3 Classic Rock Songs From the 1960s That Are More Like Poetry

Rock music is terrific, but it didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. There were other sonic styles that helped to bring it along, including the blues and folk music. Both genres often boasted poetic lyrics that helped to teach and enlighten as much as entertain.

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That’s just what we wanted to highlight here. Below, we wanted to dive into three classic rock songs from the 1960s that sparked your imagination while also getting your toes to tap. Indeed, these are three classic rock songs from the 1960s that are more like poetry.

“White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane from ‘Surrealistic Pillow’ (1967)

While the 1967 classic rock song “White Rabbit” reads much like poetry, it also, of course, reads a lot like fiction. As the song title might suggest, there are themes, characters, and plot lines simply plucked from the famed novel Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. Indeed, on the psychedelic tune, lead vocalist Grace Slick sings, “One pill makes you larger / And one pill makes you small / And the ones that mother gives you / Don’t do anything at all / Go ask Alice / When she’s ten feet tall.”

“The Sound Of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel from ‘Sounds Of Silence’ (1966)

It’s funny—not only did the lyrics of Simon & Garfunkel songs read like poetry, but somehow the harmony the duo struck sounded like poetry, too. It was that blissful, that precise. As for the lyrics of this 1966 track, though, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel blend their voices and offer the eerie and divine opening, “Hello darkness, my old friend / I’ve come to talk with you again / Because a vision softly creeping / Left its seeds while I was sleeping.”

“Blowin’ In The Wind” by Bob Dylan from ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ (1963)

You can’t talk about poetic 1960s rock music without mentioning The Bard, Bob Dylan. In many ways, it was Dylan who sparked a lyrical revolution during the decade, as he released acoustic-driven song after acoustic-driven song, each seemingly more poetic than the last. And on this 1963 single, Dylan sings about the human condition as only he can, offering, “How many roads must a man walk down /
Before you call him a man? / How many seas must a white dove sail / Before she sleeps in the sand?“

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