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The Year 1963 summary

• Washington-to-Moscow “hot line” communications link opens, designed to reduce risk of accidental war (Aug. 30). Background: cold war
• Kenya achieves independence.
• There are 15,000 US military advisers in South Vietnam. Background:
• 32 independent African nations establish the Organization for African Unity.
• “March on Washington,” civil rights rally held by 200,000 blacks and whites in Washington, D.C.; Martin Luther King delivers “I have a dream” speech (Aug. 28).
• President Kennedy shot and killed in Dallas, Tex. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President same day (Nov. 22). Background: Timeline of Kennedy tragedies
• Lee Harvey Oswald, accused Kennedy assassin, is shot and killed by Jack Ruby (Nov. 24).
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• Beatlemania hits the U.K. The Beatles, a British band composed of John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, take Britain by storm.
• The Rolling Stones emerge as the anti-Beatles, with an aggressive, blues-derived style.

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Rules:

• Only one song per artist/group
• The song must be released that specific year
• Songs from live albums not allowed (that’s another & more complicated list)
• Max 20 songs

Please feel free to publish your own favorite songs from 1972 in the comments section…

• A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan

  
  Written by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records’ Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – released May 27, 1963. The lyric structure is based on the question and answer form of the traditional ballad “Lord Randall”, Child Ballad No. 12.
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  Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
  And where have you been my darling young one?
  I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
  I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
  I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
  I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
  I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
  And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
  It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
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  Continue reading “1963: 20 songs released in 1963 you must hear” →