The Top Three Albums of 1964
The apex of Beatlemania, and Dylan goes off the reservation
By the outset of the year 1964, the world was a changed place. Beatle fever had conquered Britain and was beginning to take hold in America as well. John F. Kennedy was still newly dead, and the fervor of the American Civil Rights movement was in full swing. The world was embroiled in politics, discontent, and the fear of constantly imminent nuclear destruction; There was no better time to live as if there was no tomorrow. It was in this environment that people expressed themselves as never before, and music was the premier medium of doing so.
Bob Dylan was able to channel the anger and righteous fury of the young American political activist like none other, earning himself the title “The Voice of a Generation”, and refusing to live life on anyone else’s terms. The Beatles provided an outlet for those who simply wanted to enjoy themselves, producing hit after hit at an unprecedented and fervent pace, and establishing themselves not only as superb songwriters, but also one of the most prolific groups of all time.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson was embroiled in protests of all kinds, from civil rights to anti-war; Martin Luther King, Jr. had told the world about his dream from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial; and through it all, the dancing and singing of the world’s youth was totally and completely unstoppable. As goes the culture, so goes the world, and a monumental cultural shift had only just begun.
#2: The Times They Are A-Changin’, Bob Dylan
The year 1964 was utterly dominated and controlled by one group and one group only: The Beatles. It is for that reason that I am going to start with what I believe to be the second-best record of the year: Numbers 1 and 3 are both by the same band, and I would like to discuss them at one time rather than redundantly discussing them separately.
That being said, although the popularity of The Beatles would completely overwhelm the cultural mainstream, the transformation and increasing iconoclasm of Bob Dylan could not possibly be ignored. Dylan’s first two albums could not have been more different from each other. Bob Dylan and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (My top album of 1963), were hugely different despite being released less than a year apart from each other, with the latter album establishing Dylan’s reputation as a poet of his own time and the foremost voice in the folk and protest music movements. The Times They Are A-Changin’ was even more starkly political than that record, and further entrenched his reputation as a uniquely central voice for the concerns of an entire generation of post-war young people, even as Dylan himself was already distancing himself from the style of music that can be found on it.
Throughout the year 1963, Dylan was becoming more and more disillusioned with the protest and folk scenes, and this theme would only continue through 1964: However, The Times They Are A-Changin’ was mostly recorded prior to Dylan’s largest changes of heart, and represent Dylan’s songwriting at its most starkly political and cutting. The title track, “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, features iconic calls for political action and lyrical work of an almost Biblical scale, with lines such as “The line it is drawn/the curse it is cast/and the first one now/will later be last”. The second track on the record becomes even more bleak. “The Ballad of Hollis Brown” tells the tale of a South Dakotan farmer who succumbs to the suffering of poverty, ultimately killing his wife, five children, and himself, all set to a skeletal, finger-picked twelve-bar blues.
Songs such as “With God On Our Side” and “Only A Pawn In Their Game” can be called spiritual sequels to one of the most standout tracks on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, “Masters of War”. Both songs tell of the hypocrisy and evil, from Dylan’s perspective, of war profiteering and the puppetmaster-like control of the lower classes by the upper. Perhaps the most impactful song on the entire record though comes toward the end. “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” tells the story of a wealthy white man who kills a black barmaid by beating her to death with his cane, and proceeds to receive a pathetically small sentence of six months in prison for his heinous crime. Dylan approaches the subject tenderly, yet with factual and plainspoken savagery, never once sparing an ounce of mercy for the offending party. His ability to pick apart and deconstruct a subject with ease is on full display, and hits home with this track hard and true.
Bob Dylan was only just getting started. Ultimately, records like Freewheelin’ and The Times are of a singular variety: that of Dylan’s protest folk phase, displaying above all else his lyrical genius and ability to create great nuance and complexity through even the simplest of song structure and arrangement. However, Bob Dylan would never be tied down by genres and communities. 1965 would see Dylan tackle an entirely new world and style, and help to once and for all kick down the doors of a true musical revolution.
#3: Beatles For Sale, The Beatles
#1: A Hard Day’s Night, The Beatles
Indeed, as I referenced earlier, The Beatles were the story of the year 1964. In March of 1963, The Beatles released their debut record, the album that I listed at #2 for that year, Please Please Me. That record would completely and totally dominate the British charts, reaching the #1 spot immediately and staying there uninterrupted for the next 30 weeks. The album that finally knocked it from the top spot? Why, The Beatles’ second record of course, With The Beatles, which was released in November of 1963 and would go on to hold the #1 spot by itself for another 21 consecutive weeks. Needless to say, on the eastern side of the Atlantic, Beatlemania had officially taken hold, not just in Britain, but all of Europe.
However, in order to truly appreciate just how powerful the effect of Beatlemania once, we must look to how fast and how hard it took hold in the United States. In November of 1963, The Beatles were an underground and little-known act in America, as the stateside division of EMI, Capitol Records, had refrained from publishing their music. In December of 1963, their music received its first airplay on American radio. In January of 1964, their single “I Want To Hold Your Hand” sold one million copies in America and became their first American #1 hit. And on February 9, 1964, The Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in front of a national audience of a staggering 73 million viewers, approximately one third of the entire American population. Never before had the world seen such a torrid pop culture phenomenon. We still haven’t seen one again.
Cue the best album of the year, A Hard Day’s Night. Seeing Capitol Records’ marked ineptitude at recognizing gold when they had it in their hands, another company, United Artists Records, offered The Beatles a deal for three feature films, and in 1964, the first one was released, a comedic mockumentary about the group’s new life of fame with a wholly original soundtrack.
(Side note, I love the Hard Day’s Night movie, it’s full of awesome dry British wit and great personality, and of course, great music. Definitely recommended for anyone looking for some laughs.)
The album that followed the album was the album that truly and finally established The Beatles as musical forces to be reckoned with. Their first album to consist only of original material with no covers, the album sees a very noticable jump in quality from their already well-received first two, populated by jangly guitars from George Harrison’s 12-string Rickenbacker, wonderfully constructed melodies, and much more interesting and complex songwriting than they had previously utilized. Songs like “If I Fell”, “And I Love Her”, and “I’ll Be Back” were far and away the most structurally and sonically advanced material The Beatles had put out to date, and the album flourished as a result. To this day, if you’re looking for some wonderful and fresh pop rock, A Hard Day’s Night will always get you that fix. The sound holds up even now.
And along with their new sound, The Beatles proceeded to burn every record book in sight. Following the release of their third record, on April 4, 1964, The Beatles held TWELVE spots in the Billboard Hot 100, including every single one of the top five. That feat has never been repeated and never will be again. In fact, the only records that The Beatles set during this period that have been beaten are their records for songs and albums with the most consecutive time spent at number one. Why? Because they were releasing new material so quickly, that they were repeatedly knocking themselves out of the #1 spot.
Following the release of A Hard Day’s Night, and their international conquest having been completed, The Beatles were now able to stray in whatever creative direction they pleased. Towards the end of the year 1964, the band met for the first time the only other artist in this article: Bob Dylan. And not only did they talk music, but Mr. Dylan also introduced the boys to that most heinous of gateway drugs, marijuana. This encounter would not go lost upon either artist. If you’re willing to wait for a little while, you’ll see how both Dylan and The Beatles took very drastic tonal and creative shifts in their music starting in 1965. Two worlds had collided; one world of bohemian interests, college kids with political opinions and turtlenecks; another world of teenyboppers and teenagers, idolators rather than idealists. These two worlds would soon combine, and neither The Beatles nor Dylan would ever look back.
This all being said, The Beatles, despite having filmed a movie, made a whole new album, and played countless concerts across Europe and the United States throughout 1964, had another album finished by the end of the year. Beatles For Sale is often considered the worst of The Beatles’ records, and for a decent reason: The band had been so outrageously busy that they hadn’t had time to write a lot of new material and had to populate the record with 6 more covers from their live repertoire. That being said, Beatles For Sale is an important record for one primary reason: The songwriting. From the first song, “No Reply”, it becomes very painstakingly clear that the boys are growing up fast, and their music is growing up with them.
Songs like the aforementioned opener, “I’m A Loser”, “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”, and of course, “Eight Days A Week”, were showing a more nuanced and ultimately darker side to the lyrical chops of Lennon and McCartney, along with more subtle chord structures to go with them. They also began, for the first time, dallying in what would ultimately become one of the most important facets of their legacy: their ability to innovate in the recording studio. “Eight Days A Week” was the first rock song to ever feature a fade-in at the beginning of the song, and “Words of Love” features an auto-double tracked guitar lead that sounds very simple now, but at the time was an otherworldly technological invention. In their forthcoming records, The Beatles ould only continue to push the boundaries of what their machines in the studio could do, and would break every common rule and preconception in the process of making increasingly advanced music over the next 5 years.
The world was changing, and with it the musical landscape. The Beatles and Bob Dylan may have been the pioneers at the forefront of a burgeoning cultural explosion, but there would soon be others. The British Invasion was about to bring a myriad of talented artists from the Isles over to American for widespread recognition, and Bob Dylan, the soft-spoken folk singer, was about the destroy his outer shell and shed his skin to reveal a brand new and improved version of the man, sending more shockwaves through the world in the process. It continues to heat up in 1965. Stay tuned, and I’ll be back with more soon! I promise I won’t disappear again just yet.
