I’m a Believer Groovin’ Tunes of ‘67

By King Harris
Fifty years ago this month, I had a feeling the New Year of 1967 would be challenging and it was.
I was trying to avoid the Army and stay out of the Vietnam War. As things turned out, I opted for the Navy, but my boots would still be on the ground and not on a destroyer.
To combat my upcoming despair, I turned to the music of the day, which I thought might relieve some of my anxieties. Fifty years ago this month the top song nationwide was “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees, an upbeat, feel-good song written by Neil Diamond.
Motown continued its dominance on the charts with “Standing in the Shadows of Love” by the Four tops and “Love is Here” by the Supremes. Actress, Marcia Strassman, scored huge with a hippie tune called, “Where are the Flower Children,” which had me asking what in the heck is a flower child?
The upcoming “Summer of Love” would answer that. The latest rocker by the Rolling Stones was two-sided: “Ruby Tuesday” backed with “Let’s spend the Night Together” the lyrics of which they were forced to change (but didn’t) on the Ed Sullivan Show, to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.”
Sonny and Char delivered a sign of the times with “The Beat Goes On:”
The beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da
Charleston was once the rage, uh huh
History has turned the page, uh huh
The miniskirt’s the current thing, uh huh
Teenybopper is our newborn king, uh huh
And the beat goes on, beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da
The grocery store’s the supermart, uh huh
Little girls still break their hearts, uh huh
And men still keep on marching off to war
Electrically they keep a baseball score
And the beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da
Grandmas sit in chairs and reminisce
Boys keep chasing girls to get a kiss
The cars keep a going faster all the time
Bums still cries, “Hey buddy, have you got a dime?”
And the beat goes on, the beat goes on…
At the same time, The Buffalo Springfield left us a potent message:
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It’s s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away…
Fifty years ago today and “For What It’s Worth” is still relevant.
And so too is, “Happy Together,” one of the great songs by the Turtles:
Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night, it’s only right
To think about the girl you love and hold her tight
So happy together
If I should call you up, invest a dime
And you say you belong to me and ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be, so very fine
So happy together
I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you
For all my life
When you’re with me, baby the skies’ll be blue
For all my life. So happy together…
Imaginary, but hopeful, I suppose.
And of course ringing in the New Year of 1967 wouldn’t be the complete without the Bryds:
So you want to be a rock and roll star?
Then listen now to what I say
Just get an electric guitar
Then take some time
And learn how to play
And with your hair swung right
And your pants too tight
It’s gonna be all right
Then it’s time to go downtown
Where the agent man won’t let you down
Sell your soul to the company
Who are waiting there to sell plastic ware
And in a week or two
If you make the charts
The girls’ll tear you apart
The price you paid for your riches and fame
Was it all a strange game?
You’re a little insane
The money, the fame, and the public acclaim
Don’t forget who you are
You’re a rock and roll star…
By the time that Roger McGuinn and Hugh Masakela trumpeted this song, I had been a drummer in a band for three years. Nothing ever came of it, but it lifted my spirits. As it did fifty years ago this month.