SOUL SACRIFICE

Just a couple years after "Blowup!" the entire world changed drastically. The glacier cool of mod London is replaced by full-out sex, drugs and ecstatic abandon. The same summer man lands on the moon, another small step for mankind is taken in the muddy fields of Bethel, New York. Here, on Max Yasgur's farm, The Woodstock Music and Art Fair provides three days of fun and music to half a million peaceful people.

Here, Santana performs Soul Sacrifice!

READY, STEADY, GO! 1965!

My friend Tommy turned me on to this clip of Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames performing on Ready, Steady, Go! It's a cool performance from the mod British pop singer, another great one from an amazing year, 1965.

As music goes, 1965 is hard to beat. The Byrds had a huge hit with Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," and Dylan came out with "Like a Rolling Stone," perhaps the greatest single of all time. In a year of classics, The Rolling Stones couldn't get no "Satisfaction," the Who sang about "My Generation", and The Animals screamed "We Gotta Get Out of This Place." The Beatles, still riding a wave of hits since they'd shown up in America the year before, gave us "Help!", "Ticket to Ride," "Day Tripper," and the brilliant Rubber Soul album that marked a new level of sophistication and introspection in pop music, and showcased such classics as "Norwegian Wood," "In My Life," and "Nowhere Man."

There were so many good songs that year, it's hard to keep track. The Temptations sang "My Girl," the Supremes urged us to "Stop! In the Name of Love," and the Four Tops sang "I Can't Help Myself." James Brown came out with "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." Sam Cooke released "A Change is Gonna Come." Nina Simone played "I Put a Spell on You," and Otis Redding released "Otis Blue." The Kinks released The Kink Kontroversy, Sam the Sham danced with the "Wooly Bully," The Righteous Brothers lamented "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," and the Beach Boys rhapsodized about all those wonderful "California Girls."


I could go on. There were plenty more. There was so much great music that many tracks that would normally have been huge in a regular year got plowed under by the wave. Here's a clip you might have forgotten, with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. A great clip from a great year, 1965.

ALL DAY AND ALL OF THE NIGHT

These heavy, fuzztone riffs launched a thousand garage bands. The Kinks were a highly influential British Invasion band, and the true ancestors of punk -- and they did it with style. The Beatles may have been more creative, the Stones more bluesy, but the Kinks were a crack little outfit that blasted riffs like nobody else. They changed over the years, and created little baroque masterpieces of English life, but I prefer the early angry years. Ray Davies was something of a genius. I always expected him to grow up to be Vincent Price, but maybe it was just the Edwardian outfit. At any rate, dig this clip from Shindig, in 1965!

For Kinks 101, from the Onion, click here.

KENNY ROGERS BLOWS HIS MIND

Somebody must have slipped Kenny Rogers some mind-bending drugs in this hilarious clip. Most people forget that the Santa-bearded country "Gambler" was once a psychedelic pop singer with the First Edition. Obviously, regarding drugs, Kenny didn't know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

YOU'VE GOT YOUR TROUBLES

Rod Allen, lead singer for the Fortunes, died at 63 after a battle with cancer. The Fortunes, a British Invasion pop band with Merseybeat harmonies, is best known in the states for their hit, "You've Got Your Troubles," which hit the U.S. top ten in 1965.