Sixties British Pop, Outside In Volume 2: Itchycoo Park, 1964-1970

by Thompson, Gordon Ross

• ISBN13: 9780190672393
• ISBN10: 0190672390
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780190672416
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2024-08-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Itchycoo Park, 1964-1970--the second volume of Sixties British Pop, Outside In--explores how London songwriters, musicians, and production crews navigated the era's cultural upheavals by reimagining the pop-music envelope. As the generation born during the postwar years approached adulthood, they gravitated to music that resonated with their lives. Mainstream pop remained true to the basics, but some British artists conjured up sophisticated hybrid forms by recombining elements of jazz, folk, blues, Indian ragas, and western classical music while others returned to the raw essentials. Encouraging these experiments, youth culture's economic power challenged the authority of their parents' generation. Improved amplification opened larger and more lucrative concert venues while the spread of studios with enhanced technologies allowed artists and production crews the means to improve performances and recordings.

British charts began to reflect London's postcolonial heritage as groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Who all listened for ideas and sounds that would distinguish their recordings. On stage, the Yardbirds, Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Nice, and others led by instrumental virtuosi developed British versions of American blues and rhythm and blues while the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, and King Crimson painted imaginary worlds. And, although Engelbert Humperdinck and other men lamented independent women, Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, and Lulu used their cultural capital to question systemic sexism.

Based on extensive research, including vintage and original interviews, Itchycoo Park, 1964-1970 presents sixties British pop, not as lists of discrete people and events, but as an interwoven story. Communities of musicians, producers, music directors, engineers, songwriters, publishers, promoters, broadcasters, and journalists interacted as they provided songs, made and played recordings, organized concerts, and celebrated the optimism of youth. They brought audiences together and gave individuals identity while establishing the musical world in which we live today.

Author Biography

Gordon Ross Thompson has taught classes on the musics of India, popular music culture, and media studies at Skidmore College and has served as editor of the Society for Ethnomusicology's Newsletter and as webmaster for the Society for Asian Music. The author of Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out, he has been interviewed by National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation among other radio and television broadcasts. At Skidmore College, he also produced a popular annual Beatles concert by students, staff, and faculty.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One Swinging London, 1964-1967
Chapter 1 The Art of Pop
Chapter 2 Finding England
Chapter 3 Home Court Advantages
Chapter 4 Beatles '67
Chapter 5 The Establishment Strikes Back
Chapter 6 Classic Progressives
Part Two Gardens of Earthly Delights, 1965-1969
Chapter 7 British Proto Punk
Chapter 8 Transatlantic Transformers
Chapter 9 Old Bottles, New Wine
Part Three Pop Roles
Chapter 10 Male Delivery
Chapter 11 Televising the Feminine
Chapter 12 Second Wave Pocket
Part Four Decade Ends, 1967-1970
Chapter 13 Worlds Apart
Chapter 14 England Calling
Chapter 15 Electric Faeries
Chapter 16 Folk Pop
Chapter 17 Transatlantic Routes
Part Five Something Old, Something New
Chapter 18 New Territory
Chapter 19 English Tales
Chapter 20 Something Old, Something New
Afterword
Appendices
Discography
Media Sources
Sources
Music Index
Subject Index