I catalog my music chronologically, so I can see what things were happening simultaneously. 1966 is a particularly fascinating year. Blues originals from the 1930s and older such as Johnny Shines, who had hoofed around the south with Robert Johnson back in the day, were still active. Frank Sinatra released four landmark albums, at least two of which rank among his best work. Jazz giants roamed the earth, and San Francisco was coming alive to the birth of the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service Big Brother and the Holding Company, and others.
The Beatles released Revolver; the Beach Boys, Pet Sounds. Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record Blonde on Blonde. He may have bumped into a young songwriter trying to make it as a performer named Willie Nelson, who would soon grow disgusted by the whole “country-politan” scene and decamp for his native Texas to reinvent himself.
The corporatized music industry continued its marketeering of “folk rock” from both coasts with new albums by Simon and Garfunkel and the Byrds, and introducing new groups like the Mamas and the Papas, Buffalo Springfield, the Lovin’ Spoonful– many of whom had shuffled among various groups with each other in New York and LA (as John Phillips chronicled in the quasi-documentary song “Creeque Alley”.)
In England, the Who and John Mayall with Eric Clapton were pushing the limits of what R&B could be. “Those English boys want to play the blues so bad,” said Muddy Waters after touring England around that time. “And that’s just what they do: play the blues so bad.”
One could argue that just about every genre was at a peak of creativity. It really was a diverse pallete. Behold:
January
Simon and Garfunkel – The Sounds of Silence
February
The Mamas and the Papas – If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Your Ears!
March
Frank Sinatra – Moonlight Sinatra
April
The Rolling Stones – Aftermath
Big Mama Thornton – Live with the Muddy Waters Blues Band
May
The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Bob Dylan – Live at the Royal Albert Hall (Bootleg Series Vol. 4, 1998)
Frank Sinatra – Strangers in the Night
June
Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
Johnny Shines – Masters of Modern Blues
Dave Brubeck – Time In
July
Jon Mayall – Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton
The Byrds – Fifth Dimension
Mississippi John Hurt – Last Sessions
Frank Sinatra – Live at the Sands with Count Basie and His Orchestra
Big Brother and the Holding Company – Cheaper Thrills (released 1984)
Grateful Dead live at the Fillmore Auditorium 7/16/66 (bootleg)
August
The Beatles – Revolver
The Mamas & The Papas – The Mamas & The Papas
September
Quicksilver Messenger Service – Live at the Avalon Ballroom 9/9/66
October
Françoise Hardy – La Maison où J’ai Grande
Simon and Garfunkel – Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme
John Lee Hooker – The Real Folk Blues
The Temptations- Live!
November
The Lovin’ Spoonful – Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful
Percy Humphrey’s Hot Six
December
The Who – A Quick One
Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield
Frank Sinatra – That’s Life
Ennio Morricone – The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly [soundtrack]
month unknown:
Willie Nelson – Country Favorites, Willie Nelson Style
Sammy Davis Jr. & Buddy Rich – Sounds of ’66
Mississippi John Hurt – Today!
The following artists died that year:
Mississippi John Hurt (1898-1966)
Helen Kane (1904-1966)
Bud Powell (1924-1966)
and the following were born:
Cecila Bartolli
Darius Rucker
Todd Snider
Maybe it only appears this way because its my own collection, but I can’t help but notice how rooted in the blues everything is. The Spoonful, The Stones…all spoke the same basic language as John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton. The Dead were still musically being led by Pigpen, so they were still more of a blues band, like most of the SF bands— it would be another 12-18 months before psychedellia took the wheel. And the generation gap was also not yet apparent — Sinatra & Sammy were in full Nehru jacket & Indian beads mode, and could easily have been spotted at the Cafe A Go-Go with Mama Cass and Stephen Stills.
All of which is to say there was something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear, a surprisingly unified music scene brimming with energy, but it was potential energy rather than kinetic. 1967 would be the year things began to crack open.
