1967: One-Hit Wonder Version

The Music Explosion: Little Bit O' Soul

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The Soul Survivors: Expressway To Your Heart

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The Five Americans: Western Union

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The Chambers Brothers: Time Has Come Today

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I agree with Darius: the music from 1967 made a huge impact on me. I was old enough to really start to "get" it, I think, and spent a lot of hours listening to the radio, mostly.

Dozens of hugely influential albums were released in 1967, and this post would be pages long if I even tried to touch on half of them. The Beatles released both Sgt. Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour, The Doors had a double header, too, with The Doors and Strange Days, as did Jimi Hendrix with Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love. Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, The Who, Velvet Underground, Big Brother and the Holding Company…

I can't pick even a single song from these terrific albums without feeling overwhelmed. Instead, I'm going for one hit wonders, but ones that I particularly am fond of. It makes me want to dig out my Nehru dress and granny glasses! Groovy, man.

1967: Ha! Ha! Said The Clown

Manfred Mann: Ha! Ha! Said The Clown

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This was one of my mother’s records (I still have it, with the sleeve pictured above). She had a few singles I loved when I was a little lad of four, five, six. Gilbert Bécaud’s “Natalie” was another. The Peels “Juanita Banana”. Jane Birkin’s orgasm feast (my mom either didn’t know or didn’t care that I was playing it; not that I would have known why the lady was making these funny noises). Al Martino’s “Spanish Eyes”. Chris Andrews’ “Pretty Belinda”. And, of course, all manner of German stuff, what with us being Germans. But “Ha! Ha! Said The Clown” was my favourite.

Of course a small kid will be attracted by the idea of a song about clowns, especially laughing ones (the kid need not be aware that the protagonist wanted to bang the wife of the clown). But two other things attracted me to the record: the cover, with a rather cute little girl, and the Fontana label, with the record company’s rather excellent logo. I had an interest in record labels as soon as my love affair with vinyl began. And the Fontana one appealed to me greatly. I loved all black labels, it seems (though on the UK release, the label is blue). The song itself is brilliant; it features the flute, whistling and a bass drum!

1967: White Summer

The Yardbirds (Jimmy Page): White Summer

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The British blues-rock group The Yardbirds launched the careers of three terrific guitarists: Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page. For the longest time, I had mistaken this instrumental tune for a Jeff Beck song, and couldn't ever find it again as a result. But after decades, I learned the truth and now can share it properly.

Based on the Celtic melody of "She Moved Thro' The Fair", Page blended his arrangement with an Indian raga, which was a popular genre in 1967 (The Beatles were doing the same; for example, Baby, You're a Rich Man; Eric Burden, too, with When I Was Young). It first appears as a Yardbirds tune on their final LP, Little Games, but Page often played it live with Black Mountain Side during his Led Zeppelin days.

1967: The Supernatural

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers: The Supernatural

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I grew up in a small town. The only merchant in town was a general store that did not sell records. The nearest town of any size was five miles away. And, in 1967, I was seven years old. Yet, I heard many of the newest rock albums the day they were released. How? My oldest brother was twelve, and that nearby town had a Woolworth’s that sold records. They were very inexpensive by today’s standards, even adjusting for inflation. And my brother had a talent for begging my mother to take him into town the day the new albums came out. So I was naturally steeped in the blues-rock of the day, especially what was coming out of England. But not John Mayall. The music of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers was something I had to go back for years later.

As 1967 dawned, Eric Clapton had left the Bluesbreakers for Cream. His replacement was Peter Green. In addition to Mayall, the other long term member of the band was bass player John McVie. Drummer Mick Fleetwood did not play on Mayall’s new album, A Hard Road, but Fleetwood did play on some of the sessions that were discarded, and he also played some live dates with the group. The Supernatural was one song that Peter Green wrote for the Bluesbreakers, and it may sound familiar. By 1969, Green and McVie would leave the Bluesbreakers to form Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood and Jeremy Spencer. Green would rework The Supernatural, adding lyrics and vocals, and tweaking the instrumental part. The result was Black Magic Woman.

War and Memory: Children’s Crusade

Sting: Children‘s Crusade

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I can’t say that I know all of the reasons this was such a slow week here, but I do know one reason. Our own Boyhowdy lives in Monson MA, which you may know was hit by a tornado on Friday. He and his family are fine now. Boyhowdy responded to this disaster in heroic fashion, with some of his best writing and by sharing music on his own blog, Cover Lay Down. I know our readers will wish him this best as Monson struggles to regain a sense of normalcy. And I know that I can speak for my fellow Star Makers in adding our best wishes to those.

Meanwhile, I do have one last song for our War and Memory theme. Children’s Crusade is Sting’s take on World War I, a subject Geovicki spoke of so eloquently in her last post. The Great War, as it was called, has left a deep scar on Western culture, particularly in Europe. About 70 years later, Sting is still writing a song about it. Sting equates the loss of young lives in the war to the legendary “children’s crusade” of 1212. According to the legend, tens of thousands of children responded to the visions of a young boy by committing to a journey to the Holy Land to peacefully convert Muslims to Christianity. They marched to the Mediterranean Sea, where they were taken by two unscrupulous sea captains to Tunisia, and sold as slaves. End of Story. So it plays out as a tale of a sacrifice of Holy Innocents, and that is the parallel that Sting wants to draw. That is also what the references to slavery in the lyrics are about.

War and Memory: And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Eric Bogle: And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

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World War 1 was one of the first modern wars, with its reliance on twentieth-century technology such as machine guns, chemical gases, tanks, telephones and wireless communication, and airplanes. All of the world's great powers of the day were involved, with over 70 million military personnel (including my grandfather). Nine million were killed and many more wounded, like the soldier in this song.

This song, written by Scottish-Australian Eric Bogle in 1971, describes the horror of the Battle of Gallipoli (Turkey), where the combined Australian, New Zealand, and British army suffered a bloody defeat by the Turks. It's a descriptive and bitter recollection of the battle, its cost in human life, and the ultimate pointlessness of war.