A Deep Dive into Iconic Songs: Beatles, Airplane, Hendrix, Morrison

This essay analyzes several iconic songs from the 1960s, including "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles, "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane, "All You Need Is Love" by The Beatles, "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix, and "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison. The analysis delves into the songs' origins, influences, and cultural impact, examining their connections to psychedelic culture, the rise of female vocalists in rock, the message of unity, and the changing social landscape of the time. Each song's creation, reception, and lasting legacy are considered, supported by references to relevant scholarly sources. The essay highlights the musical and lyrical elements that contributed to each song's enduring popularity and significance in music history.

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Tomorrow Never Knows (The Beatles)
John Lenon wrote this song and described it to be his first psychedelic song. Lenon
would read the book called “The Pyschedelic Experience” while having consumed LSD, it is
even said that he had recorded himself reading the book and wrote the song when he played
that recording back (Geurrero, 2015). Drugs heavily influenced the creation of this song, but
the recording of the song had been done with everyone sober.
Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane)
Jerfferson Airplane were the second group that recorded the song, the first group
never achieved any fame. With Grace Slick on the vocals for this song, she displays a sense
of scorn and longing, and this helped introduce her as the one of the greatest female rock
vocalist of all time (Pappas, 2016). This song also had a seismic impact on the male-centric
culture that revolved around the music industry, essentially paving a path for future female
vocalist to come stand in the spotlight.
All You Need Is Love (The Beatles)
This song was performed by the Beatles for the first time on the “Our World” project,
which was the first ever worldwide TV special broadcasted in 1967. This project was shown
on TV for a duration of almost 6 hours with music featuring from almost 6 different
continents. The Beatles were representing Britain. This song was created on the idea of a
song that would be easy to understand for everyone watching in different nations, with a
message that would appeal to everyone (Culver, 2016). This song encompassed what the
world’s youth at that time had been feeling.

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Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix)
Jimi Hendrix performed this song when he was opening for the band The Monkees
during their tour in 1967. The girls in the audience had no interest in hearing Hendrix
perform and would sing “Davy!” everytime Hendrix would sing “lady” resulting in the song
getting a pseudoname “Foxy Davy”, which was a tribute to the girls’ idol Davy Jone, the lead
singer. Jimi Hendrix has said that he does not usually feel happy when he’s writing songs, but
that was not the case when he was writing this one (Brands, 2017). This song has also been
labelled as an excellent example of Hendrix’s brilliant guitar skills.
Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
This song was initially called “Brown Skinned Girl” because it was about an
interracial relationship however Morrison had to change the title to what it is now in order to
make it appropriate for radio stations. Regardless, many radio stations banned the song
because of the line in the song that says “Making love in the green grass”. This song hit its
peak during the time when hippie culture was flourishing in America, giving this song a
fitting backdrop (Elliott, 2016). Morrison however, was not pleased by its association and
was horrified when he saw the psychedelic-looking album cover for the song.

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References:
Brands, R. (2017). Foxy Lady, Foxy Knight. Animals and Chivalric Identity in Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight(Bachelor's thesis).
Culver, B. (2016). Learning Globalization from the Beatles.
Elliott, R. (2016). ‘My tongue gets ttt-’: words, sense, and vocal presence in Van Morrison's
It's too late to stop now. Twentieth-Century Music, 13(1), 53-76.
Guerrero, R. (2015). The Role of The Beatles in Popularizing Indian Music and Culture in the
West. The Owl, 5(1).
Pappas, D. D. (2016). Performance ReviewSusan Glaspell Revisited: Century Old Play
Returns to its Roots. Miranda. Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde
anglophone/Multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal on the English-speaking world,
(12).