Rock music’s most significant summer?

We’re very keen round these parts to discuss “the greatest year in rock music”, whichever that may be on a particular day according to a particular person.

After reading extensive discussions about Lord Hepworth’s année de choix, I decided to check out 1971 in detail, which led me to compile my own chronology, which I then felt need expansion to encompass a couple of key years on either side. So I have ended up chronicling the half-decade from 1969 – the year the “Sixties” died, in more ways than one – to 1973, when Pink Floyd finally arrived on the Dark Side and Bowie killed Ziggy.

In the process of so doing, it became apparent that this was indeed a tumultuous period in the development of rock, pop and soul – even, perhaps, THE most tumultuous. The rise of Led Zeppelin to juggernaut status; the transmogrification of the post-Jones Stones; the redistribution of Cream’s constituent elements; the emergence of the solo singer-songwriter as a real force in popular music; not to mention the prolonged and painful dissolution of The Beatles and the reappearance of Dylan…

Moreover, I had the amazing realisation that many significant events which we normally view as points marked on separate timelines for individual artists or genres do, of course, overlap or occur in the same week, or even on the same day. I found this especially noticeable in the case of three months in the summer of 1969 and I reproduce them here for your edification.

July 2: Thunderclap Newman’s “Something In The Air”, a song that captures the post-Flower Power spirit of rebellion, begins a three-week run at no.1 in the UK singles chart. The band, put together by Pete Townsend of The Who, consists of jazz pianist Andy Newman, 15-year-old guitarist Jimmy McCulloch [who will later join Wings] and drummer Speedy Keen, who wrote and sang the song.

July 2: All four Beatles resume recording sessions for “Abbey Road”, work on which will continue until Aug 20.

July 2/3: Brian Jones is found dead around midnight, floating motionless at the bottom of the swimming pool at his home, Cotchford Farm in Sussex, less than a month after quitting the Rolling Stones. The coroner will later rule that his death, aged 27, was due to “misadventure”, noting that his liver and heart were heavily enlarged due to alcohol and drug abuse.

July 3: Nick Drake’s debut album, “Five Leaves Left”, is released.

July 3-6: Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island, experiments by adding blues and rock artists to the bill alongside such jazz greats as Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Buddy Rich, Dave Brubeck, Jimmy Smith, Bill Evans, Stephane Grapelli and Gerry Mulligan; performers include Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa, Sly & The Family Stone, James Brown, B B King, John Mayall and Ten Years After.

July 4: The Rolling Stones single “Honky Tonk Women” is issued in the UK [US release Jul 11].

July 4: John Lennon’s anti-war anthem “Give Peace A Chance” is released as a single in the UK, credited to The Plastic Ono Band [US release Jul 7].

July 4-5: The Atlanta International Pop Festival takes place in Georgia; performers include Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Canned Heat and Spirit.

July 5: The Rolling Stones play a free concert in Hyde Park, London, in tribute to Brian Jones; the performance is filmed for later broadcast on television as “The Stones In The Park”.

July 5-August 31: Led Zeppelin undertake a 36-date programme of summer festivals and theatre shows across North America.

July 5-August 9: The Who play a 10-date concert tour of the UK, beginning with two shows at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

July 7: The basic track for “Here Comes The Sun” is recorded, with George Harrison on lead vocal and acoustic guitar, Paul McCartney on backing vocal and bass, and Ringo Starr on drums. John Lennon does not contribute to the recording as he is still recovering from the car accident in which he and Yoko Ono were involved in June.

July 7: Joni Mitchell and Arlo Guthrie play at the Mississippi River Festival, Illinois; performances are filmed for TV broadcast Aug 3.

July 10: Rolling Stones fans flock to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, for the funeral of Brian Jones at St Mary’s Parish Church; following the service, he is buried at Cheltenham Cemetery where his memorial headstone records the date of death as Jul 3 [the death certificate, however, had placed the event just before midnight Jul 2].

July 11: David Bowie’s single “Space Oddity” is released, five days before the launch of the Apollo 11 mission, which will land on the Moon on Jul 20; the BBC will not play the song until the crew of three American astronauts are safely back on Earth.

July 11-12: The Laurel Pop Festival takes place in Maryland; performers include Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Ten Years After and Sly & The Family Stone.

July12-August 24: Blind Faith undertake a seven-week US tour, starting at Madison Square Garden, New York, and ending in Hawaii.

July 12: Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters become involved in recording sessions with Syd Barrett to help him complete his solo album, which Barrett and Gilmour will sequence in early October; “The Madcap Laughs” will be released in January 1970.

July12: A ten-week shoot begins in New South Wales for the movie “Ned Kelly”, starring Mick Jagger in the title role; the film will be premiered in Australia in July 1970.

July 14: Bob Dylan, with The Band, plays a set at the Mississippi River Festival, only his second public performance since his motorcycle accident in July 1966.

July 19: Joni Mitchell plays at Newport Folk Festival, Rhode Island.

July 21: Led Zeppelin and B B King perform in Central Park, New York, as part of the summer-long Schaefer Music Festival.

July 23: The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” replaces “Something In The Air” at the top of the UK singles chart.

July 24: Joni Mitchell and Tim Hardin perform in Central Park, New York [Schaefer Music Festival].

July 25-27: Led Zeppelin are among the performers at the Midwest Rock Festival, Milwaukee.

July 25-27: The Seattle Pop Festival takes place; performers include The Doors, The Byrds, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Spirit, Ten Years After and Tim Buckley.

July 31-August 28: Elvis Presley returns to live performance in Las Vegas.

August: Blind Faith’s self-titled debut album is released; it will also prove to be their last.

August 1: The Beach Boys and Neil Young perform in Central Park, New York [Schaefer Music Festival].

August 1-3: The Atlantic City Pop Festival takes place; performers include Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Canned Heat, Santana, Three Dog Night, Procol Harum, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley.

August 8-10: The National Jazz & Blues Festival [which will eventually become the Reading Festival] is held at Plumpton Racecourse, Sussex; performers include Pink Floyd, The Who, Soft Machine, Chicken Shack, King Crimson, Pentangle, The Nice, Family and The Bonzo Dog Band.

August 8: Iain Macmillan shoots photographs of The Beatles on a zebra crossing in London NW8; one image will be selected to adorn the front of the “Abbey Road” LP, which will become one of the best-known – and most-parodied – album covers of all time.

August 9-10: Seven people are murdered at two addresses in Benedict Canyon, north of Beverly Hills, California, by members of a criminal gang led by Charles Manson, a fanatic obsessed with the perceived impending race war which he terms “Helter Skelter”, after the McCartney song on The Beatles’ “White Album”. Among the victims is the actress Sharon Tate, the heavily pregnant girlfriend of film director Roman Polanski.

August 15-18: The Woodstock Music & Art Festival takes place in upstate New York. Performers include Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie, and Joan Baez [first day]; Santana, Canned Heat, Mountain, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, The Who, and Jefferson Airplane [second day]; and Joe Cocker, Ten Years After, The Band, CSNY and Jimi Hendrix [third day].

August 16: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young make their live debut in Chicago, ahead of their appearance at the final day of Woodstock.

August 18: Playing the closing set at Woodstock on “third day” of the festival [by now it was the morning of the fourth day, the acts having played through the night], Jimi Hendrix’s set includes what would become an iconic, and sometimes lampooned, version of the US national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

August 18: Jefferson Airplane, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Joni Mitchell record performances for ABC TV’s “The Dick Cavett Show”, which will be broadcast the following day.

August 20: Work on the new Beatles album is completed.

August 22-September 21: The Who play a short series of UK dates including the Isle of Wight Festival and ending at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon.

August 25-31: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young play seven nights at the Greek Theatre, West Hollywood, with Joni Mitchell opening for them.

August 30-31: The Isle of Wight Festival takes place at Wootton; performers include Bob Dylan [playing “Lay Lady Lay” live for the first time], The Band, The Who, Free, Family, Joe Cocker, Moody Blues, The Nice, Pretty Things and The Bonzo Dog Band.

August 30-September 1: The Texas International Pop Festival takes place at Lewisville; performers include Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Sly & The Family Stone and Ten Years After.

August 30-September 1: The New Orleans Pop Festival takes place at Prairieville, Louisiana; performers include Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Iron Butterfly, Canned Heat, Santana, Dr John and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

September 13: John Lennon & Plastic Ono Band play at the Toronto Rock’n’Roll Revival music festival, his first performance without one of The Beatles since meeting Paul McCartney in 1957 [a live album will be released two months later]; other performers include The Doors, Chicago, Alice Cooper, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis.

September 13-14: The sixth Big Sur Folk Festival in California, the biggest yet, includes performances by Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian, CSNY and Flying Burrito Brothers; the festival is filmed, but it will be 1971 before the resulting movie, “Celebration At Big Sur”, is released.

September 19: Fleetwood Mac’s album “Then Play On” is released; it will prove to be their last with leader Peter Green.

September 20: After a meeting with manager Alan Klein, at which three of The Beatles [John, Paul, Ringo] sign a new business contract [George Harrison, visiting his mother in Cheshire, will sign several days later], Lennon tells McCartney and Starr that he intends to quit the band; he had informed Klein the previous week, but the manager had urged him not to go public with his decision.

September 22: The Band’s self-titled second album is released.

September 24: Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra perform “Concerto For Group And Orchestra” at the Royal Albert Hall, the first major collaboration between a rock band and an orchestra.

September 25: “The Stones In The Park” film is broadcast on ITV in Britain.

September 26: The Beatles’ new album, entitled “Abbey Road”, is released in the UK [US release Oct 1].

September 30: John Lennon records “Cold Turkey” at Abbey Road Studios, with Eric Clapton on guitar; it will be issued as a single three weeks later.

Key albums [July]

Tim Buckley: “Happy Sad”
Miles Davis: “In A Silent Way”
The Doors: “Soft Parade”
Nick Drake: “Five Leaves Left”
Fairport Convention: “Unhalfbricking”
Yes: “Yes”

Key albums [August]

Blind Faith: “Blind Faith”
Jack Bruce: “Songs For A Tailor”
Donovan: “Barabajagal”
Isley Brothers: “The Brothers: Isley”
Love: “Four Sail”
Santana: “Santana”
The Stooges: “The Stooges”
Various artists: “Easy Rider” [soundtrack]

Key albums [September]

The Band: “The Band”
The Beatles: “Abbey Road”
Fleetwood Mac: “Then Play On”
Isaac Hayes: “Hot Buttered Soul”
Laura Nyro: “New York Tendaberry”

So, there you have it. A tumultuous three months. The year will end, of course, in the debacle that was Altamont.

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