The 1960s' Most Wanted

The 1960s was a decade of contrasts. It had the Summer of Love, but it also witnessed the assassinations of three American leaders. The era gave us surf music on one end, psychedelic songs on the other, and in between heralded the British Invasion. Now you can relive the 1960s with Stuart Shea's The 1960s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Hip Happenings, Swinging Sounds, and Out-of-Sight Oddities. Shea gives you dozens of top-ten lists with entertaining and remarkable trivia on historic events, political revolutionaries, forgotten but once-popular television shows, fashion breakthroughs, great sports stories, the best and worst of the silver screen, and much more.

Excerpt

The 1960s saw a slew of popular songs with socially relevant lyrics. Some of these records became standards, while others are perhaps best forgotten. Here are some of the best and most important ones, from both ends and the middle of the political spectrum.

1. "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore," Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs considered himself a journalist who just happened to carry a guitar, but this 1965 song, one of his best and most rousing, was more of a cautionary history lesson.

Assuming the character of the American soldier used as cannon fodder, who had killed his brothers during the Civil War, slaughtered Native Americans, dropped bombs on Japan, and protected fruit-industry profits in Central America, Ochs finally stands up and says, "Call it peace or call it treason/call it love or call it reason/but I ain't marchin' anymore."