Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966-1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era

Contents

• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction: Pop Goes the ­Avant-Garde
• Part One: All You Need Is Studio Time (or, the Ballad of John and Yoko): The Beatles
• 1. Rebranding the Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
• 2. Music Television: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
• 3. The Dialectic of Lennon/McCartney: The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album) (1968)
• 4. One Bad Apple: John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the ­Avant-Garde Turn
• 5. Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970)
• Part Two: No Commercial Potential: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
• 6. Zappa in Context: Pal Recording Studio and The Steve Allen Show (1963)
• 7. Motherly Summer of Love: Freak Out! (1966)
• 8. Nothing Succeeds Like Excess: Absolutely Free (1967) and “Rock Theater”
• 9. The Conscience of a (Practical) Conservative: We’re Only in It for the Money (1968)
• 10. Project/Object: Zappa, Mass Culture and Postmodernism
• Part Three: All Tomorrow’s Parties: The Velvet Underground
• 11. Andy Says: The Exploding Plastic Inevitable and The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
• 12. The Black Album: White Light/White Heat (1968)
• 13. Playing It Safe: The Velvet Underground (1969) and Loaded (1970)
• Conclusion: The ­Avant-Garde Goes Pop
• Discography
• Chapter Notes
• Bibliography
• Index