Credit: Alamy

Mac Miller’s music taste was broad, and that played out within his own work.

While he started out making what amounted to “frat rap,” his style became more complex and sophisticated as he developed his craft, encompassing elements of funk, R&B and even jazz. He took an expansive approach to his music, lifting elements from all sorts of different sources, which, indeed, is a reflection of what was going on during one of pop music’s most important eras: the ’60s. 

Mac loved some of the greatest works of the ’60s, and, while the era’s influence may not be the most obvious to detect in his songs, it most certainly is there when you scratch beneath the surface. He was an especially big fan of John Lennon, one of the decade’s most iconic figures, and he even had tattoos dedicated to him. On his arm was the word “imagine,” a reference, of course, to Lennon’s classic 1971 song, while he even had a likeness of Lennon’s actual face inked onto his skin, too. That’s fairly extreme fandom.

“I got a John Lennon tattoo dude,” he told Complex, laughing, in 2013. “I love what [The Beatles] represent. I love all the shit when they started getting really weird.”

Surely the quintessential instance of The Beatles getting “weird” is on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in 1967. This, obviously, has proven to be one of the most influential albums of all time, and, even today, despite the fact it spawned so many copy-cats, it still is striking in its unique strangeness. Mac, for his part, absolutely loved it, and it was one of his favourite albums to come out of the ’60s.

“I kind of identify with them,” he said of The Beatles, reflecting on his love for Sgt Pepper. “Not with like in massiveness, but like in their journey. I’m a huge Beatles fan, from when I was a little kid. [Asking how you got into the Beatles is] like asking, ‘How did you get into Jesus?’ [Laughs] I’m just saying, it just exists. How did you get into sandwiches? I found [out about them myself], I was very independent. I taught myself how to tie my shoe and how to write. I was reading by four. [Laughs.] I was a prodigy.”

Sgt Pepper is emblematic of the psychedelic, inventive, experimental weirdness of the 1960s, but the decade also had a gentler, more subtle approach to art. Mac liked these quieter, less overtly colourful creations, too, with Bob Dylan’s 1963 second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan also being one of his all-time favourites. “I love that record,” he said. “I love that cover art. I really love Bob Dylan. My brother is so into Bob Dylan.”

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan contained more of Dylan’s own compositions than his first album had, one of which was ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ a paradigmatic protest song that embodies so much of the spirit and values of the 1960s. Dylan in those days drew from the news of the day for his songs, giving expression to many of the political anxieties of the era while also offering a measure of hope.

Dylan became a legend following The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and, while his career and politics have certainly taken many turns since then, Dylan’s broad legacy has endured. “I saw Dylan perform live one time,” Mac noted. “Front row. In Pittsburgh. General admission. I was like 10 or 12 and I just pushed my way up to the front by myself because there was no seats or anything.”