#johnny rivers

[mudwerks]

(via JOHNNY RIVERS - Secret Agent Man (1966)

[forever70s]

Johnny Rivers (1969)

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #17: 1966

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: SSgt Barry Sadler, The Association, The Righteous Brothers, Four Tops, ? and the Mysterians, The Monkees, The Mamas and the Papas (x2), The Supremes, Johnny Rivers. End description]

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*Opening chords of Fortunate Son playing softly in the background*

A few polls ago, I mentioned that the song list I was using was not the one originally published in Billboard Magazine during that year. This is another one of those cases. If you read through the magazine, you'll find California Dreamin' listed as the number 1 song of the year. However, the data has since been updated and Billboard's website (and other up-to-date publications) list The Ballad of the Green Berets as the number 1 song in 1966. Every place I looked has given me frustratingly vague reasons for this difference. Since my threshold for research ends at the point where I have to start contacting people, I decided to leave this up to my (un)educated guess and assume the magazine was published before all the data for the year could be collected. Maybe, as America's involvement in the Vietnam War skyrocketed this year, more people were flocking to TBoTGB.

However I feel about the song (I try to keep these blurbs free of my actual opinions when it comes to the songs listed), it gives me an opportunity to talk about Vietnam War era music. When I imagine this era in music, I mostly think of protest songs or basically just the Full Metal Jacket soundtrack. Often, this is in contrast to the music about "the war" my generation got. To people like me who grew up watching The [Dixie] Chicks backlash and the fire-hose blast of patriotic pro-war songs, the Vietnam War era of popular music truly feels like another era in more ways than the obvious. So why is the number 1 song in the country one of the few "pro-Vietnam War" songs from the time?

I was able to talk to my folks about this era, and keep in mind that they're pretty left-leaning so that's the angle I'm coming at this from. They talked about listening to Walter Cronkite read the death counts on CBS. My dad said that after the draft was kicked into high gear, it felt like the government was just "throwing bodies" at the war effort. Middle America no longer had the luxury of distancing themselves from the war. With the draft and the footage being broadcasted into people's living rooms, there wasn't even the pastiche of "glory". But my dad also said that when he was in school, his teacher would have the kids sing Ballad of the Green Berets in class.

It sounds like I'm spending too long talking about the context behind one song, but that's because I can't think about anything else other than the war. Because the people back then couldn't think about anything else. Even if songs weren't explicitly about "the war", it didn't take much for them to be recontextualized. Another song on this poll, The Monkees' Last Train to Clarksville, didn't sound like it was about the war to me. But if you're in 1966 and you're worried about you or your friends and loved ones getting drafted, and you hear a song with the lyrics "We'll have one more night together" and "I don't know if I'm ever coming home", it's going to strike a different note. And thus, Last Train to Clarksville is still listed in Vietnam War Music compilations to this day.

I try not to be too long-winded when writing these. And even when I do go off for too long, I'm still aware that I'm giving barely a surface level summary of what I'm talking about. All of the songs I list in these polls could be the subject of their own documentaries in my opinion, and the music of the Vietnam War could be its own documentary series. But the war is something that will continue to loom over pop culture, and I'd thought I'd mention it during the poll that has an actual decorated soldier on the banner. Unlike the people at the time, we'll be able to put the war out of our minds until it comes up explicitly again.

[oldshowbiz]

[boxwright]

Johnny Rivers

[breezingby]

Rockin' Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu ~ Johnny Rivers

~ ♫♪♫ ~

I wanna jump, but I'm afraid I'll fall I wanna holler, but the joint's too small Young man rhythm's got a hold of me, too I got the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu

Want some lovin' babe and that ain't all I wanna kiss her, but she's way too tall Young man rhythm's got a hold of me, too I got the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu

Wanna squeeze her, but I'm way too low I would be runnin' but my feets too slow Young man rhythm's got a hold of me, too I got the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu

~ ♫♪♫ ~

I wanna squeeze her, but I'm way too low I would be runnin' but my feets too slow Young man rhythm got a hold of me, too I got the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu

Baby comin', now, I'm hurryin' home I know she's leavin', 'cause I'm takin' too long Young man rhythm's got a hold of me, too I got the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu

~ ♫♪♫ ~

Johnny Rivers "L.A. Reggae"

[peninsularian]

Gorgeous instrumental version of the Johnny Rivers classic

[myvinylplaylist]

Johnny Rivers: Johnny Rivers At The Whisky À Go-Go (1964)

Recorded Live - Very Live - At the Whisky a Go Go, Hollywood, California

Imperial Records

[vagarezas]

• …

[myimaginaryradio]

Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers

[howardhawkshollywoodmusic]

68. Seventh Son by Johnny Rivers debuted Jun 65 and peaked at number seven, scoring 877 points.

The song was written by blues great Willie Dixon and first recorded by Willie Mabon in 1955.

[affiches-concerts]

Whisky A’Go-Go - 1966 / The Velvet Underground & Nico - Johnny Rivers.

[undergroundrockpress]

1968