Jimi Hendrix
A shape-shifting rock jam built around a mythic biker figure who embodies late-60s countercultural freedom while quietly hinting…
freedom and its limits the counterculture ethos mortality shadowing pleasure
The Who
A restless, half-comic confession of spiritual searching that name-drops the counterculture's gurus only to find them useless.…
spiritual seeking disillusionment with counterculture idols self-knowledge as impossible task
The Rolling Stones
A gospel-choir-backed anthem that stitches together disconnected scenes of desire, disillusionment, and death, all resolving…
disillusionment compromise the counterculture's limits
John Prine
A soldier's chance encounter with a bar dancer turns into an unlikely origin story for a whole philosophy of life. Prine uses a…
rural simplicity vs. modern noise chance and fate counterculture retreat
A buoyant, almost novelty-song ode to caravan life, in which freedom is defined entirely by motion and lack of fixed address.…
freedom through motion rejection of domesticity escapism
Joni Mitchell
A short, fragmentary address to someone (or something) called Blue, mixing tenderness with an inventory of the era's chemical…
addiction and self-destruction intimacy as gift-giving disillusionment with countercultural excess
A deadpan comic monologue about waking up defeated by ordinary life and reaching for a cheap, illicit pleasure to get through…
escapism paranoia and surveillance poverty and disillusionment
Mott the Hoople
A hymn-like anthem built almost entirely on repetition, this track uses communal imagery and quasi-religious language to plead…
communal solidarity surrender vs. resistance spiritual searching
Elvis Costello
A deceptively sunny, Beach Boys-styled pop song that uses its bright surf-rock arrangement as a Trojan horse for a scathing…
media and celebrity culture environmental destruction disillusionment with 60s idealism
Missy Elliott
Missy Elliott's signature single is a maximalist celebration of sexual confidence and self-invention, built on a literal sonic…
sexual agency self-invention and reinvention female solidarity and hustle