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This article about the Rolling Stones, the beginning of Satisfaction, and the Fuzz-Tone, (which changes the sound of a guitar, and which I had never heard of until I read the article) was written by the guy who taught the History of Rock class and the Beatles class I took on Coursera a couple of years ago.
One of the things I liked about John Covach's classes was the way he layered information about the music with background details. He talked about what else was going on in the world, advances in technology (from guitars to recording technology to radio), and about the influences on the musicians and song-writers (usually not the same individual, until rock was well established).
He teaches a class on the Stones, too, but I didn't take that one.
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I recently listened to a podcast featuring John Cusack, and he talked quite a bit about his most recent movie (Love and Mercy) which is a bio-pic about Brian Wilson. It was interesting to hear his take on how all the musicians of that time competed with and took inspiration from one another, and how that was the rise of the singer/songwriter.
I really had no idea about the level of musicianship many of the 60s rock and rollers had. About how much time and energy they spent learning their craft, and how much they cared about the music (as opposed to caring about being rich and famous, say....).
I also had no idea how unusual it was for popular-music stars to actually write music themselves, before rock and roll. How it was a really big deal for established song-writers like Carole King to "cross over" and perform their own songs.
I was only aware of a thin skin of surface over all that was going on in popular music in the 60s..........
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