The Soundtrack IS the Event of 1966: Music, Movies, and Television That Changed America

***1966 Trips Festival promotional poster designed by Wes Wilson (1937–2020).*** *Widely regarded as the father of the 1960s rock concert poster, Wilson pioneered what became known as the psychedelic poster.*

The brainchild of Ken Kesey, Ramon Sender, and Stewart Brand, the Trips Festival occurred in San Francisco January 21-23, 1966. Around 10,000 people attended the happening. Wes Wilson did the poster. Owsley Stanley ran the sound and brought the LSD. Music was provided by The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and The Holding Company, The Marbles, Jefferson Airplane, The Charlatans, and The Great Society. Eric Christensen documented the event on film. Author Tom Wolfe noted, “The Haight-Ashbury era began that weekend.”

Consider the following two reflections concerning the significance of the year 1966. The first comes from music critic Ian MacDonald: “Anyone unlucky enough not to have been aged 14 and 30 during 1966-67 will never know the excitement of these years in popular culture. A sunny optimism permeated everything and possibilities seemed limitless.” (Revolution in the Head, p. 221.) The second observation comes from John Lennon, arguably the most recognizable individual on the planet in the mid-Sixties. In his final interview before the tragic events of December 8, 1980, Lennon labored to clarify a host of distant Beatle-related memories. Here’s how he responded to one question: “I mean, so much went on at that period that I can’t get the sequence right, you know? It must all have been around the same period… it seems impossible that everything happened in 1966.” (All We Are Saying, David Sheff, p. 154).

Well, perhaps not EVERYTHING… but quite a bit. And quite a bit that proved consequential to the complexion of the 1960’s counterculture.

At the center of this pivotal year sit four iconic albums (LPs) from four influential artists that reflected and reconfigured the course of popular music.

Here is that musical Mt. Rushmore:

Pet Sounds. The Beach Boys.
Released May 16.
Blonde on Blonde. Bob Dylan.
Released June 20.
Fifth Dimension. The Byrds.
Released July 18.
Revolver. The Beatles.
Released Aug 5 (UK) / Aug 8 (USA).

1966 was dense with event. If you’ll pardon my grammar, the title of this piece contends that music IS the events of the year. British rock journalist Jon Savage put it this way in the introduction of his recently (2015) released book titled 1966:

The premise throughout is that music did reflect the world during 1966; that it was connected to events outside the pop culture bubble and was understood to do so by many of its listeners; that there was something more than image and sales at stake. It was a year when audacious ideas and experiments were at a premium in the mass market and in youth culture, with a corresponding backlash from those for whom the rate of change was too quick. The resulting tension was terrific. 1966 was the sixties peak, the year when the decade exploded. (p. xi 1966)

The music of assorted artists, along with a legion of miscellaneous developments in the entertainment industry, should attract our complete attention.
Here goes:

Chronology

January 1: The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel hits #1 on the single charts.
January 8: Single We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper by The Beatles hits #1 on American charts.
January 12: ABC premiers the television show, Batman.
January 17: The LP Sounds of Silence released (Columbia had it as a plural).
January 21-23: The Trips Festival in San Francisco.
February 12: 19th Nervous Breakdown by The Rolling Stones hits the singles charts.
February 19: The Lovin’ Spoonful Daydream released as a single.
February 22: Nancy Sinatra releases These Boots Are Made For Walking single.
February 28: The Mamas & the Papas release their debut LP If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears. Their previously released single, California Dreamin’, hit the charts in January and reached #4 in March. It became the year’s top selling single!
March: The LP Daydream released by Lovin’ Spoonful; Dionne Warwick’s single, Message to Michael.
March 3: Formation of The Buffalo Springfield rock band.
March 4: John Lennon’s interview remark, “we’re more popular than Jesus,” hit a mildly sensitive nerve in Britain but ignited a fire storm when reported in the American press in July.
March 6: Sgt. Barry Sadler’s Ballad of the Green Berets hits #1 on the singles charts.
April 1: Release date of Otis Redding’s The Soul Album.
April 15: The Rolling Stones release LP Aftermath.
April 27: Dedicated Follower of Fashion by The Kinks is released as a single
April 30: Anton LaVey launches The Church of Satan.

April 30: Lovin’ Spoonful release the single Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind.
May: Frank Sinatra scores a huge hit with the song Strangers in the Night.
May 6: Paul Revere and The Raiders release Midnight Ride, their second LP of the year (first one was Just Like Us, released Jan.3). The band will release SIX hit singles in the year!
May 6: The Rolling Stones release the single Paint It Black.
May 7: The song Monday, Monday by the Mamas & the Papas hits #1 on the charts.
May 14: Black activist Stokely Carmichael is elected chairman of SNCC. “Black Power” becomes the new slogan of the Civil Rights Movement.
May 16: The Beach Boys release Pet Sounds. It was their eleventh LP.

May 30: The Beatles release (in the US) the single Paperback Writer/Rain.
June 3: Kinks release Sunny Afternoon (UK) with a July release in USA.
June 13: The Supreme Court announces its ruling in Miranda v. Arizona. One’s rights kick in with ‘custodial interrogation.’
June 16: The television comedy show Rowen & Martin Laugh-In debuts on NBC.
June 20: Dylan’s seventh LP, Blonde on Blonde, is released. (The blurred cover photo intentional).

June 27: Dark Shadows, a daytime soap opera involving vampires, debuts on ABC. Also, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, release LP Freak Out!
June 30: The National Organization of Women (NOW) is founded by Betty Friedan.
July 1: Donovan releases single titled Sunshine Superman (the LP will released in the US in late August).
July 4: The Lovin’ Spoonful release one of the most fondly remembered songs of the year: Summer in the City.
July 11: Simon and Garfunkel’s single I Am a Rock peaks at #3 on the charts.
July 13: Dr. Timothy Leary discusses LSD on The Merv Griffin Show.
July 13: Richard Speck murders eight student nurses in their Chicago dormitory.

July 18: The Byrds release LP Fifth Dimension

July 25: The Supremes release the single You Can’t Hurry Love.
July 29: Bob Dylan injured in a motorcycle accident, quits touring until 1969.
August 1: Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 people and wounds another 31 on the campus of the University of Texas, Austin.
August 3: Stand-up comedian and social satirist Lenny Bruce dies from a drug overdose.
August 5: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is stoned by hecklers during a civil rights march in Chicago; Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby/YellowSubmarine released.
August 8: Revolver, The Beatles’ 7th LP, is released in the US (UK on Aug. 5). Distinctive cover art by Klaus Voormann (can you find him?).

August 12: The Beatles kick off their American tour in Chicago with two shows – and an attempted apology/explanation issued by John Lennon for his controversial Jesus remark. The tour is plagued by troubles throughout—death threats, bomb scares, record burnings etc.
August 18: The Four Tops release single Reach Out I’ll Be There.
August 26: Donovan releases single Season of the Witch.
August 29: The Beatles perform their final live concert in San Francisco at Candlestick Park. No longer a touring band, the Fabs will do the rest in the studio.
September 8: Two new television shows debut: Star Trek (NBC) with its first episode “The Man Trap.”
September 8: That Girl (ABC). Featuring Marlo Thomas in a role later reprised on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
September 12: The Monkees television show premiers on NBC.
September 17: CBS premiers a television show called Mission Impossible.
September 20: George Harrison in Bombay, India, to study sitar with Ravi Shankar.
September 20: The San Francisco Oracle, an underground newspaper of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, makes its official debut.
October 6: California criminalizes LSD (New York and Nevada quickly follow).
October 10: The Beach Boys release single Good Vibrations (which will hit #1 on December 10); Simon & Garfunkel release LP Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme.

October 15: Huey P. Newton/Bobby Seale found the Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA.
October 16: Grace Slick makes her stage debut with the Jefferson Airplane.
October 22: Simon & Garfunkel release single A Hazy Shade of Winter.
October 24: Donovan releases single Mellow Yellow.
October 29: ? and the Mysterians assert the force of “garage bands” claiming the #1 chart spot with the song 96 Tears. Tommy James and The Shondells hit it earlier in July with Hanky Panky (16-30) as did The Troggs with Wild Thing (August 6).
November 8: Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the US Senate since Reconstruction.
November 8: Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California.
November 9: John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at the Indica Gallery in London.
November 12: First in a series of street riots between the police and young people along the Sunset Strip. New curfew laws and the closing of popular clubs (such as Pandora’s Box) ignites violence and allegations of police brutality, also inspires Stephen Stills to write the iconic song For What It’s Worth.
November 24: The Beatles begin work on their next studio album. The first track of the“Sgt. Pepper” sessions is Lennon’s Strawberry Fields Forever.
November 25: Jimi Hendrix debuts at the Bag O’Nails Club in London.
November 25: Life Magazine’s cover “A Matter of Reasonable Doubt” raises questions about the Warren Commission’s findings concerning the Kennedy assassination.
November 28: Paul Revere and The Raiders release LP TheSpirit of ’67 (their third LP of the year).

December 16: Jimi Hendrix releases his first single, Hey Joe.
December 17: The Diggers stage a “Death to Money” parade through the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. The Berkeley Barb encourages attendees to “wear fuzz repellent clothing.”
December 18: How the Grinch Stole Christmas debuted on CBS.
December 23: The Buffalo Springfield released For What It’s Worth, a single inspired by the Sunset Strip riots of the previous month.
December 29: Beatles in the studio working on a new song, Penny Lane.
December 31: I’m A Believer, a single by The Monkees, released on November 12, reaches #1 on the American charts.

***Here’s Mike, Micky, Davy, and Peter.***

***Here’s me—looking all sullen—in Fifth Grade*** *(second row, second from the left in vest sweater).*

Top Films of 1966

January 16: Our Man Flint
May 25: The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
June 15: The Endless Summer
June 21: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
July 20: The Wild Angels. Trouble makers on motorcycles.
July 29: Lt. Robin Crusoe. A Walt Disney classic
August 24: Alfie
August 24: Fantastic Voyage. A ride through one’s circulatory system.
September 28: The Bible: In The Beginning—#1 film of the year
October 17: Georgy Girl
December 12: A Man for All Seasons. When Sir Thomas More’s courage was admired.
December 18: Blow-Up
December 20: The Sand Pebbles
December 21: Grand Prix
December 23: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly