let us now talk about psychedelia

sez you.

a lot of it has to do with availability. the internet + cheap (and bountiful!) reissues, tons of info (the internet again, but also mags like mojo, etc) that was previously hard to come by. years ago, people acted like they were doing you a favor by selling you 30 dollar psych bootlegs that sounded like shit. now there is SO MUCH high quality (as well as plenty of dodgy shit of course) product to consume. and whenever there is that much arcane shit to be sampled, musicnerdz will flock cuz they iz curious motherfuckers.

I've been idly wondering - is there anything in the UK that is commonly cited as the "first" (or maybe first significant) psychedelic single...? In the US the Elevators I know the Elevators usually get the credit for first using the term, but I'm curious where people sort of mark the beginning of the UK's psych period in pop. Revolver?

Shapes of Things? Although earlier Yardbirds songs were already pretty psychedelic too.

Arnold Layne?

Paint It Black predates Revolver too.

nah, "Strawberry Fields Forever" gets commonly cited, but mainly thru Beatles-centricity i guess

in terms of huge significant single rather than first experiment with the style

While this thread is bumped, another plug for Psychedelicized Radio, which rose from the ashes of Technicolor Web of Sound. They've upgraded to a 128kbs stream and have put a lot of work into expanding the playlist beyond the standard psych canon -- but deeper into more obscure artists, not expanding into watered down not-really-psych. Any station that plays "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" by The Joyride is alright by me.

http://psychedelicized.com/

"See My Friends"?

seems like you could draw a clear line from See My Friends->Norwegian Wood->Paint it Black but yeah does sitar alone make it psych? I dunno

nah, "Strawberry Fields Forever" gets commonly cited, but mainly thru Beatles-centricity i guess

I would think that Tomorrow Never Knows is the hinge point in the Beatles catalog

you said single

fair enough

Yeah I mean the Elevators are easy because they were one of the first to use the word psychedelic and to openly sing about psychedelic drugs (let me take you to DMT place). See My Friends is more just Indian influenced without necessarily coming from a psychedelic point of view. Plus the Yardbirds recorded Heart Full of Soul with an actual sitar before See My Friends came out, although that version wasn't released.

What was the first UK song to lyrically reference drugs?

Technically, the first American song to use the word "psychedelic" (er, 'psychOdelic') is "Hesitation Blues" by the Holy Modal Rounders.
Which is definitely not a psych rock single. Just thought it was worth mentioning.

Dylan thought it was "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"

xp

what year did LSD-25 by the Gamblers come out (obviously not musically psychedelic).

8 Miles High seems like the obvious first overtly psychdelic single.

oh I guess 1960 http://www.united-mutations.com/g/gamblers_moondawg.htm

let's keep the US out of this tho ... UK psych was such a different beast in many ways

The Pretty Things had a song called "LSD" in 1966.
It was about Pounds, Shillings, and...whatever D stands for, i dunno. But I think it was kind of a wink/nudge affair?

£sd (sometimes pronounced, and occasionally written, L.s.d.) is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies (sterling) used in the Kingdom of England

the D was pence, something like denarii in latin

by 1966 the LSD/LSD gag was circulating amongst the hip tho

I think that the Soft Machine might have been the first British band taking psychedelic drugs, but they weren't the first to record about it.

pretties also did 'trippin ' in 67..

Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane is February '67 so I think what we need is some kind of chronology of stuff released prior

Donovan's Sunshine Superman/The Trip is July '66, but oddly it's UK release was delayed until December

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

def not the first instance tho

Defecting Grey is pretty weird!

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.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6hyGVZail8

first u.s. psych album is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4oOWbWLRzk

unless you count this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5ODnK2822E

thanking u, scott

i love Alan Watts

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

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

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2UNkb-8OjA

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

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

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

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

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