1967

A noted British singer-songwriter tells the story of a pivotal year in his personal and artistic evolution.

In early 1966, Hitchcock’s parents jettisoned their 12-year-old son into the “alien world” of the all-male Winchester College boarding school. What intrigued Hitchcock the most had little to do with education and colorful faculty members and everything to do with the music, including the Beatles’, to which he was exposed from the first day. As he went through rituals of new-kid initiation, which included learning a student-only language called Notions and finding his place in a strictly defined internal hierarchy, Hitchcock found his salvation in Bob Dylan. “He looks calmly furious, beneath a lacquer of indifference,” writes the author. “But he also looks like he understands that, on some level, everything is a joke. He looks wise. Wise and dangerous.” Hitchcock’s love of music did not emerge from a vacuum: His father loved traditional folk music and introduced his son to the BBC’s Pick of the Pops radio program. The author’s life then underwent an artistic revolution that began with his parents’ gift of a “cheap but functional nylon stringed guitar.” That event coincided with the rise of famous guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett, who inspired the author to begin playing his own guitar. Also in 1967, Hitchcock’s childhood began falling away as he shot up to over 6 feet tall, came into contact with experimental musician and “groover” Brian Eno at school “Happenings,” and began actively exploring not only music, but also writing and drawing. A bright, nostalgic look at the exhilaration of 1967, this book—illustrated throughout with Hitchcock’s surreal sketches—will appeal to not only the author’s many fans but also anyone interested in the music and culture from the golden age of psychedelia.

Wistfully reflective reading.