Starr-Waterman

American Popular Music

Chapter 10: “Blowin’ in the Wind”: Country, Soul, Urban Folk, and the Rise of Rock, 1960s
Lecture Outline

I. Country, Soul, Urban Folk, and the Rise of Rock, 1960s

a. Popular music that did not cross over to the mainstream
i. Artists and records that appealed to select or regional audiences less likely
to find their way onto the pop charts
1. Weight given to chart data—data reflects divisions among markets
and audiences for popular music
a. Counterculture: subculture existing in opposition to and
espousing values contrary to those of the dominant culture
ii. Country music of the 1960s: wider impact than generally acknowledged
1. Younger country artists: updated the sound of their honky-tonk
roots
a. Countrypolitan: fusion of “country” and “cosmopolitan”
II. Patsy Cline and the Nashville Sound
a. Patsy Cline (1932‒1963): crossover success in country and pop
i. “Walkin’ after Midnight” (1957): indicative of her future achievements
ii. Big hits: “I Fall to Pieces” and “Crazy” (1961) were ballads of broad
appeal; sophisticated in phrasing and articulation, but had sufficient hints
of rural and bluesy inflections to show where her roots lay
1. Crooning background voices—pop sheen
2. High register piano—honky-tonk origins
b. Nashville Sound of the early 1960s
i. Jim Reeves and Floyd Cramer—elements similar to that which made
Cline’s records successful
ii. Impact of Nashville sound on 1960s pop:
1. Connie Francis and Brenda Lee—popular female vocalists of the
early 1960s; depended on rock ‘n’ roll audience for their reputation
and record sales
2. Elvis Presley—records from 1960 on—increasingly eclectic set of
influences, but Nashville Sound is prominent
a. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (1961) and “Crying in the
Chapel” (1965)
3. Influence extended into rhythm & blues
a. Solomon Burke: sound like country records performed by a
black vocalist
b. Charley Pride: African American who set out to appeal
principally to a country audience
c. Synthesis of country and rhythm & blues elements—
achieved by Ray Charles
III. Ray Charles and Soul Music
a. Ray Charles (1930‒2004): born Ray Charles Robinson, was a constant presence
on the rhythm & blues charts during the 1950s; crossover success began in 1959
i. Never interested in being typecast as a rock ‘n’ roller, and did not
consciously address his recordings to the teen market
ii. Established himself as a mass-market artist with the blues-based and
gospel drenched “What’d I Say” (1959)
iii. “Georgia on My Mind” was his first number one pop hit
iv. Astounding range of talents: fine songwriter, skilled arranger, excellent
keyboard player fluent in jazz as well as pop idioms, outstanding vocalist
with a distinctive timbre
v. “I’ve Got a Woman” (1954): secular song based on gospel models
1. No one before Charles had brought the sacred and secular idioms
into such a direct and intimate relationship
vi. “Hallelujah I Love Her So” (1956): expressed the connection in the song’s
title
vii. “soul music” would not enter the common vocabulary until the late 1960s,
but was the genre Ray Charles was pioneering in his gospel-blues of the
1950s
1. Now widely acknowledged as the first soul artist
2. Influence on James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Otis
Redding, Sly Stone, and others
b. “Georgia on My Mind” did not attempt to turn the Tin Pan Alley standard into a
rhythm & blues song, or become a crooner, or use the jump-band group that
backed him on his earlier records; sumptuous arrangement including orchestral
strings and accompanying chorus; elaborate and unrestrained sentiment
i. Sang as if he were performing deeply personal blues
1. Rough-edged vocal timbre, constant syncopations, added shakes,
moans, other improvised touches
2. Occasionally provided jazz-based fills in the piano part between
vocal phrases to evoke call-and-response
ii. Virtually reinvented the song for a new generation of listeners
1. Named the state song of Georgia in 1979
c. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962): concept album
i. Milestone in the history of American popular music
ii. Enlarged his audience further, despite derisive label by record company as
“Ray’s Folly”
iii. Every song transformed from its origins into something rich and strange
iv. Tapestry of stylistic and historical associations
v. “I Can’t Stop Loving You” merges country, Tin Pan Alley, gospel, blues,
and even jazz piano
d. Country-oriented records did well on both pop and rhythm & blues charts, but
did not register on the country charts
IV. Sam Cooke, the “King of Soul”
a. Sam Cooke (1931‒1964) one of soul music’s pioneers
i. Began his career as a gospel singer
ii. Began to explore secular music, initially recording under a pseudonym,
concerned that his gospel music audience would question the sincerity of
his Christian beliefs if they found out he was also singing non-religious
music
1. Chose secular music, and the gospel community never accepted
him again
iii. Combined the influences of pop and gospel music
iv. “A Change is Gonna Come”—response to “Blowin’ in the Wind”—
Cooke’s most political song
1. Career set the stage for later expressions of politics in soul and
rock music
2. Devotion to the African American community—admiration for
Malcom X and friendship with Muhammad Ali
3. Took great pains to control every aspect of his career—approach
that was highly unusual for an African American artist in the late
50s and early 60s
V. Listening Guide: “You Send Me” and “A Change is Gonna Come”
a. “You Send Me,” written and performed by Sam Cooke; recorded 1957
i. Produced by Robert “Bumps” Blackwell; decision to use a white vocal
group as backing
1. Recorded with a different label; song at the top of both pop and
R&B charts
ii. Designed to appeal to a broad audience
1. Classic AABA form distinguished by Cooke’s voice and
personality
b. “A Change is Gonna Come,” written and performed by Sam Cooke; recorded
1964
i. Regarded as Sam Cooke’s greatest song
ii. Single released a few weeks after Cooke’s death
iii. Inspired by Bob Dylan’s song “Blowin’ in the Wind” and Cooke’s
experiences while on tour
1. Verses resonate with Cooke’s first-hand experience of racial
discrimination
VI. James Brown and Aretha Franklin
a. Soul music in the 1960s: James Brown and Aretha Franklin representative of the
style
b. James Brown (1933‒2006)
i. First record, “Please, Please, Please” (1956)—repetitions of individual
words so that activity of an entire strophe centers on the syncopated,
violently accented reiterations of a single syllable
 ii. Later abandoned structures of 1950s R&B behind and abandoned chord
changes entirely in many of his pieces
iii. Music that focused almost exclusively on the play of rhythm and timbre,
in the instrumental parts as well as in the vocal
iv. “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud” (1968): pares vocal down to
highly rhythmic speech backed by a harmonically static but rhythmically
active accompaniment
1. Term rap not used for another decade, but anticipates important
black music to come
2. Led black musicians in assuming a role comparable to the folk-
rock singers who presented themselves as spokespeople for the
political and social concerns of their generation
a. Brown led black musicians in the unrest and instability
following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther
King, Jr.
i. Not seen merely as an entertainer but an essential
contributor to and articulator of African American
life and experience
v. Influence on the sound and style of black music
1. Repetitive, riff-based instrumental style, which elevated rhythm far
above harmony as the primary source of interest—provided the
foundation on which most dance-oriented music of the period
2. Records are sampled by hip-hop artists more than any other
musician
3. Focus on rhythm and timbre—interlocking polyrhythms
a. Minimization or elimination of chord changes and de-
emphasis on harmony—less “Western” in orientation
vi. Relationship to “minimalist” music of avant-garde “art music” composers
such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich
vii. Medleys: songs strung directly together without dropping a beat to
produce a cumulative effect of steadily mounting excitement
viii. Live albums: excelled in live performance and recorded Live at the Apollo
in 1962
c. Aretha Franklin (b. 1942)
i. Breakthrough as a pop star in 1967
1. Recorded with Columbia Records from 1960‒1966
2. Atlantic Records: indie label with R&B success
3. “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” (1967):
extraordinary and virtually interrupted stream of hit records over a
five-year period
a. Resurgence in the mid-1980s of her popularity
b. Continued iconic status; sang at the inauguration of
President Barak Obama in 2009
 ii. Grew up with gospel music; her father was a pastor and gospel singer
1. First recordings at the age of 14 were as a gospel singer
2. Recorded a gospel album, Amazing Grace (1972); introduced pop
music fans to gospel
iii. Power and intensity of vocal delivery
1. Civil rights and black power movements at their heights; women’s
empowerment in its initial stirrings
2. Franklin did not become a political figure in the way that James
Brown did but made political and social statements through the
character of her performances
iv. Wrote or co-wrote a significant portion of her repertoire, excellent
keyboard player, provided vocal arrangements
VII. Listening Guide: Two Classics of Soul Music
a. “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” composed by James Brown; performed by
James Brown and the Famous Flames; released 1965
i. Intense vocal performance and use of call-and-response technique
characteristic of soul music
ii. Twelve-bar blues pattern with an eight-bar bridge section
iii. Lyrics: dance-oriented rock ‘n’ roll songs
iv. Riff-dominated: repeating instrumental riff
b. “Respect,” composed by Otis Redding; performed by Aretha Franklin; recorded
1967
i. Cover of Otis Redding’s song
ii. Shift of the sense of who is in control of the relationship
iii. Performance structured around a steadily building intensity
VIII. Box 10.1: Tin Pan Alley Still Lives! Dionne Warwick and the Songs of Burt
Bacharach and Hal David
a. Resilience of the Tin Pan Alley aesthetic in the 1960s in the songs written for
Dionne Warwick (b. 1940) by composer Burt Bacharach (b. 1928) and lyricist
Hall David
i. Warwick: crooning approach
ii. David’s lyrics: intelligent and adult-oriented, cleverness of structure and
rhythm
iii. Bacharach’s music: emphasis on melodic and harmonic sophistication,
highly original phrasing, and rhythms
IX. The Broadway Musical in the Age of Rock
a. Bye Bye Birdie (1960)—music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams
i. Parody of the teenage culture that employs rock ‘n’ roll music incidentally
b. Broadway shows continued in the Rodgers and Hammerstein mold of the serious
musical with well-integrated plot, characters, and songs
c. West Side Story (1957): striking use of modern jazz and Latin American
elements
 i. 1961 film became a smash hit; soundtrack album at number one for 54
weeks
d. Fiddler on the Roof (1964): music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
i. Longest running musical of the time; successful movie version in 1971
e. Hair (1968): music by Galt MacDermot, lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James
Rado—rock musical that celebrated the late 1960s counterculture
i. Embrace of rock styles made it a significant source of hit singles and
successful original cast album
X. Urban Folk Music in the 1960s: Bob Dylan
a. Followed an independent course in the early 1960s, remaining an acoustic-guitar
based music aloof from the new styles and large-scale changes that characterized
much of the pop music of the time
i. Fashionable for urban folk performers to look down their noses at rock ‘n’
roll as “unserious
b. Bob Dylan (b. 1941 as Robert Zimmerman) first established himself as an
acoustic singer-songwriter in New York City’s urban folk scene
i. Baby boomers reaching college age; increasing cultural political interests
and awareness
ii. Contemporaries: Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs
iii. Dylan stood out for two reasons:
1. Remarkable quality of his original songs, beginning with a strong
gift for poetic imagery and metaphor, and a frequently searing
intensity of feeling, moderated by a quirky sense of irony
2. Style of performance: rough-hewn, occasionally aggressive vocal,
guitar and harmonica style that demonstrated strong affinities to
rural models in blues and earlier country music
a. Idiosyncratic enough to keep him from being pop-
marketable: early songs introduced to Top 40 audiences by
other performers
iv. “Blowin’ in the Wind” recording by Peter, Paul, and Mary
1. Song is one of Dylan’s best-known works
2. Three successive questions build in specificity and intensity
3. Avoidance of specific political agenda, typical of many of his best
“protest songs”
a. Continuing relevance despite changes in the political
climate
4. Melody: simple, functional, and immediately memorable
5. Comparison of Peter, Paul, and Mary recording with Dylan’s
recording on his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
(1963)
a. Folk trio: touching sincerity and simplicity
b. Dylan’s rendition: throws rhythmic weight on the most
pointed words in the song
 v. Dylan distinguished himself as a composer of more intimate but highly
original songs about human relationships
1. Blunt realism underlying Dylan’s view of romantic relationships;
refreshingly original note in pop landscape
vi. Ties with folk traditions
1. Original compositions modeled on the musical and poetic content
of preexisting folk material
vii. 1965: moved from his role as the most distinctive songwriter among
American urban folk artists to influence the entirety of American popular
culture
1. Released his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home
a. Acoustic numbers shared disc space with songs using
electric guitar and drums
b. “Mr. Tambourine Man”: first landmark folk-rock hit,
covered by the Byrds, using tambourine and twelve-string
guitar
2. Appeared at the Newport Folk Festival with an electric band, he
was booed off the stage
viii. Model established by performers in genres of blues and country—
development of electric blues by rural blues artists, and country artists
developed western swing
1. Cultural roles: urban folk was a topical, political, and socially
conscious music
a. Subtext of political identification
b. Acoustic guitars: easily portable, unlike rock ‘n’ roll band
equipment
ix. Mid-1960s: electric style and other manifestations of folk rock—growth in
the pop-music scene
x. 1965: many artists covering Dylan songs or producing imitations of
Dylan’s songs and style
xi. Became one of the first rock musicians whose career was sustained by
albums rather than singles
XI. Listening Guide: “Like a Rolling Stone”
a. Composed and performed by Bob Dylan (with unidentified instrumental
accompaniment); recorded 1965
i. Recording put an end to restrictions on length, subject matter, and poetic
diction in pop records
ii. Sound: timbre and sonic density unique for its time
1. Prominence of organ and piano, dominating texture over electric
guitars, bass, and drums
2. Distinctive sound of Dylan’s voice
b. Form: strophic verse-chorus pattern: strophes are extremely long (40 bars)
c. The Song/The Recording: each succeeding strophe widens its focus
 i. Reinforcing the tension embodied in the content of the lyrics
ii. Connection with acoustic folk traditions; live studio performance with
minimal editing or “production” effects
iii. Six minutes: longest 45 rpm pop single ever released up to that time
XII. Box 10.3: Simon and Garfunkel
a. Paul Simon and Arthur Garfunkel: “The Sounds of Silence”
i. Urban folk duo
ii. Producer overdubbed a rock band accompaniment to the original
recording, speeded it up, and released the single without Simon or
Garfunkel’s permission
1. Became a number one pop hit
XIII. The Counterculture and Psychedelic Rock
a. Increasing political restlessness and ferment
i. Engagement in the Vietnamese civil war escalating
1. Youth audience for pop culture directly implicated in the politics
of the Vietnam War; draft into the armed forces
2. Antiwar groups and organizations
ii. Civil rights movement and challenging the persistence of racial
segregation and inequality
b. Later 1960s: emergence of what was called the counterculture
i. Mythical member of the counterculture—young rock music fan who
supported the civil rights movement and opposed the Vietnam War
ii. Notion of a counterculture provides a convenient label for the more
innovative, rebellious, and radical aspects of 1960s musical, political, and
social culture taken together; oversimplification
iii. Characteristic jargon, fads, fashions, slang
1. Fascination with “exotic” cultures
2. Openness and sense of freedom regarding sexual activity
3. Critical attitude to bourgeois values and outlooks; communal living
a. “be-ins”: emphasized informal musical performance,
spontaneity, and camaraderie
iv. Free love: sexual mores of the period had little direct effect on the style or
substance of pop music
v. Dilemma of drug use in contemporary times; makes it difficult to provide
an unambiguous evaluation of the counterculture’s relationship to
intoxicants and recreational chemicals
1. Young people of the 1960s came to favor psychedelic substances,
e.g., marijuana, LSD
a. Psychedelic imagery in songs; flamboyant, colorful visual
effects used on rock music posters and record jackets, and
in the light shows at rock concerts
i. Open-endedness of many rock music performances;
directly attributable to drug use
 2. Use of drugs formed part of the culture of musicians and their
audiences in the US for a long time
a. Venues in which pop music is heard live are commonly
those in which the legal and illegal consumption of
intoxicants forms an essential aspect of the audience’s
“good time”
b. Many participants in the counterculture were not involved
in drugs
c. Drugs as spiritual exploration
XIV. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
a. 1967, Summer of Love: young participants in the newly self-aware
counterculture followed the advice of a pop hit that told them to head to San
Francisco wearing flowers in their hair
b. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
i. Album cover: wild collage of faces and figures surrounding the Beatles
dressed in full formal band regalia
ii. People pictured were associated with aspects of the counterculture
iii. Use of Indian instruments (sitar and table), unusual meters and phrase
structures, deeply meditative, philosophical lyrics
iv. Album structured to invite listeners’ participation in an implied
community
1. Addresses the audience in the opening song
2. Conceit of Sgt. Pepper as a “performance” even though it is not a
recording of an actual live performance
a. Every song on the album features a unique instrumental
arrangement significantly different from that of the songs
that precede and follow it; maximum variety and contrast
b. Full of studio-produced effects
v. Beatles abandoned live performing and assumed an identity solely as a
recording act
1. Rock ‘n’ roll communicated with audience via records
2. Rock album as the creator of an audience community
vi. Definitively redirected attention from the single-song recording to the
record album as the focus of where important new pop music was being
made
1. Sgt. Pepper conceived as a totality rather than a collection
a. None of the songs released as singles
b. Not the first concept album, but first album to present itself
to the public as a complete and unified marketing package
with a distinctive and interrelated collection of parts
XV. Their Satanic Majesties: The Rolling Stones After Sgt. Pepper
a. Relationship between public images of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones;
marketing strategy
 i. Added dimension in December 1967: Stones released their “answer” to
Sgt. Pepper in their album Their Satanic Majesties Request
1. Thick, guitar-centered sound texture
a. 1968: Keith Richards began to use open tunings—chord
may be played without fretting any of the strings
i. Technique commonly used in blues and folk music
2. Morally ambiguous and malevolent image
a. Association between the Stones and rock ‘n’ roll, violence,
Satanism; film Gimmie Shelter (1970)
i. Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang hired to provide
security for concert; murdered a young black man
ii. Controversy surrounding the film and arrest of
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on drug charges
1. Increased the appetites of fans; studio
albums reached the top of American charts
b. Stones remained a live band; huge concert earnings
XVI. San Francisco Rock: Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and the Grateful Dead
a. “alternative” rock music scene; inspired by the Beatles’ experimentalism
i. Established in San Francisco
1. Center for artistic communities and subcultures, including the
“beat” literary movement of the 1950s, urban folk music scene,
and highly visible and vocal gay community
2. “Psychedelic rock”: variety of styles and musical influences—folk
rock, blues, “hard rock,” Latin music, Indian classical music
3. Tom Donahue: local radio DJ who challenged the mainstream Top
40 pop format with a new, open-ended, eclectic broadcasting
format on FM station KMPX
4. Bill Graham: foremost promoter of the new rock bands
a. The Fillmore: symbolic center of the counterculture
b. Jefferson Airplane: first nationally successful band to emerge out of the San
Francisco psychedelic scene
i. Founded in 1965: originally a semi-acoustic folk-rock band; developed a
louder, harder-edged style with greater emphasis on open forms,
instrumental improvisation, and visionary lyrics
1. “acid rock” bands; played at the Matrix Club
2. RCA gave them a $20,000 advance; paradoxical link between
countercultural values and profit motive
3. Grace Slick (b. 1939) one of the most important female musicians
in the San Francisco scene
ii. “Somebody to Love” (1967) acid rock approach: dense musical texture
with plenty of volume and lots of electronic distortion
c. Janis Joplin (1943‒1970) was the most successful white blues singer of the
1960s
 i. Mid-1960s joined a band called Big Brother and the Holding Company
ii. Columbia Records contract in 1967 after appearance at the Monterey Pop
Festival
1. 1968 album Cheap Thrills with song “Piece of My Heart”
iii. Full-tilt singing style and directness of expression inspired by blues
singers such as Bessie Smith and the R&B recordings of Big Mama
Thornton
1. Joplin helped revive Thornton’s performing career in the late
1960s
iv. Did not crossover to R&B charts and was not a success with black
audiences
v. “Summertime”: rendition of George and Ira Gershwin composition
d. The Grateful Dead
i. Career of the band spanned more than three decades
ii. Jerry Garcia (1942‒1995): guitarist, banjoist, and singer who founded
the Grateful Dead
iii. The Dead pioneered transition from urban folk music to folk rock to acid
rock, adopting electric instruments, living communally, and participating
in public LSD parties before the drug was outlawed
1. Hard to classify their work
2. Quintessential “live” rock band
a. Specializing in long jams that wander through diverse
musical styles and grooves and typically terminate in
unexpected places
b. Huge repertoire of songs
iv. “Deadheads”: devoted fans were a social phenomenon
1. Traveling in psychedelically decorated buses and vans, following
the Grateful Dead on the tour
2. Taped the performances (and were encouraged to do so); circulated
tapes (called bootlegs), building up extensive lists that chronicle
every concert the band ever played
XVII. The Doors and “Light My Fire”
a. The Doors: one of the most controversial rock bands of the 1960s, formed by
keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison, drummer John Densmore,
and guitarist Robby Krieger
i. Adopted their name from philosopher Aldous Huxley’s 1954 book The
Doors of Perception
ii. Sound of the band: dominated by Manzarek’s ornate electric organ and
Morrison’s deep baritone voice and poetic, often obscure lyrics
iii. Steady gig at the Whisky A Go-Go nightclub on Sunset Boulevard
iv. Signed with Elektra records in 1966
1. Recorded “Light My Fire” (1967)
 a. Greatest impact on the way that rock music was
experienced and consumed in the late 1960s
b. 6:56 long: deemed too long for AM radio airplay
i. Shorter version released, and once it was an
established hit, Top 40 radio stations began to play
the longer version
ii. Record companies began to promote rock albums
on the radio, because they were more profitable
than singles
v. Jim Morrison: Dionysian lifestyle, controversial lyrics, early demise;
symbol of countercultural rebellion
XVIII. Box 10.4: “Cloud Nine”: The Motown Response to Psychedelia
a. Supremes Summer of Love hit, “Reflections,” opened with sounds of a strange,
repeated electronic beep, followed by an explosion
i. Hat tip to psychedelia, followed by a style identical to Supremes’ earlier
efforts
b. Temptations: 1960s and 1970s response to counterculture
i. “Cloud Nine” (1968): drug reference with gritty depiction of slum life
1. Sound of the record novel for Motown; distorted electronic guitars
and echo-like effects
2. Vocal arrangement that made a point of contrasting the varied
vocal timbres and ranges represented among the members of the
Temptations
XIX. Guitar Heroes: Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton
a. Electric guitarists in the 1960s: achievements built on shoulders of previous
generations of electric guitar virtuosos
b. Jimi Hendrix (1942‒1970): most original, inventive, and influential guitarist of
the rock era, and the most prominent African American rock musician of the late
1960s
i. Early experience touring with rhythm & blues bands
ii. 1966 moved to London and joined with two English musicians to form the
Jimi Hendrix experience
1. Appeared at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival; Hendrix stunned the
audience with his performance style, which involved playing the
guitar with his teeth and behind his back, stroking his neck along
the microphone stand, pretending to make love to it, and setting it
on fire with lighter fluid and praying to it
iii. Creative employment of feedback, distortion and sound manipulating
devices like the wah-wah pedal and the fuzz box, fondness for aggressive
dissonance and incredibly loud volume
1. Explored the borderline between traditional conceptions of music
and noise—links him to the ways composers explored electronic
sounds and media in the world of art music at the same time
 iv. Performance of the national anthem at the Woodstock Festival in 1969;
elaborate improvisation
v. “Purple Haze”: strophic song with clear roots in blues-based melodic
figures, harmonies, and chord progressions with guitar solo between 2nd
and 3rd strophes and violently distorted instrumental conclusion
c. Eric Clapton (b. 1945): the most influential of the young British guitarists who
emerged during the mid-1960s
i. Influenced by the blues recordings of Robert Johnson and B. B. King; first
attracted notice as a member of the Yardbirds
ii. Soon began to attract adulation of blues and R&B fans—long, flowing
blues-based guitar solos
iii. 1966‒1968 played in a band called Cream
1. Performances more akin to avant-garde jazz than pop music
2. Songs were pretexts for long, open-ended improvised solos
XX. Listening Guide: “Crossroads”
a. Written by Robert Johnson; performed by Cream; recorded 1968
i. Cream’s version of Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues”
1. Represents the deep respect that many rock guitarists held for
Robert Johnson
2. Style more indebted to postwar urban blues and R&B than to the
Delta blues
3. Highly exposed—only bass and drum set accompaniment
XXI. Box 10.5: Roots Rock: Creedence Clearwater Revival
a. Creedence Clearwater Revival: deliberately old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll band
i. Two guitarists, a bass player, and a drummer
ii. Performed original material and 1950s rock ‘n’ roll tunes in a style
untouched by the psychedelic era
iii. Singles band: spate of catchy, up-tempo 2-3 minute pop records
iv. Original songs: up-to-date political awareness
XXII. Key Terms
Counterculture Sampled Soul music
Countrypolitan

XXIII. Key People

Aretha Franklin The Doors Jimi Hendrix
Bob Dylan Eric Clapton Patsy Cline
Burt Bacharach Grace Slick Paul Simon
Creedence Clearwater James Brown Ray Charles
Revival Janis Joplin Sam Cooke
Dionne Warwick Jerry Garcia