I had always thought of this song as a "good" Beatles knock-off, representing the 1967 "Summer of Love" mentality. But after reading the comment on this site, it is clear that it represents the contradiction between the "Happy Days"/ "Archie Comics" type youth mentality of the early/mid 1960s and what was really going on in the back-ground . For the record, JFK was a champion of the youth culture of the early 1960s but there was another reality waiting in the wings-- the Lucky Luciano/Mafia plan to flood this country with white dope. At first the Mafia courted Kennedy but after awhile he cut ties with Sinatra/Rat Pack, and his brother Robert turned into an enemy of the Mafia. There is little doubt that Mafia elements wanted to get the Kennedy's "out of the way" and replaced with those who would "look the other way". I think the song is a lament and wants to just block out such ugly realities (which came to pass) and just celebrate the carefree youth culture of the time. Looking back to those years (I was a kid/teenager during the early/mid 1960s in Corvallis Oregon) it seems like living in an Archie comic, like a dream. The song writer understandably wants to stay in that dream despite the threatening news of reality.
I had always thought of this song as a "good" Beatles knock-off, representing the 1967 "Summer of Love" mentality. But after reading the comment on this site, it is clear that it represents the contradiction between the "Happy Days"/ "Archie Comics" type youth mentality of the early/mid 1960s and what was really going on in the back-ground . For the record, JFK was a champion of the youth culture of the early 1960s but there was another reality waiting in the wings-- the Lucky Luciano/Mafia plan to flood this country with white dope. At first the Mafia courted Kennedy but after awhile he cut ties with Sinatra/Rat Pack, and his brother Robert turned into an enemy of the Mafia. There is little doubt that Mafia elements wanted to get the Kennedy's "out of the way" and replaced with those who would "look the other way". I think the song is a lament and wants to just block out such ugly realities (which came to pass) and just celebrate the carefree youth culture of the time. Looking back to those years (I was a kid/teenager during the early/mid 1960s in Corvallis Oregon) it seems like living in an Archie comic, like a dream. The song writer understandably wants to stay in that dream despite the threatening news of reality.