Category Archives: 1960s songs

The top 500 best music and songs from the 1960s. Song meanings, lyrics and interpretations from your favorite artists. The Beatles, Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Dylan. See who rates the highest!

1960s songs, young love

#63 Wild Horses- The Rolling Stones

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Faith has been broken tears must be cried/
Let’s do some living after we die.

The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses” is a song about young love and the transition into an adult relationship. Problems become more pronounced and it appears that the woman may be pushing the narrator away. But he isn’t having any of it. He is not going to let her ruin a good thing. Her theatrics and attempts to sabotage the relationship are not going to dissuade him. Not even wild horses will drag him away.

Wild Horses rolling stones Meaning
the Stones

The line above is very interesting: “Let’s do some living after we die.” It sounds like she wants to break up with him and live her life while she’s young…or something to that effect. He is saying “let’s be together now and worry about this ‘living’ at another time in the future.” It sounds very different than the typical impression we get of Jagger as a playboy. Here he comes off as a romantic.

The harmonies in the chorus are not elite level, but they are still good. Mick’s vocal’s sound good, but throughout even the mid seventies he was pretty consistent with his voice. Not only are his vocals clear, they sound somewhat heartfelt. That is what we want in a lyric.

Of course, I think it is the melody that stands out in “Wild Horses” as well as the overt romanticism that makes this song such a favorite. The guitar work sounds almost ad-libbed at times, but that is part of its charm. This is a song that is ripe for a great cover. There are a couple decent versions but nothing monumental.

Wild Horses Lyrics

Childhood living is easy to do,
The things you wanted I bought them for you.
Graceless lady you know who I am,
You know I can’t let you slide through my hands.

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.
Wild, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain,
Now you’ve decided to show me the same.
No sweeping exit or offstage lines,
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind.

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.
Wild, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.

I know I’ve dreamed you a sin and a lie,
I have my freedom but I don’t have much time.
Faith has been broken tears must be cried,
Let’s do some living after we die.

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.
Wild, wild horses we’ll ride them some day.
Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.
Wild, wild horses we’ll ride them some day.

written by Jagger/Richards

1960s songs, outcasts

#62 It’s All Over Now Baby Blue (live)- Bob Dylan

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The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense/
Take what you have gathered from coincidence.

In “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue”: we don’t get the details from Bob Dylan about what went wrong in her life, but something has gone wrong for the protagonist. It sounds like she is in debt, and her life is in danger and she must immediately leave town (and perhaps even change her name) if she wants to survive.

Things are so bad that a vagabond is standing outside her door in the clothes she pawned. It is interesting that she is still around. The song is not about how she left for a life on the road. The song is a warning, a wake-up call. Dylan is saying “you don’t have much time left, leave now and start over”. Baby Blue is one of the more fascinating characters in Dylan’s songs.

It's All Over Now Baby Blue Meaning
Dylan

Listen to the live version at Free Trade Hall in 1966. This is the best concert of Dylan’s career, and many of the best versions of his best songs come from that performance. But most of all, it is this song. It is so much better than the album version.

One of the aspects that stands out about “It’s All Over Baby Blue” are the harmonica solos. Dylan is famous for playing the harmonica, but he is not great at it. In this performance, his two harmonica solos sound transcendent. That night his voice sounded great and he delivered the song as if the songs mattered to him.

It is truly one of the best live performances ever. It was his acoustic set that was amazing. Halfway through he switched to electric guitar and someone yelled out “Judas”. The rest of the concert did not go as well. They took their folk music seriously back then.

More Great Songs from Dylan.

It’s All Over Now Baby Blue Lyrics

You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last.
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast.
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun,
Crying like a fire in the sun.
Look out, the saints are comin’ through,
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense.
Take what you have gathered from coincidence.
The empty-handed painter from your streets,
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets.
The sky too is folding under you,
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

All your seasick sailors, they’re all rowing home.
Your empty-handed army is all going home.
Your lover who just walked out the door,
Has taken all his blankets from the floor.
The carpet too is moving under you,
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

Leave your stepping stones behind there, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who’s rapping at your door,
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew.
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

written by Bob Dylan

1960s songs, breakup songs

#61 Leaves That Are Green- Simon & Garfunkel

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I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song/
I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long.

Aging, Time and Love are themes in several of Simon’s songs and that is the theme here, in “Leaves That Are Green”. I always found the lyric above interesting. If you take it literally, it is nonsensical: you could never write this song with these lyrics when you were 21 but now be 22 and have the words be the same. But we get what he is saying. Ultimately, he ties this song back to his love a girl. Once it was green like spring, now it is dying and turning to brown. The relationship is ending. That is a powerful simile if ever there was one.

Leaves That are Green Meaning
Simon and Garfunkel

Make sure you listen to the acoustic version of “Leaves That Are Green” from the Paul Simon songbook. We can hear Simon’s expertise at finger-picking. He is a very precise guitar player. This version is just Simon singing—without Garfunkel. Just as with The Boxer, we can hear that Simon has an incredible, underrated voice that is capable of singing lead on an all-time great song. His voice was not as fantastic as Garfunkels’ but few are. Maybe it was an A compared to an A+. He conveys emotion without overindulging. He is a great example for aspiring male vocalists to emulate.

Leaves That Are Green Lyrics

I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long
Time hurries on
And the leaves that are green
Turn to brown
And they wither in the wind
And they crumble in your hand
Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl

I held her close but she faded in the night
Like a poem I meant to write
And the leaves that are green
Turn to brown
And they wither with the wind
And they crumble in your hand
I threw a pebble in a brook
And watched the ripples run away

And they never made a sound
And the leaves that are green
Turn to brown
And they wither iwith the wind
And they crumble in your hand
Hello, hello, hello, hello
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
That’s all there is
And the leaves that are green
Turn to brown

written by Paul Simon