Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is one of the most influential and diverse musicians of the twentieth century. His work spans over many genres including folk, rock and country and he serves as an inspiration to countless other artists. Dylan’s love of music began as a child and his own musical career began in 1960. His first album, released in 1962, was not met with great success. It contained two original tracks with the rest of the album composed of various popular and familiar folk and gospel tunes. The release of his second album in 1963 was more successful. By this time, Dylan had begun to make a name for himself. He also composed more original tracks, inspired by other musicians. These tracks also showed that Dylan planned to use his music for more than just petty enjoyment. Songs on this album revealed the political side to Dylan that demanded to be heard. 
The very distinctive voice of Dylan soon became a voice for an entire generation. While his rough voice turned some against him, the rawness in his voice drew others in. However, Dylan soon became bored and questioned the motives of various protest organizations. This lead Dylan to take his new music in a slightly different direction, heading toward a more rock sound. The decision of Dylan to go electric was met with some negative feedback by some of his fans and many in his former folk community. Nevertheless, the decision allowed Dylan to break new ground in his music and was eventually deemed a good move. In 1965 Highway 61 Revisited was released which contained the track Like a Rolling Stone, at over six minutes long this song was like nothing that he had done before. 
In 1966 Dylan withdrew from the public eye. Exhausted from touring and still facing difficulties with some of his fan over the decision to go electric, Dylan needed the break. In a little over a year Dylan was back in the studio working, though tours did not resume for nearly eight years. Dylan continued to release new material and was again met with some opposition in the early 1970s. However, Dylan has proved himself to be a noteworthy musician both solo and as a part of groups like the short-lived supergroup The Traveling Wilburys to which he contributed his signature rough sound. To this day Dylan is celebrated as he continues to receive awards and release new music.
Listening Recommendations:
• Like a Rolling Stone
• Shelter From the Storm
• Hurricane

Simon and Garfunkel

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were a duo who worked together throughout the 1960s. Their music echoed the popular folk rock of the time, though it gradually became more experimental, and resulted in the pair being regarded as icons of the era alongside others such as Bob Dylan. Though the relationship between the duo had its faults causing constant breakups and reunions, the music produced was so beautiful it belonged in its own category. The duo became known for their unique harmonies although as their music developed they began to move away from harmonizing and each took lead roles in singing.
The duo formed in the late 1950s but did not receive great commercial success until the mid-1960s. Their first major hit was a reedited version of their 1964 song The Sound of Silence. In 1966 they released their third album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. This album revealed a more creative side to the pair. They worked closely with their sound engineer and incorporated uncommon influences such as gospel sounds. The film The Graduate was released in 1967 and helped to spread their music as well as create a number-one single, Mrs. Robinson which was subsequently released on their next album Bookends. The duo decided to take a break in 1970 following the release of their final and most successful album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, though it was soon announced to be a permanent split. 
Artistic disagreements, differences in interests and creative lulls caused several breakups between Simon and Garfunkel in the beginning and throughout their career. This resulted in several unsuccessful solo albums being released by Simon in the early 1960s. Perhaps because of their stormy relationship the duo failed to produce albums as quickly as record labels demanded, leaving them under much pressure to fulfill record demands. However, the pair continued to reunite time and time again which resulted in a total of five studio albums. After their final breakup in 1970 both Simon and Garfunkel released solo material. Garfunkel released a few solo hits and pursued an acting career, starring in 3 movies before 1980. Simon stuck with music and released several critically and commercially successful albums. 
Since 1970 the duo has reunited several times but never released another studio album. Both Simon and Garfunkel ran into some creative difficulties in 1980. These difficulties are part of what fueled one of the most famous reunions in 1981 when they played a free concert in Central Park to help benefit New York’s economic situation. A recording of the concert was released and was met with much success, even igniting plans for a world tour that quickly feel apart as familiar rifts between the pair revealed themselves yet again.
Listening Recommendations:
• The Boxer
• Mrs. Robinson
• The Sound of Silence

The Mamas and the Papas

The Mamas and the Papas were a foursome composed of husband and wife John and Michelle Phillips as well as Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot. The lifespan of the group was very brief, lasting only from about 1965 to 1968 with a brief reunion in 1971 when they released an album to fulfill contractual obligations. The group encountered many turbulences during their time together including extramarital affairs by Michelle with Doherty among others and the pressure to be perfect put on the others by John. In fact, the pressure John put on the others lead to Elliot’s eventual resignation and the end of the band. 
The Mamas and the Papas had a very Californian folk rock sound and the vocals, especially by Elliot, will always be remembered. Although the group encountered about as much failure as they did success, the Mamas and the Papas left its fans with plenty of quality music distributed over five studio albums plus numerous singles. Even with all the adversities they faced they still played some very notable performances including the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 and the Hollywood Bowl where Jimi Hendrix opened for them in August of the same year. Unfortunately, members of the band viewed their Hollywood Bowl performance as the climax of their career with the end in sight. 
After the dismemberment of the Mamas and the Papas, each member went on to release their own solo album. However, only Elliot’s received commercial success which encouraged her to continue to perform until her untimely death in 1974. After the failure of her only solo album, Michelle Phillips began a successful career in acting. She appeared in numerous movies and television shows throughout her life. 
John Phillips’ album, John, The Wolf King of LA, did receive some critical success leading him to continue to produce music in the form of mostly soundtracks while working to overcome a heroin addiction. Doherty went on to release a second solo album which had contributions from both Elliot and Michelle Phillips but still showed no commercial or critical success. He then returned to his hometown and began television work while also battling an addiction, though to alcohol, up until the early 1980s when he became sober. John Phillips and Doherty attempted to revitalize their music talents by forming the New Mamas and Papas in 1980 with Phillips daughter Mackenzie replacing Michelle Phillips and Elaine McFarlane replacing Elliot. The group never released a studio album and never reached great success with a very long lineup of members as people dropped out and were added into the band. 
Listening Recommendations:
• Monday Monday
• California Dreamin’
• I Saw Her Again Last Night

The Beatles

I don’t believe there is anything that hasn’t already been said about this band. Love them or hate them you must admit that the impact created in their wake will last forever. In a relatively short span of time these four guys completely revolutionized the music industry. They were forerunners of the British Invasion and would go on to provide inspiration for countless future artists. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the primary songwriters with George Harrison playing guitar and later proving himself to be a noteworthy songwriter as well. Ringo Starr completed the band as their drummer. 
The Beatles started out with a sound that was very much the sound of the early 1960s. By the mid-sixties, they had begun to develop their own more progressive sound. At the same time their touring and fame had taken such a toll on them that the band decided to give up touring and focus on studio recordings. This decision allowed for the unprecedented creation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The sound of this album was completely different from their original early 1960s rock. Sgt. Pepper’s revealed a much more experimental and progressive attempt by the band. However, the next and final albums returned them back to a more traditional rock sound albeit with an increasingly progressive sound. 
The beginning of the end for this band was fairly obvious for some time before the breakup was official. The members of the band wanted different things. McCartney went off on a more commercialized direction and continued to make music with new bands. Lennon divulged himself into a more artsy and political direction, working with his wife, artist Yoko Ono. Harrison continued to bring in less traditional sounds into his future works, both on albums and soundtracks, and continued to prove himself as a good songwriter. Ringo Starr worked as an actor in several movies and continued his musical career with his All Star Band. 
The members of the Beatles worked together on several projects after their breakup but never all together. John Lennon’s career and life ended early when he was assassinated in New York in 1980. Harrison remained fairly active in the music industry, including becoming a part of the supergroup, Traveling Wilburys. Unfortunately, Harrison lost his battle to lung cancer in 2001. Both Starr and McCartney are active musicians to this day. McCartney continues to play concerts including this year’s Desert Trip.
Listening Recommendations:
• Eleanor Rigby
• A Day in the Life
• You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away 

The Who

I’m not sure I know how to describe what this band’s style was. It was certainly revolutionary and diverse. They created what is probably the first rock opera, which is a major feat in my mind. Although they developed a sound that was distinctively them, the category of this sound spans from the typical British invasion sound to mod, hard and possibly even an almost punk rock. Pete Townsend’s amazing songwriting ability paired with the ostentatious vocals of Roger Daltrey made for an astounding collection of music. When you added that to the wild drumming of Keith Moon and the steady bass of John Entwistle the result was just beyond what anyone though four members of a band could do. 
Both the Who’s stage presence and album production is absolutely mind-boggling. They were energetic and creative and it looked like they were having the time of their lives and that feeling rubbed off on the audience. They were very well known for smashing their instruments on stage after a show, which just brought forth even more energy and hype from the crowd. Moon once even rigged his drum kit with explosives so that they could end their show as no one else ever had. On the studio side of things, they were known for using new developments in their recordings, such as the synthesizer. They created Tommy, which was a completely new thing at the time as it wasn’t just a collection of the band’s songs. Tommy told a story, through music, of the struggles of a boy who tried to express himself.
The band formed in the early-1960s with a rather rough beginning. Their original manager tried to make them more respectable by changing their look and name. However, the respectable version of the band was not met with much popularity and so the band members decided find a new manager who helped form them into what we all know. Since the mid-1960s the Who have played together straight through to the early 1980s when the members took a break to pursue other interests before officially declaring a breakup in 1982. Even with the clashing egos and other problems between Daltrey and Townsend, they continue to perform to this day albeit without their original band mates Moon, who passed in 1978 and was subsequently replaced by Kenny Jones, and Entwistle who passed in 2002. Over the years, there have been numerous reunions and an official reformation in 1996 with Zak Starkey on drums, though he is not credited with being a certified member of the Who. 
Listening Recommendations:
• Pinball Wizard
• Pictures of Lily
• My Generation

The Traveling Wilburys

The formation of this rock super group seems too good to be true. The story begins with Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison agreeing to help George Harrison record the B-side to one of his singles. The three decided to go to Bob Dylan’s home studio to record it where Harrison remembered that he left his guitar at Tom Petty’s house. Whether this story is completely accurate or not I do not know but either way the formation of this band must have been amazing. These five musicians were already very accomplished in their own right, either through their work with previous bands, Harrison being part of the Beatles, Petty the lead of the Heartbreakers and Lynne part of the Electric Light Orchestra or as solo artists like Dylan and Orbison. The addition of Jim Keltner on drums completed this supergroup.
I think the most amazing thing about this band is the way that the musicians were all able to contribute their individual sounds and have their sounds heard while still meshing so nicely. Even with each member already having been established before the formation of the Wilburys they were still able to learn from each other and grow musically. The band seems too good to be true. Imagining that five huge names in music could all work so coherently together is truly baffling. 
The band only released two studio albums together with the second being released after Orbison’s death, which occurred in 1988. The first album received both good commercial and critical success as one would imagine for a super band of this sort. However, the second album which was intentionally misnumbered by Harrison was met with much less success as the first. There was much talk of a Wilburys tour but some of the members expressed that touring would create responsibilities that didn’t exist while they were simply playing in the studio.
The Wilburys life span was very short, spanning over just two years. Whether it was because the band was not the same without Orbison, the band became too much like work or because record sales were not as good as expected, the Wilburys disbanded in 1990. Though short lived, a band like this satisfied so many rock fans dreams. The music these five individually spectacular artists created will exist forever in the hearts of current and future rock fans alike. The Traveling Wilburys will always be remembered the real-life rock and roll fantasy.  
Listening Recommendations: 
• Handle With Care
• End Of The Line 
• Wilbury Twist

Tom Petty

Tom Petty is probably my favorite American musician. He started his career in 1970 with short lived band Mudcrutch. Since 1975 he has been with the Heartbreakers which includes two of the members from Mudcrutch. Even through Petty and his band are originally from Florida they naturally adopted a very California-West Coast rock sound. With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ third album, Damn the Torpedoes, people truly got a sense of Petty’s sound which is very purely the quintessential American rock sound and they loved it causing the album to jump to number 2 on the American charts in 1979. Petty himself is unique in that his voice sounds like no other. He has a very distinct slur to voice that gives off a rebellious vibe with a sad undertone that carries his music and makes it interesting. 
The rebellious sort of feeling is present in everything Petty does and this may be because of the uncompromising nature of the musician. One of the things I admire in Petty is that he does things his way or no way. There is even the well-known dispute between him and his record company in which he fought to have his album sold for a cheaper price than the record company planned on releasing it for. True to his nature Petty got his way and probably gain an even larger following in the process. His sound has remained so consistent over the last 40+ years because he is in total control of it. Even though working with many other musicians like Jeff Lynne of ELO and Bob Dylan has influenced him and allowed him to expand his musical talents Petty is still wholly and uniquely himself. 
Working with someone who is so stubborn may seem like quite a chore but Petty still currently performs with the Heartbreakers. As much as I admire Petty’s unique sound I must wonder if he could be who he is without the members of the Heartbreakers. Even on his solo albums, like Full Moon Fever, the members of the Heartbreakers all contributed. The artist has also worked with several great producers who have helped him further his career. 
One of the fantastic bonuses with Tom Petty’s music are his music videos. In my opinion most of his videos are very strange, but in a way that I have come to expect from Petty. Another nice thing about the videos are that many of them feature the rest of the Heartbreakers. In a band where Petty’s name is literally separate from the rest of his band it would be easy to forget those who helped him get to where he is but they are still prominent in his work. 
Listening Recommendations:
• I Won’t Back Down
• Mary Jane’s Last Dance
• You Don’t Know How It Feels

The Monkees

The Monkees were a made for television band that became a real band. In 1965 an ad was created requesting four young men to star in a television comedy about a struggling band. It was basically America’s answer to the Beatles. The four chosen were Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Michael Nesmith, which created diverse mix of acting and musical talents. The issue with having real musical ability was that the Monkees were created to be only a fake television band. The boys were not allowed to play their own instruments or write their own songs. They were simply required to do the vocals and act in the show. This lack of power very quickly created tension between the boys and the producers of the show, especially as their record sales increased. 

In 1966 the producers of The Monkees realize that by touring the band a great deal of popularity and money could be gained as well as giving the boys a chance to perform the music themselves. The idea of touring sounded like a win-win situation but it was just another problem. The filming of the television show took up so much time that the band had very little time to rehearse. Besides that, three of them knew how to play the guitar and none of them knew much about playing the drums. The instrumental arrangement for each member was already predetermined anyway. In the show, each boy had already been assigned to an instrument and because it was best to keep up appearances the band would have to play the same instrument. 

Nevertheless, the band still did okay. To the show’s fans the concerts were great. To any music critic the concerts were rough and not even close to perfect but still not a complete catastrophe even though there were certainly problems. Issues were still arising with contracts and the band wanting to do their own music entirely themselves. These issues are a big part of what ended the show after only the second season. Even after the show ended the Monkees stuck together and prove their worth as a real band. Unfortunately, differences about how the music should be played and what kind of music should be played caused their original run as a band to be short lived. There have been several reunions over the years and even recent releases of new material.

While many critics still gawk at one of music’s first “arranged” band, the Monkees have proved themselves worthy of being considered a real genuine band.  

Listening Recommendations:

• Pleasant Valley Sunday

• Listen to the Band

• Zor and Zam

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

This band was made up of four already established musicians: David Crosby from the Byrds, Stephen Stills from Buffalo Springfield, Graham Nash from the Hollies and Neil Young who was also a part of Buffalo Springfield. This band existed in several broken forms at different points in time including the original lineup of just Crosby, Still and Nash as well as just Crosby and Nash together and Stills and Young together. However, my favorite form is when all four were together as each member brought out something great in the other members. 
The sound of CNSY can best be described as folk rock filled with slightly flawed harmonies. While that is not the most flattering description the slight imperfections in the band’s sound are part of what made them so great. Their sound is so unique to only them and their songs were full of power. Each member of CSNY contributed to the band’s discography and often their songs reflected events of the time. It was no secret that Crosby wrote songs in protest of the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration. Young wrote several songs that were meant to open people’s eyes to what was going on around them from the increasing mortality rate due to heroin overdoses to the massacre that occurred at Kent State. Stills developed some very interesting instrumental sounds and Nash further expanded the creativity of the entire group. 
For a group that relied so much on their spectacular harmonies the relationships between the members were not always so beautiful. The name of the band came about because each member wanted to assure that there would always be equal power between them. Even so, power struggles still arose. Creative differences also came about. One large one being the use of studio musicians as a backup band. Stills allegedly wanted to use professional studio musicians for the recording of their albums but Young demanded the use of his backup band, Crazy Horse. These differences especially between Young and the rest of the band caused many rifts over time and lead to their various formations.  Even with these problems and more, including their initial inability to obtain a contract with Apple Records and the funding of some of their own records by the musicians themselves, the music they created together is so exceptional that everyone should have a chance to hear it. 
Listening Recommendations:
• Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
• Ohio
• Marrakesh Express

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix has got to be, without a doubt, one of the best electric guitar players in the world of all time. Allegedly growing up he always wanted to play an instrument and when he was fifteen he got his first guitar which he practiced almost non-stop. All that practice paid off because over the next 12 years the guitarist became one of the best, beating out even Eric Clapton who was once worshipped as a guitar god. In fact, his skills were so well developed that several of his early 1960s bands had him fired because he just naturally took over the show with his superior and unique playing, causing the original star of the show forced into his shadow. 
Hendrix’s sound is completely other worldly. I don’t know of anybody else who sounds like him, before or after his rise to fame. His genre is probably best described as a psychedelic rock with some blues roots. His playing style matched his flamboyant and almost arrogant appearance which made for a wondrous live performance. That isn’t to say he wasn’t rivaled by other musicians.
Allegedly, Hendrix’s signature guitar burning stemmed from him trying to match the performance of the Who who destroyed their instruments after their sets. Even without the guitar burning Hendrix was still quite a spectacle to watch. Dressed in his colorful outfits and playing the guitar in ways that haven’t been seen before, such as playing behind his back, he held people in a trance as they watched him. He also gained fans in the musical world such as the Beatles’ own Paul McCartney who joined the organizers of the Monterey Pop Festival so that he could personally ensure that Hendrix would make an appearance. 
Hendrix not only found revolutionary ways to play his guitar but he also changed the way studio recordings were made. Hendrix used the recording studio like it was his own personal plaything. He used techniques like reverb that were rarely used at the time to create these amazing new sounds. Hendrix worked very meticulously so that everything he created was new, original and flawless. Listening to Hendrix’s records would obviously reveal that everything he did was original and revolutionary but perfect is not the first thing that comes to mind. However, after listening to an entire album of his you can hear that his music was seamless. Everything Hendrix did fits together like this wild, crazy and colorful puzzle. 
Listening Recommendations:
• If 6 Was 9
• Purple Haze
• Crosstown Traffic