For the month of January, I’m selecting some of the most memorable and influential songs of the 60’s. While they all hail from the same decade, these are some of my favorite songs of any era. They remind me that the 60’s were so much more than just Woodstock and psychedelic rock. It was a flourishing period for blues, folk, progressive and straight-ahead rock. #31DaysOf60sSongs
I can’t pay homage to the 60’s without paying homage to one of the most influential and daring bands to come out of that period. Hearing albums like The Velvet Underground & Nico collaboration and White Light/White Heat, I’m struck by what these guys were doing and when they did it. They were about ten years ahead of everyone else. There are entire genres that may not have come to fruition had The Velvet Underground not laid the groundwork, including garage rock, punk rock and new wave. I can hear elements of these styles in their anthem “I’m Waiting For the Man”.
“I’m Waiting For the Man” is a raw, gutsy rock song with that characteristic Lou Reed approach of half-singing, half-intoning. The song is like a foreshadowing of what was to come. In those five minutes, we hear the raw distortion that would typify garage rock, the simple chord structures of punk rock and the infectious hooks of new wave. It’s a way early glimpse of the sounds we would later hear from bands like The Stooges, The Sex Pistols, The Cars among others. It’s not often that we look back at a song that helps us to look forward.
“Until tomorrow, but that's just some other time. I'm waiting for my man.”