Jingle Jangle Morning (The 1960s U.S Folk Rock Explosion)

The folk-rock boom of the 1960s was the sound of the coffee shops, the college campus lawns, the protest marches, and more than anything, the sound of American youth culture changing in a way it never had before. Jingle Jangle Morning: The 1960s U.S. Folk-Rock Explosion collects an exhaustive number of songs from this era (74 in total, with a run time of around four hours), touching on the better-known heroes of the movement as well as the overlooked. Cherry Reds anthological compilations have a tendency to pair big stars with lesser-known artists, but here the contrast is more apparent. Weve got some of the biggest hits from artists who are more or less synonymous with 60s folk-rock -- acts like Bob Dylan, the Byrds, or the Mamas & the Papas. Songs included on the comp like Buffalo Springfields "For What Its Worth" and Simon & Garfunkles "The Sound of Silence" are undeniably important, yet theyve grown so familiar within the cultural lexicon that they dont necessarily stand out. Jingle Jangle Morning gets more interesting with the inclusions of stranger, more off-the-radar tracks like the Rising Storms moody and psychedelic garage track "Frozen Laughter" and the acoustic beat romp "Doll House" by the Blue Things. Theres also squeaky-clean collegiate pop from We Five; feel-good hippy rock from the Lovin Spoonful; psychedelia from Love, the Leaves, and the Fugs; and working-class troubadours like Phil Ochs and Richie Havens. Jingle Jangle Morning indeed has some well-loved selections that feel culled from greatest-hits collections, but its full playlist illuminates just how widespread the folk-rock banner was, and how many different styles of expression fit within the movement. ~ Fred Thomas