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Curated playlist

Counterculture of the 1960s

  • Bob DylanAt a 1966 Manchester concert, Bob Dylan told his band to play loud after a heckler called him Judas.
  • Jimi HendrixJimi Hendrix's first guitar was a one-string ukulele found in the garbage. He learned by ear to Elvis songs.
  • John LennonJohn Lennon was ordered to leave the United States in 1973. His anti-war activities had alarmed President Nixon.
  • LSDThe CIA bought the entire world supply of LSD for $240,000. It then sent the drug to hospitals and prisons.
  • Psychedelic musicPsychedelic music tries to copy three effects of LSD, according to author Michael Hicks.
  • HippieThe word hippie first appeared in a 1965 San Francisco Examiner article.
  • Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden by hiding in an underground meat locker.
  • Marx BrothersThe Marx Brothers became a comedy act because of a runaway mule.
  • Rolling StoneRolling Stone magazine began in 1967 on $7,500 borrowed from family. Its first cover showed John Lennon in a helmet.
  • Hunter S. ThompsonHunter S. Thompson's Gonzo style began as a Kentucky Derby deadline scramble. He mailed pages ripped from his notebook.
  • John CageJohn Cage once had a pianist play nothing for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Audience noise became the music.
  • The DoorsThe Doors sang the banned word "higher" on The Ed Sullivan Show. Network executives had asked the band to cut it.
  • Ralph BakshiRalph Bakshi sold CBS a show it already owned. CBS had acquired the Terrytoons library in 1955 and forgotten it.
  • Philip K. DickPhilip K. Dick died four months before Blade Runner opened. He never saw the film that made his name famous.
  • François TruffautIn 1958 François Truffaut was the only French critic not invited to Cannes. A year later, Cannes gave him Best Director.
  • Jean GenetIn 1949, facing a possible life sentence, Jean Genet was saved by a petition.
  • Mad (magazine)Mad magazine once received a letter whose envelope carried no address and no name, only a drawing of a gap-toothed boy's face. The United States mail delivered it anyway. According to Mad writer Frank Jacobs, the face alone did the job.…
  • Jane FondaJane Fonda sat on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun during a 1972 visit to Hanoi, and a photograph of that moment outraged a large number of Americans. It earned her a nickname that has followed her for decades: Hanoi Jane. For many…
  • Michelangelo AntonioniAfter a stroke took his speech, Michelangelo Antonioni kept directing films. He made Beyond the Clouds in 1995.
  • Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard dropped his script and wrote dialogue day by day for the film Breathless.
  • WBAIWBAI staff once seized their own radio studios and transmitter in protest.
  • Frank ZappaAs a boy, Frank Zappa spread mercury across his bedroom floor with a hammer. His father brought it home from work.
  • Summer of LoveAs many as 100,000 people flooded into Haight-Ashbury during the 1967 Summer of Love. It could not hold them.
  • Jean-Pierre MelvilleAs the story goes, Jean-Pierre Melville died at dinner after writing 200 shots of a new film that morning.
  • British InvasionThe British Invasion may owe part of its start to a letter from a 15-year-old girl, Marsha Albert of Silver Spring, Maryland. She had watched a television news story about the Beatles, a story first prepared for the 22nd of November 1963…
  • Richard LesterRichard Lester started college at 15 to study psychology, not film. MTV later called him Father of the Music Video.

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