PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic examples of psychedelic music, what was you connection, if any?

When I type " examples of psychedelic music" into youtube, the second thing to come up is "The authentic Psychedelic era (best of 60s-70s)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7KxShixE-A&list=PLkjEvMJpFKeUe5oE6Hb1E04-ABq9lXSIM

I found this to be a pretty interesting list of songs, many of which I never thought about as being Psychedelic.

Whiter Shade Of Pale, for example. I also never knew that Robin Trower played for them. Years later, I saw Robin play at the Button South in Miami. I talked to him for a bit. He was a really nice guy to me.

1967 seems to be an exceptional year for this form of music. I was somewhere in the general vicinity of Viet Nam in that year. Part of the people who never were, doing the things we never did, in the places we never went to.

I did get a chance to listen to the music of the times, and it was more or less the only connection we had to the outside world. We were not even allowed to possess United States currency.

I am sure all those circumstances caused a deeper emotional connection to the music of that time period.

I have never been one to play many cover tunes, but lately, Herbstock caused me to go listen to some cover songs Eddie was interested in and be ready to play them.

That sort of got me off on a track of messing around on the guitar, trying to play something from memory in the style of things that I listened to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

That thinking leads me to the above youtube link.

There are a lot of interesting chord progressions/riffs/musical ideas, and funny lyrics in that series of videos.

"You got a hubcap diamond star halo" T Rex Get It On

Stones
"It's so very lonely, you're a hundred light years from home"

Donovan
"Must be the season of the witch"

David Bowie
"Ground control to Major Tom" (that probably had a very different meaning to a pilot who flew in Southeast Asia in those days)

If you look at some of the videos, I hope you find them of interest.

If you have any interest in creating a modern-day song based on the "psychedelic era of the 60s/70s, PM me.

Billy

Some of them are psychedelic songs and others, the majority, are mostly from the era.

Good music.

The "Count Five" was one of my favorite psychedelic bands way back then.
This is one of my favorite songs from their first album "Psychotic Reaction".
Can you guess why?

They're Gonna Get You

That is my thinking also, Herb. Not that I have ever dug very deep into the meaning of psychedelic. I suppose it could be construed to imply a particular period in time.

I took a pretty good look at the structure of many of the songs and played along with some of them. Some were not so easy to play, requiring guitar fills between the beats.

They run the gamut from simple to complex but are recognizable for those times. I think many of them were good music, and much can be learned from playing them.

Billy

LOL...your wife may be dropping you off at the front steps, along with your suitcase...lol

I guess for a garage band from San Jose Ca., a "Psychotic Reaction" could be pretty normal...lol

Running away now from the flack I will get from the nanny state people...lol

I like "Pretty Big Mouth" from them after I went and looked them up.

Billy

Good Great music for sure.
When I think Psychodelic Rock, The Strawberry Alarm Clock comes to mind. This was/is one of my favorites.
But these guys look too clean-cut to be the hippies I remember

Incense and Peppermints


Here's another good one.

Green Tambourine

Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" from The Dark Side Of The Moon album always had me wondering what kind of stuff they were on.

1967 seems to be an exceptional year for this form of music. I think I said that...lol

The Strawberry Alarm Clock was formed in 1967. I played along with two of their songs today. I probably would not have wanted to play Incense and Peppermints in the early 70s, thinking I was too cool for such nonsense. I have outlived my youthful arrogance and learned a thing or two.

I am unsure what year I first listened to them, but they were often on the radio in the 1970s.

Notice the tapping on the Gibson Les Paul in the Green Tambourine video. Wow, and we all thought Eddie Van Halen invented that...lol

Billy

lysergic acid diethylamide most likely Trev!...lol

The paper holds their folded faces to the floor, but everything got better...lol

You raise the blade, you make the change, and guess what? They rearranged me till I am sane...lol

I have told this story before, but I am an old guy, so I get to repeat myself...lol
The short version. I got invited on stage to be backed up by Eric Johnson and his band to play Brain Damage. Yes, The Cliffs Of Dover guy. Then we got to talk the next day at the Department Of Moter Vehicles, standing in line...lol

Billy

A brilliant garage psych band Mario...love 'em.

There was a lot of bubblegum psych or psychpop in the late 60s as the system, crashed into, & cashed in. Lots of bands tried their hand at it too...Status Quo's psych album is quite good fun though the Pictures of Matchstick Men does point to it being heavily manicured for the charts.1910 Fruitgum Company, Lemon Pipers et al. Some great stuff from them though.

This is, along with punk & new wave, amongst my favourite flavours.

From the prog psych of Pink Floyd & the Greek psych of Will-O-The-Wisp to the garage gems of the sort that made it into the Nuggets Pysch box as well as those that crossed over like LOVE. I occasionally dabble in writing songs that 'sort of" fit the label. My most recent forays have been into Pink Floydish tones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyXEyh0h2Uo&list=PLkNwHzsyYJ16xYNhhLISgMYzXY_AbCLfp

I have quite a bundle of music on CD & LP from the era & genre. I'm not 100% sold on the current modern variant of King Gizzard Wizzard or Tame Impala though they are another branch on the tree and worth listening to. I still haven't managed to grab hold of the garage psych vibe in my writing though...I think it's mostly my guitar playing that holds me back on that.

The 2000s brought some lovely sunshine psych pop from the likes of The Cosmic rough Riders & Teenage Fan Club...

Pink Floyd made a career writing songs about their guitarist Sid who was a victim of his own use of psychedelic drugs, specifically LSD.

It was a very sad situation but it sure made for some epic music.

I'm a bit surprised nobody has mentioned these guys.
The kiddies are certainly diggin the sound.

China Cat

When Trev made a comment about Brain Damage, I was joking about the LSD issue. I actually did not know about Sid's history. Based on the lyrical context of much of their music, it is not surprising.

LSD was a very common drug in the late 60s and early 70s. When I went exploring psychedelic music, I had forgotten the connection.

Where is the flashback they promised me?...lol

Billy

Thanks, Bass Thumper, for reminding me!

For many people, the Grateful Dead was a lifestyle. Following the band around the country was what large numbers of people did.

I was never a "Dead Head," but I always liked Dire Wolf and Casey Jones. Driving that train, high on Cocaine, Casey Jones, you better watch your speed.

LOL...now I have to pick up my guitar and see if I still remember how to play it...lol

Billy

I checked the style list for most of the songs above...oooooh, very, very poor results...mostly "Lite Pop". The options thrown up were uniformly awful and approached neither the style nor sound let alone the intent. Even the fabulous garage of The Kingsmen's Louie Louie was listed as Lite Pop.
It was far easier to create a style than waste time exploring and taste testing the junk offered.

This is not good news.
I wonder if PG Music is doing research to allow a style to be created in realtime on the users computer when given an audio file as an input.

For example, imagine how cool it would be to feed an algorithm an MP3 file of Incense and Peppermints and a BiaB style with the appropriate instruments, rhythm and playing qualities would be returned ready for you to input your chord progression.

My guess is that someone somehere at some company is working on this.

I listened to a lot of what people classed as psychedelic, but to me it was all just rock music. Hendrix, later day Beatles, Airplane, Floyd, Doors... a lot had to do with how deep the lyrics were and whether they were trippy enough to make you think. And of course the LSD connection. Clothing that was considered weird at the time, art on album covers... Those were my mid to late teen years and I had tons of those albums that I wish I still had. It ran alongside the British Invasion years so closely that I had records in crates separated by the turntable so British music was in one stack and psychedelic was in the other. And a 3rd stack for heavier stuff, soul and blues. BS&T were right around then, The Blue Project, Mayall, Cream... many of them could have been in all 3 stacks!

Psychedelic Rock...The 13th Floor Elevators

The Elevators were the first band to refer to their music as psychedelic rock, with the first known use of the term appearing on their business card in January 1966.

These guys were from Austin, Texas. I used to see them from time to time in Houston. They used to play "Eight Miles High" by the Byrds. I think I learned that song from them.

Psychedelic music has a wide range of styles and genres often used in an attempt to describe or enhance the use of psychedelic drugs, which were legal in the beginning.

I have been doing a lot of research on this subject. It is much more complex and had a much more significant effect on music going forward from that time period than I was aware of.

We can write about all this, but it is likely impossible to put into words what it actually felt like to listen to this music live in that time period and observe all that was going on. There where new expressions based on older expressions like "far out man" that took on new meanings, meaning beyond just the words. Some of those idioms became cultural identification markers used by the counter culture with significance in the production of visual art.

There were guys in Texas who got sent to the Huntsville Texas State Penitentiary for terms of forty years for smoking pot, mostly black guys. It has the most active execution chamber in the United States.

The people of the counter-culture that produced psychedelic music were largely responsible for more moderate changes that eventually ocured to the laws concerning marijuana.

The whole psychedelic aspect of music/art/counter couture is related to LSD and to two or three other related drugs. We made all these drugs ilegal which is not surprising, though they did little damage.

Some years later we let the legal drug companies sell millions of opiods for billions of dollars and kill hundreds of thousands of people. Way to go, Unkle Sam!

I guess we now have come full circle as the VA is now experimenting with psychedelic drugs to treat people with PTSD.

Billy

Well know story, (well, I've known about it for tonks so it can't be a secret), & a decentish doco on Utub to expand a little:
"The Elevators were vocal proponents of marijuana and psychedelic drug use,[11] and were subject to extra attention from law enforcement agencies. In 1969, Erickson was arrested for possession of a single marijuana joint in Austin. Facing a potential ten-year incarceration, Erickson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to avoid prison. He was first sent to the Austin State Hospital. After several escapes, he was sent to the Rusk State Hospital in Rusk, Texas, where he was subjected to more electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatments, ultimately remaining in custody until 1972. During his time at Rusk, he continued writing songs and poetry. Family and friends managed to smuggle out some of these poems and, in 1972, self published the book Openers, intending to use the proceeds to hire a lawyer."

or

Not comprehensive, not broad, basically a set of opinions, but he does cover some of the important stuff:

I went down a rabbit hole trying to find something that'd service a garage or pop psych song.
Garage, generally, is pretty poorly served:
Them's Gloria isn't listed, Patti Smith's version is but is rated as blues. Laura Brannigan's version of Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi's song is though.
I managed to cobble something together that had some "tough" guitars, a touch of organ, was spritely as garage usually was &, because it was a pop psych trope then & now I suppose, sitar. I used some of the chromaticism that psych seems to like as well as "surprise" shots, holds etc.
Personally I'd dump the sitar, replace the bass and guitars - though perhaps keep the lead - but that's me.
Here's the SGU:
https://we.tl/t-lnJpeyIamO

It's pretty easy to get a prog/psych, and even psych jam band, thing in BIAB as Hazy and other solos work a treat, but less so the garage & pop variants.