From “Born To Be Wild” to “Dazed and Confused”: Rock Music’s Revolution in 1968

Einarson (Forever Changes: The Authorized Biography of Arthur Lee and Love) deals with the emergence of a visceral, heavy, and now classic rock from 1967 to 1969. Prefacing each section with lengthy month-by-month chronologies of selective political, social, and music events, he begins with psychedelia, which faded by 1967. The author moves to 1968 with transitional groups such as the Yardbirds, the Who, Cream, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which delivered heavy, blues-based sounds clothed in psychedelic trappings. Einarson details the full-blown emergence of hard-edged heavy metal at the end of the decade with such still-celebrated bands as the Jeff Beck Group, Steppenwolf, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, which reflected the increasingly turbulent times. He ends with the splintering of ’70s music into different genres, including country rock, glam, progressive rock, and disco. He points to the persistence of loud, distorted, propulsive acts such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Metallica.