All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music — Season 1, Episode 17: Imagine (New Directions)

Episode synopsis

The film opens at a pop festival. Drug-smoking is very much in evidence. “These fellows will answer to God” says the Rev Jack Wyrtzen, “for all the pollution and evil they have spread around the world.” “The thing about rock n roll” says Lester Bangs, “is that it is totally about adolescence, and about consumerism brought in the highest degree”. In fact, as the film begins to point out, neither of these extreme points of view is true. Tangerine Dream perform religious music in Coventry Cathedral. Stomu Yamash’ta, a spectacular Japanese percussionist, clearly has nothing to do with adolescence: and no-one could describe Mike Oldfield as the product of consumerism.

About All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music

A 17-part television documentary series on the history of modern pop music covering some of the many different genres that have fallen under the label of "popular music" between the mid-19th century and 1976, including folk, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, vaudeville and music hall, musical theatre, country, swing, jazz, blues, R&B, rock 'n' roll and others.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Introductory Programme
• E2God's Children
• E3I Can Hypnotise 'Dis Nation (Ragtime)
• E4Jungle Music (Jazz)
• E5Who's That Comin'? (The Blues)
• E6Rude Songs (Vaudeville and Music Hall)
• E7Always Chasin' Rainbows (Tin Pan Alley)
• E8Diamonds As Big As the Ritz (The Musical)
• E9Swing That Music! (Swing)
• E10Good Times (Rhythm and Blues)
• E11Making Moonshine (Country Music)
• E12Go Down, Moses! (Folk 'War Songs')