Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

1966 by Jon Savage & England’s Dreaming by Jon Savage

by
October 2016, no. 385

1966: The year the decade exploded by Jon Savage

Faber, $49.99 hb, 653 pp, 9780571277629

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and punk rock by Jon Savage

Faber, $12.99 pb, 653 pp, 9780571326280

1966 by Jon Savage & England’s Dreaming by Jon Savage

by
October 2016, no. 385

In March of 1966, Los Angeles rock group The Byrds released their sixth single, a song called 'Eight Miles High'. It was, writes Jon Savage, a song that combined 'two staples of sixties minority taste: free jazz and Indian classical music'. The arrangement was spacious, but the mood was uneasy: a twelve-string guitar part evoked the sour, droning tone of a sitar. The lyrics, chiefly written by band member Gene Clark, alluded to an LSD trip without naming it as such. Though LSD was still legal in 1966, its widening use had prompted an increase in policing: in February of that year, the first arrest was made in Britain for possession of the drug.

'Eight Miles High' laid the foundation for psychedelic rock, a style – and a lifestyle – that would come to dominate the late 1960s counterculture. In his new book 1966: The year the decade exploded, Savage argues that the year marked a turning point, particularly in Britain and the United States. Youthful rebellion, familiar from the rock'n'roll 1950s, was turning into a confirmed opposition to the Vietnam War, organised religion, consumerism, and conservative morality. It was, Savage writes, 'a year of noise and tumult', and he navigates it by way of popular music.

Anwen Crawford reviews '1966: The year the decade exploded' and 'England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and punk rock' by Jon Savage

1966: The year the decade exploded

by Jon Savage

Faber, $49.99 hb, 653 pp, 9780571277629

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and punk rock

by Jon Savage

Faber, $12.99 pb, 653 pp, 9780571326280

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.