When I was in high school I romanticized about living in the 1960s with rose-colored glasses. It was a bold and wild time where an inspired generation of youth was emboldened to take the down the corrupt establishment and replace with it a utopia of peace and love. Social unrest, protesting a disastrous war they didn't believe in, some of the greatest works of art ever created, the 1960s was one of the most incredible eras in American history.
That was until I realized how similar they are to today.
There's a reason they say "be careful what you wished for", because like the 1960s, America is in a state of social unrest, corrupt institutions, and a generation gap. A generation advocating for tolerance and acceptance gets shot down and mocked.
They were Hippies, We're Hipsters.
They had an inspiring leader in JFK, we had an inspiring leader in Obama
They had a corrupt figure in Nixon, we have a corrupt figure who makes Nixon look like Lincoln.
Raising a fist during the national anthem for the Olympics? How about kneeling during an NFL game?
Watergate? How about Kremlin-Russia-Cambridge Analitica-Facebook-StormyGate?!
And that's when I realized that the great artists of the 60s didn't make great music just because they were talented. They made great music and great song lyrics because it came from a source of pain and despair. Disgust and horror at injustices combined with optimism and hope for a world of peace.
These artists weren't celebrated during their prime the way they are now. They we're scorn, mocked, and criticized by the system and establishments that they themselves criticized. They didn't get rich off of it until the system changed and then became universally recognized because of it.
Those times are back. And they suck. Hopefully, future generations will look at the heroes and martyrs of this day and age the way we look back at ones from those bleak times.
When I listened to the music of the 60s and 70s, I got joy and excitement as I was transported back to what I thought was the purest and best era in the history of recorded music. When I listen to those songs now I get something different: Catharsis, brooding emotions, and pondering philosophy. It's both escapist entertainment and a learning session on society and American state of mind in turmoil.
If you're a fan of classic music from the peak age of rock or are curious to check them out, here are 13 songs from those days that resonate today.
1. "The Times Are A Changin" - Bob Dylan (1964)
"Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'."
There's a reason Bob Dylan is considered the greatest songwriter of all-time. His creative and philosophical lyrics are timeless and tell powerful modern day folk tales.
This acoustic song foreshadows the rapid movements and cultural shifts that had begun to take place in America at the time. He advises people of the old generation that their old ways are ending and make way for a more understanding and different-thinking generation of youth.
2. "What's Goin On" - Marvin Gaye (1971)
"Picket lines,
and picket signs,
don't punish me
with brutality."
Before Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor made his name into an adjective, Marvin Gaye was the voice of a generation and one of the most talented singers to ever cross the earth.
It's almost painful to hear these words decades later knowing that the wicked seed of racism and police brutality hasn't been excoriated from the earth. But Gaye's voice still inspires hope for a better world.
Rolling Stone Magazine ranked "What's Going On" as the 4th greatest song of all-time.
3. "Gimme Shelter" - The Rolling Stones (1969)
"War, children, is just a shot away, it's just a shot away!"
I saw The Rolling Stones concert in Dublin and the climax of the show was their epic "Gimmie Shelter". The song is as powerful and resonate as it was in 1969.
Mick Jagger's lyrics recreate vivid images that echo the Vietnam War and the chaos around it. Keith Richards guitar on the song might be his best ever (which is saying something.)
And singer Merry Clayton's vocal solo in the middle makes the hair rise on your skin.
4. "Revolution" - The Beatles (1968)
"You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead"
No band defined an era quite like The Beatles. Their evolution as a band coincided with the evolution of culture in the 1960s. From the clean cut, straight arrow group in suits playing on Ed Sullivan in black-and-white to singing All You Need Is Love live on color television is colorful and hippie-inspired outfits just three years later.
Revolution was one of their boldest and loudest songs and it (along with Helter Skelter) foreshadowed the eventual birth of Heavy Metal. (SLAYYYYYER!)
Revolution is about well, Revolution and poking holes at the establishments that try to stall the inevitability of change.
5. "My Generation" - The Who (1965)
"People try to put us down, just because we get around.
Things they do go awful cold. Hope I die before I get old."
Before they were the theme of CSI: Miami, The Who were one of the biggest rock bands to ever come from the UK.
The song sounds tame now, but in 1965 it was edgy as edgy can be, with singer Roger Daltrey teasing the audience by almost saying the F word.
6. "Respect" - Arethra Franklin
"All I'm askin'
Is for a little respect (just a little bit)
Hey baby (just a little bit) when you get home
(just a little bit) mister (just a little bit)"
The 60s and 70s were a second wave of feminism, today were in a third wave of feminism. Both movements ask for the same thing: a little respect.
Franklin's most iconic song was actually written by singer Otis Taylor. It's not only a feminist anthem, it's an anthem for everyone who just wants some....you know...
7. "Blowin in The Wind" - Bob Dylan
"How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?"
Bob Dylan is so iconic to the music of the 60s that he has to be on this list twice.
Blowin' in The Wind is another deep and powerful tune about society's willing to deny the oppression and segregation that's right in front of them.
What will it take for them to finally see the wrongs and injustices in front of them?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind...
8. "A Change Is Gonna Come" - Sam Cooke (1964)
"There have been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on"
This might be the definitive song of the Civil Rights movement. Sam Cooke was inspired to write "A Change is Gonna Come" after being turned away from a "Whites-Only" motel in Louisiana. It doesn't have the heavy rock of the later 60s and 70s song but is full of soul and passion.
As this music video shows, it has translated well throughout the past 50 years.
9. "Sittin on The Dock of The Bay" - Otis Redding (1967)
"Looks like nothin's gonna change
Everything seems to stay the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same"
As active and vicious you'd wanna be in the struggle for rights, sometimes you just wanna sit on the dock of the bay.
I don't really know if that's what it's about, but it's how I interpret it to be like that.
As much as you want to fight and resist, the human mind and body can only endure so much. Humans were not designed to put their minds on a high level constantly, and at the end of the day you just wanna rest and get away from it all.
10. "Changes" - David Bowie (1973)
"Turn and face the strange ch-ch-ch-changes"
Things have been changing rapidly every day the past few years and boy are they strange.
Like a lot of these songs, Changes is universal towards the generation gap and constant changes in culture.
Another lyric from this song is used in another movie that tackles the spirit of troubled youth in The Breakfast Club:
"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through"
11. "Street Fightin Man" - The Rolling Stones (1968)
"Hey! Said my name is called disturbance
I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king, I'll rail at all his servants"
The Rolling Stones are on this list with Street Fightin Man which vibrantly captures the chaos and riots on the streets during the 1960s that protested segregation and the Vietnam War.
12. "Us & Them" - Pink Floyd (1973)
"Us and them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows
It's not what we would choose to do"
Last year, I saw Roger Waters live at the Wells Fargo center in the most spectacular and cathartic show I have ever seen. His production managed to create giant screens to plaster images of corrupt politicians (mostly Trump). He called it the "Us & Them Tour", the name of one of the great songs off of Pink Floyd's masterpiece album "The Dark Side of The Moon"
Pink Floyd maybe more experimental in the music, but the lyrics take a deep perspective as to how different races and cultures fight each other, to the point of forgetting what they're fight over in the first place.
13. "Imagine" - John Lennon (1971)
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
If you don't know the lyrics by now, you're not a fan of music.
John Lennon's Imagine is as simple and timeless as any song of the era, but still it asks us one small yet huge task: Imagine.
It's a kind of song that connects generation to generation yet means one thing to someone and something else to another.
The lyrics seem plain yet have many hidden layers.
The answers appear right in front of us and yet we just can't grasp them sometimes.
That is art, that is humanity, that is life.
