Rrr IS for ROCK 'N ROLL

Rock’s second era begins revival of the mid-50’s vocal in earnest with the debut group sound results in the of Del Shannon’s “Run- re-appearance on the charts away” which is the first pure and airwaves of dozens of unadorned and uptempo songs from 1954-1957 and rocker to hit #1 on the Pop the brief resurgence of sim- Charts in almost a year. The ilarly styled newer groups. song also introduces the “Frat Rock” begins to show “musitron”, an early form of up with Gary “US” Bonds the synthesizer. The Mar- hit “Quarter To Three” with velettes “Please Mr. Post- its emphasis on a frenzied man” becomes the first #1 atmosphere rather than Pop hit released on a black on intricate production. owned and operated label - Motown. A widespread rR IS FOR ROCK ’N ROLL r AA ISIS FORFOR ANARCHYANARCHY In the 1960s, anarchism re-emerged as For these radicals, who rejected the tra- a global political and cultural force, par- ditional parties of the left as strongly as ticularly in association with the New Left. they did the existing political structure, Since then, anarchism has influenced the appeal of anarchism was strong. The social movements that espouse per- general anarchist outlook—with its em- sonal autonomy and direct democracy. phasis on spontaneity, theoretical flexi- In the 1960s and ’70s a new radicalism bility, simplicity of life, and the importance took root among students and the left of love and anger as complementary and in general in the United States, Europe, necessary components in both social and Japan, embracing a general criticism and individual action—attracted those of “elitist” power structures and the ma- who opposed impersonal political insti- terialist values of modern industrial so- tutions and the calculations of older par- Acieties—both capitalist and communist. ties. The anarchist rejection of the state, A B IS FOR BEATLES The Beatles’ story began in Liverpool in Introduced to John on 6 July 1957 at a March 1957, when John Lennon (born 9 church fete in Woolton, Liverpool, Paul October 1940) formed a group named McCartney (born 18 June 1942) sang The Quarry Men. His life was changed Eddie’s song word perfect. Impressed, by the excitement of rock ’n’ roll music John invited the fifteen-year old to join - heralded by Bill Haley and His Com- his group. In February 1958, Paul’s ets, but taken to another level when Elvis younger school pal George Harrison Presley stormed the charts during 1956. (born 25 February 1943) won his place The next year saw the arrival in the UK in The Quarry Men when he impressed of hits by Little Richard, Buddy Holly and the others with his guitar skills, espe- The Crickets, the Everly Brothers and, in cially on the current hit instrumental movie theatres, the exciting rock film ‘Raunchy’ by Bill Justis. With a constant The Girl Can’t Help It!, featuring Eddie nucleus of John, Paul and George, the Cochran singing ‘Twenty Flight Rock’. group underwent a series of line-up. BB F IS FOR FLOWER POWER Flower power was a slogan used during San Francisco, California. By the mid- the late 1960s and early 1970s as a sym- 1960s, the area, marked by the inter- bol of passive resistance and non-vio- section of Haight and Ashbury streets, lence ideology. It is rooted in the oppo- had become a focal point for psyche- sition movement to the Vietnam War. By delic rock music. Musicians and bands late 1966, the Flower Power method of like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful guerilla theater had spread from Califor- Dead and Janis Joplin all lived a short nia to other parts of the United States The distance from the famous intersection. iconic center of the Flower Power move- During the 1967 Summer of Love, thou- Fment was the Haight-Ashbury district sands gathered there to hear music. f J IS FOR JIMI HENDRIX Jimi Hendrix learned to play school and worked odd jobs guitar as a teenager and grew while continuing to follow his up to become a rock legend musical aspirations. One of his who excited audiences in the most memorable performanc- 1960s with his innovative elec- es was at Woodstock in 1969, tric guitar playing. In many where he performed “The Star- ways, music became a sanc- Span gled Banner.” Hendrix tuary for Hendrix. He was a died in 1970 from drug-related fan of blues and rock and roll, complications, leaving his mark and with his father’s encour- on the world of rock music and agement taught himself to remaining popular to this day. play guitar. Shortly thereafter, he began performing with his band, the Rocking Kings. In F 1959, he dropped out of high- f jj Sixty-five years ago this Bouvier in Newport, Rhode September, John Fitzger- Island. This star-studded ald Kennedy married Ms. affair went down as the so- Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in cial event of the season and Newport, Rhode Island. This the wedding of two of the star-studded affair went most iconic political figures in down as the social event of American historyHe is born to the season and the wed- politician Joseph Patrick Ken- ding of two of the most nedy and philanthropist Rose iconic political figures in Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy. American history. Sixty-five Her parents are the stock- years ago this September, broker John Vernou Bouvier III John Fitzgerald Kennedy and socialite Janet Norton Lee. married Ms. Jacqueline Lee KK IS FOR THE KENNEDYS k S IS FOR SIXTIES ERA At the beginning of the 1960s, many Americans It was not until 1964, after Kennedy was shot, that believed they were standing at the dawn of a President Lyndon B. Johnson could muster the po- golden age. On January 20, 1961, the handsome litical capital to enact his own expansive program and charismatic John F. Kennedy became presi- of reforms. That year, Johnson declared that he dent of the United States. His confidence that, as would make the United States into a “Great Society” one historian put it, “the government possessed in which poverty and racial injustice had no place. big answers to big problems” seemed to set the He developed a set of programs that would give tone for the rest of the decade. However, that poor people “a hand up, not a handout.” These golden age never materialized. On the contrary, included Medicare and Medicaid, which helped by the end of the 1960s it seemed that the na- elderly and low-income people pay for health tion was falling apart. During his presidential cam- care; Head Start, which prepared young children paign in 1960, John F. Kennedy had promised for school; and a Job Corps that trained unskilled the most ambitious domestic agenda since the workers for jobs in the deindustrializing economy. New Deal: the “New Frontier,” a package of laws Meanwhile, Johnson’s Office of Economic Oppor- and reforms that sought to eliminate injustice and tunity encouraged disadvantaged people to par- inequality in the United States. But the New Fron- ticipate in the design and implementation of the K tier ran into problems right away: The Democrats’ government’s programs on their behalf, while his k ss L IS FOR LSD LFor many, IS the psychedelicFOR Six- LSDLSD is just one mind-altering ties began at an event called the substance in a class of drugs Trips Festival that took place in called hallucinogens, which San Francisco the third week- cause people to have halluci- end of January 1966. At the nations—things that someone three-day blowout, between sees, hears or feels that appear 3,000 and 5,000 people trip- to be real but are in fact creat- ping on LSD — more than had ed by the mind. LSD is just one ever experienced the drug to- mind-altering substance in a gether — let loose. LSD is just class of drugs called halluci- one mind-altering substance nogens, which cause people in a class of drugs called hallu- to have hallucinations—things cinogens, which cause people that someone sees, hears or to have hallucinations—things feels that appear to be real but that someone sees, hears or are in fact created by the mind. feels that appear to be real but While the ‘60s countercul- LareL in fact created by the mind. ture used the drug to escape .

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