Sherpa Music Vol 4. New York 1966

It’s November 1966, 7:30 am. I’m on the 23rd Street bus making my way West across lower Manhattan. There’s music in my head.

I dive into the warm, sweat-scented fog of the 6th Avenue Subway to grab the D and AA trains to get to the High School of Music and Art on 135th Street and St Nicholas Terrace.  It’s an hour-long trip from the Lower East Side, but worth every minute of it for the immersive alchemy of the multicultural stew that is M&A. 

The city is alive with music. It pulses with a mix of psychedelic rock, Latin jazz, blues, r&b, and folk. WOR FM, the country’s first progressive rock station with DJ Murray the K at the helm, has just broken through. It’s spellbinding, cool, sexy. 

We’re in love with the sound of local heroes; Simon and Garfunkel, The Blues Project, The (Young) Rascals, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Youngbloods, Richie Havens, Tim Hardin. The Who and Cream make their debuts and rattle our worlds. Dylan is on fire. Motown is still cranking out hits, the Beatles have unleashed Revolver, Coltrane is at the Vanguard and a young Jimi Hendrix is on his way from the Cafe Wha to England to blow the doors off of everything we knew about guitar playing. It’s all leaking out into the streets in a heady, wildly diverse brew.

Me and my tribe of high school artist, musician nerds head uptown to Cheetah to catch the Rascals and down into the dank basement of the Cafe Au Go Go on Bleecker to sit a few feet from legends and have our bones shaken.

As we consider the design of our future, in these unsettled days, let's remember that the invention of what’s next blooms from a bold mash-up of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, sounds, and deep-soul honesty. 

May this eclectic playlist of tunes from ’66 inspire you.  At the very least, I hope it has your toes tapping and you singing along.