60s Pop

But popular culture is where we go to talk to and agree with one another; to simplify ourselves; to find our herd. It’s like going to the Automat to buy an emotion. The thrills are cheap and the payoffs are predictable and, after a while, the repetition is a bummer. Whereas books are where we go alone to complicate ourselves. Inside this solitude, we take on contours, textures, perspectives. Heightened language levitates the reader. Great art transfigures.
John Leonard, Reading for My Life, 3-4

I have written appreciatively here of John Leonard. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything he wrote. I take some issue with Leonard’s comments above, agreeing in part, disagreeing in part.
I appreciate art that complicates. The more I see and hear and learn, the more wondrous, mysterious and complicated life seems. It helps to have music and images and words that help us grasp some of that complexity so our decisions are more respectful of the genuine mystery of the world. Humans often gravitate toward a simplicity that easily becomes simplistic.
With Leonard, I appreciate becoming more complicated. Yet I have some questions. If one were to put jazz in the category of popular culture, I would assert, against Leonard, that this is an art form that complicates. Given the typical sales of jazz music, it may be difficult to place it in the realm of popular culture. One of the things that attracted me to the music of Bob Dylan was the way he worked with words, laying out image upon image in his own unique way. His latest musical offering, Tempest, has a lyrical richness to it that offers varying textures with which to appreciate life. By the way, in another essay in his book, Leonard seems to appreciate some of Dylan’s music, but doesn't much like the man.
So I may or may not quibble with Leonard in defining what qualifies as popular culture. I would also raise this question with him – isn’t it o.k. sometimes to reach for the simple song that puts a smile on your face and a little dance in your step? Isn’t part of the wonderful complexity of the world that we can sometimes find a song, or a moment of film, that jolts our hearts a little, and is something a little bit more than buying an emotion at the Automat?
I confess to having a fondness for sixties pop music, especially some of the psychedelic pop. Here’s a list of songs I burned on a cd not long ago, as a sample of that time (a couple of songs are early seventies). These are mostly one hit wonders, with a couple of notable exceptions, but listening to them lifts me just a little. I think that’s o.k.
Marmalade, “Reflections of My Life”
The Left Banke, “Walk Away Renee”
Strawberry Alarm Clock, “Incense and Peppermints”
John Fred and His Playboy Band, “Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)”
Five Americans, “Western Union”
Every Mothers Son, “Come On Down to My Boat Baby”
The Lemon Pipers, “Green Tambourine”
Lou Christie, “Lightning Strikes”
Bobby Hebb, “Sunny”
The Beatles, “Strawberry Fields Forever”
The Beach Boys, “Surfs Up”
Diana Ross and the Supremes, “Reflections”
The Buckinghams, “Susan”
The Monkees, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”
American Breed, “Bend Me, Shape Me”
Jose Feliciano, “Light My Fire”
Albert Hammond, Jr. “It Never Rains in California”
Jerry Jeff Walker, “Mr. Bojangles”

Rock critic Lester Bangs, in his wonderful essay on “Bubblegum Music” (Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll) wrote: the real truth is that there will always be at least one tender spot deep in the heart of rock & roll which should never grow up and never will. In our complicated world, a world which we need to see in all its complexity, with multiple textures contours and perspectives, there remains a thread of innocent joy over simple pleasures. It is ok from time to time to visit that place – that place of incense and peppermints and green tambourines where Judy’s in disguise, surfs up, Mr. Bojangles dances, and strawberry fields are just around the corner. Nothing to get hung about.
And I think I owe those last sentences to John Leonard.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David