"I Dig Rock and Roll Music" | ||||
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Single by Peter, Paul and Mary | ||||
from the album Album 1700 | ||||
B-side | "The Great Mandella (The Wheel of Life)" | |||
Released | August 1967 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:31 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | ||||
Peter, Paul and Mary singles chronology | ||||
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"I Dig Rock and Roll Music" is a 1967 song by the American folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, written by Paul Stookey, James Mason and Dave Dixon.
Credited to Stookey-Mason-Dixon, the song's lyrics reference contemporary rock artists including the Mamas & the Papas, Donovan, and the Beatles. The song parodies and satirizes the vocal style of the Mamas & the Papas in the first verse, Donovan in the second verse and the Beatles in the third verse. [1] [2] Matthew Greenwald of AllMusic commented that the song "simply celebrates the simple joy of pop music at the time." [3]
In an interview with the Chicago Daily News in 1966, a year before the song's release, Mary Travers expressed contempt for the emergence of the folk rock genre: "(It's) so badly written. ... When the fad changed from folk to rock, they didn't take along any good writers." [4]
The line "When the words don't get in the way, yeah" and especially the phrasing of "yeah" is a reference to the line "Every other day, every other day, every other day of the week is fine, yeah" from the Mamas & the Papas' song " Monday, Monday".[ citation needed]
The line about Donovan and "his crystal images" refers to the mention of "crystal spectacles" in " Epistle to Dippy". The song is also noted for its psychedelic feedback effects, miming the volume swell on the electric guitar from Donovan's 1966 song " Sunshine Superman". The backing vocal effect in the verse parodying the Beatles reflects " Yellow Submarine".[ citation needed]
Cash Box said the song is "a rollicking trip with a sense of humor." [5]
The song was a hit single for the group and reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. [6] In Australia, the song reached No. 4.
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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