95 North. . . The Newspaper

1968 is often rightly categorized as a year of social upheaval in America. King and Bobby went down. Vietnam was a jungle of violent chaos. Charles Manson went wild on helter skelter, the Beatles White Album  was a pastiche of cultural mess (great album regardless), Steppenwolf was "Born to be Wild", the Doors were a dark L.A launchpad of drugged excess, and Eric Clapton's band Cream was spinning in the white room. Yet, somewhere in this culture of chaos was the antidote of order, simplicity, and true-hearted earnestness. Unsurprisingly, some of the musical world reacted to the swirling world of drugs and disorder by goin' country, setting the stage for the simple and reflective 1970's scene of singer-songwriters a-la the acoustic based music James Taylor, the simple yet profound offerings of Joni Mitchell, and the deeply spiritual ethos of Leonard Cohen. First, here's the music that laid that groundwork: Bookends , Simon and Garfunkel Old friends ...