times?• How did popular music change (and change

in) the 1960s?• How was music interpreted by the listeners?• How important are Bob Dylan and the Beatles

to understanding the 1960s?