Le Monde is doing this great series for summer, where they highlight some of the stuff you could be doing, reading, listening to, or whatever on your summer holiday. Today they did a full page spread on Treasure Island and another on a new translation of 1001 Nights. Other pages are devoted to particular songs, and yesterday they devoted a full page to the Rolling Stones' 'Satisfaction'. Which came out, amazingly, 40 years ago this summer. They give the history of the song and put it in context, pointing out that the summer of '65 also gave us 'Like a Rolling Stone' (Dylan), 'Yesterday' (Beatles), 'My Generation' (The Who), and 'California Girls' (Beach Boys). A list of events in '65 included the Watts riots in LA, and the authorization by LBJ for american troops to go on offensive (that would be the opposite of 'defensive', though I'm sure the other meaning of 'offensive' also applies) missions in Vietnam.
While the political landscape might be familiar today, I'm a little curious why the music coming out these days doesn't seem to rival the stuff coming out 40 years ago. I'm sure someone somewhere is writing stuff that's as good, but I haven't heard it!