All my earliest memories come from this decade. My first books and first movies. Bambi at the drive-in. Mary Poppins. The mysteries of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Bounty Trilogy. Jules Verne. First explorations of nature in my backyard. First day of school. My first library card. Reading books in the ‘back back’ of the light blue station wagon. My first fishing pole – catching sunnies and, once, a snapping turtle, in the Saddle Brook. My first trip on an airplane – visiting the pilot in the cockpit. Watching the Apollo astronauts on TV. The shooting of Bobby Kennedy. The Vietnam War on the evening news. Hippies making out in Glen Rock Park.
So in the spirit of that immense decade, here are my top films, books and music of the 1960s. To see the complete lists, check out the menu at the top of the page.
Favorite 60s Films
8½ (Fellini, 1963)
Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux [My Life to Live] (Godard, 1962)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
La dolce vita (Fellini, 1960)
À bout de souffle [Breathless] (Godard, 1960)
Repulsion (Polanski, 1965)
Peeping Tom (Powell, 1960)
L’avventura [The Adventure] (Antonioni, 1960)
El ángel exterminador [The Exterminating Angel] (Buñuel, 1962)
Jules et Jim [Jules and Jim] (Truffaut, 1962)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick, 1964)
La jetée [The Pier] (Marker, 1962)
Nóż w wodzie [Knife in the Water] (Polanski, 1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (Frankenheimer, 1962)
Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
Le procès [The Trial] (Welles, 1962)
The Servant (Losey, 1963)
Bande à part [Band of Outsiders] (Godard, 1964)
Faces (Cassavetes, 1968)
Midnight Cowboy (Schlesinger, 1969)
Favorite 60s Books
Thomas Pynchon V. (1963)
Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
Tom Wolfe The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)
Kurt Vonnegut Cat’s Cradle (1963)
James Watson The Double Helix (1968)
J.D. Salinger Franny and Zooey (1961)
Jorge Luis Borges Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings (1962)
William Hinton Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village (1966)
Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)
John Barth Giles Goat-Boy (1966)
William L. Shirer The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (1960)
Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange (1962)
Richard Taylor Metaphysics (1963)
Frank Rhodes Fossils (1962)
Favorite 60s Music
Patsy Cline 12 Greatest Hits (1957-1963)
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles The Ultimate Collection (1959-1972)
Wes Montgomery The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960)
Freddie King Hide Away: The Best of Freddy King (1960-1966)
Etta James The Sweetest Peaches: The Chess Years, Part 1 (1960-1966)
Bill Evans Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961)
Johann Sebastian Bach St. Matthew Passion (Klemperer) (1961)
Dexter Gordon Go (1962)
Lee Morgan The Sidewinder (1964)
Gustav Mahler Das Lied von der Erde (Ludwig/Klemperer) (1964-1966)
Joe Henderson Inner Urge (1965)
Wayne Shorter Speak No Evil (1965)
Sun Ra The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra (1965)
John Coltrane A Love Supreme (1965)
B.B. King Live at the Regal (1965)
The Beatles Rubber Soul (1965)
Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
Various Artists Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era (1965-1968)
Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde (Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele/Böhm; Nilsson; Windgassen; Ludwig) (1966)
Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde (1966)
Larry Young Unity (1966)
Various Artists Chicago/The Blues/Today! (1966)
The Beatles Revolver (1966)
Albert King King of the Blues Guitar (1966-1968)
Jefferson Airplane The Worst of Jefferson Airplane (1966-1969)
Janis Joplin Greatest Hits (1966-1970)
The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Aretha Franklin The Very Best of Aretha Franklin: The ’60s (1967-1970)
Van Morrison Astral Weeks (1968)
The Beatles The Beatles [White Album] (1968)
Claudio Monteverdi Orfeo (Ensemble Vocal et Instrumental de Lausanne/Corboz) (1968)
Various Artists Tropicália: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound (1968-1970)
Dusty Springfield Dusty in Memphis (1969)
The Who Tommy (1969)
Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)
The Band The Band (1969)
The Beatles Abbey Road (1969)