Music: Flashback - 1968 - The Year in Singles Part Three

Compiled by Noah Mallin

Wrapping up our trip to 40 years ago, 1968 was a great year for singles. This was true of almost any year in the 60s, even though the album format was starting to become more dominant in rock. There was still a whole mess of soul, country, and other genres best heard on singles, and many rock bands like the Stones and The Beatles were still releasing key songs only as singles:

Here's 21 through 30, in no particular order:

21) James Brown – "Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud"
It's hard to overstate the importance of James Brown groundbreaking anthem to black pride. 1968 was a tough year with widespread rioting in black communities, particularly in the wake of the murder of Dr. King. Before 1968 the word "negro" was often used to describe African Americans but afterwards it became tainted, relegated to the dustbin by Brown and others.


22) Moody Blues – "Ride my See-Saw"
Plenty of bands still had more psychedelia left in them and the Moodys had morphed from a soulful British Invasion -era beat combo to one of the most commercial purveyors of slightly pretentious psilocybin silliness. They also knew how to write a killer single. By the early part of the 70s progressive rock would change the parameters and force ever more flashy musicianship and song structures on what was once psych-rock. The Moodys however stuck to their poppy guns and kept having hits.


23) Archie Bell and the Drells – "Tighten Up"
"We can dance just as good as we walk" Archie Bell was probably not dancing much as the infectious "Tighten Up" climbed the charts and he found himself on his way to Vietnam, a victim of the draft.The Quintessential let every member have a chance song, a damn good recipe if you ask me. So good Roxy Music used it at the end of "Re-Make/Re-Model"...


24) Beatles – "Hey Jude"
Paul wrote this to cheer up John's son Julian (of "Much Too Late for Goodbye's" semi-fame)who was depressed over his parent's split-up. When John heard it he thought it was a song giving the thumbs up to his budding relationship with Yoko. Paul himself was thinking more of Linda as he fleshed the lyrics out. Either way, one of the Beatles best and the longest number one single in Billboard chart history. Anyone who doesn't have the urge to go "Judee Judee JUdee Arrrrrghhhh..." during the coda has icewater for blood.


25) Desmond Dekker – "Isrealites"
Dekker was one of reggae's biggest stars and this was his first massive hit, splicing Rastafarian bible interpretation to everyday struggles to get by, all to a loping jaunty groove. "I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde..." he laments, trying to feed his family in a nation that oppressed his religious beliefs.


26) Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel – "You’re All I Need to Get By"
Many thought that Tammi and Marvin were an item and hearing them harmonize on songs like this classic its easy to see why. The classic vocal hook is underpinned by lithe bass and quivering strings all climaxing together in a great big chorus. Whew, I need a towel.


27) Wilson Pickett – "I’m a Midnight Mover"
"Wicked" Wilson Pickett was a pioneer of what would become funk. Always deep in the pocket, exhorting the band with his gravelly voice and spacious bouncing arrangements he rivaled James Brown for sheer killer charismatic groove, if not innovation. This is one of his best.


28) Donovan – "Hurdy Gurdy Man"
Like the Beatles Donovan went to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's retreat and came back with a clutch of songs. At this point the new Dylan tag was long past but Donovan was still capable of writing great pop including this off-kilter trippy dirge full of fuzzed out guitars and rolling drums.


29)The Who – "Magic Bus"
1968 found the Who touring and prepping their 1969 opus Tommy. "Magic Bus" was a great percussion driven placeholder, and one of their biggest American hits.


30)Rufus Thomas – "The Memphis Train"
Rufus Thomas' recording career stretched from the mid-50s until his death in the 90s. In between he was one of Memphis most beloved DJs and the father of Stax star Carla Thomas. "The Memphis Train" is one of his best, a bumptious rollicking good time.

Music: Flashback - 1968 - The Year in Singles Part Two

Compiled by Noah Mallin

Wrapping up our trip to 40 years ago, 1968 was a great year for singles. This was true of almost any year in the 60s, even though the album format was starting to become more dominant in rock. There was still a whole mess of soul, country, and other genres best heard on singles, and many rock bands like the Stones and The Beatles were still releasing key songs only as singles:

Here's 11 through 20, in no particular order:

11) Simon and Garfunkel – "At The Zoo"
"Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo, I do believe them, I do believe it's true..." I have no freaking clue what they're going on about in this song other than checking out the Central Park Zoo but it ain't no thang. When that portentous sizzling sound leads into the barrelhouse piano and they get into the rave-up it's just all the stuff I like in a Simon and Garfunkel song (and I don't like em all.)Even if it's not a patch on The Kinks' "Animal Farm".

12)Tyrone Davis – "Can I Change my Mind"
Tyrone Davis is all, "Whoa, baby, OK I was a total asshole" but it's so too late. Damn baby, can I change my mind? The player plays himself. Did I mention the killer riff and horn chart?

13) Procol Harum – "Homburg"
Procol Harum is mostly remembered for their 1967 classic "A Whiter Shade of Pale" but there was plenty more where that came from. "Homburg" is one of their best, a stately Dylanesque lament that finds insult in inept haberdashery. Oh yeah, and killer piano line.

14) Tommy James and the Shondells – "Crimson and Clover"
Tommy James knew his way around a pop song and the shivery "Crimson and Clover" is no exception. An unusual combo of swagger and longing, Joan Jett would unlock the sapphic raunch embedded in the James original when she covered it in the 80s. James' original actually prefigures some of the sound of glamsters like T. Rex and Bowie but their poppiness meant that most rock critics looked down on them until relatively recently. It didn't help that Hubert Humphrey wrote the liner notes to one of their albums.


15) Aretha Franklin – "The House that Jack Built"
Aretha had a lot of great songs during 1968 but this is my favorite, mostly because it rocks like nobody's business. The backing vocals nag, the drums thwack and the horns saunter while Aretha cuts Jack down to size.


16) Creedence Clearwater Revival – "I Put a Spell on You"
You gotta have pretty big balls to cover a Screamin' Jay Hawkins song but CCR pull it off ably with this track. This is before John Fogerty would find his feet as a songwriting genius cranking out track after classic track throughout 1969, but this is where the band's skill and chops at song arrangement come to the fore.

17) Delfonics – "La-La Means I Love You"
What'd you think it meant? The Delfonics took soul into a buttery smooth zone that would begin to dominate in the 70s under Philadelphia producer Thom Bell. There's at least one foot in the doo-wop of the past but the light approach sweetened with strings set the scene for a whole new sound.


18) Tammy Wynette – "D-I-V-O-R-C-E"
Like Aretha, Tammy's simply had enough of her no good man. Divorce was a growing national phenomenon but it wasn't much talked about. Her comes Tammy, spellin' it out so the brat don't know. Once again soul and country were tackling social realities that rock, for all it's supposed frankness, avoided.


19) Steppenwolf – "The Pusher"
One thing rockers did know about was drugs. Here Steppenwolf helpfully educated about the difference between some dude who sells grass (good) and the pusher (bad).Damned if I can tell 'em apart, 'cept "The Pusher don't care if you live or if you die.." Ok. helpful hint everyone.

20) The Temptations – "Cloud Nine"
The Tempts get all proto-funky on "Cloud Nine," and like the Supremes they were all about Motown's nascent social conscience. Poking a hole in all those folks who try to live on "cloud nine" while Detroit was falling apart the song struck a definite nerve. It helps that the arrangement is spring-tight with every piece of the Motown machinery locked into a great groove.

Music: Flashback - 1968 -- The Year in Singles Part One

Compiled by Noah Mallin

Wrapping up our trip to 40 years ago, 1968 was a great year for singles. This was true of almost any year in the 60s, even though the album format was starting to become more dominant in rock. There was still a whole mess of soul, country, and other genres best heard on singles, and many rock bands like the Stones and The Beatles were still releasing key songs only as singles:

Here's 1 through 10, in no particular order:


1) Loretta Lynn – "Fist City"
Coal miner's daughter Loretta Lynn was one of country's biggest stars in the 60s, telling it like Her feisty persona is summed by "Fist City" in which she promises the town harlot a one way ticket to the titular town.

2)Marvin Gaye – "I Heard it Through the Grapevine"
One of the great songs in pop history and a song that signified all kinds of things to different listeners. On the face of it a heartbreaking song about discovering infidelity from gossip, the pounding drums and pulsing beat suggested a suffusing dread that seemed to find it's counterpart in the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Senator Bobby Kennedy and the mounting civil unrest of 1968.

3)The Nazz – "Open My Eyes"
Before Todd Rundgren became a solo star in the 70s he was part of garage rockers The Nazz, caught here ripping off the opening riff of The Who's "Can't Explain" red-handed. It hardly matters as they burst into the phased chorus and a glorious bridge that pointed the way to Rundgren's solo work.

4) Sly and The Family Stone – "Everyday People"
Producer Sly Stone was fast becoming hit songwriter Sly Stone as 1967 rolled into 1968. His optimism would begin to curdle into paranoia and dread but "Everyday People" found he and the interracial Family Stone laying out a vision of everyone getting along and doing their thing.


5) Otis Redding – "(Sittin’ On) The Dock of The Bay"
By 1968 Otis Redding had become the biggest star on the gritty Memphis label Stax, the antithesis of Detroit polished Motown. Redding's phenomenal voice and delivery and solid songwriting chops ("Respect" was one of his) had taken him right to the brink when an appearance at the Monterey Pop festival in 1967 found him blowing everyone else off the stage. Redding and begun to work in a subtle new direction, melding his raw R & B style to contemplative folk when he died in a plane crash in December of that year at age 26. "Dock of the Bay" was the first and only song reflecting this new direction and suggests the colossus that Redding may have been had he lived. Released posthumously, it stands it's simply one of the greatest pieces of music by anyone, anywhere, at any time.

6)Rolling Stones – "Jumpin’ Jack Flash"
The Stones were eager to soften audiences up for their return to rawness and discard the psychedelic trappings that had cluttered up their previous few releases (though lovely b-side "Child of The Moon" felt much like the rest of that era.) "Jumpin' Jack Flash was a wake-up call, all lean riff from Keith, pumping bass line from Wyman and Jagger's sneering vocals. One of the Stones all time best.


7) Big Brother and The Holding Company – "Piece of My Heart"
The cult of Janis always bothered me a bit as she didn't really bring much new to the table that hadn't already been done by other female singers who just happened to be black (Erma Franklin, the original singer of this song and Aretha's older sister among them.) Yet her voice is undeniable and Big Brother's supercharged arrangement finds quite a bit of Stax in the song.

8) Diana Ross and The Supremes – "Love Child"
The received wisdom is that pop music didn't tackle "serious" subjects until Bob Dylan and The Beatles came along to explore weighty issues -- which of course is utter bullcrap. This isn't to say that "Love Child" is "Blowin' in the Wind" but Diana's pain at having a Daddy who abandoned her and not wanting to make the same mistake spoke directly to plenty of kids.

9) The Maytals – "54-46 (That’s My Number)"
Though still obscure outside the newly independent island nation, Jamaica's music scene had exploded into a creative riot of sound. The Maytals were exponents of ska, which took the beat from American soul and shuffled it up. Later this would all be slowed down into reggae. These guys weren't talking about phone numbers either - 54-46 was Toots Hibbert's prison number.

10) Eddie Floyd – "Big Bird"
"Big Bird" is a stomping hot soul number with a killer guitar lick from Stax sessioner Steve Cropper. It's a prime example of the rawness of the Stax sound in contrast to Motown's expansiveness. There's also a poignancy in his exhortation to the plane to "get on up" beyond the phallic as label-mate Redding's death was still fresh in people's minds.

Music: Flashback -- The Best Albums of 1968 Continued - Part 2 of 2

By Noah Mallin

Here's the last installment of our survey featuring 1968's best albums.


11) The Kinks – Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks were one of The Beatles most serious rivals in 1964, with singer Ray Davies capable of writing more and better songs than the Stones still nascent Jagger-Richards combo. By 1968 a dispute with the musicians union in the United States was preventing them from touring and a whole spate of other bands and sounds had eclipsed Ray Davies' still formidable writing prowess and his brother Dave's guitar skills. Village Green was The Kinks turning their backs on the United States and centering their songs on particularly British subjects emerging with a record that was a commercial flop but has become the most beloved in their venerable catalog.



12) Sly and The Family Stone – Life
Life was Sly and The Family Stone's third album, and their second of 1968. Where their first two albums had a great deal of filler this one showed the depth of Sly Stone's vision while it's optimism was as yet undimmed. The lack of big hits actually contributes to the unified feel of the record. The punchy drums and fuzztoned guitars point the way to funk while still retaining the immediacy of great pop.




13) Family - Music in a Doll's House
Family were a sadly underrated band who made several solid albums in the late 60s and early 70s including this, their debut. Their blues based background was typical of the British scene that spawned Fleetwood Mac, The Yardbirds, and others, as was their fondness for blending it with jazz and folk flourishes. What set them apart was the sharpness of their playing and arranging and their intricate band composed songs. It doesn't hurt that Traffic's Dave Mason and Stones producer Jimmy Miller were on hand to deliver an atmospheric and rich sound. At times they rock as hard as Led Zeppelin would barely a year later.



14) The Doors – Waiting For The Sun
This is not the Doors' best album but even a middling effort from them was pretty damn cool. "Hello I Love You" is sleazy stuff delivered with a knowing leer, "The Unknown Soldier" is as harsh an indictment of Vietnam as the band would deliver, that is until you get to "Five to One", the records hard rocking highlight. Some of the ballads undoubtedly bring out the worst in Morrison's pretentious writing and delivery but fail to sink the album.



15) Velvet Underground – White Light/ White Heat
Lou Reed and John Cale jettisoned Nico and her sponsor/band Svengali Andy Warhol by the time their second album White Light/White Heat came out. Even more polarizing than the first album it goes from mellow drones like "Here She Comes Now" to the skronk of "I Heard Her Call my Name" to the head ripping fierceness of the 17 minutes plus "Sister Ray." This is not to mention Cale's two showcases, the hilariously twisted shaggy-dog story of "The Gift" and the mesmerizing "Lady Godiva's Operation." This album laid down a gauntlet that the Stooges and Modern Lovers would later pass down to the first punk rockers. It would also be Cale's last studio album with the band.



16) Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention – We’re Only In It For The Money
Like the Velvets, Frank Zappa found the whole peace and love hippy vibe of 1967 to be totally alien and even repugnant. We're Only in it For The Money was his dystopian masterpiece, swinging a bat at the head of the counterculture and the establishment. Even better was his re-purposing of 50s and 60s doo-wop and R & B to underpin songs like "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" (your brain, natch.)



17) Cream – Wheels of Fire
Cream were a far from perfect band and the overlong 2 LP set Wheels of Fire is a far from perfect album. The high points do represent some of the band's best work including "White Room" and "As You Said." The live stuff on the second record is often over indulgent but "Crossroads" shows off guitarist Eric Clapton's legendary playing to great effect.



18) Gilberto Gil – Gilberto Gil
Gil was one of the leading lights of the "tropicalia" movement that was taking Brazil by storm in 1968. This, his second album was a strong driving work with a particular rock bent. The sound of the record sometimes feels akin to coming across a band like The Animals playing carnival music. In fact Brazil's military junta felt that his openness to new sounds was such a threat that he and Caetono Veloso (see Part One) were both jailed at the end of the decade. Gil would flee to the UK in the early 70s before returning.



19) Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Controversial both at the time of its release and today, Sweetheart of The Rodeo found Gram Parson's joining the Byrds and taking over the direction of the band. The sound not surprisingly veered to traditional country, seen as a bastion of the establishment in 1968 music circles. In addition Parsons was a wealthy high-living trust-fund kid which still leads to charges of cultural slumming for daring to tackle the Louvin Brothers "The Christian Life" and Merle Haggard's "Life in Prison". Bushwah says I. Sweethearts is a landmark of country rock and Parsons comes to the music with love and appreciation.In addition the countryfied cover of soul classic "You Don't Miss Your Water" is flat out genius.


20) Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
Unlike the Byrds, no-one ever questioned Johnny Cash's legitimacy or right to sing songs of prison life. Cash feeds off the energy of his literally captive audience and they feed of the dark despair at the heart of so many of his best songs. An indelibly great performance.

Music: Flashback - The Best Albums of 1968 Part One of Two

By Noah Mallin

Continuing on our trip 40 years back into the tumultuous past, here is part one of the best albums of 1968 in no order whatsoever.

1) Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
Most soul albums at this time were collections of big hit singles with lesser tracks sprinkled in as filler. A few performers were so good that even their minor tracks made for a great album experience and Aretha was one of them. 1967 was the year she burst onto the scene on Atlantic records after an unhappy stint at Columbia. Lady Soul includes a few of that previous year's hits like the impassioned "Chain of Fools." It also includes the groundbreaking "(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman" a song described by critic Dave Marsh as an ode to the female orgasm. Even her cover of The Rascal's "Groovin" finds her in peak form with a suitably clever re-arrangement that brings out the soulfulness in the song.


2) Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet
The Rolling Stones made the first flop of their carrier with 1967's Sgt. Pepper's aping LP Their Satanic Majesties Request. They also found themselves at odds with founding member Brian Jones who seemed to still think himself as the band's leader despite Jagger and Richards writing the vast bulk of their original material. Beggar's Banquet was repped as their return to roots, a popular notion in 1968 (rivals The Beatles would begin recording their own back to basics album by the end of the year, the aborted Get Back which would see the light of day in 1970 as Let it Be.) It's hard to describe this as a return to the blues of their early albums because the band had utterly transcended imitation to discover their own gritty supercharged sound. Beggar's would be the first of four classic albums that represent the peak of the band's achievements. Beggar's features almost no playing by Jones, with the guitars overdubbed brilliantly by Keith Richards. The highlight of the album is arguably "Sympathy For The Devil" but "Street Fighting Man", "No Expectations" and "Jigsaw Puzzle" are just a few of the major tracks here.




3) Dr. John - Gris-Gris
Dr. John was just one of the many incredible performers who learned their trade in the music clubs of New Orleans. Starting in the late 50s he plied his barrelhouse piano skills from clubs to bars across the city. For his first album Gris-Gris he had already dubbed himself "The Night Tripper" and fused elements of psychedelia, traditional New Orleans R & B , voodoo nuttiness, and whatever else popped into his head. After 40 years as a recording artist this is still the most compelling and far-out record in his catalog with the 7-minute plus "I walk on Guilded Splinters" a particular treat.



4) Caetano Veloso – Tropicalia

The entire Brazilian music scene was in a major creative upheaval in 1968 and Veloso was at the forefront of the new sounds. Intending Tropicalia to be Brazil's answer to The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album Veloso and his collaborators jammed in pop, rock and psychedelic production flourishes to create a whole new genre that would come to be named after the song "Tropicalia." Technically the album was one of several untitled LP's Veloso would release but it is usually referenced by the name Tropicalia.

5) Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
Van Morrison cut the cord from his garage band Them with his first record for Warner Bros, Astral Weeks. The lush, long songs take folk into jazz and classical directions, expertly arranged and played. In many ways the current "freak folk" of Devendra Banhart and Sufjan Stevens can find it's roots in the expositional meanderings of Astral Weeks.


6) The Band – Music From Big Pink
The blandly named The Band earned their chops as The Hawks playing backup for rocker Ronnie Hawkins in the early 60s. When Bob Dylan wiped out in a motorcycle accident he joined them in their house in Woodstock New York, Big Pink, and laid down reels of music that later found release legit and otherwise as The Basement Tapes. Their first album as a unit defined the back to basics aesthetic that inspired many musicians in 1968, the timeless melodies and straightforward approach of songs like "The Weight" and "In a Station" suggesting tunes going back a century or more. This was heightened by the Levon Helms and Rick Danko's timeworn voices and the inventively simple instrumentation.


7) The Outsiders - CQ
The Dutch are well-known for all kinds of hedonism but rocking out (Golden Earring notwithstanding) is not one of them. The Outsiders are one of the great unsung bands of the 60s, a garage band that found their own way to integrate psychedelia and even pensive folk elements into their albums without losing site of great hooks and crunchy guitars. CQ was sadly their last album and also their best.


8) The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland
Hendrix had exploded onto London's music scene in 1967 with a series of mindbending live shows and two stellar albums. By 1968 he was a superstar and looked to push his bandmates to their limits and beyond for what would prove to be their last album together, the double LP Electric Ladyland. The record is famed for the "underwater" sound Hendrix pushed for, with radical studio tricks matching his wildly fierce guitar playing. His cover of Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" was so revelatory that Dylan himself essentially covers Hendix's version when he plays it live.


9) The Beatles – The Beatles
Like the Stones, the Beatles had also received their first setback in 1967.After the huge success of Sgt. Pepper's they conceived the television film Magical Mystery Tour, released at the end of the year to a critical savaging. An ill-fated retreat with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi did have a salutary effect on the band's songwriting with each member coming back with a clutch of songs (even Ringo had two!). The Beatles a double LP popularly known as The White Album after the stark white sleeve, showed the unwillingness to whittle down what each songwriter had. In fact the band had become backing musicians to whoever's song was being recorded on a particular day. This led to their most varied and for some most fascinating record yet. A young Jann Wenner described it as encompassing the whole of popular music up to that time and with heavy proto metal like "Helter Skelter" jostling with the gorgeous psych-folk of "Dear Prudence", the Beach Boys pastiche of "Back in The U.S.S.R." and the 30s style "Honey Pie" the band's reach seemed limitless.




10) Silver Apples – Silver Apples
Every electronic music artist from Kraftwerk through Suicide on down to Daft Punk and Aphex Twin owe a huge debt to this pioneering new York duo who first fused pop music sensibilities with the electronic experimentalism of the musical avant-garde. Though far from popular the droning shifting oscillations and pulsing beats of their debut album held enormous influence and still sounds contemporary and riveting today.

Design: Flashback 1968 -- The Best Automotive Designs of 1968

By Noah Mallin

I know haters -- some of you love the design stuff and some of you loath it. Especially the car designs, but hold your noses because here are the best of 1968.

1) Pontiac GTO



Pontiac's 1968 GTO introduced the soft plastic-sheathed "Endura" front end, allowing for a smooth seemingly bumper-free front. This would become crucial for GM styling as federal law toughened bumper standards in the ensuing decade. Though mid-sized at the time, this was a huge car with flowing, tapered lines. Note the pillarless window openings.

2) Dodge Charger

The second generation Charger was a design icon, as well as a Hollywood star appearing in the movie Bulitt and TVs Dukes of Hazzard with a very un-PC Confederate Flag on the roof. Nevertheless with the tunnel style rear window and handsome sculpted lines its easy to see why so many people caught "Dodge fever".



3) Chevrolet Corvette

The radical 1968 Corvette design is synonymous now with hairy chested men wearing aviator sunglasses and polyester sport jackets who wink at "chicks" in the next car over before burning rubber as the light turns green. Is it just me? Chevy kept the basic shape in production until 1983 and every Vette since has paid homage to a design that itself was derived from the sensational mid 60s Mako Shark showcar. The sinuous fenders and pop-up headlamps were the apogee of space-age styling at the time and the simpler unadorned first year models still look terrific.

4) Aston Martin DBS

The DBS saw Astons getting bigger and more Grand Touring oriented, mixing sport and luxury together. Though it's taken longer to become a classic than it's DB predecessors the bluff chiseled exterior is perfectly judged. The body formed the basis of Astons well into the 1980s.

5) Ferrari P6 Concept

Pininfarina has long enjoyed its status as Ferrari's favored design house. The P6 concept was both of its time, particularly in the roof louvers, and a window into future Ferraris. The sculpted side indents would find their way onto models like the 308 in the late 70s and the front end shape was echoed in the Berlinetta Boxer in the early 70s. The smooth wedge shape hinted at the importance aerodynamics would begin to play over the following two decades as well.

6) Ferrai 365 “Daytona”

One of the most popular Ferraris ever, the 365, also known as the Daytona, is a perfect sinuous coupe. The convertible became very hot as a collector car in the 1980s thanks to TV's Miami Vice (which ironically used a cheap replica). This lead to a spate of dingalings chopping the roofs off of the gorgeous coupe to pass them off as factory convertibles. Mores the pity as the coupe is far better looking. The radical plexi-covered front fascia was replaced with more conventional pop-up headlights in the US due to outmoded regulations.

7) Jaguar XJ8

A truly gorgeous machine the XJ6 would stay in production with a few updates through 1986. The flowing bodywork has heavily influenced all subsequent Jaguar sedans for better or worse, but none have captured the elegant simplicity of the original.

8) Lamborghini Espada

Lamborghini could be counted on for original and sometimes oddball styling in the late 60s and this fits both descriptions. A long 2 + 2 that appears even longer thanks to it's low height and planed roofline. The body tucks under radically at the sides, complimenting the side glass angle above.

9) Opel GT

General Motors design was in the last stages of its golden age in the late 60s, not just in the United States but in Europe as well. The GT, made by their German Opel subsidiary was a tiny sport coupe subtly reminiscent of the much bigger Corvette. There are also elements of an aborted mid 60s Pontiac project called the Banshee. The proportions are exquisite, building on their clear Lotus inspiration into something original.

10) Lincoln Continental Mark III

Pimps need cars too. Until the Lincoln Continental Mark III they had to make do with Cadillac's Eldorado. The Mark III however sported then novel "retro" styling, baroque and over the top yet somehow still elegant. It would be a few years before the oval cutout windows would show up in the C-pillars but when they did the pimpmobile was born.

11) Oldsmobile Cutlass

The Cutlass was Olds family car, though the fire breathing 442 model was not to be trifled with. This was the best looking of GM's new intermediate bodied cars for 1968. Long, low and wide, they met the standard for typical Detroit design at the time but added great detailing like the hood and tapered rear deck and headlight clusters.

12) Bertone Carabo

Not to be confused with the awful Phoebe Cates film Princess Caraboo, the Bertone Carabo concept was Italian design at its most radical. Silly yes, but breathtakingly so. Again we have louvers like the comparatively restrained Ferrari P6 concept but here they are all over the rear like the Batmobile in safe mode. The wedge design is the ultimate in edgy and the scissor doors had not yet become cliche.

13) Bizzarini Manta

As you can see, louvers were big stuff in 1968. Design superstar Giorgetto Giugiaro penned his first independent design for this Bizzarini showcar. The wedge was also big but the elements here are handled with a light and deft touch, less in your face then Bertone and not as delicate as Pininfarina's Ferraris.

Film: The Best Movies of 1968 -- Final Installment

Here's the last installment of my flashback to the best movies of 1968. You can find Part One and Part Two here.


11. The Lion in Winter

In the previous post I wrote about the feminist message inherent in Rachel, Rachel, Rosemary’s Baby and Funny Girl. The Lion in Winter joins the parade led by the indomitable Katherine Hepburn as the scheming trophy Queen, up against Peter O’ Toole as her scheming King, young Timothy Dalton as a scheming pretender to the throne and young Anthony Hopkins as one of the scheming princes. Indeed Hepburn would get an Oscar for her performance. O’Toole is Henry II, convening a Christmas Eve family conclave to decide on an heir. Christmas With The Kranks this ain’t.



12. The Thomas Crown Affair

Though Bullitt gets all the action typical of a Steve McQueen flick in 1968, it’s little more than a spectacular car chase with a movie appended to the beginning. The Thomas Crown Affair is something else, with a cerebral McQueen masterminding a tense romance with Faye Dunaway and a daring caper. Mercurial director Norman Jewison is at his best along with editor and future director Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude, Shampoo) and cinematography wunderkind Haskell Wexler. The use of split-screen was groundbreaking and the trio throw every modish effect at the screen like a compendium of late 60s angles and tricks. Though it’s a film about brainy planning, it’s best enjoyed with the cerebellum in neutral.



13. Targets

Peter Bogdonavich however, approaches film with the proto-Tarantino-esque eye of a student of the form with a deep knowledge of its history. Targets, his first film, is one of those accidental works of art turned out by Roger Corman’s exploitation factory. Corman launched a lot of careers (Jack Nicholson’s being only one of the most notable) and he inaugurated Bogdonavich’s by gifting him 20 minutes of footage from a Boris Karloff film he had on the shelf and Karloff himself who still had two days left on his contract with Corman.

From this is launched the haunting story of a washed-up horror movie actor making a personal appearance to promote his latest schlock film, and the real-life horror of the all-American boy next door who seems to like guns a bit too much and people a bit too little. Karloff gives one of the best performances of his career.



14. Witchfinder General

British director Michael Reeves was just 29 when he died in 1969. Before dying he left one masterpiece starring another actor better known for schlock horror and like Targets released in the United States with Roger Corman’s help. Vincent Price is terrific, controlled and ham-free in the disturbing Witchfinder General, a film about the evil inherent in religious fanaticism. Dick Cheney ought to pay close attention to the undertones here where torture and brutality and the rightness of might all signify the work of the devil.



15. If…

Bad schoolboys! Lindsey Anderson’s dark satiric gem guts British society from the inside out, using a prestigious private school as it’s stand-in. Who better than young rebellious Malcolm MacDowell to lead a band of students in escalating acts of transgression which are met by increasingly outrageous punishments. The ending is shockingly prescient for today’s viewers though considered over-the-top at the time. Totally brilliant.

Film: Flashback! The Best Movies of 1968 Part Two

Compiled By Noah Mallin

Continuing with our flashback to 40 years ago, here's numbers 6 through 10 of the best movies of 1968. See 1 through 5 here.

6. Funny Girl

The big musical was a dying breed in 1968 but still had a few big shots left (Oliver! was another hit in 1968). With Omar Sharif and an Oscar-winning Barbara Streisand in the Fanny Brice story – what’s not to like? Great songs, very funny scenes, and terrific performances by all involved make this a screen classic. Brice finding herself torn between being the successful part of a couple and the expectation that a man be the breadwinner cannily echoed the choices that more women were beginning to make in their lives as the sixties began to draw to a close.

7. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Amidst the terrible string of assassinations in 1968, the racial violence, the war in Vietnam, there was still an underlying belief in progress and technology in American society that found its fullest flowering in the space program, which would land the first man on the moon the following year. 2001, essentially a collaboration between filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and sci-fi visionary Arthur C. Clarke, fused slick late 60’s style in set design and photography with deep mysticism – tracing the explorations of humankind and the dawning consciousness of a (possibly homicidal) supercomputer to the beginnings of knowledge. Also, it was really cool to drop acid to. Some of the most amazing cinematography, special effects and production design ever seen.


8. Rosemary’s Baby

Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby features a shot of a Time magazine cover from 1967 that asked “Is God Dead?” This is something of a bait and switch – Mia Farrow may be carrying the spawn of Satan in her womb but Polanski has more on his mind than good versus evil. Rather Rosemary’s Baby is a cautionary feminist tale about men’s control of women’s bodies embedded in one of the best psychological horror films ever. Ruth Gordon is outstanding as Rosemary’s neighbor and actor/filmmaker John Cassavetes is suitably chilling as her ambitious husband. The only truly outmoded touch for modern viewers is that a young couple starting out in the city could afford a fantastic apartment at the Dakota.

9. Rachel, Rachel

Our roving contributor Cletus pushed hard for this little gem and it’s easy to see why. Paul Newman made his directing debut and his wife Joanne Woodward was nominated for an Academy Award for her titular performance. She plays a never-married woman in her thirties at a time when this was relatively unusual. In the film she explores the idea of happiness with a man, with religion, by having a child, and with another woman only to accept that she might very well be lonely the rest of her life. The ambiguity of the film’s ending and the relentless focus on one woman’s growth echo the feminism of Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby on a smaller more intimate scale. Don’t miss Terry Kiser (Bernie in the Weekend at Bernie’s films) as a sleazy preacher.



10. The Odd Couple

This film adaptation of Neil Simon’s hit play is the quintessential buddy movie with it’s iconic teaming of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau (first seen in the delightful black comedy The Fortune Cookie). The fact that this odd couple happen to be two divorced men reflected the growing rate of failed marriages – the other side of the growing feminist consciousness represented in Rachel, Rachel, Funny Girl and Rosemary’s Baby. If it never transcends it’s origins as a play, its still highly entertaining with some of Simon’s best dialogue and a great cast of supporting characters.

Film: Flashback! The Best Movies of 1968 Part One

Compiled by Noah Mallin

In an ongoing cultural project here at POSAS I'm delving into the past to bring flashbacks from pop culture's musty byways. We're starting 40 years ago with 1968 and the best movies of that year. They are in no order except the arbitrary whims of yours truly. I have of course called in friend of the blog Cletus to weigh in as well. To the list!


1. The Producers

The story of The Producers is not unlike…well… the story of The Producers. The film flopped on its original release but subsequently garnered a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Gene Wilder and a win for writer/director Mel Brooks in the screenplay category. It has since gone on to great success as a hit Broadway musical and a not-so-hit film version of the play. The difference is that, as far as anyone knows, Brooks didn't plan it this way.

Zero Mostel plays Max Bialystock, seedy down-on-his-luck producer who resorts to seducing old ladies to fund his shows. Gene Wilder is nebbishy Leo Bloom, the accountant who muses that one could actually make more money from a flop than a hit. From that seed comes Bialystock’s final solution: a Broadway musical called Springtime For Hitler.



2. Planet of The Apes

Planet of The Apes is one of the archetypal sci-fi as social commentary films. In a year when it seemed the world was falling apart, riven by assassinations and wars and riots, Charlton Heston lands on a faraway planet where the men are speechless beasts and the apes are in charge. Franklin Schaffner’s film was a massive hit, in no small part because the action and the spectacular visuals allow the socio-political implications to remain strictly optional – at least until
the unforgettable ending.

3. Petulia

Richard Lester’s Petulia, shot by Nicolas Roeg, is an all-but-forgotten gem. The film is a time –fragmented dark romantic comedy that is also a cutting dissection of consumerist American society at the height of the Vietnam War. The quick-cuts and flashy editing are of the time but can also be seen as influences on directors both good (Almodovar, Soderburg) and bad (Michael Bay). Julie Christie is at her best as the offbeat title character, looking for deeper meaning in a shifting world, George C. Scott is her older lover and Richard Chamberlain is deeply creepy as her husband.

The Vietnam War on people’s televisions contrasts with their Great Society surroundings and San Francisco in all it’s counter-culture fault lines. There is also some notable footage of both Big Brother and The Holding Company and The Grateful Dead performing live.



4. Once Upon a Time in The West

Sergio Leone finally got a big American budget to match his John Ford-esque ambitions with Once Upon a Time in The West. A big long epic, it’s a film stuffed with the contrast between the tiny detail and the sweeping long view that are the hallmark of Leone’s style. There’s no Eastwood here as in Leone’s three previous spaghetti western classics but Henry Fonda is superb cast against type as the heavy, versus Charles Bronson as Leone’s prototypical existential hero.



5. Night of The Living Dead

George Romero’s Night of The Living Dead is the low-budget flipside to the big-budget ’68 hit Planet of The Apes. Like Apes, Night of The Living Dead is a genre film that also packs a great deal of social commentary into its wrapper. It’s also the blueprint for the modern zombie film as carried on by the likes of 28 Days Later, among others.