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Chapter
7
Psychedelia (1966-1969)
Outline
  1. Drugs and the Quest for Higher Consciousness
    1. Psychedelic movement sought new ways to experience the world
    2. Drugs played a central role
      1. LSD
        1. Developed in 1943 in Switzerland
        2. Tested by the CIA during 1950s as a truth serum
      2. Marijuana
      3. Famous leaders challenge the establishment
        1. Ken Kesey (novelist)
        2. Timothy Leary (professor)
    3. Eastern spirituality
      1. Tibetan Book of the Dead
      2. Beatles travel to India to study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
    4. Psychedelic approaches to music
      1. Music secondary to drugs
        1. Enhances the "trip"
      2. Music is the trip
        1. Musician takes the listener on an aural journey
  2. Psychedelic Ambition
    1. Beatles and Beach Boys
      1. Both on Capital (in the United States)
      2. Music became increasingly ambitious
      3. Direct commercial rivalry
    2. "Good Vibrations"
      1. Beach Boys single, late 1966
      2. Consumed a lot of studio time
      3. Experimenting with cut-and-paste
      4. Precise orchestration
    3. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
      1. Beatles album, June 1967
      2. Concept album, hosted by made-up band
        1. Album organized a central idea or story
      3. Wide variety of instruments
      4. Album packaging participated in concept
      5. Lyrics printed on cover
      6. Created a new focus on albums, instead of singles
    4. Smile
      1. Beach Boys album, recorded late 1966/early 1967
      2. Famous unreleased album
      3. Reworked, released as Smiley Smile in summer 1967
      4. Re-recorded, released as SMiLE in 2004
    5. Beatles after Sgt. Pepper
      1. Manager Brian Epstein dies, 1967
      2. Formed Apple Records
      3. Traveled to India
      4. Every release successful
      5. Disbanded, April 1970
  3. San Francisco
    1. Local psychedelia scene was developing since 1965
      1. Grew out of Beat movement of 1950s and early 1960s
        1. Allen Ginsberg
        2. Jack Kerouac
        3. Lawrence Ferlinghetti
      2. Human Be-In, January 1967
    2. Haight-Ashbury scene
      1. Family Dog
        1. Group of friends who organized psychedelic dances
      2. Acid tests
        1. Organized by Kesey and the Merry Pranksters
        2. Environment rich in unpredictable stimulation
        3. January 1966 Fillmore Auditorium
          1. Warlocks (Grateful Dead)
      3. Other psychedelic events in San Francisco
        1. Venues
          1. Fillmore
          2. Avalon Ballroom
        2. Psychedelic Shop
        3. Print publications
          1. San Francisco Oracle
          2. Rolling Stone
      4. FM radio
        1. Tom Donahue
        2. Free-form show
      5. Grateful Dead
        1. Early interest in blues, folk, bluegrass
        2. House band for acid tests
        3. Debut album, 1967
        4. Struggled to capture essence of live show on recording
        5. Often extended improvised solos
          1. "Dark Star"
      6. Jefferson Airplane
        1. Singer Grace Slick joined, October 1966
        2. Surrealistic Pillow, 1967
        3. "White Rabbit"
          1. AM ambition
          2. Dynamic crescendo
      7. Janis Joplin
        1. Electric blues
        2. Big Brother and the Holding Company, 1967-68
          1. Cheap Thrills, 1968
      8. Country Joe and the Fish
        1. Active in Berkeley
        2. "Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag"
        3. Famous performance at Woodstock
  4. London
    1. Many connections and differences between San Francisco and London
    2. World Psychedelic Center
    3. Indica bookstore and gallery
    4. Underground, "Swinging London"
      1. The UFO Club–a changing center for psychedelia
      2. Pink Floyd
        1. Indebted to avant-garde art music
        2. Led by Syd Barrett until 1968
        3. Success limited to UK until 1973
      3. Soft Machine
      4. Tomorrow
    5. Groups popular outside of UK
      1. Rolling Stones
      2. Still following the wake of the Beatles
      3. Cream
        1. Early "supergroup"
        2. Focus on blues
        3. Virtuosic performance by all three members
      4. Jimi Hendrix Experience
        1. Hendrix was American, brought to London in 1966
        2. Monterey Pop Festival was important launching point in America
        3. Blues, pop, and experimental elements
      5. Traffic
        1. Led by Stevie Winwood
        2. Psychedelic pop, blues, Latin rhythms, classical instrumentation, jazz
      6. Van Morrison
        1. Astral Weeks, 1968
      7. Donovan
        1. "Sunshine Superman," 1966
        2. "Mellow Yellow," 1967
  5. Los Angeles
    1. Byrds
    2. Buffalo Springfield
    3. Doors
      1. Tendency of psychedelia to linger on the darker sides of life
    4. Love
  6. Other Important Groups
    1. Iron Butterfly, San Diego
    2. Vanilla Fudge, New York
    3. Bob Dylan and the Band, Woodstock
  7. Important Festivals
    1. Monterey
      1. Spring 1967
      2. Organized by John Phillips and Lou Adler
      3. Broad range of acts
      4. Film depiction, December 1968
      5. Marked the beginning of the psychedelic era
    2. Woodstock
      1. August 1969
      2. Marked the end of the psychedelic era
      3. Massive group represented power of counterculture
      4. Film depiction, 1970
    3. Altamont
      1. December 1969
      2. Rolling Stones organized event at San Francisco speedway
      3. Hells Angels provided security
      4. Crowd and security lost control, musicians injured and fan killed
      5. Film depiction (Gimme Shelter), 1970
    4. Europe
      1. London Hyde Park, July 1969
      2. Isle of Wight (yearly), 1968–1970
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