Chapter Outline

Chapter 7: Psychedelia (1966-1969)

• The Summer of Love: June-August 1967
• Several events signaled the breakthrough of psychedelia into mainstream popular culture
1. Emerging hippie culture and flower power in San Francisco
• Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" (p4 UK1, 1967)
• Large outdoor rock festival in Monterey, California
2. The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The most influential album by that band
• The Beatles were one of the most influential bands in rock music
3. Jimi Hendrix performed a virtuosic show at the Monterey Pop festival
• Stunning musical performance
• Set his guitar on fire at the end of his set
4. Emergence of psychedelic music is an outgrowth of trends begun in the 1950s
• Rock and roll entering the mainstream in 1955
• Beatles and British Invasion settling into place by 1965
• Origins are in an underground movement centered in both London and San Francisco
1. Only people in those areas knew about it
• Bands
• Clubs
• Shops
• Newspapers
2. Psychedelia moved into the mainstream pop culture in the mid 1960s
• Psychedelic bands acquired major label contracts
• Established bands adopted psychedelic concepts in their music
3. By 1969 psychedelia had influenced rock music through music of several bands
• Grateful Dead
• Jefferson Airplane
• Pink Floyd
• What is psychedelia?
• The Doors of Perception: Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, and LSD
1. Exploring new ways to experience the world
• 1960s young adults thought that the 1950s was too focused on normalcy
• They challenged middle-class values with alternative lifestyles
2. 1960s young adults became suspicious of American institutions
• Government
• Schools
• Churches
• Big business
• The military
• The police
3. Reasons for this increased suspicion:
• Civil rights movement encouraged this
• Resistance to the Vietnam War
• Youth culture of the 1950s was built around separation from adult culture
• 1960s youth were more assertive in this same attitude
4. The "Establishment" became the term for authoritative institutions in the 1960s
5. Young people began to believe that everything they heard from the establishment was a lie
• Drugs were added into youth culture during the 1960s
1. They were a means of attaining a new perspective on the world
• Marijuana
• LSD
2. LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) was developed in 1943
• Discoverer Swiss scientist Albert Hoffmann was working on a cure for migraine headaches
• In the 1950s the CIA tested mescaline and LSD as a truth serum
• Psychiatrists used LSD as a treatment for alcoholism
• Some people in major cities in the U.S. and UK used LSD recreationally
3. Two prominent adult figures advocated the use of LSD as a means of rejecting establishment values
• Ex-Harvard professor Dr. Timothy Leary
• Author Ken Kesey
4. They proposed that taking hallucinogenic drugs unlocked the "doors of perception"
• Leary advised people to "turn on, tune in, and drop out"
• This became the catch phrase of the 1960s
• "Dropping acid" meant taking LSD
5. College-aged young adults embraced the new counterculture
• They experimented with drug use
• They embraced radical philosophies
• They explored Eastern religion and philosophy
6. Many believed that LSD was a magic pill that led to a higher consciousness
• A state of awareness known to mystics and spiritual visionaries
• Allowed one to see new possibilities
• Would open the mind to new modes of understanding
• Allowed one to suppress the falsehoods and misinformation disbursed by the establishment
• The psychedelic experience
1. Leary connected Eastern spirituality with LSD in 1964 in his book The Psychedelic Experience
• Offered a guide to LSD use based on the ancient Tibetan Book of the Dead
• Co-authored with Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert
• Alpert changed his name to Ram Dass
• Ram Dass popularized Eastern religion among the hippies
2. In 1966 John Lennon based "Tomorrow Never Knows" on The Psychedelic Experience
3. In 1967 the Beatles studied transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
4. The Byrds' "Eight Miles High" hit the U.S. charts in the summer of 1966
• An early sign that drug use was becoming a central part of rock music and youth culture
• Words that play on the double meaning of "high"
• Spacey atmosphere using a sax riff borrowed from jazz musician John Coltrane's "India"
• Radio stations stopped playing it when a radio tip sheet claimed it was about drugs
5. The connection of Eastern philosophy and psychedelics became central to the hippie worldview
• Quest for higher consciousness
• Eastern gurus sought truth through spiritual discipline
• Hippies sought truth through the use of LSD
• Philosophies blended aspects of Eastern spirituality and drug use
• Avant-garde art was sometimes included
• Radical and utopian politics
• Two psychedelic approaches to music:
• Music in a secondary role to drugs
1. The important thing is the drug experience itself
2. The music is only a kind of soundtrack to the trip
• Provoked response with novel and unfamiliar sounds
• Did not itself provide a trip in the absence of drugs
• The Grateful Dead in the San Francisco underground scene
• Pink Floyd in the London underground scene
• Music itself as a trip
1. The music is a kind of aesthetic drug
2. Aural journey that may be enhanced by the use of drugs
• The music is the primary aspect
• The Beatles are an example of this approach
• The Doors are another example
• Essential in both cases are the trip and quest for higher consciousness
1. The difference is in whether music is primary or secondary to the trip
2. Musicians more experimental and ambitious about
• Writing
• Performing
• Recording
3. Music had to move beyond the two- to three-minute AM radio format to enhance the trip
• Music became more ambitious
• Tracks became longer and more esoteric
• The Beach Boys and the Beatles
• Both bands were on the same label in the United States
1. This led directly to a sense of friendly, respectful competition
2. Beatles were actually signed with EMI in England
• Capitol was a subsidiary in the United States contracted to distribute Beatles records
• Beatles had less sense of competition with the Beach Boys than the Beach Boys had with them
• Beach Boys were already having hits when Beatles arrived
3. End result was that both had to compete with each other on two levels
• For the attention of the audience
• For the attention of executives in their own record label
• The means of competition had a profound influence on music styles
1. Songs became increasingly more sophisticated
2. Both bands pursued new approaches to creating songs that had impact on rock music and musicians
• Lyrics addressed more serious topics
• Wider range of instrumentation was used
• Harmonic language became more innovative
• Standard formal types were modified or abandoned
• Greater time was taken in the studio in recording
• Tracks were often not reproducible in live performance
• The Rubber Soul-Pet Sounds phenomenon
1. Brian Wilson admired Rubber Soul (1965) from a conceptual standpoint
• The way the songs seemed to hang together as an album
• Wilson saw the album as a whole as being greater than the sum of its parts
• This inspired Wilson to think of Pet Sounds (1966) as an album of related songs
• Paul McCartney admired the production and songwriting on Pet Sounds
2. On Revolver (1966), the song "Tomorrow Never Knows" introduces the concept of psychedelia
• The lyrics refer to the same source as Leary's The Psychedelic Experience
• Studio manipulation of sounds resulted in abstract sonic environments
• The Beatles created this song and the rest of Revolver before Pet Sounds was released
3. Both bands were following what had been introduced on Rubber Soul
• Brian Wilson was creating Pet Sounds in response to Rubber Soul
• The Beatles were creating Revolver as a follow-up (their own response) to Rubber Soul
• "Good Vibrations": Brian Wilson's "pocket symphony"
• Considered by Brian Wilson and many others to be his finest achievement
1. Most studio time and budget expended on a single song in popular music history
2. The structure varies within the song
• Begins by using a contrasting verse-chorus approach through the second chorus
• Continues with three sections that were recorded separately
• These sections were then cut-and-pasted together later
• Considerable time was devoted to determining the order of these sections
• The song closes with a coda that is a fade-out on the chorus
3. The middle pasted sections all consist of contrasting musical material
• Section 1 has voices, tack piano, Jew's harp, bass harmonica, bass, tambourine, sleigh bells and organ
• Section 2 has voices, organ, bass, and percussion—closing with a sustained "ah"
• Section 3 begins with a part of the chorus, then introduces new vocal counterpoint and harmony
4. The contrasting musical ideas assembled in this song represent a departure for pop songwriting
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: One of the most important albums in rock music history
• Beatles stopped touring in August of 1966
1. Couldn't perform recent songs live
2. Audience wasn't listening—just screaming
3. John Lennon's remarks about Christianity initiated threats against them
• Original intent was an album of related songs about their Liverpool childhood
1. The first two songs were about Lennon and McCartney's childhood
• John Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever"
• Paul McCartney's "Penny Lane"
• Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever" began the new approach to creative songwriting
1. Lyrics describe a fantasy-like place from his childhood
2. New instruments used to create a dreamlike ambiance
• Cellos, inside-the-piano playing, reversed-tape sounds, Mellotron
• Mellotron: an early sampling keyboard that uses taped sounds to create orchestral sounds
• Strings, choral voices, and a recorder ensemble
3. Studio tape manipulation techniques were used to create backward sounds
4. Two different takes were recorded and spliced together using variable tape speed techniques
• Different tempi and different keys
• Different instruments
5. The song ends, then fades back in with a backward segment that fades back out
• Paul McCartney's "Penny Lane" is more straightforward musically
1. Employs the use of a piccolo trumpet in the solo section and other places in the song
2. Lyrics center around everyday life and people in Paul McCartney's childhood neighborhood
• EMI demanded a single from the band so they released those two songs as a double-A-side single
• Paul McCartney suggested an album about an imaginary band
1. The imaginary band could write imaginary songs about imaginary people and situations
2. Only three songs stay with this concept:
• The first (title song)
• The second song featuring Ringo Starr as imaginary singer "Billy Shears"
• The reprise of the title song before the last song
3. The rest of the songs are united by their introduction of a wide variety of styles
• British dance hall
• Classical arrangements
• Avant-garde techniques—particularly in the aleatoric (chance) orchestral section of the last song
• "A Day in the Life" utilizes an orchestral buildup of randomly executed pitches from low to high
• "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" includes randomly spliced sections of tapes of organ sounds
4. Album cover design also serves as a unifying feature
• The band appears in costumes on the cover
• The back cover featured all of the song lyrics—a first for commercial music
5. No singles were released from the album
6. This placed emphasis on the album as the sales unit rather than the single song format
• After this, pop music would split into two categories
1. Single-oriented teen pop would be the focus of AM radio
2. Adult and college-age oriented music would be the focus of FM
• Brian Wilson's Smile and Smiley Smile
• The 1967 follow-up to Pet Sounds was Wilson's most ambitious project yet, titled Smile
1. It was never released
• Portions of it were released as Smiley Smile
• The production of Smiley Smile is of lesser quality than the 2005 version of Smile
2. In 2005 the album was re-recorded and released by Wilson
3. An example of the approach that was apparent on Smiley Smile was "Heroes and Villains"
• A studio creation
• Separately recorded sections spliced together like "Good Vibrations"
• The Beach Boys reacted against Wilson's new songs
1. They argued that it wouldn't be popular with their fans
2. During subsequent years they worked at simplifying their sound
3. Overall, the psychedelic era had a negative effect on the Beach Boys' career
• They were dismissed as too old fashioned
• Jimi Hendrix described them as a psychedelic barbershop quartet
• The Beatles after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The albums that followed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band were built around concepts
1. The 1967 project Magical Mystery Tour was built around a road trip
• McCartney's idea was to rent a tourist bus and travel the English countryside and film it
2. In 1968 they went to India to study meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
• They wrote many songs there that became the basis for Beatles (the "White Album")
3. During that time an animated feature film was produced with them as the main characters
• A surrealistic adventure in Pepperland became Yellow Submarine
4. In 1969 McCartney suggested a documentary-style film on the Beatles in the creative process
• Originally called Get Back
• Much animosity between band members
• George Martin walked out
• The project was shelved
• The band reunited with Martin in mid 1969 to produce their last studio album Abbey Road
1. The film and music tracks from Get Back were salvaged and reassembled as Let It B
• Martin was not involved as producer so Phil Spector was brought in to finish the project
2. Paul McCartney was disappointed with Spector's arrangements of some songs
• Spector added orchestral tracks and choir tracks
• It was done without the band's knowledge or approval
3. That album was recently re-released in its original state as Let It Be Naked
• Apple Records
1. Beatles manager Brian Epstein died in the summer of 1967
2. Group decided to handle their business affairs themselves by creating a company called Apple
• Apple would promote their own work
• It would promote other artists considered uncommercial
• The company lost money and professionals were called in to salvage it
3. The band was ready to break up by late 1969
4. They made it official in 1970
5. The band members successfully continued on with solo careers
• The later Beatles work proved to be more influential on later musicians than their earlier work
1. Competition between the Beach Boys and the Beatles had an important consequence
• Beatles developed the stylistic, timbral, and compositional range of rock music
• They proved that rock could stand on its own as music and thus be taken seriously
2. Their success at this prompted Capitol records to allow them more freedom to create
3. This freedom was extended to underground bands developing the new psychedelic style
• The San Francisco Scene and Haight-Ashbury
• The emergence of hippie culture in San Francisco
1. The psychedelic scene had been developing since mid 1965 in the San Francisco area
• Grew out of the area's Beat movement of the late '50s and early 1960s
• A bohemian scene celebrating the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and the prose of Jack Kerouac
• Gathered in the North Beach City Lights Bookstore of Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• Ginsberg, Michael McClure, and Gary Snider mentored the hippie movement
• Many similarities between beats and hippies, notably their nonconformist stance
• A difference was in musical taste: beats liked jazz, hippies liked rock music
• Ginsberg, McClure, and Snider helped organize the Human Be-In
2. The Human Be-In was held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in January 1967
• The event was advertised as a "gathering of the tribes"
• A day of poetry. spirituality, and music
• Music was provided by local bands
• The Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane were among the bands featured
3. The Human Be-In and the San Francisco hippie movement drew national media attention
• The New Mexico-San Francisco connection
1. In 1965 a group of people in Virginia City, NM, began hosting LSD-oriented music performances
• These took place at a restored western-style bar called the Red Dog
• A band of San Francisco musicians called the Charlatans were the house band
• These psychedelic "happenings" became the model for similar events in San Francisco
2. The first San Francisco area happening was in October 1965
• Organized by a group calling itself the Family Dog
• It took place at the Longshoreman's Hall and was called "A Tribute to Dr. Strange"
• Featured the Charlatans
• Jefferson Airplane
• Great Society
3. The next happening a few days later was called "A Tribute to Sparkle Plenty"
• The Charlatans provided music
• The Loving Spoonful (from New York) also played
• Ken Kesey and the Acid Tests
1. During the same time period novelist Ken Kesey was organizing the "acid test"
• Kesey celebrated the liberating effects of LSD
• He wanted to share the drug as broadly as he could
• Kesey and friends, the Merry Pranksters, produced LSD multimedia events called acid tests
• They provided unpredictable stimulation to acid test audiences under the influence of LSD
2. The purpose of the acid test was to intensify the LSD experience
• Light and slide shows
• Bizarre sound effects
• Rock music
3. Kesey's first acid test was in Santa Cruz in November 1965; the cost to enter the acid test: one dollar
4. Two months later Kesey held an acid test in San Francisco at the Fillmore Auditorium
• 2,400 people attended
• The house band was the Warlocks
• The Warlocks changed their name to the Grateful Dead
5. By 1966 the hippie underground movement in San Francisco had settled into the Haight-Ashbury district
• Was an old Victorian neighborhood
• Adjoined the east end of Golden Gate Park
• Concerts, news, the Psychedelic Shop, and FM radio
1. Psychedelic evenings of LSD and rock music were a regular feature in the Bay Area
• Kesey's acid tests became the model for psychedelic events in San Francisco
• Bill Graham began organizing shows at the Fillmore
• Chet Helms promoted shows at the Avalon Ballroom
2. Ron and Jay Thelin opened their Psychedelic Shop in the Haight-Ashbury district
3. Local bands rented houses in the Haight-Ashbury district for rehearsal spaces
4. The San Francisco Oracle became the first hippie newspaper in September 1966
5. Rolling Stone Magazine published its first issue in November 1967
6. Tom Donahue developed a new approach to FM radio programming in April 1967 on KMPX-FM
• Longer tracks placed back-to-back
• More freedom given to the disk-jockey
• Up to this time FM was only for classical, jazz, college lectures, and foreign language shows
• A few months later Donahue was running a rock FM station in Los Angeles as well
• FM rock stations quickly sprang up all across America
• The Grateful Dead—formerly the Warlocks
1. House band for the Kesey acid tests, the band changed its name to the Grateful Dead
• Jerry Garcia (guitar)
• Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (organ)
• Bob Weir (guitar)
• Bill Kreutzmann (drums)
• Phil Lesh (bass)
2. As the Warlocks, the band played a lot of Rolling Stones-style American electric blues
3. When playing at the acid tests, they began developing an improvisational style
• Some songs were extremely long and could last over an hour
• The band signed with MGM records but disagreements led to the first album not being released
• They signed with Warner Brothers records and released an album of short songs
• Their second album Anthem of the Sun was based on improvisation
• The album included recordings from live shows and studio performances
• The album was mixed using chance elements similar to avant-garde electronic compositions
• The album was mixed to intensify an acid experience
4. Subsequent albums explored a wide range of styles in inventive ways
• Their 1970 album Live/Dead was recorded live in the recording studio
• It contained a 20-minute version of the song "Dark Star" by poet Robert Hunter
• "Dark Star" exemplifies the band's extended improvised instrumental solos
• Simple chord progressions and modal scales found in modal jazz common at that time
5. Workingman's Dead and American Beauty are less exploratory
• Shorter songs
• More country and folk-oriented tracks
6. The Grateful Dead were one of the most successful live American bands in the 1970s and 1980s.
• Jefferson Airplane
1. One of the first psychedelic bands in the San Francisco area
• Influences are from folk music and blues
• Occasional elements of Indian music
• Also references to modal jazz
2. Formed by singer Marty Balin and guitarist Paul Kantner in mid 1965, the band also included
• Jorma Kaukonen (guitar)
• Signe Anderson (vocals)
• Jack Cassady (bass)
• Spencer Dryden (drums)
3. Their first album on RCA, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, only reached 128 on the charts in 1966
4. They changed singers: Anderson left and was replaced by Great Society singer Grace Slick
5. The next album, Surrealistic Pillow (p3, 1967) included two Grace Slick songs
• "Somebody to Love" (p5, 1967)
• "White Rabbit" (p8, 1967)
6. The Jefferson Airplane released several hit albums during the late 1960s
• After Bathing at Baxter's (p 17, 1967)
• Crown of Creation (p6, 1968)
• A live album, Bless Its Pointed Little Head (p17 uk38, 1969)
• Volunteers (p 13 uk34, 1969) featuring politically inspired lyrics
• "White Rabbit"
1. First two verses are followed by a bridge and then an expanded verse
2. The lyrics refer to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland stories
3. Clear reference in lines like "feed your head" refer to the use of psychedelic drugs
4. Music is based on Spanish bolero—particularly in the guitar solo introduction
5. Slick was inspired by Miles Davis's jazz album Sketches of Spain
6. Dynamic shape is similar to French composer Maurice Ravel's orchestral piece Bolero
• A gradual build from very quiet to a violently loud climax
• "White Rabbit" is much shorter than Ravel's piece but it accomplishes the same effect
7. This song is yet another example of psychedelia drawing from classical music
• "Tomorrow Never Knows" uses avant-garde tape manipulation techniques
• "Anthem of the Sun" uses avant-garde tape techniques and aleatoric mixing concepts
• "White Rabbit" draws from an early twentieth-century composer's approach to dynamics
• Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin
1. Big Brother and the Holding Company was inspired by classical music
• They performed a piece by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg
• "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Grieg's Peer Gynt orchestral suite
• They embraced avant-garde conceptual art as well, contemplating a piece called "Bacon"
• Bacon would be placed on a hot plate on the stage near a microphone
• They would freely improvise until the bacon was cooked
2. They embraced blues as a basis for improvisation
3. They were interested in introducing a new style of music called "Blues in Technicolor"
• Elements of blues forms used as base for improvisations
• Avant-garde approach to the sonic and overall conceptual experience
• The avant-garde aspects would appeal to those taking LSD
4. Janis Joplin came from Port Arthur, Texas
• Heavily inspired by female blues singers
• Bessie Smith
• Big Mama Thornton
• Ma Rainey
5. Joined Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1968
• Their first album went to number sixty on the charts
• Their second album, Cheap Thrills (p1, 1968), proved that Joplin helped launch their success
• They had a hit single "Piece of My Heart" (p12, 1968)
6. Joplin went solo in 1969
• The album I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! reached number five
• She recorded a second solo album in 1970: Pearl (p1, 1971)
• A single from that album also went to number one: "Me and Bobbie McGee"
7. Joplin didn't live to see it. She died of a drug overdose on October 4, 1970
• Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and other important San Francisco bands
• Country Joe and the Fish
1. Country Joe (McDonald) and Barry "The Fish" Melton were involved in UC Berkeley activism
• The radical politics surrounding U.C. Berkeley was seen as too intense to many hippies
• The hippies seemed too spaced out to be a part of radical political activism
• Country Joe and the Fish seemed to find a common ground between these clashing ideals
2. Their first recording was an extended play record consisting of three songs
• It was included in a radical political activism magazine called Rag Baby
• Had elements of folk and blues
• The song "Section 43" was created and mixed in a similar way to Anthem of the Sun
• The intent was to enhance an LSD trip.
3. They recorded an album called I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die (p67, 1968)
• The title song is a denouncement of the Vietnam War
• Also on the song is the "Fish Cheer," a call to the audience to respond with the letters F-I-S-H
• They used a different set of letters when the song was performed at the Woodstock festival
4. The album Together was their most commercially successful album (p23, 1968)
• Quicksilver Messenger Service
1. One of the earliest psychedelic bands in the San Francisco area
2. Bamd didn't release an album until 1968—making them one of the last bands to be recorded
3. They were similar to the Grateful Dead
• Built their reputation and following around long extended improvised solos
• Had difficulty transferring their live shows to a commercially viable medium
4. First album, Quicksilver Messenger Service, went to number sixty-three on the U.S. pop charts
5. Subsequent albums were more successful
• Happy Trails rose to number twenty-seven in 1969 and included live performance tracks
• At the Fillmore in San Francisco
• Fillmore East in New York
• Shady Grove went to number twenty-five in late 1969
• Guitarist Gary Duncan left the band early in 1969
• British pianist Nicky Hopkins joined when Duncan left
6. Quicksilver Messenger Service never enjoyed the stature reached by some other San Francisco bands
• Moby Grape
1. Their first album, Moby Grape, came out on Columbia in June 1967 and went to number twenty-four
• They were on the road promoting their album during the Summer of Love
• Their producer, David Rubinson, convinced the label to release five singles at once
• Only one single, "Omaha," charted—at number eighty-four
2. Their next album, Wow, reached number twenty in 1968
3. Their 1969 album, Moby Grape '69, did not get on the charts
• Steve Miller Band
1. Developed a following in the Haight-Ashbury district in 1966
2. Blues guitarist leader Steve Miller was joined by Guitarist Boz Scaggs in the fall of 1967
3. First album, Children of the Future, was recorded in 1967 in London by producer Glyn Johns
• Actually co-produced with Johns and the band
• Johns had engineered on Rolling Stones records and other British bands
• The album didn't do well on U.S. charts (# 134)
• Was still given a lot of FM airplay
4. Next album, Sailor, went to number twenty-four in late 1968
5. The 1960s San Francisco psychedelic scene could be seen as a beginning point
6. Both Miller and Scaggs had very successful careers in the 1970s
• The London psychedelic scene
• The rise of the British Underground
1. In June 1965 beat poet Allen Ginsberg went to London to organize a poetry event
• Held in Albert Hall
• Called "Poets of the World/Poets of Our Time"
• Over 5,000 people attended
• Many were under the influence of marijuana or LSD
2. In September 1965 Michael Hollingshead opened the World Psychedelic Center in London
• Hollingshead had initially introduced Timothy Leary to LSD
• World Psychedelic Center became the center for psychedelic music and culture
• Drugs had been around in England for a while
1. Bob Dylan introduced the Beatles to marijuana at the end of their first U.S. tour in 1964
2. Harrison and Lennon had experienced LSD in 1965 when a friend slipped it into their coffee
3. In England a subculture similar to that of San Francisco was forming around similar elements
• Drugs
• Eastern philosophy
• Radical politics
• Experimental music
4. The Marquee Club was hosting multimedia events called the Spontaneous Underground
• Poetry
• Music
• "Come See about Me" (r3, 1964)
• Avant-garde weirdness
• Smaller version of Kesey's acid tests
5. In February 1966 Barry Miles, John Dunbar, and Peter Asher opened the Indica bookstore and gallery
• Miles had organized the "Poets of the World/Poets of Our Time" event in 1965
• Dunbar was Marianne Faithful's husband
• Asher was the brother of Paul McCartney's girlfriend
• John Lennon found Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience in Indica
6. The London Free School opened in March 1966
• A "countercultural night school" addressing a variety of social condition studies:
• Housing problems
• Race relations
• Mental health
• Law
• The psychedelic scenes were developing independently in London and San Francisco at the same time
1. Few people had personally experienced the San Francisco scene
2. There was no media information about it until 1967
3. Much was known simply through word of mouth
• London underground clubs and events
• By October 1966 the UFO Club had been established
1. More of an organization than a place
2. Originally met in a bar
3. When meeting in a bar became a problem the UFO relocated
4. It became the center of the psychedelic scene in London
• The Saville Theater became a venue for psychedelic events; theater owned by Brian Epstein
• "The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream" took place in April 1967
1. Held in the Alexandra Palace
2. The goal: to intensify the LSD experiences of those in attendance
• Avant-garde happenings
• Yoko Ono was involved with one of the happenings
• A light show
• A long roster of bands
3. 10,000 London hippies attended
• October of 1966: International Times appeared, a newspaper devoted to underground concerns
• October of 1966: International Times appeared, a newspaper devoted to underground concerns
• Pink Floyd
1. Named after two American blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council
• Guitarist Syd Barrett (replaced by David Gilmore in 1968)
• Bassist Roger Waters
• Organist Richard Wright
• Drummer Nick Mason
2. Regulars at Spontaneous Underground events and the UFO Club
3. Popular only on the underground circuit
4. Their music was derived from avant-garde concepts
• Atonality
• Tape echo on instruments and voices
• Unconventional playing techniques
5. Two British hit singles in 1967 and their first album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn (uk6, 1967)
• Barrett's "Arnold Layne" was about a transvestite who stole women's clothes from clotheslines
• "See Emily Play" was the other hit, also written by Barrett
6. The band refused to play these songs live, preferring their avant-garde extended improvisations
7. Their albums were hits only in England during the late 1960s
• A Saucerful of Secrets (uk9, 1968)
• More (uk9, 1969)
• Umma Gumma (uk5 p74, 1969)
• Atom Heart Mother (uk 1 p55, 1970)
8. Their concerts in England featured elaborate light shows
• Other London psychedelic bands
1. Soft Machine formed in Canterbury in 1966
• Performed regularly at the UFO Club and other psychedelic events
• Blended experimental weirdness with free jazz of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane
• Alternated short song-like sections with avant-garde improvisations
• Later became pioneers of the British jazz-fusion called Canterbury progressive rock
2. Did not have a lot of success in the psychedelic style
3. Tomorrow became popular after Pink Floyd and Soft Machine
• Guitarist Steve Howe (later to join progressive rock group Yes)
• Vocalist Keith West
• Bassist John "Junior" Wood
• John Adler
• Backward tape sounds
• Exotic Eastern-sounding scalar melodies
• Simple pop lyrics bordering on naïve
4. Crazy World of Arthur Brown
• Drummer Carl Palmer went on to form Emerson, Lake & and Palmer
• The big names go psychedelic
• The Rolling Stones made a foray into psychedelic after the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper
1. By late 1966, Jagger-Richards songwriting dominated the band's music
• Brian Jones was contributing little to the Rolling Stones' music
• Their seventh album, Aftermath, featured only Jagger-Richards songs
2. Their Satanic Majesties Request (p2 uk3) was released in December 1967
• Obvious attempt to follow the Beatles' psychedelic lead
• Clearly a response to Sgt. Pepper
• The album cover was a holographic image of the band dressed in wizard outfits
• Beatles wore marching band costumes on the Sgt. Pepper cover
• Occult wizards conveyed the Stones more negative "bad boy" image
3. Two differing opinions on the significance of Their Satanic Majesties Request
• Failed attempt to imitate the Beatles too closely
• Interesting (perhaps necessary) step in the band's development
4. Stones formed their own identity after Their Satanic Majesties Request
• Stopped worrying about competing with the Beatles
• Returned to their rhythm and blues roots
• Cream
1. The first rock "supergroup" formed in 1966
• Eric Clapton, guitarist from Yardbirds
• Jack Bruce, bass
• Ginger Baker, drums
2. Former players in British blues bands with several notable blues band leaders
• Alexis Korner
• John Mayall
• Graham Bond
3. Purpose was to play traditional blues
• Covered traditional blues numbers
• Robert Johnson's "Crossroads"
• Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'"
4. Clapton had developed the instrumental "rave-up" sections in Yardbirds' shows
• Long sections featuring extensive soloing
• Became an important element in Cream's blues adaptations
• Example: live version of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" found on Wheels of Fire (1968)
5. Bruce and Baker were also accomplished players
• Baker's drum solo on "Toad" served as a model for rock drummers
• Clapton was celebrated in England as the best rock guitar player in the world
• Clapton popularized the use of distortion and the wah-wah pedal
6. Cream also had pop hits
• "I Feel Free" (uk 11, 1966)
• "Strange Brew" (uk17, 1967)
7. Cream established the idea of virtuosity in rock music
• Beatles and Beach Boys took songwriting
• Beatles and Beach Boys advanced approaches to recording techniques
• Virtuosity was not a factor with those bands—just skillful playing
8. Cream's initial album success was greater in the UK
• Fresh Cream (uk6, 1967) barely made the U.S. Top 40
• Albums that followed did better in the states than in UK
• Disraeli Gears (p4, uk5 1967)
• Wheels of Fire (p1 uk3, 1968)
9. Guitarists in UK were more revered than those in San Francisco bands at this same time
• Clapton is an example of being as well known as his band
• Jimi Hendrix is another example
• San Francisco band guitarists were generally not as well known as their band
10. Cream broke up in November 1968
• Each of the members had solo careers
• Clapton was the most successful
• "Sunshine of Your Love"
1. The song most associated with Cream
2. Written by Clapton, Bruce, and Pete Brown
3. Built around a central guitar/bass figure (called a "riff" or a "lick")
• Common idea within American electric blues
• Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" is an example
4. Utilizes a modified 12-bar blues structure to create simple verse format
• The pattern is doubled to twenty-four measures
• The proportions remain the same
• The third phrase is a variation based on the blues scale
• Jimi Hendrix
• A blend of psychedelic blues and the avant-garde
1. Hendrix is one of the most influential guitarists in the history of rock music
2. Played with various bands during the early 1960s as a sideman (hired musician)
• Little Richard
• Isley Brothers
• Curtis Knight
• Formed his own band in New York, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, in 1964
3. Discovered by Animals bassist Chas Chandler at Greenwich Village club Café Wha?
• Chandler offered to manage him
• Brought him to London in September 1966
4. Chandler helped Hendrix form the Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Hendrix
• Drummer Mitch Mitchell
• Bassist Noel Redding
5. The first two singles were hits in England in 1967
• First single, "Hey Joe," went to number six on the UK charts
• "Purple Haze" (uk3) in May
• The band's first album, Are You Experienced? (uk2 p5, 1967), was a tremendous success in the UK
• Was only kept from number one by Sgt. Pepper
• Hendrix was an American but he arose out of the London psychedelic scene
1. Didn't become known in American until he played in the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967
2. Are You Experienced? wasn't released in the states until August of 1967
3. His singles didn't do as well as his albums
• This is a "post-Sgt. Pepper" trend
• Album sales became a better indication of popularity than singles sales
• "Purple Haze" only reached number sixty-five on the U.S. pop charts
• "Foxy Lady" only made it to number sixty-seven in the states
4. Hendrix's albums were hugely successful throughout the rest of the 1960s
• By early 1968 Axis: Bold as Love was number three in the United States (uk5)
• Electric Ladyland (uk6 p1, 1968)
• The compilation album Smash Hits (uk4, 1968; p6, 1969)
5. The Experience broke up in the summer of 1969
6. Hendrix formed a new band and played the Woodstock festival in August of 1969
7. Hendrix died of a drug overdose on September 18, 1970
• Hendrix's music was a blend of blues, pop, rock, and avant-garde psychedelia
1. He uses pop craftsmanship to assemble musical passages
• "Purple Haze" employs a catchy blues guitar "hook" at the end of each verse
• "Foxy Lady" uses the same idea
2. His experimental side is exemplified in "If 6 Was 9" from Axis: Bold as Love
• Three minutes of instrumental playing
• Novel guitar sound effects
• Some counterculture narration
3. "1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" is from Electric Ladyland
• Considered Hendrix's most ambitious experimental track
• Just under fourteen minutes long
• Backward tape effects
• Series of loose atmospheric instrumental sections
• Hendrix, Mitchell, and Redding each demonstrate their virtuosity
• Flute is played by Chris Wood from Traffic
• A short electronic piece follows immediately "Moon, Turn the Tides Gently, Gently Away"
• It adds a clear avant-garde final touch to "1983"
4. Hendrix's experimental music extended the work done by the Beatles and Beach Boys
5. His guitar virtuosity and sonic innovations are a much-imitated model for rock guitarists
• Controlled musical applications to feedback
• Vibrato bar
• Distortion
• Wah-wah pedal
6. His flamboyance and showmanship further elevated the rock experience and became legend
• Sexually suggestive movements and gestures
• Setting his guitar on fire on his American debut at the Monterey Pop Festival
• Traffic, Van Morrison, and Donovan
• Traffic was formed in 1967 by former Spencer Davis Group singer/keyboardist Stevie Winwood
1. Winwood wanted to pursue music that involved more musicianship
• Drummer Jim Capaldi
• Guitarist Dave Mason
• Flutist/saxophonist Chris Wood
2. Winwood was eighteen years old at the time
• Immediate success in England was followed by success in United States by 1969
1. First single, "Paper Sun" (uk5 p9)
• Whimsical character of emerging British flower
• Opens with sitar and upbeat vocal melody
2. Next single: "Hole in My Shoe" did even better (uk2).
• First album, Mr. Fantasy (uk8 1967)
• Second album: Traffic (uk9 p17, 1968)
• Last Exit (p19, 1969)
3. Traffic experimented with a broad range of styles
• Psychedelic pop and blues ("Heaven Is in Your Mind")
• Latin rhythms ("Dealer")
• Classical instrumentation ("No Face, No Name, No Number")
• Jazz soloing ("Coloured Rain")
• Traffic disbanded in 1969 and reformed in 1970
1. Joined Blind Faith in 1969
2. Blind faith featured two former members of Cream
• Eric Clapton
• Ginger Baker
• Van Morrison
1. Initial success was with Irish band Them
• "Baby Please Don't Go" (uk10, 1964)
• "Here Comes the Night" (uk2 p24, 1965)
• Both of these songs became garage band classics
• (A side "Gloria" and B side "Baby Please Don't Go")
2. Morrison went solo in 1967
• "Brown-Eyed Girl" (p 10)
3. 1968 album Astral Weeks was more experimental
• Recorded in New York in less than two days
• Wide variety of styles
• Acoustic, folk, jazz, classical, rhythm and blues
• Top-notch studio players improvising with Morrison result in a raw looseness
• Aleatoric (chance) quality
• Chance was popular in 1960s in both jazz and avant-garde performance art
• Similarities to Pink Floyd's live performances and Grateful Dead's Anthem of the Sun
• Donovan Philips Leitch
1. Influenced by Woody Guthrie (as was Bob Dylan during this period)
2. Became a leading figure for hippie pacifism
• Gentle melodic sense
• Eclectic stylistic range
• Mystical lyrics
3. International recognition as traditional folk singer/guitarist/songwriter: "Catch the Wind" (uk4 p23, 1965)
4. Adapted his music to the new folk rock style
• Electric guitars
• Keyboards
• Bass
• Drums
5. Sometimes using future Led Zeppelin players Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones
6. Had a series of hit singles in the UK and United States
• "Sunshine Superman" (uk2 p1, 1966)
• "Mellow Yellow" (uk8, 1967; p2, 1966)
• "Wear Your Love like Heaven"
• "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (uk4 p5, 1968)—featuring Led Zeppelin's Page, Jones, and John Bonham Western culture
• "Atlantis" (uk23, 1968; p7, 1969) suggested learning from the lost city to rebuild
• Cosmic Wheels (uk15 p25, 1973)
• Music for Franco Zeffirelli's film Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973)
• Important bands in Los Angeles
• Byrds
1. Caused controversy over drug-related lyrics in "Eight Miles High"
2. Attempted a mix of country and rock in "Mr. Spaceman"
3. Both songs appeared on the album Fifth Dimension (p24 uk27, I 966)
4. Released the album that helped launch country rock in 1968: Sweetheart of the Rodeo
5. David Crosby quit in 1967 to join Graham Nash (Hollies) and Steven Stills (Buffalo Springfield)
6. Buffalo Springfield
1. Success began with their single "For What It's Worth" (p7, 1967)
2. Member Neil Young occasionally joined Crosby Stills and Nash during their career together
3. Crosby Stills and Nash (with sometimes Young) were one of the first supergroups of the 1970s
7. Love
1. Formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by singer/guitarist Arthur Lee
• Early songs influenced by Byrds and Rolling Stones
• Later in the 1960s their work became more psychedelic
2. First single, "My Little Red Book" (1966), was a rock cover of Brill Building writers Bachrach-David
3. Love was more popular in England than in the United States
4. Lee wouldn't tour outside southern California
5. Released ambitious albums after the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Forever Changes (1967)
• Orchestral accompaniment and psychedelic recording studio effects
• More of a musical and critical success than commercial
6. Changed personnel in 1969 and released two more albums
• Four Sail (1969)
• Out Here (1970)
8. The Doors
1. Formed in 1965 by singer/lyricist Jim Morrison and keyboardist Ray Manzarak
• Additional band members included Robbie Krieger and John Densmore
• Band's name came from eighteenth-century British poet William Blake
• Discussed in Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception
2. Music and lyrics explored the dark side of emotions and drug use
3. The first album in 1967, The Doors, exemplifies Morrison's determination to explore forbidden topics
• The song "The End" explores Oedipal desires
• The first song on the album, "Break on Through" mentions "bad trip" experiences
4. Through all their albums lyrics focus on negative issues
• Alienation and repression
• Morrison developed an on-stage persona to convey these concepts: the "Lizard King"
• The Lizard King was introduced in the third album, Waiting for the Sun (p1 uk16, 1968)
5. The additional aspect of an alter ego inspired many rock artists who came later
• Alice Cooper
• David Bowie
• Peter Gabriel
• Kiss
• Madonna
6. The Doors had several hit singles during the late 1960s as they refined their musical style
• "Hello I Love You" (p1 uk15, 1968)
• "Touch Me" (p3, 1969)
• "Love Her Madly" (p11, 1971)
7. Morrison died in mysterious circumstances in 1971
9. Iron Butterfly
1. Formed in San Diego in 1966
2. Second album became a rock classic: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (p4 1968)
• Title track is seventeen minutes long
• Menacing organ intro and accompanying sections reminiscent of horror film music
• Much of the song is instrumental soloing by organ, guitar, bass, and drums
• An edited single version reached number thirty on U.S. charts in 1968
3. The solos became a model for many rock bands' live shows for many years
4. The overall sound foreshadowed heavy metal bands of the early 1970s
• Black Sabbath
• Deep Purple
• Led Zeppelin
• New York bands and changes of direction
• Vanilla Fudge
1. Formed in New York in 1965 as the Pigeons
2. Changed their name when they signed with Atlantic in 1966
• Their debut album Vanilla Fudge (p6 uk31, 1967) was well received
3. Specialized in creating long, elaborate psychedelic covers of songs
• "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was a two-minute Supremes hit that they turned into a five-minute song
• Another example of this was their album Beat Goes On (p 17)
• A Sonny and Cher song motive ties music styles together from Mozart to the Beatles
• This foreshadows the progressive art rock bands of the 1970s
• Bob Dylan and the Band
1. Dylan was in a motorcycle accident in 1966; went to Woodstock, NY, to recover
2. Worked with a Canadian band, the Hawks, writing and recording song demos
• Guitarist Robbie Robertson
• Bassist Rick Danko
• Pianist Richard Manuel
• Organist Garth Hudson
• Drummer Levon Helm (the lone American)
• The Hawks changed their name to the Band
3. This band (minus this drummer) backed Dylan on his 1965-1966 world tour
4. Two albums were released from these sessions in 1968: both show a fusion of rock and country music
• The Band's Music from Big Pink (p30)
• Dylan's John Wesley Harding (p2 uk1)
5. The session tapes were later all released in 1975 as an album: The Basement Tapes (p7 uk8)
• Woodstock and the rock festival phenomenon
• The Monterey Pop Festival
1. First pop festival was in Monterey, California, in June 1967
• Organized by John Phillips from the Mamas and Papas and producer Lou Adler
• Modeled after the Monterey Jazz Festival
2. Bands from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London played for free, receiving only travel expenses
• The Jefferson Airplane
• The Grateful Dead
• Big Brother and the Holding Company
• The Byrds
• Animals
• Who
3. Jimi Hendrix's appearance was crucial to his subsequent success
4. Mamas and the Papas performed for the last time live in their original lineup
5. Beach Boys didn't play; this hurt their standing in the new hippie subculture
6. Monterey Pop was a greatly expanded version of San Francisco events since 1965
7. Many other similar concerts took place in the next two years:
• Newport (1968 and 1969)
• Miami (1968)
• Toronto (1969)
• Atlanta (1969)
• Denver (1969)
• Filmed by D.A. Pennebaker: Monterey Pop
8. 55,000 to 90,000 hippies attended
• The Woodstock Festival
1. Culmination of the rock festival era
2. Held on a large farm in Bethel, New York, on August 15-17, 1969
3. Tremendously successful
• Because of the 1970 release of a film documentary: Michael Wadleigh's Woodstock
• Album of the event's performances
4. There were problems that were overcome (or simply put up with)
• Overwhelming attendance
• Roadways were closed in upstate New York
• Fans turned up without tickets and got in for free
• Rain created a huge muddy mess
• Security forces were too small
5. Everything went well in the communal hippie spirit of fellowship
6. American and British bands were featured
• Grateful Dead
• Jimi Hendrix
• Janis Joplin
• Who
• Santana
• Crosby, Stills, and Nash
• Joe Cocker
• Sly and the Family Stone
• The Altamont rock festival: the violent end of the peace-love movement
1. Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California, held December 6, 1969
2. Rolling Stones planned a free show in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park
• For the faithful hippie subculture
• The Stones considered it a thank you to their loyal fans
3. Poor planning cause problems
• San Francisco city officials canceled it
• Relocated to Altamont Speedway
• Hells Angels motorcycle gang was hired as security
• The leaders of the gang weren't there to maintain control
• Fans were beaten if they got too close to the stage
• Even musicians were beaten up (Jefferson Airplane's Marty Balin was knocked out)
4. The Stones were shooting a documentary film and waited till nightfall to play: Gimme Shelter (1970)
• A long period of time elapsed with no music; fans became unruly
• When the Stones did play, the crowd and Hells Angels went out of control
• A young black fan, Meredith Hunter, was stabbed to death by a Hells Angel
• Rock festivals in England
1. Similar to San Francisco events that gradually expanded into large-scale festivals like Monterey
2. Most notable festivals occurred in England
3. Festival of Flower Children in the Woburn Abbey (late August 1967)
• Expansion of the l4-Hour Technicolor Dream
• Three-day outdoor festival
• Jimi Hendrix
• Tomorrow
• Jeff Beck Group
• Small Faces
4. National Jazz and Blues Festival in August 1967 held in held in Windso
• Cream
• Tomorrow
• The Nice
• Donovan
• Crazy World of Arthur Brown
5. London's Hyde Park (July 1969)
• Organized by the Rolling Stones
• Honored the recently deceased band member Brian Jones
6. Isle of Wight Festival 1968
• The Isle of Wight festivals began in 1968
• About 10,000 attended
• A one-day bill
• Crazy World of Arthur Brown
• Jefferson Airplane
7. 1969 Isle of Wight Festival was far more ambitious
• Expanded to two days
• Bob Dylan and the Band
• Who
• The Moody Blues
• The Nice
• About 150,000 attended
8. 1970 Isle of Wight Festival
• Around 500,000 attended
• Largest ever to take place in Great Britain
• The Doors
• Donovan
• Jimi Hendrix (his last public performance)
• Emerson, Lake and Palmer
• Jethro Tull
• Chicago
9. Festivals also took place in other countries
• France
• Italy
• Switzerland
• The AM/FM split in American radio
• The radio industry split into two directions
1. AM radio focused on singles
2. Targeted audience for AM radio was teenagers
3. FM was targeted at college-age listeners (the older siblings)
• Freeform approach was an outgrowth of the psychedelic music style
• Cuts from albums were featured rather than singles
• This became known as AOR—Album-Oriented Rock
• Parallel to the rise of the folk music trend at the beginning of the 1960s
• Folk artists recorded albums rather than singles
4. 1960s psychedelic bands built careers on albums rather than singles
5. Their radio airplay was on FM rather than AM
6. One exception was the Doors' "Light My Fire"
• It was released as a single
• Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddamn"
• It was a hit
• It was edited down to conform to AM length standards