’60s Music

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Bobbie Gentry – Ode To Billie Joe

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It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And mama hollered out the back door, y'all, remember to wipe your feet
And then she said, I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today, Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please
There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow
And mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

This song, the third most popular song of 1967, fitting for it's lyrics about June 3rd, is considered an anti-war song that discusses the cruelty of war and the general apathy of the public towards it.

As Gentry told Fred Bronson, “The song is sort of a study in unconscious cruelty. But everybody seems more concerned with what was thrown off the bridge than they are with the thoughtlessness of the people expressed in the song. What was thrown off the bridge really isn’t that important.

The Guess Who – Undun

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"Too many mountains, and not enough stairs to climb
Too many churches and not enough truth
Too many people and not enough eyes to see
Too many lives to lead and not enough time"

Abraham, Martin And John – Dion (a #2 record–mono 45)

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Tuesday marks the 59th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dallas.

Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused gunman, was shot and killed two days after the assassination.

President Kennedy had not announced a second run for office, but he was in Texas at the time to gain support.

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/tuesday-marks-59th-anniversary-of-jfk-assassination/

October 12, 2018 12:10 pm Update

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“My guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now”

~ The Byrds, My Back Pages