let us now talk about psychedelia

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tell me about some 60s/70s psych that I need to hear.

also, why do I feel a desperate need to buy the reissue of Mystery Meat's "Profiles" without even knowing what it sounds like?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 21 November 2002 23:47 (10 years ago) Permalink

Just don't bother with "Mrs. Gillespie's Refrigerator". Trust me on this one. Great name, lousy song.

― kate, Thursday, 21 November 2002 23:56 (10 years ago) Permalink

are we talking psychedelic pop a la Zombies/Kinks/Beatles et al or are we talking free-form hippie psych a la all the AR-Karma reissues...?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 22 November 2002 00:38 (10 years ago) Permalink

welp considering i'm pretty green about psych in general, it's open slather.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 22 November 2002 01:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

incredible string band,comus, 13th floor elevator, red krayola for a start

― francesco, Friday, 22 November 2002 01:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

in england: creation ....essential

― francesco, Friday, 22 November 2002 01:04 (10 years ago) Permalink

You gotta get the Strawberry Alarm Clock album, because Mr. Mosley, founder of Mosrite guitars (who's Venture's Signature model was used not only by the guys in the Ventures but also by Johnny Ramone) made the Strawberry Alarm guy their own custom guitars, that look all weird.

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Friday, 22 November 2002 01:17 (10 years ago) Permalink

Tomorrow - only released one record, featured Steve Howe (and Twink, I believe?) that epitomizes the '67 British psych-pop period. Some of it is awful (the cover of "Strawberry Fields", f'r instance), but a fair chunk of it is jaw-dropping ("My White Bicycle").

13th Floor Elevators - the first two ("The Psychedelic Sounds of..." and "Easter Everywhere") are garage-psych taken to an extreme. And how many bands have an electric jug player on EVERY song?!?

Zombies - Odyssey and Oracle. A little too fey for me, but some beautiful arrangements, and the "hits" ("Cell 44", "Time of the Season") are quite impressive.

Muddy Waters - Electric Mud. Everybody hates this album, his "acid rock" answer to Hendrix, but I think it's fucking amazing. Blistering even.

The Hollies - their psych albums ('66-'68 or so) albums are uneven, but every one has at least a couple gems on them, and their singles collections are great. Search: "King Midas in Reverse", "Carry-Anne", "Look Through Any Window", "You Need Love". Very Beatle-esque.

Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett era) - it doesn't get anymore psychedelic than this. "See Emily Play", "Apples and Oranges", "Arnold Layne", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Astronomy Domine", "Scream Thy Last Scream" all great. I am especially fond of the non-Syd nugget "Point Me at the Sky" as well.

The Beach Boys - from Pet Sounds through Surf's Up, it's all pretty trippy. But you probably know this.

The Small Faces - "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" (and various singles from the same period). Hilariously twee cockney interludes on the second side, first side has almost Zeppelin-esque stomp at points ("Afterglow", "Song of a Baker"). Best song is without question "The Universal" - lo-fi psych original for sure. You can hear Mariott's dogs barking and cars going by in the background.

... and the so many more obvious choices from the Who, the Beatles, the Kinks, the Creation, etc. There's loads of this stuff.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 22 November 2002 01:20 (10 years ago) Permalink

For more esoteric/marginally psych stuff there's the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (who parodied it more than used it, but "Urban Spaceman" is such a funny song!), the Soft Machine, Donovan ("Season of the Witch", "Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow", etc. - Jimmy Page/John Paul Jones arranging folk-psych produces goofy results for all!), and Love.

And then there are the bands who jumped on the trend and actually made some pretty entertaining records: The Temptations "Psychedelic Shack" and the Rolling Stones "Her Satanic Majesty's Request" are fine examples.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 22 November 2002 01:31 (10 years ago) Permalink

also you should get the pretty things psych era albums "sf sorrow" & "parachute" they are the best proto hard rock & proto 70s pink floyd type albums ever & alice cooper's 1st album "pretties for you" is good too on a tribute/ripoff level.

― dz, Friday, 22 November 2002 01:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

Screw it. Lazy person's answer= Get a friend to just burn you both box sets, Nuggets 1 and Nuggets 2 and just be done with it. Anything past that will be hippie shit and therefore irrelevant and unlistenable.

― kate, Friday, 22 November 2002 01:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

also : hendrix is good but hendrix ripoffs are even better so get all billy tekahika era human instinct, early blue cheer, 1st sir lord baltimore, hook (actually i've never heard them), etc

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Friday, 22 November 2002 01:49 (10 years ago) Permalink

hippie shit is good! sometimes

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Friday, 22 November 2002 01:50 (10 years ago) Permalink

"the united states of america" - a complete acid classic
"oar" : skip spence - a west coast drug casualty classic
"amon duul II" : yeti - a german tripping classic

― phil turnbull (philT), Friday, 22 November 2002 02:11 (10 years ago) Permalink

Actually they have both the Nuggets Box Sets at a shop down the road from me, for $70 Aus. each. Are they worth actually owning (rather than copying)?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 22 November 2002 02:20 (10 years ago) Permalink

yes 'cause they have good cd booklets

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Friday, 22 November 2002 02:33 (10 years ago) Permalink

avoid the "love, peace and poetry" comps.

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 22 November 2002 02:37 (10 years ago) Permalink

the seeds

chocolate watch band

west coast pop art experimetnal band

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 22 November 2002 02:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

"Magick Brother" and "Camembert Electrique" by Gong are very good 1970s prog with early hard rock/free jazz touches.

"Notorious Byrd Brothers" by the Byrds is one I'd recommend. I understand some people don't like Graham Parsons or 12-string guitars, that said, this album sounds a lot more like "Tomorrow Never Knows" than Mr. Tambourine Man or their country stuff. Maybe an obvious answer but I avoided the Byrds for years in favor of obscure bullshit like Harvester and was very pleasantly surprised that they didn't completely suck.

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 22 November 2002 02:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

Oops I said prog but I meant psych.

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 22 November 2002 02:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

Can I recommend "Surrealistic Pillow"? It seemed so played out at one time, but nobody ever mentions it now. It's good.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 22 November 2002 03:09 (10 years ago) Permalink

About all I can add to what's already mentioned...

The Electric Prunes' albums are worth investigating for what's beyond their classic Nuggets tracks.

Recently uncovered by Sundazed, J.K. & Co.'s Suddenly Last Summer is sort of a lost classic, although more for its sound than the songs. You'll swear it was recorded this year.

Brazilian Tropicalismo, especially Os Mutantes' and Gilberto Gil's first two albums, is as amazing as any US/UK psych of the era.

― Curt (cgould), Friday, 22 November 2002 03:14 (10 years ago) Permalink

Can anyone name the fab Scandinavian late 60s
hard psych band with a singer that sounds
like a soulful Steve Mariott...but is actually
a _woman_. I forgot their name but their
really good. You should also buy
The Dukes of Stratosphear, "Chips From The
Chocolate Fireball," it's actually XTC
pretending to be a psych band, but it
sounds exactly like a 68-69 release and
really good. Favorite tracks: "You're A
Good Man Albert Brown" and "Brainiacs Daughter."
Conversely, Brainticket recorded the albums
"Cottonwoodhill" and "Psychonaut" in the early
70s, but they sound like they could be from
the 90s. Hypnotic tripping music with great
musicianship. Spirit had their opus, "The 12
Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus," lame vocals but
good music. Also recommended, Dr. John's
"Gris Gris," an electrifying acid trip unlike
anything else he recorded.

These suggestions are all wacked out but listenable -
if you're just getting into psych I suggest
you go for the easier to digest stuff,
someone mentioned Zombies and the Small Faces,
those are good too. But I suggest you avoid
stuff like early Pink Floyd or early Grateful
Dead, they are such far out racket that you
might be turned off the genre, go for
the accessible stuff first.

― Squirrel Police, Friday, 22 November 2002 04:50 (10 years ago) Permalink

I made a mistake in the previous answer,
"Psychonaut" is safe but "Cottonwoodhill"
is definitely in the racket category.

― Squirrel Police, Friday, 22 November 2002 04:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

Lothar & the Hand People

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 22 November 2002 05:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

"cottonwood hill" is great

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Friday, 22 November 2002 06:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

squirrelpolice that scandinavian band, do you mean savage rose?

― unknown or ill (doorag), Friday, 22 November 2002 06:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

i got here late...did i miss anything?

a few favorites:
love _forever changes_
pretty things _s.f. sorrow_
hawkwind _in search of space_
silver apples s/t & _contact_
13th floor elevators _easter everywhere_
michael yonkers band _microminiature love_
early pink floyd
the deep (and the related 'psychedelic moods' comp series)
sam gopal _escalator_ (lemmy...hippie?)
simon finn _pass the distance_
blue cheer _vincebus eruptum_ (not really psych, but essential)

kaleidoscope and july are nice UK popsike.

some of the akarma reissues are killer (twink's _think pink_, le stelle di mario schifano, bodkin), some are spotty (bobby callender _rainbow_, circus 2000) and i'm told some are outright crap.

the nuggets comps are a good place to start - my personal favorite psych comp overall is _beyond the calico wall_.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Friday, 22 November 2002 07:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ha - my thread!

Defining psych as 1967 onwards post-beat/post-freakbeat (UK) and post-garage (US), I much prefer UK stuff to US. The whole West-coast thing is pretty much a turn off for me.

Avoiding UK freakbeat, although I actually prefer 1965-67 beat/freak (Creation/Koobas/Wimple Winch/Mindbenders/Poets/Dakotas/Chances Are et al)to most UK psych here are some great UK psych records :

Tintern Abbey - Vaccuum Cleaner (67)
The Syn - 14 Hour Technicolour Dream (67)
The Ice - Anniversary Of Love (68)
Pretty Things - Walking Through My Dreams (67)
Virgin Sleep - Secret (68)
Marmalade - Kaliedoscope (70)
The Moving Finger - Pain of mY Misfortune (67)
The Bunch - Looking Glass Alice (67)
Turquoise - Tales Of Flossie Fillet (68)
The End - Shades Of Orange (68)
Aquarian Age - 10,000 Words in A Cardboard Box (68)
JAson Crest - Black Mass (67)
The Living Daylights - Let's Live for Today (68)
Kinsmen - Glasshouse Green Splinter Red (68)
Fairytale - Lovely People (67)

Most of these are from Rubble comps - the absolute best of whiuch is Rubble 6 The Clouds Have Groovy Faces - THE BEST psyche/freakbeat comp ever. Also Rubble 1/2 and 3 are massive.

Of course the Nuggets boxes are essential too. Also looking good is a new series of mainly Pye acts - Psychedelic Pstones - they're up to #2 Haunted now.

Past and Present are doing a decent job of making The Rubble series available, but they need to be on CD. Their CD re-issues are Patchy - That Driving Beat (freakbeat) are good, We Can Fly 1 and 2 are good, but Hen's Teeth (prolly a different company, but distr. by P+P) are shoddy - bad mastering and crap sleevenotes. Avoid Journey Thru Thyme and The Chocolate Soup reissues - get original vinyl.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 22 November 2002 08:26 (10 years ago) Permalink

Been thinking this morning about why I like Brit-psych better than US Psych. I reckon there a number of possibilities :

1) Brit-psych was POP. These bands were not doing what Cream, Led Zep, The Yardbirds, Hendrix were doing. In a way there was a concious opposition to the rock - psych was more playful and *not to be taken too seriously*.

In the US - psych was ROCK - serious, big ideas, a political agenda.

2) It was this way because the UK had a strong Mod and Beat tradition that anchored UK psych with stronger melodies and rhythms.

3) UK psych was seen as a STYLE rather than an integrated movement. Many bands switched to psych overnight in late 67/early 68, and several bands switched in and out. Further than that - bands would throw in one or two psych tracks on an album just to show that they were current. This sense of distance keeps the music fresh, fun and of the moment.

What does anyone think?

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 22 November 2002 14:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

It's obviously difficult to define 'psychedelic', whether you mean prog-blues like cream or all those horrible 1968 san francisco bands, whether you mean pop or whatever. It also depends whether you want charming generic period piece stuff, or things that still sound interesting in and of themselves today

I'd go for

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Vol I
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Part II
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - A Child's Guide to Good and Evil
Love - Forever Changes
Love - Da Capo
13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere
The Factory - Path Through the Forest

But there are lots of funny, gonzo and inspirational moments on comps like The British Psychedelic Trip 1-3, Nuggets UK/World Box Set. My favorite comp is Acid Dreams I, which is fucking intense, with stuff like Stereo Shoestrings, The Minds Eye and Beautiful Daze, garage punk with brain damaged psych overtones.

― pulpo, Friday, 22 November 2002 14:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

pebbles vol 3!

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 22 November 2002 14:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

love - forever changes
love - da capo

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 22 November 2002 14:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

that stereo shoestring track ("on the road south") should be in the collection of every aspiring psych fan. and everyone else.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Friday, 22 November 2002 15:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

One of these days I'm going to shell out and buy Moth Confesses by the Neon Philharmonic. It was one of those "let's capitalize on the psychedelic craze" and is supposed to be one of those so-absolutely-awful-it's-brilliant albums (at least that's what I hope). Unterberger calls it "Jimmy Webb on acid." Anyone actually heard it?

― Aaron W, Friday, 22 November 2002 15:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

Most of the really good stuff has been dropped (personal reccomendations would be the USA, WCPAEB, Love, Spirit - and Dr C seems to know his UK stuff).

I, however, prefer the US stuff:

Search a few I haven't seen dropped yet:

Spirit: 'The Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus'
Bow Street Runners: 'self titled'
Fugs: 'First Album'
Group 1850: 'Agemo's Trip To Mother Earth' (Dutch Loons)
Kaleidoscope (US): Side Trips
Sagittarius: 'Present Tense'
Blues Magoos: 'Psychedelic Lollipop' 'Electric Comic Book'
Peanut Butter Conspiracy: 'The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading' 'The Great Conspiracy'
Joe Byrd & Field Hippies: 'The American Metaphysical Circus'

I also can't praise highly enough UK folk/psyche - Fairport and The Pentangle.

"In the US - psych was ROCK - serious, big ideas, a political agenda" -I'm, not sure I buy into that I'm afraid (see The Deviants in the UK). Anyway, US psych had ideas sure, but serious political agendas? More like serious mushroom intake. And most US psych outfits arguably, equally "were not doing what Cream, Led Zep, The Yardbirds, Hendrix were doing". I think I can see where you're going though, and there does seem to be, um, a softer, more... marshmallow, sometimes whimsy, perhaps more comic slant to some of the UK stuff. I dunno man, I geuss I should search out more UK stuff in order to articulate why I prefer the US stuff.

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Friday, 22 November 2002 15:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

I agree with the american psych bands being more into the ideas. The US bands seemed to be crazier and it wasn't until the 80s with bands like spaceman 3 that the UK was catching up. would krautrock count as a form of psych?

also In japan, it seems only rallizes did something with that form of rock (but i haven't heard everything that japanese bands were coming up with so i might be wrong).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 22 November 2002 16:24 (10 years ago) Permalink

Good points, Rog. I didn't mean that the US bands were doing the SAME Cream/Led Zep blues-rock thing - more that whatever they were doing it was more serious. Dropping out, moving to SF - wasn't that trying to make a political point? The fact that nothing much changed cos everyone was too stoned is incidental. In the UK, a psych fan was more likely to be a nine-to-fiver who lived at home with his mum, changing from his Burtons suit into his Kaftan for a weekend at the Roundhouse.

I have to admit that I'm a little shaky on US psych post-66. I'm up to speed on 64-67 garage rock, but I couldn't say that I've ever heard a Jefferson Airplane or Peanut Butter Conspiracy album all the way thru. I like US fop-psyche like Sagitarius/Boettcher and all that lot.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 22 November 2002 16:37 (10 years ago) Permalink

Weeeell, dropping out and 'tuning in', you know I'm never sure if that's political or apolitical. Obv from a conventional perspective it's a loaded gesture, but from it's own ideological position, I sometimes see it more like a natural progression... Of course, alot of bands (The Seeds spring to mind) where very def. up for a Flower Revolution, whatever the hell that meant to them. But I think there were others who were perhaps less forceful and self-coscious about it (Spirit maybe, PBC).

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying that nothing got changed cos everyone was loaded, I was rather musing that getting loaded was maybe more important and appreciated by certain of these acts than planting a flag. But the two are intertwined anyway, I mean you can't preach the virtues of experimentation without incurring some sort of political stamp I geuss. Attempting to exist outside a system doesn't mean that you escape the defintion that system applies to you.

re: The Airplane - never kicked it with me either man, not sure why. But the PBC - now they are a great psyche band - search tracks 'It's A Happening Thing', 'The Most Up Till Now', and 'Ecstacy' to convert. Who are your boys/girls on the UK scene?

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Friday, 22 November 2002 17:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

Tommy James and the Shondells - "Crimson and Clover"

― Burr, Friday, 22 November 2002 17:34 (10 years ago) Permalink

I like the stuff on the edge between garage and psych best of all. Trashy, overwrought Bad-Trip spoutings, like "Psychotic Reation" and "A Question of Temperature". US bands had the advantage here due to a rich indigenous trash culture, exploitation instinct, readiness to rub noses in gutter unrestrained by "British understatement". I mean, really, could anything like ? and the Mysterians (not that they were psych) ever have come out of, ohhh, 1960s Croydon? Like Dr. C, however, I cast a suspicious eye over later US hippie-rock that had lost all pop moorings. I just haven't heard enough of the later, full-blown Brit psych to say it was much better. I've just recently scored a couple of Rubbles comps (not #6), so I'll have to give them a close listen. I thought last year's Mojo comp, 'Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionary From the UK Underground 1965-1969' was pretty patchy, but maybe I dismissed it too quickly. Earlier freakbeat, like on 'Nuggets 2' is fantastic, of course.

― Curt (cgould), Friday, 22 November 2002 18:04 (10 years ago) Permalink

Freakbeat. YUUMMMM!!!

(I am avoiding this thread, I really am.)

― kate, Friday, 22 November 2002 18:07 (10 years ago) Permalink

Yeah right, Kate. Give in. ;-)

As noted above, just about everything has been mentioned one way or another -- dig up some of the Turkish garage/psych comps, they're great. Both Nuggets boxes very worth owning. And a recent find I'd recommend -- Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, which I'd been wondering about for years because of its mention in Stairway to Hell and found at Terrastock V. That one orange/black coloured album of theirs from 1967 is pretty damn great and among other things invents Amon Duul (I, not II).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 22 November 2002 18:21 (10 years ago) Permalink

Which Rubbles have you got, Curt?

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 22 November 2002 20:23 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Fallen Angels IT'S A LONG WAY DOWN, it's a must, seriously.

― matt riedl (veal), Friday, 22 November 2002 20:27 (10 years ago) Permalink

get live/dead by grateful dead jim.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 22 November 2002 20:27 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'm more into the Pop-sike stuff these days-Cowsills,Free Design,Curt Boettcher,Roger Nichols,Association,UK Deram etc.Just bought 2 volumes of 'Fading Yellow',some great sunshine psych.Great Boettcher produced track 'Don't say no' by The Oracle,also 10year old prodigy called Mark Radice.Also check out the 'Ripples'&'The Great British Psychedelic Trip'comps.

― Paul R (paul R), Friday, 22 November 2002 20:41 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'll second the Os Mutantes recommendation.

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Friday, 22 November 2002 21:15 (10 years ago) Permalink

I've downloaded Rubbles #10 (Professor Jordan's Magic Sound Show) & #13 (Freak Beat Phantoms) from Soulseek. Both are from LPs, not CD. I've barely had a chance to dip into 10 to date. 13 is mostly good, although more hard freakbeat than psych. I've seen others on Soulseek, but the fuckers never stay online long enough for me to download.

― Curt (cgould), Friday, 22 November 2002 21:36 (10 years ago) Permalink

Dr. C, do you have that Mojo compilation, or are you familiar with its contents? Between too-familiar bands like Kinks, Who, Donovan, etc., and repeats of Nuggets 2 tracks, I've found it hard to play straight through, so I've never made the effort to discover gems buried within. What tracks do you rate?

― Curt (cgould), Friday, 22 November 2002 21:47 (10 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 80 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Cream's "I Feel Free" also December '66

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:13 (7 months ago) Permalink

Heart Full of Soul - June '65
See My Friends - July '65
Shapes of Things - March '66
Paint It Black - May '66

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:16 (7 months ago) Permalink

yeah was gonna say. i'd argue most of those are pointing towards psych rather than the full thing tho

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:17 (7 months ago) Permalink

Yeah, those are all sonically psychedelic but not lyrically imo.

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:18 (7 months ago) Permalink

Pretty Things - LSD is kind of the opposite. Like the Gamblers song, it mentions LSD but isn't particularly psychedelic.

So are there any UK records where the sound and lyrics came together prior to Tomorrow Never Knows?

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:23 (7 months ago) Permalink

Sunshine Superman and the Trip are both pretty lyrically psychedelic (and the latter mentions methedrine)

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:29 (7 months ago) Permalink

pretty things' sf sorrow is wayyyyy more psych than their other stuff

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:33 (7 months ago) Permalink

def not the first instance tho

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:34 (7 months ago) Permalink

Defecting Grey is pretty weird!

― Professor Giff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:36 (7 months ago) Permalink

Sunshine Superman and the Trip are both pretty lyrically psychedelic (and the latter mentions methedrine)

Oh yeah, and predates Tomorrow Never Knows. Recorded 3 months earlier, released 1 month earlier than TNK. I think The Trip is kind of musically unpsychedelic like the Pretty Things songs, but Sunshine Superman definitely should count.

The Yardbirds had a song called LSD too but I don't know when it was recorded or if it was released at the time.

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:37 (7 months ago) Permalink

on the weirdo-surf tip of proto-psych, I think these guys are from the UK -- Ahab and the Wailers from 1963.

― gesange der yuengling (crüt), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:38 (7 months ago) Permalink

first u.s. psych album is this:

unless you count this:

― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:39 (7 months ago) Permalink

thanking u, scott

― gesange der yuengling (crüt), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:42 (7 months ago) Permalink

i love Alan Watts

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:43 (7 months ago) Permalink

but, pace scott, some of Charles Ives' stuff is pretty psych imo

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:44 (7 months ago) Permalink

Oh Yardbirds LSD was recorded December '66 but never released until the '90s.

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:45 (7 months ago) Permalink

I think The Trip is kind of musically unpsychedelic like the Pretty Things songs, but Sunshine Superman definitely should count.

yeah the Trip is pretty pedestrian musically. but Sunshine Superman has the odd time signature, the harpsichord and that weird Page guitar part

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:45 (7 months ago) Permalink

in the u.k. i think this came out right around when "see my friends" came out. 65.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:45 (7 months ago) Permalink

does Sunshine Superman predate the various "sunshine" batches of LSD?

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:46 (7 months ago) Permalink

that Yardbirds tune sounds somewhere between Gene Pitney and "Ghost Riders in the Sky"

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:47 (7 months ago) Permalink

First acid reference is in "19th nervous breakdown" - "On our first trip I tried so hard to rearrange your mind"

― Rob M Revisited, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:49 (7 months ago) Permalink

does Sunshine Superman predate the various "sunshine" batches of LSD?

pretty sure it was still legal at that point and therefore all sandoz, right?

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:49 (7 months ago) Permalink

in the u.k. i think this came out right around when "see my friends" came out. 65.

and they did the fake sitar thing even earlier on Heart Full of Soul.

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:50 (7 months ago) Permalink

I digress, but holy crap that Ahab and the Wailers cut is exactly the kind of crazy early 60s exotica/instro music I've been loving the most lately!

― Baked. And yet so soupy. (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:51 (7 months ago) Permalink

pretty sure it was still legal at that point and therefore all sandoz, right?

I dunno when it was declared illegal in the UK but it looks like Owsley wasn't making sunshine until '67...?

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:52 (7 months ago) Permalink

harder to find u.k. examples prior to '66. by '66 of course the examples are endless.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:54 (7 months ago) Permalink

I digress, but holy crap that Ahab and the Wailers cut is exactly the kind of crazy early 60s exotica/instro music I've been loving the most lately!

yeah, that song is amazing! a thread of that sort of thing would be great.

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:54 (7 months ago) Permalink

when did the fugs start making psychedelic music?

― Professor Giff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:55 (7 months ago) Permalink

not an answer but Bond definitely influenced psych in the UK

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:57 (7 months ago) Permalink

when did the fugs start making psychedelic music?

fugs were more about the coke/heroin/speed references, no?

― wk, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:58 (7 months ago) Permalink

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:59 (7 months ago) Permalink

sorry i'm just youtubing stuff i like now

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 22:00 (7 months ago) Permalink

fugs were more about the coke/heroin/speed references, no?

i guess i couldn't get high etc was but things like virgin forest sound like psychedelia to me

― Professor Giff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 22:05 (7 months ago) Permalink

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 22:07 (7 months ago) Permalink

Fugs = American

also irritating

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 22:10 (7 months ago) Permalink

oh man searching UK Psych on youtube pulls up some awesome shit

― thread lock holiday (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 22:13 (7 months ago) Permalink

Fugs = American

ya don't say

― Professor Giff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 22:21 (7 months ago) Permalink

Happening Ten Years Time Ago = the UK Eight Miles High

― something about tragedy?...farce?...Richard Marx? (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 11 October 2012 04:46 (7 months ago) Permalink

it was released in oct 1966, two months after Revolver so it doesnt predate Tomorrow Never Knows (tho Roger the Engineer does), but as far as singles go, that's probably the one I'd pick

― something about tragedy?...farce?...Richard Marx? (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 11 October 2012 04:48 (7 months ago) Permalink

I remember a couple years ago I wanted to create some sort of fake zine that took place in 1966-7 that was kind of like SPIN magazine, trying to recreate the far-out lingo while taking sort of an ex post facto view towards the music scene--talking not just about beat music heroes like the Byrds and Yardbirds and the Elevators and Love, but also primitive folk stuff like John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and a bunch of stuff no one was listening to back then ("...we've been hearing wild things about this combo in Germany called the Monks!")

It was fun to think about, but I easily accepted that particular project as doomed to never be fulfilled.

― something about tragedy?...farce?...Richard Marx? (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 11 October 2012 04:56 (7 months ago) Permalink

Why would you accept "happenings" but not Shapes of Things from 8 months earlier?

― wk, Thursday, 11 October 2012 07:46 (7 months ago) Permalink

inclined to pin the winning badge on Donovan if it wasn't for the UK delay of that single... when did Page join the Yardbirds? interesting that he's connected to these original UK psych stirrings

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 11 October 2012 16:11 (7 months ago) Permalink

trips and sugar cubes in hey gyp lyrics. 1965.

― scott seward, Thursday, 11 October 2012 16:24 (7 months ago) Permalink

b-side to a 1965 single. to be exact.

― scott seward, Thursday, 11 October 2012 16:25 (7 months ago) Permalink

Most of the best psychedelic yardbirds stuff is pre-Page. Happenings is the first song he played on.

― wk, Thursday, 11 October 2012 16:26 (7 months ago) Permalink

haha, this page talks about almost everything we've gone over in this thread http://www.lysergia.com/LamaWorkshop/lamaEarlyPsychedelia.htm

― wk, Thursday, 11 October 2012 16:32 (7 months ago) Permalink

ooh nice find Scott! I didn't know that one. I do love me some Donovan. not very psych-sounding tho

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 11 October 2012 16:35 (7 months ago) Permalink

Whoops my bad on Shapes. I thought that might have been later for some reason. Also: I can't believe I forgot about 'Rain' (even though 'Shapes' still might be earlier). I don't even know who I am anymore.*

*title of an Electric Prunes outtake

― skeevy wonder (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 13 October 2012 10:50 (7 months ago) Permalink

Yeah to me, the lyrics of "Shapes" seem to be pretty obviously acid inspired, even if they don't explicitly namecheck sugar cubes or something. And "Rain" doesn't seem any more psychedelic than a song like Heart Full of Soul that came out a full year earlier.

― wk, Saturday, 13 October 2012 15:01 (7 months ago) Permalink

I disagre: "When it rains or shines/it's just a state of mind" nails the subjective nature of reality theme that is def the result of LSD experimentation. Plus the innovative backwards coda.

― skeevy wonder (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 13 October 2012 18:45 (7 months ago) Permalink

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