4 Songs From 1969 That Make Me Wish I Had a Time Machine

The 1960s saw so much great music come into existence that it’s almost unfair to the rest of time. Take, for example, these songs that came out in 1969. They remain so ubiquitous today that it’s hard to imagine a world in which these songs weren’t on the radio.

As a 30-something born in the 1990s, I’m sad to say that I wasn’t around to watch these incredible 1969 songs come into being. But if I had a time machine, I would go back just so I could hear these songs for the very first time alongside the rest of the world.

“Come Together” by The Beatles

Starting this list of exceptional songs from 1969 that make me wish I had a time machine is “Come Together” by The Beatles, although I would really want to go back so I could listen to the entire Abbey Road album for the first time. Still, I can only imagine what it was like hearing that iconic intro and learning John Lennon’s nonsensical lyrics for the very first time. What an earworm, even all these decades later.

“Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones

Listening to The Rolling Stones’ 1969 track, “Gimme Shelter”, never fails to send goosebumps all over my body. Merry Clayton’s vocals are truly unmatched. And given the turbulent social and political changes happening in the final year of the 1960s, I know this song would have been even more emotionally moving to hear when it first came out. Of course, the unfortunate reality is that “Gimme Shelter” remains relevant in every sense of the word all these years later.

“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” by Crosby, Stills & Nash

The softest offering on this list of time machine-worthy songs from 1969 is Crosby, Stills & Nash’s Top 20 hit, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, from their debut eponymous album. Just to see this supergroup of incredible vocalists and guitarists come into being would be worthy of building a time machine. It would be like if Hozier, Andrew Bird, and Bon Iver decided to start a band together now. (At least, that’s what it would be like for me.)

“Spirit In The Sky” by Norman Greenbaum

I’m not even a religiously spiritual person. But if I had been alive in 1969, I might have considered converting to Christianity after listening to Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit In The Sky” for the first time. Like, if Heaven is going to rock that hard with that much guitar distortion, maybe we really do “gotta have a friend in Jesus.” I still find this song just as catchy as the first time I heard it in the early 2000s. However, listening to it for the first time in the world?

Come on. Just get me a flux capacitor already.

Photo by Ivan Keeman/Redferns