Fred wrote:
"Schizoid Man" wrote in message
...
Being among the younger posters here, I though I'd start a thread for the
old fogeys... ;-)

If there was one song, one single song that would epitomize the 60s, which
one would it be?

I think for me it would have to be the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows ("the
song that ushered in the 60s" according to Tony Fletcher).

(snip)

The Theme From "A Summer Place" (Percy Faith & Orchestra). Lush big
orchestration which, for me at least, denotes an end on the 50s values.

The above is one I can remember perfectly, yet most people would never
think of such a song as representing the 1960's. If you go back and
look at what actually was popular in the 1960's, it can be pretty
shocking and interesting. For example, comedy records were still big
then, not just instrumentals. And balladeers like Bobby Goldsboro were
really huge then too.

Whether old fogey or not, I think most of us tend to think of the music
of the 1960s as being whatever appealed to the white, college-educated
crowd that (IMHO) is what constitutes RAO.

I'm not saying any of the above is good or bad. Just pointing out that
there are some different perspectives and different ways to look at
things. There was tons of music that was hugely successful in terms of
sales in the 1960's, yet is almost completely forgotten now and almost
no one would think of now as characterizing the 1960's. But given that
that was often the most popular music in the 1960's, maybe that's what
we should consider to be the characteristic music of the 1960's.

If I had to pick one favorite, I couldn't. My first impulse would be
the Beatles, but there was a lot of great soul and country music back
then that I've gained more appreciation of since then. I don't know
much about jazz or a lot of other less-popular music from that era, and
I'm sure there are advocates for that too. There's probably somebody
out there who's favorite 1960's song is a capella, gospel, or something
I'm even less aware of.

(snip)