Denro favors 1969 as the peak year for popular music, but I keep returning to 1968. That was the year of ‘Classical Gas’, ‘Love is Blue’ and the outstanding ‘This Guy’s in Love With You’. But ’68 also had the flip side of music, revealing the growing tension between Top-40 AM and nascent Underground Radio on FM.*
It began a year earlier with the Doors and the Jefferson Airplane. The Summer of Love in ’67 also had a hard edge. It came into very compelling full view in ’68.
The first time I became aware of “album cuts” was in 1967, with the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’. Other records followed in ’68. Two examples include the Chambers Brothers.
And, in what is perhaps the ultimate example of the changes brought about in the Sixties, an era of change that I maintain can never be repeated, there is this AM single/FM album gem.
I didn’t even include Cream, but you’ll find them in this playlist that shows why I can never let go of 1968.
* The phenomenon of album-centered underground FM radio resulted from a unique and coincidental timing of events — The undeniable shift in the music industry; an FCC mandate requiring unique FM programming; and Vietnam Vets returning home with Japanese stereo receivers, which upended the American hi-fi market and marked the end of true mono-mixed singles.
