Friday, April 7, 1967: KMPX

Tom Donahue takes over the 8 p.m.-to-midnight shift at FM radio station KMPX in San Francisco, extending the station's embrace of what came to be known variously as underground radio, progressive radio or free-form radio -- in other words, music beyond the bounds of top 40. (In February, Larry Miller had brought the anything-goes format to KMPX with his midnight-to-6 a.m. program.)

     -- Tom Donahue, left, at KMPX in 1967; photo by Michael Ochs

* "A Brief History of 106.9 FM in San Francisco" (Bay Area Radio Museum): @

* "FM 107 KMPX, San Francisco: Tom Donahue" (includes sound clip from May 1967; Bay Area Radio Museum): @

* Larry Miller handbill (Bay Area Radio Museum): @
* KMPX staff, 1968 (photo by Baron Wolman): @

* Donahue biography ("Encyclopedia of Radio," edited by Christopher H. Sterling, 2004): @
* Donahue biography (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame): @

* "One More Page in the Book of Love: Tom Donahue, 1928-1975" (Greil Marcus, 1975): @

* "Birth of Community Rock Radio: A Brief History of KMPX and KSAN-FM" (FoundSF): @

* KMPX entry from www.jive95.com (site devoted to KSAN; includes sound clips): @

* "KMPX San Francisco Radio Workers Strike 1968" (Global Nonviolent Action Database): @

* "Free-Form Revolutionaries of Top 40 Radio / How Donahue, Syracuse Rocked the Bay Area Airwaves" (www.sfgate.com, 1998): @

* "Rock Stations Giving Albums the Air Play" (Billboard, July 22, 1967): @
* "KMPX's Tom Donahue Programs Music with a Wide Open View" (Billboard, December 30, 1967): @
* "The Underground Radio Turn-On" (Look magazine, June 24, 1969; from New York Radio Archive; scroll down for page images): @

* "FM Underground Radio: Love for Sale" (Rolling Stone, April 1970): @

* "Hip Capitalism" (Susan Krieger, 1979): @ 
* "The Republic of Rock" (Michael J. Kramer, 2013): @

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Friday, March 31, 1967: Jimi Hendrix sets guitar on fire

During a show at London's Finsbury Park Astoria, Jimi Hendrix puts a match to his lighter-fluid-soaked guitar, a stunt that would be more famously repeated (and photographed) at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival in June.

     -- Image, news account from Associated Press

* Summary from www.jimihendrix.com: @
* Excerpt from "Jimi Hendrix Gear: The Guitars, Amps & Effects That Revolutionized Rock 'n' Roll" (Michael Heatley, 2009): @
* Excerpt from "The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix" (David Moscowitz, 2010): @

* "Jimi Hendrix's PR Reveals Truth About First Guitar Burning" (Uncut, 2008): @

* "The Day Jimi Hendrix Set His Guitar on Fire for the First Time" (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2015): @

* Tour program (recordmecca.com): @ 

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Thursday, March 30, 1967: Photo shoot for 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'

The image on the album cover is composed of a collage of celebrities. There are 88 figures, including the band members themselves. Pop artist Peter Blake and his wife Jann Haworth conceived and constructed the set, including all the life-size cutouts of historical figures. The set was photographed, with the Beatles standing in the centre, by Michael Cooper. Copyright was a problem as Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager, had to locate each person in order to get permission to use their image in this context.

-- From Victoria and Albert Museum, London: @

* "Making The Cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (www.thebeatles.com): @

* "Cover shoot for Sgt. Pepper" (The Beatles Bible): @

* "Sgt. Pepper Cover" (The Beatles Website): @

* "Behind the Cover of Sgt. Pepper" (Entertainment Weekly): @
* "The Sgt. Pepper's Album Cover: Faces in the Crowd" (Performing Songwriter): @

* Summary from albumlinernotes.com: @

* More about Peter Blake ("The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four," Kenneth Womack, 2014: @ 

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Saturday, January 14, 1967: 'Human Be-In'

SAN FRANCISCO -- Anybody who was nobody was there.

     And if there were any anybodys, nobody knew.

     It was the city's biggest social event of the season but it failed to make the society pages.

     It was a happening.

     It took place Saturday at the polo field in Golden Gate Park. They were all there -- the hippy denizens of the Haight-Asbury District and outlying regions, the activists from Berkeley, the Hells Angles, students, beatniks, toddlers. Thirteen thousand of them under a sunny sky.

     And about 2,000 spectators, some of them bemused, some completely dumbfounded. The police also sent a delegation, mainly to ticket dozens of illegally parked cars.

     Word of the event began circulating earlier this month in the Haight-Asbury, home for many of the city's far-out types. It was billed as a "human Be-In" and a "Gathering of the Tribes," a get-together for political activists and hippies. The public was also invited and asked to bring "costumes, blankets, bells, flags, symbols, drums, beads, feathers and flowers."

     -- Story by United Press International

     -- Photo by Ted Streshinsky

* "Reliving the Human Be-In 50 Years Later" (San Francisco Chronicle, January 2017): @

* Summary from California Historical Society: @

* Description from Peter Coyote: @

* "Human Be-In in San Francisco 1967" (The Allen Ginsberg Project, July 2011): @

* "The Human Be-In" (Helen Perry, 1970): @

* "The Beginning is the Human Be-In" (Berkeley Barb, January 6, 1967): @
* "What Happened at the Hippening" (Berkeley Barb, January 20, 1967): @
* Footage: @ and @

* Photos by Larry Kennan: @

* Poster (Oakland Museum of California): @ 

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Monday, September 12, 1966: 'The Monkees'

     Imagine the Marx Brothers as a long-haired rock and roll group, who make a movie called "A Hard Day's Night" to be shown on the "Hullabaloo" TV series. That, friends, is the briefest way to describe The Monkees!

     Filmed at the pell-mell pace of teenage existence, photographed with some offbeat movie-making techniques, the program stars a group of three Americans and one English boy who never saw each other before the series.

     The plot? The freewheeling description by NBC puts it this way: "The Monkees quartet play dates, but are more often 'at liberty,' where they must conquer such foes as automation, unemployment, longhair music, landlords, rival musicians, strict parents and fickle girlfriends."

     -- Summary from TV Week, September 1966

     -- Image from TV Guide (via http://monkee45s.net/)

* Official website: @

* www.monkeeslivealmanac: @
* www.monkees.net: @
* Album reviews (www.allmusic.com): @
* TV series (www.imdb.com): @

* " 'The Monkees' broke the fourth wall of 1960s TV" (www.avclub.com): @ 

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Tuesday, September 6, 1966: 'Star Trek'

The science-fiction series' first televised episode, "The Man Trap," premieres on Canada's CTV, two days before its American debut on NBC.

     -- Image from TV Guide, September 10-16, 1966

* Summary (from Memory Alpha): @

* Summary (from StarTrek.com): @

* Summary (from tor.com): @

* Script (from chakoteya.net): @
* Full episode (from CBS.com): @

* "TV: Spies, Space and the Stagestruck" (from The New York Times, September 16, 1966): @
* "Original 'Star Trek' Reviewers Just Didn't Get It" (from time.com, 2014): @ 

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August 1966: The Beatles

"Revolver"

     The album was released on August 5 in Britain and August 8 in the United States.

* Summary from www.thebeatles.com: @

* Summary from The Beatles Bible: @

* "UK Album Release" (The Beatles Bible): @

* "U.S. Album Release" (The Beatles Bible): @

* "The Beatles: U.S. vs. UK Album Guide" (Ultimate Classic Rock): @

* Album review (Kevin Courrier, Critics At Large): @

* Album review (Scott Plagenhoef, Pitchfork): @

* "Classic Album Dissection" ("Sound Opinions," 2006): @

* "The Kinks vs. The Beatles: Ray Davies Thought 'Revolver' was Garbage" (dangerousminds.net): @

* "How I drew a pop art masterpiece for the Beatles" (The Guardian, 2016): @

* " 'Revolver': How the Beatles Reimagined Rock 'n' Roll" (Robert Rodriguez, 2012): @

"We're more popular than Jesus now"

* Post from March 4, 1966, when the story was originally published in the London Evening Standard: @

Candlestick Park, San Francisco

     The band's August 29 show marked their last live performance until their rooftop concert in London on January 30, 1969.

* Summary from The Beatles Bible: @

* "The Beatles at Candlestick in 1966: An oral history from the fans" (San Francisco Chronicle, 2014): @

* "Listen to cassette recording of The Beatles' final concert at Candlestick Park" (Consequence of Sound): @ 

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July 1966: Black Panther

The Black Panther, the first African American superhero*, appeared in Marvel Comics' "Fanastic Four" #52 in 1966. Born as T'Challa in the fictional African land of Wakanda, his father, a tribal chief, was killed by a white Dutchman intent on stealing Wakanda's natural resources. T'Challa swore to avenge his father's death and traveled to the West to study science. He returned to Wakanda to rule as the Black Panther and transformed his homeland into a prosperous nation.

     -- From "Africana: the Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience" (edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., 2005): @

     * Note: The Black Panther is often referred to as the first black superhero, as his origins are African rather than African-American.

* Summaries of Fantastic Four #52 and #53 (Marvel Masterworks): @ and @

* Summaries of Fantastic Four #52 and #53 (Marvel Database): @ and @

* Black Panther profile (Marvel.com): @
* Profile (Marvel Directory): @

* Profile (ComicBookDB.com): @
* Profile (Comic Vine): @
* "Everything You Need To Know About Black Panther Before Marvel's 'Civil War' " (io9.gizmodo.com, 2016): @
* Summary from "Icons of the American Comic Book: From Captain America to Wonder Woman" (2013): @
* "Marvel in the Civil Rights Era: A noble Panther, a gritty Cage" (Gary Phillips, 2012): @
* "Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes" (Adilifu Nama, 2011): @ 
* Stan Lee website: @

* Jack Kirby Museum: @

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The Beatles' 'Butcher Cover'

March 25
Photo session with Robert Whitaker in Chelsea, London.
* Summary from The Beatles Bible: @
* Photos from session and album cover images (www.rarebeatles.com): @
* Robert Whitaker Photography: @
* More Beatles photos from Robert Whitaker (Morrison Hotel Gallery): @ 

June 3-4

Album cover photo appears in music advertisements.

* Summary from www.rarebeatles.com: @

June 11

Photo appears on cover of Disc and Music Echo.

* Summary from www.rarebeatles.com: @

June 14

Capitol Records sends letter to reviewers, telling them the cover is being replaced.

* Summary from abouthebeatles.com: @

June 15

Release date in United States.

* Summary from The Beatles Bible: @

* "Capitol Records has withdrawn the cover of the latest Beatles recording because disc jockeys complained it as offensive." (United Press International): @

June 25

* "Beatles LP Makes Cap. Run for Cover" (Billboard magazine, page 3): @

* Also in the issue is a full-page ad with the replacement cover (page 41).

Other resources

* Discography and Price Guide (www.rarebeatles.com): @

* www.thebutchercover.com: @
* www.thebeatlesbutchershop.com: @

* "Who Butchered the Beatles?" (www.snopes.com): @
* "Who Butchered the Beatles?" (www.recmusicbeatles.com): @

* "Who Butchered Who?" (www.popularmusic.info): @ 

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Monday, May 16, 1966: 'Pet Sounds'

Departing from the Beach Boys' surf-music roots, "Pet Sounds" was an emotive and carefully planned recording that attempted to present an album as a unified work and not merely a collection of singles. The album is notable for Brian Wilson's lead vocals* and the harmonizing support from the other band members. Equally compelling are the melodies and the arrangements, the latter featuring, among other instruments, horns, strings, theremin, accordion and a glockenspiel. The album has proven to be the most complete statement of Wilson's musical and lyrical aesthetic.

-- From National Recording Registry, Library of Congress

-- * Other group members also sang lead vocals, most notably Carl Wilson on "God Only Knows"

* Listen to the album (archive.org): @

* Album review (AllMusic): @

* Album reviews (Rolling Stone): @ and @

* "Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: 'Pet Sounds' " (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame): @

* "The Making (and Remaking) of the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds,' Arguably the Greatest Rock Album of All Time" (Open Culture): @

* "The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, On Stage and in the Studio" (Keith Badman, 2004): @

* "The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds' " (Jim Fusilli, 2005): @ 

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Monday, April 25, 1966: 'Pop!'

    Peter Benchley's cover story on pop culture begins: "It's a fad, it's a trend, it's a way of life. It's pop." and goes on to say that "In short, pop is what's happening ... it's anything that is imaginative, nonserious, rebellious, new, or nostalgic: anything, basically, fun." (Full story, from Lichtenstein Foundation via Internet Archive: @)

     Roy Lichtenstein's cover illustration was similar to the comic-book-style words that appeared on screen during fight scenes in TV's "Batman." 

Resources
*"The Continuing Influence of Popular Culture on Contemporary Art" (Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia, 2003): @

* "American Pop Frankenstein? Andy Warhol, Iconic Experience and the Advent of the Pop Society" (Steve Sherwood, UCLA): @

* Entry from blogs.artinfo.com: @

* Peter Benchley website: @

* Roy Lichtenstein website: @

Related posts
* "Batman" (January 12, 1966): @
* "Notes on 'Camp' " (September 1964): @

* Pop art at the Guggenheim (March 14, 1963): @

* "Pop Goes the Easel" (March 25, 1962): @
* Andy Warhol's soup cans (July 9, 1962): @

* Roy Lichtenstein (1961): @ 

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April 1966: 'Frank Sinatra Has A Cold'

Gay Talese's profile of Frank Sinatra is published in the April 1966 issue of Esquire magazine. It stands as one of the high achievements of "New Journalism," in which writers use all manner of literary techniques to tell a nonfiction story. The profile is also noteworthy in that Talese did not interview Sinatra, talking instead to the people in the entertainer's circle.

-- Subhed reads: "And some of the most important people in some of the most important places in New York, New Jersey, Southern California and Las Vegas are suddenly developing postnasal drop"
-- Cover illustration by Edward Sorel

* Full story (www.esquire.com): @
* Annotated version, 2013 (niemanstoryboard.org): @

* Oral interview with Talese, 2015 (soundcloud.com): @

* "The Birth of 'The New Journalism' " (Tom Wolfe, New York magazine, February 14, 1972): @

* Complete issue of New York magazine (February 14, 1972): @
* Short summary of "New Journalism" (from "Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices," edited by Roger Chapman, 2010): @
* "The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote and the New Journalism Revolution" (Marc Weingarten, 2010): @
* "Literary Journalism in the Twentieth Century" (edited by Norman Sims, 2008): @
* "The Esquire Decade" (Frank Digiacoma, Vanity Fair magazine, January 2007): @
* "It Wasn't Pretty, Folks, But Didn't We Have Fun? Surviving the '60s with Esquire's Harold Hayes" (Carol Posgrove, 2001): @

* Talese biography (www.newjournalism.com): @

* Talese's website (via Random House): @

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February 1966: 'Valley of the Dolls' published

A swinging first novel about fast spending, free loving and despair among the jet-set celebrities of Broadway and Hollywood. Miss Susann spans 20 postwar years in the lives of three women who can be loosely categorized as Anne, the Face; Jennifer, the Body, and Neely, the Talent.

     Each of the three achieved fame in her own way -- Anne doing high-priced commercials on television; Jennifer making nude movies in France, and Neely singing in nightclubs and films -- but none of them was able to attain happiness.

     All three ultimately become devotees of the "dolls" of Miss Susann's title. The pills which a Broadway attorney who functions as a deus ex machina in the story describes as "standard equipment for this business."

     Miss Susann's thesis is the not unfamiliar one that the pinnacle of stardom is a cold and lonely place, likely to destroy anyone who ascends to it. The point is not clearly made. Certainly stardom is self-destroying the one of her characters, but another is plagued by cancer and the third by an unfaithful husband -- afflictions not peculiar to show business.

     -- United Press International

* www.valleyofthedolls.com: @

* Book: @
* "Actress-Writer's Best Seller Creates Furor in Hollywood" (UPI, August 1966): @

* "Happiness is Being Number 1" (Life magazine, August 19, 1966): @

* " 'Valley of the Dolls' at 50" (Simon Doonan, Slate, February 2016): @

* "How 'Valley of the Dolls' went from a reject to a 30-million best-seller" (Martin Chilton, The Telegraph, February 2016): @
* "What Was It about 'Valley of the Dolls'? It Was Jacqueline Susann" (Kate Dries, Jezebel, February 2016): @

* "Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann" (Barbara Seaman, 1996): @ 

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Wednesday, January 12, 1966: 'Batman'

-- From Susan Sontag's "Notes on 'Camp'," September 1964: @

-- Dialogue from a first "Batman" episode, from Know It All Joe: @

January 12: Batman, "Hi Diddle Riddle." (Premiere) This show, which is part adventure for the kiddies and part satire-pop humor for the adults, will be shown on Wednesdays and Thursdays in two segment. Adam West stars as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. In this episode, the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) lures our hero into a discotheque were he succumbs to Molly (Jill St. John). Robin is kidnapped and all ends in glorious chaos. -- McClure Newspaper Syndicate: @

January 13: Batman, "Smack in the Middle." More gimmicks, more wild puns and way-out humor in the second installment of the premiere of this new crazy show. The consensus seems to be that you either love the series with a dedicated fervor or it misses you completely. Tonight the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), who is holding Robin (Burt Ward) captive, decides to use him as bait for a horrible trap for Batman (Adam West). -- McClure Newspaper Syndicate: @

Programming note: "Batman" displaced "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (which moved from Wednesdays to Saturdays). "Shindig!", which had been running on Thursdays and Saturdays, was canceled.

* Guide to Season 1 episodes (Comics Alliance): @

* Summary from Museum of Broadcast Communcations: @

* Interviews from Archive of American Television: @

* The Batcave Archives: @

* Bat-Mania: 1966 Batman Online: @

* The 1966 Batman Message Board: @

* To the Batpoles! (blog): @
* "Now, Batman Hits The Tube! Zowie!" (Joan Crosby, Newspaper Enterprise Association, January 16, 1966): @

* "Here Comes the Batman" (Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal, January 16, 1966): @
* Life magazine, March 11, 1966: @ 
* Entry from "The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television" (John Kenneth Muir, 2004): @
* "Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon" (Will Brooker, 2013): @
* "Batman" (Matt Yockey, 2014): @

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Tuesday, January 4, 1966: Ronald Reagan runs for governor

Ronald Reagan's decision to run for the Republican nomination for governor provided California with a new style of politics today and touched off more bitterness in a heated Republican primary campaign.

     A half-hour film,  shown on 16 television stations, introduced Reagan to the voters Tuesday night -- a sharp contrast to the rallies, dinners and news conferences candidates have traditionally used to tell the people they will run.

     The viewers saw him standing in a relaxed manner in a comfortably furnished den -- it was a studio set -- talking calmly of state affairs. Gone were the placards and bands of years past.

     He conceded he was a political novice, aspiring to be chief executive of the nation's most populous state.

     "I am not a politician in the traditional sense of ever having held a public office, but I think I can lay claim to being a citizen politician," he said.

     -- Story from Associated Press: @

     -- Photo of Reagan filing nomination papers (March 9, 1966; Los Angeles Times photo from UCLA Library Digital Collections): @

     

* "Ronald Reagan and a Need for Action!" (announcement film): @

* Reagan's appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" (January 9, 1966): @

* "The Real Ronald Reagan Stands Up" (Life magazine, January 21, 1966): @ 
* Earlier post on Republicans' "11th Commandment" (September 25, 1965): @

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