In several past e-mails I've spoken at length about the soft rock era of the early '70s, but like every other major musical trend (except the Fab Four, of course) it didn't just happen suddenly without anybody expecting it. The first seeds of the genre appeared to be in the process of being sown this very week in '67. Think about it: we were at the end of the Summer of Love, the death of hippiedom (at least in a mock-formal ceremony in Frisco, anyway), garage had been overcome by psychedelia, rock was growing up, maturing, beginning to shed its juvenile, "teen rebel" image and becoming widely hailed as an art form. And early rock-era stars like Bobby Vee, Frankie Valli, and even the Everlys had started to return in a big way. Similar to Wall Street, where you sometimes see a "market correction" when the DJ goes thru a relatively brief downturn after a long upward climb, the Top 40 overall appeared to be entering the initial stages of the same kind of thing. And what better example than the #1 record on the above countdown. Even though heavy metal was still around the corner, whodathunk a song like "Ode to Billie Joe" would make such a HUGE impression? It wasn't even soft rock, it was an old-fashioned traditional Southern-style folk song. I was at summer camp for two weeks that August, and when I came home and looked at the Evening Star's "Area Disc Jockeys Pick Top Ten Records" chart, OTBJ was #1 all the way across the board. I was totally flabbergasted! There was no trace of it anywhere two weeks earlier but it had risen SO fast I remember wondering if somebody on the newspaper suffered a serious mental short-circuit. And there were more signs of mellower things to come on the charts over the next 3 years, but they will have to wait for my analysis until later. This part is more than enough for now. Regards, Jeff
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Posted By: Jeff on: 08/30/2006 20:44:02 EDT