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Samira Sackietey
MUSIC 2260: The Music of the 1960s
May 5th, 2015
Single Class Session Syllabus:
Here They Come: Garage Rock and Protopunk

Background Reading:
Eric James Abbey, Ch. 6 What is Garage Rock?
Eric James Abbey, Ch. 4 The Count Who?

Core Reading:
Michael Hicks Ch.3 Avant Garage
Martin Jones, The Keys of the Day After Tomorrow: Its Monk Time!
Seth Bovey, Dont Tread on Me: The Ethos of 60s Garage Punk
Paul Kauppila, The Sound of the Suburbs: A Case Study of Three Garage Bands in San Jose,
California during the 1960s

Further Reading:
Ann Johnson and Mike Stax, From Psychotic to Psychedelic: The Garage Contribution to
Psychedelia
Dave Marsh, Ch. 11 The Louie Generation

Listening:
The Kingsmen, Louie, Louie (1963)
The Monks, Black Monk Time
The Sonics, Have Love Will Travel (1965), "Psycho"(1965), The Witch(1964)
Paul Revere and The Raiders Kicks (1966), Hungry (1966), Im Not Your Stepping
Stone (1966), "Him or Me (What's It Gonna Be?)" (1967)
Kit and the Outlaws, Dont Tread on Me (1967)
Count Five, Psychotic Reaction (1966)
The Blue Magoos, We Aint Got Nothing Yet (1966)
The Byrds, Eight Miles High (1966)
The Chocolate Watchband, Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In). (1967), No Way
Out(1967), Inner Mystique (1968)
Syndicate of Sound, Little Girl (1966)

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Rationale for Here They Come: Garage Rock and Protopunk
The 1960s has always been noted as a decade of great social, controversial and artistic

change. As a result, many have often debated whether the 60s was decade that brought about many
problems versus, the notion that it was a time period full of new and innovative ideas. Despite this
debate, it is generally agreed that popular music played an immense role in shaping the cultural,
social, and economic issues of the decade. Moreover, genres like rock came of age during the 60s
and controlled the charts, and thus, new and shifting styles emerged. In the case of garage rock and
Protopunk, there were significant themes of rebellion as well as going against the status quo both of
which were increasingly common ideals. For this reason, these genres are unique because, they
often presented an image of evolving subject positions and also provided a space where many young
individuals could speak to their feelings of discontent towards social issues. Finally, even as garage
rock and Protopunks stint in the 60s pop charts came to an end, the important contributions of
these genres to music and society beyond have still live on today.
In regarding the constantly evolving and diverse musical world of the 60s, I believe that the
genres of garage rock and Protopunk are both noteworthy topics to discuss, because the arrival of
these forms of rock onto the general popular scene played an immense role in the development of
other genres such as psychedelic rock as well as paving the way for the later punk movement of the
mid 1970s. These are some of the main reasons, I choose the article From Psychotic to
Psychedelic by Ann Johnson and Mike Stax because, it provides a detailed background history on
the development of garage rock and the key stylistic elements such as distortion and fuzz tones that
were later carried on into psychedelic rock. In addition, I also provided a chapter from Dave Marshs
The History and Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n Roll Song where it explains how The
Kingsmens recording of Richard Berrys song Louie, Louie was so impactful to Rock n Roll as
whole that it was often covered by other rock artists and its guitar riff often sampled in other songs.

Overall I feel that the further reading provides good context history and critical analysis for the
social and musical contributions that garage rock has given over time.
Similarly, I hoped to provide a great historical background of garage rock s origins so that
one could understand the evolution that led garage rock to be what it became, and its later
development into other musical forms. To illustrate this journey, I choose Eric James Abbeys
Chapters 4 and 6 of the book Garage Rock and its Roots because, it gives clear understanding of how
garage rock grew as response to the British Blues Invasion, and how some garage rock bands
originally began their origins as R&B groups. With this in mind, it helps to explain the presence of
blues music and other black music influences that were present in garage rock songs. Also, the
chapters touch upon the recognizable characteristics that were often associated within the genre
such as the use of the Farfisa organ and the technique of distortion.
Furthermore, for my core readings I decided to use more critical writing that could discuss
the various themes, issues and greater social connections to the genre. In order to do this I chose the
articles by Seth Bovey and Michael Hicks both of which present garage punk as a genre where many
musicians created much more unique and non-conforming sounds than its predecessors. As a result,
Bovey notes that the use of driving rhythms and stirring cord progressions along with lyrics that
defied social conventions and maintaining ones independence overall presents a more harsher and
crude sound than garage punks influences in British blues and R&B. Meanwhile, Hicks describes
garage as being avant-garde due to the common theme held by garage rockers of being separate
from the masses in the ability to maintain ones individuality. This idea then brings up the issue of
subject positions, where white adolescent males are allowed to speak on their views even if the
majority of society does not hold them. Also, Bovey often brings up the theme position of the lonely
white male who strives to connect with a white female and in other cases where the white
male bashes the white female girlfriend as being unsupportive and uncaring. Overall this

reinforces a subject position hierarchy, where women were not positively viewed or respected by
their male counterparts in the rock genre. This also could stem from the fact that rock was mainly a
male dominated genre. Nevertheless, there were songs of garage rock and punk, that also included
socially conscious themes, an example of this that is present in the book Lovers, Buggers & Thieves
where Martin Jones discusses The Monks, who were noted in their song as expressing a dislike
towards war and especially in case of Vietnam, as well as analyzing their vocal delivery and how they
voice their discontent with society and showcase rebellious attitudes. Moreover I also wanted to
examine how different geographical areas contributed to the overall sound and success of bands in
garage rock which was I chose the case study by Paul Kauppila which explained how regional bands
within a state like California held their own stylistic differences and contributed the general hippie
counterculture. More importantly, I also chose my listening selection according to my readings
because I felt that the music discussed in the readings provided a broad variety of style, common
lyrical themes, and finally represented a good development of garage rock and Protopunk over the
course of the decade and how the emergence of these genres derived from the changing attitudes
and technological innovations.
All in all, I believe that garage rock and Protopunk music served as an anthem for the youth
of the times and while garage rock seemed less politically motived than garage punk and Protopunk,
both sub genres played important roles in the social and cultural perception as well as domination of
Rock n Roll during the 1960s and the decades to follow. More importantly, even in the present day
both genres in the have manage to maintain a substantial following and influence in Rock music to
this day.

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Bibliography

Abbey, Eric James, Ch. 4: The Count Who? and Ch. 6 What is Garage Rock? In Garage Rock and
Its Roots: Musical Rebels and the Drive for Individuality. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2006.
Bovey, Seth. ""Don't Tread on Me": The Ethos of '60s Garage Punk." Popular Music and Society 29,
no. 4 (10, 2006): 451-459,503.
Hicks, Michael, Ch.3 Avant Garage Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1999.
Johnson, A., & Stax, M. (2006). From psychotic to psychedelic: The garage contribution to
psychedelia. Popular Music and Society, 29(4), 411-425,503. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/208065542?accountid=10267
Jones, Martin. The Keys of the Day After Tomorrow: Its Monk Time! Lovers, Buggers & Thieves:
Garage Rock - Monster Rock - Progressive Rock - Psychedelic Rock - Folk Rock. Manchester: Critical
Vision/Headpress, 2005.
Kauppila, Paul. 2005. The sound of the suburbs: A case study of three garage bands in San Jos,
California during the 1960s.Popular Music and Society 28 (3): 391-405.
Marsh, Dave. Ch. 11 The Louie Generation Louie Louie : The History and Mythology of the
World's Most Famous Rock 'n Roll Song; Including the Full Details of Its Torture and
Persecution at the Hands of the Kingsmen, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, and a Cast of Millions. Ann
Arbor, MI, USA: University of Michigan Press, 2010. Accessed May 7, 2015. ProQuest ebrary.