1963: The Year of the Revolution: How Youth Changed the World with Music, Art, and Fashion

by Ariel Leve, Robin Morgan

Overview

1963

It was the year that Cold War protagonists sought a truce, the race to space stepped up a gear, feminism and civil rights flexed their political muscles, and President John F. Kennedy's assassination numbed the world. But as the front pages of history were being printed, the scoop of the century slipped by unnoticed. On January 13, 1963, two then-largely unknown musical acts made their first appearances on nationwide television in Britain. Neither the Beatles nor Bob Dylan could have known it at the time, but through some strange alchemy the anthems of social upheaval were being heard by a mass audience—and these artists were the catalyst. Within the year, their voices were captivating millions of ears around the world. The Beatles had become the poster boys of a revolution that still influences us to this day, and Dylan its prophet.

In short, 1963 saw the birth of a global demographic power shift. Within that one year, youth, for the first time in history, had become a commercial and cultural force that commanded the attention of government and religion and exercised the power to shape society.

1963: The Year of the Revolution is the first book to recount the kinetic story of the liberation of youth through music, fashion, and the arts—and in the voices of those who changed the world so radically, from Keith Richards to Eric Clapton, Mary Quant to Vidal Sassoon, Graham Nash to Peter Frampton, Alan Parker to Gay Talese, Stevie Nicks to Norma Kamali, and many more. It is an oral history that records, documentary-style, the incredible roller-coaster ride of that year, in which a group of otherwise obscure teenagers would become global superstars. It serves not only as a fast-paced, historical eyewitness account but as an inspiration to anyone in search of a passion, an identity, and a dream.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062120465
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/19/2013
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	176,750
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ariel Leve is an award-winning journalist who has written for the Guardian, Financial Times Magazine, the Telegraph, the Observer, and the London Sunday Times Magazine, where she was a senior writer and a columnist. At the British Press Awards she was short-listed twice for Interviewer of the Year and Highly Commended twice. Her books include It Could Be Worse, You Could Be Me.

Robin Morgan is a multiple award-winning British journalist and editor who was the longest-serving editor-in-chief of the London Sunday Times Magazine, from 1991 to 2009. He has worked as a news editor, foreign correspondent, and investigative journalist and was awarded British Campaigning Journalist of the Year twice. He lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

09/30/2013
When British and American youth revolted in the early 1960s, cultures around the globe felt the tremors of its impact. British journalists Morgan and Leve orchestrate a tribute to this time of great change through the voices of entertainers, fashion mavens, writers, and artists of the period. This oral history is a cavalcade of celebs marking their coming of age in the golden era of the space race, the rising campaigns for women's and civil rights, and the tragedy of J.F.K.'s assassination. Among the notables Morgan and Leve rounded up to recall their experiences are guitarist Eric Clapton, songwriter Neil Sedaka, singer Mary Wilson, hair stylist Vidal Sassoon, Rolling Stones members Keith Richards and Bill Wyman, writers Robert Christgau and Gay Talese. It's an unusual collection of figures, but what is remarkable is that many of these people never thought they would be stars, yet in this burgeoning counter-culture generation, they became rich, famous, and shook up the world. Through colorful, warts-and-all interviews, Morgan and Leve bring together a variety of viewpoints on the year the '60s really began. B&w photo inserts. Agent: Rob Weisbach, Rob Weisbach Creative Management. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

A lively, insightful read about a transformative year.

Dan Rather

A vivid and exhilarating guide to the year that revolutionized pop culture and shook the world, told by the movers and the shakers, themselves.

Mick Brown

An extraordinary year, a great cast of characters, a terrific book.

Sir Alan Parker

...a must read for anyone interested in how pop culture, and particularly pop music, was both representative of the age and a catalyst for change.

Victoria Broackes

2013-10-20
A hit-and-miss oral history of the "youthquake" year, from a predominantly British perspective. Former Sunday Times Magazine editor in chief Morgan and Leve (It Could Be Worse, You Could Be Me, 2010) show how the advent of the birth control pill, the ascent of youth-oriented designers and models and photographers, the sex scandals that rocked the British government (but barely registered in the States), and the general feeling that life as well as youth were short were all integral elements of this seismic shift. Maintains Andrew Loog Oldham, former manager of the Rolling Stones, "It wasn't the Beatles and it wasn't the Rolling Stones, it was Vidal Sassoon, it was Mary Quant, David Bailey, the models, they were the start of it." All are represented here, along with musicians who have covered this period more colorfully in their own books (Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Eric Clapton) and a smattering of Americans, including journalists Robert Christgau and Gay Talese, both of whom could undoubtedly write books on the topic with greater depth and insight. "If I write my book, if it will be about anything, it will be about the Beatles and the Stones and the Supremes in '64," says Christgau, referencing the year that much of what is detailed in this book had more impact in America. He also testifies to his part in the sexual revolution: "I was having sex at least every two weeks throughout that entire period." The authors mostly disappear from the text after proclaiming that "[i]n just one year, the landscape of our lives, loves and looks changed forever." However, there's no indication of when these interviews took place, whether they were all for this specific book or why these particular people were selected (Stevie Nicks in a book about 1963?). Whatever the nuggets of interest, this reads like an endless magazine article in need of editorial shaping and some kind of organizing principle.

Kirkus Reviews