1960s Songs Volume 1

Lessons

• Lesson 1: House Of The Rising Sun - Guitar Lesson

  House Of The Rising Sun is an old folk song that found new life in the 60s, particularly after Eric Burdon and The Animals recorded their dynamic version featuring the electric guitar playing a distorted arpeggio through the chord progression. This lesson looks at fingerpicking it acoustically but it transfers very nicely to the electric as well.

• Lesson 2: Get Together Guitar Lesson - The Youngbloods

  Get Together is one of the most recognizable songs from the mid 1960s, and features the voice of Jesse Colin Young and his band, the Youngbloods. The lesson covers the campfire version, a couple of ways to play the opening lead, a bit about transposing to a key to better suite your voice, as well as details on creating a chord solo by combining the chords and melody.

• Lesson 3: California Dreamin - Mamas & Papas

  California Dreamin’ is a song that exemplifies the era of peace and love. Written by John Phillips shortly before forming The Mamas And The Papas, it was released in 1965 and is a great strumming and singing tune.

• Lesson 4: Love Street

  Jim Morrison penned the lyrics to *Love Street*watching hippies go by his house in Laurel Canyon in 1967. Guitarist Robby Krieger came up with a fascinating chord progression and melody that cycles through multiple keys. This guitar lesson includes a simple strumming accompaniment as well as an alternating fingerpicking one that is more like what Robby played. It is also quite a workout as it is best to play almost all the chords as barre chords. Love Street was released in 1968 on the Doors third album Waiting For The Sun.

• Lesson 5: White Rabbit

  In 1967 the so-called ‘Summer Of Love’ took place in California, specifically in San Francisco. The Jefferson Airplane was one of the main bands that were part of a developing sound now considered Psychedelic Rock. *White Rabbit*was written by Grace Slick while she with another band, The Great Society, and it is certainly one most identified with the time. It uses an unusual set of 6 major chords set to a hypnotic, bolero –type rhythm, an eastern-influenced opening lead played by Jorma Kaukonen, and fantasy lyrics based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. In the lesson we look at both the rhythm and lead guitar parts.

• Lesson 6: Season Of The Witch

  The psychedelic sound was not confined to the West Coast of California. Across the Atlantic, Donovan Leitch, who had already released two folk albums, became one of the first London musicians to adopt the sound and join the Flower Power brigade. His first recording with an electric guitar was *Season Of The Witch*, and although the ripples were not as big as the reaction to Dylan going electric, the times certainly were changing. This is really just a two-chord jam with almost improvised lyrics and the lesson talks about creating strumming patterns, transposing a chord progression to other keys, thoughts on lead playing using the Pentatonic Minor scale, and even includes a Jam Along segment.

• Lesson 7: Incense And Peppermints Guitar Lesson

  Much of the music we consider the soundtrack to the ‘Summer Of Love’ was created by bands based in Southern California. The Strawberry Alarm Clock might be classified by many as a ‘one hit wonder’ with their catchy tune *Incense And Peppermints*. With music written by Mark Weitz and Ed King (later of Lynyrd Skynyrd), its cryptic lyrics, heavy organ sound, and poppy background vocals epitomize the sound of Psychedelic Rock. It is a good example of many songs of the time that used disjointed chord progressions (not necessarily from a single key), many different parts, and layers of sound for a colorful effect. This lesson goes over the rhythm guitar and chord progressions.

• Lesson 8: Happy Together Guitar Lesson - Turtles

  Continuing the looking at oldies theme, we tackle the only Turtles song that hit #1 in the US, Happy Together (knocking out Penny Lane in 1967). The song is mostly a simple strumming tune but in the lesson we look at fingerpicking the distinctive intro.

• Lesson 9: In A Gadda Da Vida

  Iron Butterfly was a Southern California band formed in the mid-1960s who jumped on the heavy, psychedelic bandwagon and created one of the benchmark songs of the time, *In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.*It combined a catchy riff, a simple run, and a short chord progression with a classical organ intro and an extended jam with solos for each member into a classic rock masterpiece, although more from a historical perspective rather than musical virtuosity angle. In this lesson we look at the basic accompaniment parts but also take a classical guitar look at playing the rapid arpeggio opening. This segment would probably rate at Level 8, but the main part of the lesson is Level 5.

• Lesson 10: Eight Miles High - Guitar Lesson

  One of the bands that really helped define the Psychedelic Sound of the Sixties was The Byrds. Their early line up with Roger (Jim) McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Gene Clark produced a defining song of the era, *Eight Miles High.*The song featured McGuinn’s 12-string Rickenbacker guitar, combined elements influenced by John Coltrane and Ravi Shankar, and really opened up the ears of the musical community. This lesson goes over the chord progression and a foray into improvising in the Dorian mode… definitely a mind-expanding lesson.

• Lesson 11: Tobacco Road - Acoustic Guitar Lesson

  Tobacco Road is a well known and much recorded tune written by John D. Loudermilk but made famous by the likes of Lou Rawls, Eric Burdon, and Rare Earth, but originally recorded by an English band- the Nashville Teens. This lesson looks at the way John did it originally, using only 2 chords. Later, most artists turned it into a 12-bar blues.

• Lesson 12: So You Want To Be A Rock ’N’ Roll Star - Byrds - Guitar Lesson

  In 1967 The Byrds released Younger Than Yesterday, an album that included their famous cover of Bob Dylan’s My Back Pages, as well as their own jaded take on stardom, So You Want To Be A Rock’N’Roll Star.
  
  Roger McGuinn and bass player Chris Hillman put together most of the song, featuring a very simple, almost caveman progression, with a driving bass part and memorable opening lead. This lesson covers the progression, along with a few ways to incorporate the bass lines, as well as a look at the lead. It moves along very quickly but otherwise is not too difficult.

• Lesson 13: Sugar, Sugar - The Archies - Guitar Lesson

  ‘Sugar, Sugar’ is a pop song originally recorded by The Archies, a bubblegum pop band formed by a group of fictional teenagers in the television cartoon series The Archie Show. It became the 1969 number-one single of the year.
  
  This lesson covers the chords, the progression, the strumming and a relatively simple way to incorporate the signature riff. It also includes a segment about how to transpose it to another key in order to fit one’s vocal range.

• Lesson 14: Walk Away Renée

  In 1966 The Left Banke had a big hit with Walk Away Renée, a tune written by their teenage keyboardist Michael Brown (according to some sources). It turned out to be their only hit upon reflection over 50 year later.

  Michael played harpsichord on the tune, which also featured a short flute solo and vocals by Steve Martin Caro. The chord progression was built on a descending chromatic line that really gave the song its signature sound.

  This lesson is a way to play through the chords to accompany a singer, (maybe you!) and a soloist if you know any flute players. It includes a chart and specific techniques to strum through it, as well as a little theory section on bass runs and harmony.

• Lesson 15: Venus - Shocking Blue - Guitar Lesson

  In 1969 the Dutch band Shocking Blue added Mariska Veres to their line up and recorded Venus, a song written by their guitarist/founder Robbie van Leeuwen.
  
  They are a classic example of the one-hit-wonder tag that many bands get, despite the fact that a second near-hit of theirs was covered by Nirvana, Love Buzz.
  
  The song starts with a bang (courtesy of Pete Townsend), and follows with a simple chord progression with a driving bass line. This lesson covers double-time, syncopated, and percussive strumming, including a way to work the bass line into the strumming, as well as a technical breakdown of the short solo.