1967 began with a bang when The Doors released their self-titled debut album on 4 January. It was a fitting start for a year filled with psychedelic music that differed radically from what had been heard before. It would have been an incredible feat to release something like The End only a couple of years earlier - in fact, it was pretty incredible even now. Since I was only three and a half years old at the time, it comes as no surprise that my favorite track on the album was Alabama Song, which has a somewhat children's song feel to it even though the lyrics are anything but childish.
1967 was, however, the year of the Beatles. The unbelievably popular British group had already started to record their masterpiece Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band towards the end of 1966. That album wouldn't come out until early summer, but in the interim, they released a double A-side single that was already on par with it. The release date was 13 February.
Neither Penny Lane nor Strawberry Fields Forever were eventually included in Sgt. Pepper, but in any case I could easily understand why the group couldn't decide which one to call side A. Both would have been among the best tracks of Sgt. Pepper as well. Personally, I have always preferred Strawberry Fields Forever with is slightly off-kilter, unreal soundscape. Which I guess is an early indication of my tendency to like music that sounds at least a little strange. Here is an "official video", done precisely in the style of the era. Most likely this is taken from Magical Mystery Tour, which I have never seen.
Another British band that would soon achieve greatness started its recording career on 10 March. Pink Floyd's debut single Arnold Layne is not really one of my favorites but deserves to be mentioned as a milestone. The band seemed to also think that their first single wasn't that exceptional, since they decided to leave it out of their debut album which would come out five months later.
1 June is then the memorable date when the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper was released and went on to make rock history. The most celebrated album of the supergroup's career, it really turned psychedelia into a mainstream phenomenon. I had turned four years old a week and a half earlier, and was nowhere near as impressed as the rest of the world. Yet even I had to admit that Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, She's Leaving Home and A Day in the Life were pretty decent songs.
Only a couple of weeks later, on 16 June Pink Floyd released their sophomore single See Emily Play which became the first early warning that something truly exceptional would be coming later on. Summer of love was now well on its way, and this catchy song was on a quite different level than the more easily forgettable Arnold Layne. I suppose I must have hummed to the tune while I was learning to ride my bike - more about that a little later.
Three days prior to See Emily Play's release, the new James Bond movie You Only Live Twice premiered in the U.K. and the U.S. This was the first chance to hear one of the most classic Bond film theme songs, sung by Nancy Sinatra. A soundtrack album came out the following month. A magnificient piece of music that I also liked immediately.
And then came 4 August, the date when one of the most impressive debut albums ever was released. Pink Floyd's endlessly inventive The Piper at the Gates of Dawn seemed to be heralding a new era and was quite obviously years ahead of its time. I have come to realize that exceptional albums like this one need a more extensive coverage than I can fit here, so let's skip this album for now and dedicate the next blog entry entirely to it. Suffice to say that this was not only the best album of the year but the entire decade.
I intentionally skipped Procol Harum's mega hit single A Whiter Shade of Pale that was released already on 12 May. I have always thought it to be too simplistic to be particularly interesting. But as the group's self titled debut album was released in September, they started showing some promise with that album's opening track Conquistador, and even more so when the next single came out in October. It was called Homburg, and was impressive enough for me to start paying attention.
Towards the end of the year, there were some additional interesting single and album releases. The British group the Moody Blues released their second full length album Days of Future Passed on 10 November. This album saw an interesting fusion of classical elements with then contemporary pop music, the pinnacle being the classic Nights in White Satin. The video above may seem a bit silly but this was how pop songs were marketed back then.
Two weeks later, the Beatles released another single called Hello Goodbye, which was a sort of a prologue to their next album release, out on 27 November. Magical Mystery Tour was based on a film of the same title and contained several songs that had been published as singles at an earlier date. Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever and Hello Goodbye were all included. Other classic Beatles songs on the album were the title track and The Fool on the Hill.
At the end of the year, there were a couple of releases that would grow in significance later on. Both were released immediately after Christmas, on 27 December. Bob Dylan, who was already an icon, released a new album called John Wesley Harding. That album contained a song called All Along the Watchtower, which became a classic later on when it was recorded by another artist. We will definitely get back to it when we reach that point in time.
The second significant release to immediately follow Christmas was the debut album of Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen, called simply The Songs of Leonard Cohen. The album got only a limited release at this point. A wide release followed in February 1968, which is why the album and its classic song Suzanne are usually associated with that year rather than 1967. But the truth is that the original release took place a few days before 1968, so we will also include it here and close our blog entry with it.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
Pink Floyd: Interstellar Overdrive
Pink Floyd: Bike
Before moving on to 1968, the next blog entry will be solely dedicated to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
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