Chapter 7: Psychedelia

Tomorrow

- Another regular psychedelic band - Popular singles that didn't chart

The Byrds

- Came from LA and released Eight Miles High, many covers during the psychedelic era - Pivotal in developing country rock, then Crashy left

Vanilla Fudge

- Band in NY that turned pop songs into elaborate psychedelia songs

Monterey Pop

- 3-day festival, the first international rock festival; - Organized by John Philips and Lou Adler - Groups performed for free and defined both themselves and the model for later festivals

Altamont

- A surprise-ish concert that ended the era of outdoor music festivals - Hells Angels did security and an 18-year-old fan ended up dying

AM vs. FM Radio

- AM is hit-oriented, FM is album-oriented - Kids won't wait through long performances, but he brings it out for the smaller ones.

Country Joe and the Fish

- Active in politics and thought hippies were too detached during the psychedelic era - Performed in Berkely and the Bay Area, had a famous performance at Woodstock - EP and psychedelic album - Origin in blues and folk; used lsd - First made music to enhance trips, then anti-Vietnam, greatest success was Together

Festivals in the UK and Europe

- August 1967 Festival of Flower Children in Windsor - Later currents followed, peaking with 500,000 people at the Isle of Wright Festival in 1970

London Underground

- Began with a beat poet reading, Poets of the World/Our Time - A community formed around drugs - The Spontaneous Underground met weekly for smaller acid tests - Indica bookstore opened in 1966 and sold counterculture items - London Free School at night taught students about modern social issues, law, etc. - Different from SF bc SF was so underground they didn't know much about it - Young tourists were drawn in by the promised night scene - The UFO club was a prominent psychedelic gathering that eventually became mainstream

Beach Boys and the Beatles

- Both bands made complicated music with serious topics, wide instrumentation, harmonic language, and distinct studio tracks - The Beatles moved from the professional to the artistic model of production - The Beach Boys became experimental to compete - The two groups inspired each other

Psychedelic Approaches to Music

- Both had the quest for central consciousness central - The first was using music to enhance a drug trip - The second was the music itself being the trip, possibly enhanced by drugs

Sunshine of Your Love

- Cream - Words and music by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Pete Brown, produced by Felix Pappalardi in early 1968 - Simple verse form, each with same 24-bar pattern caused by doubling each measure - "Lick blues" tradition of building tune around repeating riff/lick - 4/4 time signature - Electric guitar, bass, drums, and lead vocal

Janis Joplin

- Electric blues artist backed up by Big Brother and the Holding Company for a bit - She was very successful but ODed - Pearl was released after her death and became her most successful album - Reminiscent of blues-based singing

Big Brother and the Holding Company

- Experimented with classical and avant-garde music during psychedelic era - Backed up Janis Joplin on electric blues (cheap thrills) - Then they made their own album

Bob Dylan

- Retreated to Woodstock after a terrible motorcycle incident - Recorded with the Band and worked with many Canadian musicians - Helped developed country rock

Jimi Hendrix Experience

- He played guitar around before manager Chris Chandler brought him to London to form this in 1966 - Popular in the UK and the Monterey Film Festival launched it to the US - Also had a breakout performance at Woodstock - The band dissolved in 1969 and Hendrix traveled before ODing - Purple Haze and Foxey Lady show the blend of blues and pop - Also had experimental music, long tracks with instrumental sections - Flamboyant, suggestive, and destructive guitar performances - Psychedelic blues meets avant-garde

Van Morrison

- Irishman who started with Them, but then set off - Created catchy songs like Brown Eyed Girl, as well as more experimental stuff during the psychedelic era

The Rolling Stones

- Jagger-Richards songwriting duo resulted in their 7th album, Aftermath - They were junior colleagues to The Beach Boys and Beatles until they stopped worrying about them and played more R&B - More bad boy, less flower power - Psychedelic R&B

White Rabbit

- Jefferson Airplane - Words and music by Grace Slick, produced by Rick Jarrard in summer 1967 - AABA form, with last verse expanded for music climax - Entire piece builds dynamics gradually - 4/4 time signature with drums suggesting Spanish flavor in imitation of a bolero rhythm - Electric guitars, bass, drums, lead vocals

Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary

- Kesey was an author and Leary was an ex-Harvard professor who led youth to explore drugs, philosophy, and Eastern religions - Young adults thought the 50s were boring and hated institutions, looking for alternate approaches often with drugs - "Turn on, tune in, and drop out"

Carlos Santana

- Of Mexican descent, fused Latin and rock with his band Santana - Record deal with CBD records and critical acclaim after the Woodstock performance

Jefferson Airplane

- Psychedelia band - Released Jefferson Airplane Takes Off in 1966 - Then Grace Slick became vocalist, bringing Somebody to Love and White Rabbit - White Rabbit had AABA form, musical amplition within the AM single format - Successful and innovative albums - Folk and blues influence with elements of modal Jazz and Indian music

The Grateful Dead

- Psychedelia with roots in blues, bluegrass, and folk - Jerry Garcia added electric blues to folk - Had improv songs longer than albums that were incredibly hard to capture in a studio - 2nd album was mixed to be good with LSD - 1970 album Live/Dead was recorded in front of a live audience, and thus very representative - Fans recorded live concerts and their extended improv solos

Love

- Psychedelic band important in LA (but not hugely successful) - Lots of ambitious, with strong influences from the Byrds and the Rolling Stones

Iron Butterfly

- Psychedelic band that developed characteristics that later became heavy metal

Donovan

- Psychedelic folk artist - Started with Woody--Guthrie inspired traditional folk songs - Then adapted to folk rock, new instruments - Hit singles, then became a leading figure for hippies - Active through the 70s with Sunshine Superman and Yellow Mellow

FM Radio

- Psychedelic music was too long for AM radio - Tom Donahue developed free-form programming with longer songs and less chatter - He partnered with KMPX-FM and took over their programming - FM was album oriented, for older listeners

Soft Machine

- Psychedelic staple band, blending experimental weakness with free jazz for less success - Alternated short song-like sections with avant-garde improv

Good Vibrations

- Released by The Beach Boys in response to the Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows, which introduced psychedelia to the mainstream - Brian Wilson's finest accomplishment - Words and music by him and Mike Love, produced by him in late 1966 - Contrasting verse-chorus approach, then 3 sections of new material, each recorded separately (very different) and spliced together later - Basically, doesn't fit into any pop formal pattern - 4/4 time signature - Organ, guitar, bass, drums, woodwinds, cellos, slide theremin, bass harmonica, Jew's harp, tambourine, sleigh bells, maracas, lead and backing vocals

Traffic

- Spencer Davis Group was doing well and Stevie Winwood left to form Traffic during the psychedelic era - Released their first album by the end of the year - First single was the upbeat flower-power Paper Sun - Expanded into the US and experimented with songs like Purple Haze - They split up, but later reformed

End of the Beatles

- Studied meditation in India and scrapped a planned documentary - Animated Yellow Submarine showed them as characters in Pepperland - Final studio album was Abbey Rooad - After manager Brian Epstein ODed, they started Apple Records - It did badly and they disbanded in 1970 - Their success never lagged while they were together

Pink Floyd

- Successful underground psychedelic band based on avant-garde art music with extended improv - Long songs and radio-friendly singles - Later became commercially successful - First album was successful but Barrett was replaced due to mental illness

Summer of Love

- Summer of 1967 - Rock was established and mainstream - This was the Summer of Love, where psychedelia became mainstream - Counterculture started in large cities, with very different and often-conflicting philosophies emerging combing Eastern spirituality, drugs, avant-garde art, and radical/utopian politics

Cream

- Talented instrumentalists formed it to focus on traditional blues - British blues on acid with pop on the side - Instrumental set-up section, long songs, virtuosic playing - Initially successful and had later successful solo careers - Sunshine of Your Love build around central guitar riff with 24-bar rhythm, original blues-rock songs was based on existing patterns

A Day in The Life

- The Beatles - Words and music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, produced by George Martin summer 1967 - Compound ABA form, with both sections incomplete songs using simple verse scheme - Stiched together with avant-garde interlude A to B and B to A bridge - 4/4 time signature - Acoustic guitar, piano, bass, drums, maracas, strings, brass, alarm clock, lead vocal

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

- The Beatles had abandoned live performances and recorded this, originally meant to be all about their childhoods - Penny Lane (piccolo trumpet solo and sampling keyboard) and Strawberry Fields Forever (2 versions spliced together, pause before end) were, a double-sided single - Album became them becoming a fictional band - This was rocks' first concept album and was widely imitated - Complex lyrics, musical range, and avant-garde influences made it important, creating a new focus on albums

Psychedelia in San Francisco

- The Human Be-In was held in Golden Gate Park in January 1967 - The hippie movement grew from the beat movement - Venues like Fillmore Auditorium, Avalon Ballroom, psychedelic shops, print publications, and FM radio - Peaked in Haight-Ashbury neighborhood - Started at Red Dog Saloon in Nevada, with music and acid tripping - A group of friends called the Family Dog organized psychedelic dances - Ken Kesey organized acid tests, providing an environment to try LSD, and the Grateful Dead was the house band

Purple Haze

- The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Words and music by Jimi Hendrix, produced by Chris Chandler, in 1967 - Simple verse form with contrasting instrumental bridge - Introduction returns after bridge, which became a common feature in later rock - 4/4 time signature - Electric guitars, bass, drums, lead vocal, and extra spoken voices

Woodstock

- The peak of outdoor music festivals - August 15-17 1969 - Terrible conditions, with facilities overwhelmed by the 400,000 guests - It was, however, a huge success and represented part of counterculture

The Doors

- Took name from poet William Blake in 1965 - Hat hit single Light My Fire and signed with Elektra - Moody late-1960s psychedelia about darker emotions ("bad trip") - 3rd album had Jim Morrison became the Lizard King, an alter ego that influenced later performers - Singer, songwriter, and poet, he was the King of Orgasmic Rock - Style was stable until his mysterious death in 1971

SMiLE

- Would have been Brian Wilson's album about happiness, the most famous album never released, but he never finished it - It featured separately recorded and highly produced sections, and was either masterful or drug fueled - It was controversial, so after Pet Sounds they toned it down - The less intense Smiley Smile was released instead