1967: A Year In The Life Of The Beatles History, Subjectivity, Music Linda Engebråten Masteroppgave ved Institutt for Musikkvitenskap UNIVERSITETET I OSLO November 2010 Acknowledgements First, I would like to express my gratitude towards my supervisor Stan Hawkins for all his knowledge, support, enthusiasm, and his constructive feedback for my project. We have had many rewarding discussions but we have also shared a few laughs about that special music and time I have been working on. I would also like to thank my fellow master students for both useful academically discussions as much as the more silly music jokes and casual conversations. Many thanks also to Joel F. Glazier and Nancy Cameron for helping me with my English. I thank John, Paul, George, and Ringo for all their great music and for perhaps being the main reason I begun having such a big interest and passion for music, and without whom I may not have pursued a career in a musical direction at all. Many thanks and all my loving to Joakim Krane Bech for all the support and for being so patient with me during the course of this process. Finally, I would like to thank my closest ones: my wonderful and supportive family who have never stopped believing in me. This thesis is dedicated to my grandparents. There are places I'll remember All my life though some have changed. Some forever not for better Some have gone and some remain. All these places have their moments With lovers and friends I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living, In my life I've loved them all. – In My Life, The Beatles Table of contents Introduction........................................................................................................................................1 It was forty years ago today ............................................................................................................1 Real Love - The Beatles and me .......................................................................................................2 Research goals ............................................................................... Feil! Bokmerke er ikke definert. Method ...........................................................................................................................................6 The choice of a small frame .........................................................................................................6 History and historiography ..........................................................................................................6 Music analysis .............................................................................................................................7 Choosing analytical material ......................................................................................................... 10 Literature and resources ............................................................................................................... 11 The thesis’ structure ..................................................................................................................... 12 The Summer of Love ......................................................................................................................... 13 The Haight- Ashbury community ................................................................................................... 14 Decisive moments in the development of the San Francisco hippie scene ................................. 15 60s Counterculture ....................................................................................................................... 17 Hippies as a subculture and as a counterculture ........................................................................ 18 Love is all you need, and you can make love not war with a little help from your friends ........... 19 Feed Your Head: Psychedelia and the psychedelic experience ................................................... 21 The Swinging London scene .......................................................................................................... 22 Decisive happenings and places of the London Scene ................................................................ 26 Popular music: Music with a message ........................................................................................... 30 Rock as art ................................................................................................................................ 31 Eight Miles High: Psychedelic music .............................................................................................. 33 The San Francisco Sound ........................................................................................................... 35 British Psychedelic music ........................................................................................................... 37 Summer of love on a global scale .................................................................................................. 39 Monterey International Pop Festival ............................................................................................. 42 Love’s ending ................................................................................................................................ 46 Revolution, Street Fighting Men, and The Unknown Soldier ...................................................... 46 Legacy: music, love and acid ......................................................................................................... 47 Strawberry Fields Forever ................................................................................................................. 50 Let me take you down… the journey to Strawberry Fields Forever ................................................. 51 That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right… Recording ”Strawberry Fields Forever” ......... 52 The “big edit” ............................................................................................................................ 54 The final version............................................................................................................................ 55 It’s a dream… a progressive dream ................................................................................................ 58 Strawberry Fields Forever and the ideology of rock ....................................................................... 60 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 61 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band .............................................................................................. 62 The album sleeve .......................................................................................................................... 82 Psychedelic Victorian design ......................................................................................................... 87 A splendid time is guaranteed for all! ............................................................................................ 89 All You Need Is Love .......................................................................................................................... 92 Our World ..................................................................................................................................... 93 The writing and recording process of a number one hit ................................................................. 94 An anthemic march ....................................................................................................................... 96 The Performance of All You Need Is Love ...................................................................................... 98 Love on a global scale, irony and camp ........................................................................................ 100 Love Is All You Need .................................................................................................................... 103 Post-Pepper period ......................................................................................................................... 105 It was 43 years ago today (reprise) - Final thoughts ......................................................................... 110 Literature and resources ................................................................................................................. 112 Discography .................................................................................................................................... 121 Games ............................................................................................................................................ 123 Videography ................................................................................................................................... 124 Introduction It was forty years ago today The date is June 18 1967 and all that is left on the stage after Jimi Hendrix‟s performance is a smashed up and burnt guitar. Jimi Hendrix has just shocked the audience at the world‟s first rock festival, The Monterey International Pop Festival. Hendrix‟s performance, including a fiery version of “Wild Thing”, amongst with his unforeseen activities, has contributed to his rising popularity and a longed breakthrough in the US. Many San Francisco based bands also gained huge success, including The Jefferson Airplane,