Cities Made of Song, 1965

Turn! Turn! Turn! by the Byrds

"To everything (turn, turn, turn) / There is a season (turn, turn, turn) / And a time to every purpose, under heaven.​"

1965 was a hell of a year for music. I was challenged in picking just one to highlight for this year's installment thanks to the competition. Dylan put out Like a Rolling Stone this year, and two of my absolute favorite jazz albums, A Love Supreme by John Coltrane and Free for All by Art Blakey, both dropped. Of course, my guilty pleasure, the Beatles, put out their absolute best in 1965 with the album Rubber Soul, which contained a number of stone cold classics that could have competed for the honor. At the end of the day, however, I leaned once again toward a song that could connect back with the material I'm marathoning: Turn! Turn! Turn! by the Byrds.

In researching this post, I was surprised to learn that Pete Seeger, whom I've always admired, was the original writer of this song. (Though one could always argue the actual lyricist was King Solomon.) Seeger was really ahead of his time in writing this. If you'd told me that Gene Clark had written it the day before it was recorded in 1965, I probably would have believed you. It's perfectly suited for the emerging counterculture of the time, which may explain why it got its second life as one of the year's top pop hits. This really isn't miles away from psychedelic rock, too, broadcasting the trend that was about to overtake the musical landscape over the next year. It's a lovely, gentle song... and very catchy, too. I've cursed myself to have it stuck in my head all week at this point.

Seeger was a pacifist, of course, but I was surprised to learn that Terry Nation was, too. Looking back, I was far too hard on him when I reviewed The Daleks back in 2017. The way Ian riled the Thals up to fight in the later parts of that serial stuck in my craw a bit, but I discovered recently that Nation didn't like it, either. In an interview in 1966, he admitted that he wrote in Ian's lines for that scene out of necessity and felt conflicted over doing so. "It was against all my beliefs – but I made him say it. There were lots of 'turn the other cheek' letters from viewers, but it is a problem that we all have to face. I don't have the answer."

Though I've had a giggle or two at the recurring idiosyncrasies in his work, I've grown to appreciate Nation's work a lot more in viewing his early Dalek serials. He admits in the same interview that he was just in it to write fun adventure stories and didn't excel at "sociological drama", which is totally understandable. He still turned in dozens of episodes for the show, most of which I've really liked so far. If I want sociological drama, I'll try Paul Cornell or Steven Moffat. Every other day, I'll happily settle for this.

I don't know if it's to Nation's credit or to Dennis Spooner's that the story I'm currently taking an intermission from ends with a very firm pronouncement on the wastefulness of death and war, but either way, I find myself admiring Nation more than I did when I started three years ago.

Pacifism as a topic is going to turn up again and again throughout this marathon. The Doctor is the rare sort of protagonist for an adventure series who tries to solve problems through smarts rather than through violence, and I'm personally inclined to prefer that. We'll track this question through the decades, but for now, I'll let it rest by the wayside and just rock out.

"A time for love, a time for hate / A time for peace, I swear it's not too late."

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 8 April 2020.)