Theoretically Speaking S3 | E3: What Makes Psychedelia, Psychedelia? … part 2

Bill Bois’ Music Theory For Non-Musicians™

…if there was ever an art where breaking the rules is one of the rules, it’s music.

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S3:E3- What Makes Psychedelia Psychedelia? Part 2

Let’s recap Part 1:

Psychedelic drugs suppress or boost neural networks in the brain.

Some thinkers, including the beatniks, believed these drugs could be used to know yourself, and knowing yourself leads to a happier, less conformist society. Psychedelic music uses unusual sounds, Indian instruments and techniques, studio tricks, and trippy lyrics to simulate a drug experience or express the peace, and love that the world could and should have.

The philosophy of the Beat Generation, and certain religions, says that there are three possible human states:

Christianity and similar religions say that earthly life has suffering and not suffering. Elation comes only in the afterlife. 

The beatnik idea said elation could happen in this life, through drugs, transcendental meditation or other techniques. Some of these techniques provide only temporary elation. One must know oneself in order to reach elation permanently.

The beatniks had some now-familiar terminology. Conformists or other people who didn’t understand beat philosophy were “square.” People who understood and were involved were “hip.”

And the people who were interested in sex and drugs and a liberated society but not so interested in putting in the work of knowing oneself weren’t hip. 

The beatniks derisively called these folks “hippies.” In other words, they weren’t square – but they weren’t really hip either.

The hippies thought that elation could be had by returning to nature. Unhappiness isn’t natural, they thought. It’s caused by our distance from nature. Many started communes to live simply. They wore clothing inspired by Native American or Indian culture. They believed in flower power.

Some believed love is man’s natural state.

Some just wanted to get laid.

Either way, the middle of 1968 was known as the Summer Of Love.

The musicians of the Summer Of Love may have believed in this Age Of Aquarius, or they may have been following the latest trend.

Regardless, they made some great music.

And that music falls into three categories: psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, and psychedelic soul.

Psychedelic rock or pop is what we think of first. Some bands were strictly psychedelic, like the 13th Floor Elevators, Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Electric Prunes, and Pink Floyd. Others were bands with long careers who went through a psychedelic phase. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and even The Beach Boys had such a phase.

We can’t really say what the first psychedelic pop song was, since its various elements show up starting in the previous decades and centuries. However, the first deliberately psychedelic song may be either Eight Miles High by The Byrds or You’re Gonna Miss Me by the 13th Floor Elevators. Eight Miles High was recorded first but released after You’re Gonna Miss Me.

It’s hard to picture the clean cut Beach Boys in their matching striped, short sleeve shirts singing about cars, girls, and surfing over anything other than a basic rock & roll beat. On their classic album Pet Sounds, they stick to that subject matter – but just listen to the studio wizardry and disjointed arrangement of Good Vibrations or God Only Knows. It’s not cut from the same cloth as Fun, Fun, Fun.

Pet Sounds is Brian Wilson’s creation. The rest of the Beach Boys just sang on it, and some weren’t happy that it was so different from their usual surf music. It’s the first album meant to be taken as a whole rather than just a collection of songs. It’s tremendously influential, and one of the first bands it influenced was The Beatles.

Sgt. Pepper’s was released on June 1, 1967. By the end of the year, the Rolling Stones released Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Jimi Hendrix Experience released Axis: Bold As Love, The Who released The Who Sell Out, Cream released Disraeli Gears, and The Beatles followed up with Magical Mystery Tour.

That, of course, is a partial list. There are tons of other well-known bands and one hit wonders who rode the psychedelic train. 

It’s possible the last big song of psychedelic rock is David Bowie’s Space Oddity.

Psychedelic rock is the best known of the three subgenres, and 1967 and ’68 were the peak years, but it faded by 1969. Rock started going back to its blues roots with bands like Led Zeppelin. When Cream broke up, Eric Clapton formed the bluesy Derek & The Dominos and left psychedelia behind him. In the 1980s, after overcoming his heroin addiction, he went mainstream and anti-drug.

I talked about folk music in a previous episode, and it took on psychedelic tinges through this same time period.

The Holy Modal Rounders’ version of Lead Belly’s Hesitation Blues is silly and not really psychedelic, but it’s worth a mention because it’s the first song we know of to use the word “psychedelic” in its lyrics. That was in 1964, eight years after the word was coined.

Donovan is probably the best known artist in the psychedelic folk scene. His songs like Mellow Yellow and Hurdy Gurdy Man were a relaxed, acoustic take on the elements of psychedelia. 

Others in this mold include Jake Holmes, Tim Buckley, and Syd Barrett’s solo records after being removed from Pink Floyd. Psychedelic folk also faded out by 1970.

Psychedelic soul doesn’t get as much appreciation as it should.

It’s the same soul music I wrote about previously but with the addition of effects like the wah-wah pedal on guitar and the envelope filter on bass.

It’s worth noting that Larry Graham, bassist for Sly & The Family Stone, invented the slap and pop bass technique that would rule disco and funk a decade later.

Also, soul is classy and sophisticated. It demands respect. When Aretha Franklin sang Respect, it could be taken two ways. It could be that she demanded respect for herself from her lover, or she was demanding respect for her people from the nation. It was, after all, just after passage of the Civil Rights Act. 

What psychedelic soul did differently was look inward, as all psychedelic music does.

Some troubles are external, and some are internal.

We need to work on fixing both. It’s a ball of confusion.

The Temptations were another existing band who went through a psychedelic phase. They had been a hit-making machine in the elegant Motown tradition. Then, from about 1968 to 1970, they became a freaky, funky outfit, starting with their Cloud Nine album. Through the 70s, they went more funk, and then more adult contemporary.

Sly & the Family Stone was one of the few bands with male and female, and black and white, members, and they took turns on lead vocals. They embodied the hippie ideals of equality, peace and love, and they were definitely psychedelic.

Isaac Hayes had been a songwriter at Stax Records, writing three minute soul songs. He leaned into psychedelia with longer songs and full orchestras. Saxie Russel’s Psychedelic Soul became popular in the Northern Soul scene in the UK. The Chambers Brothers went Top 20 with Time Has Come Today and Edwin Starr’s version of War hit #1.

While psychedelic soul lasted longer than the rock and folk subgenres, it changed through the 1970s. Even Sly & The Family Stone started wondering if peace and love would ever be universal. In looking at the world around them, they went from Everyday People to There’s a Riot Goin’ On. Their sound and the topics got darker.

Parliament/Funkadelic brought the dance beat and kept the hippie ideals with One Nation Under A Groove, but it was more groove than melody. While some found these endless grooves liberating, others didn’t understand that ten minutes of repetition could be a trip in and of itself.

Earth, Wind And Fire, with their Egyptian symbolism, stretched out the psychedelic soul era a little. Musically though, they weren’t any more psychedelic than any other band.

Psychedelic music went underground for a while, and it emerged in various ways.

It showed up in the space rock of Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre. Brian Eno invented ambient music as a new genre meant to be high quality background music, and a replacement for Muzak.

Frankie Knuckles mixed records for dancers, mostly gay black men, in a Chicago warehouse. That’s why it was called warehouse music, which became house music, which became acid house.

These raves and festivals, and ecstasy’s tendency to make people want to be close to others, gave mid-1988 the nickname of the second summer of love.

There was also a revival of psychedelic rock in the late 80s. Tears For Fears and Oasis updated The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s sound. The Dream Syndicate and other bands had the Paisley Underground scene in California. 

With prominent psychedelic elements, bands like the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses led what came to be called Madchester.

Part of this neo-psychedelia movement included the shoegaze bands of the 1990s. Shoegaze gets its name from its performers looking down rather than engaging the audience. The vocals are buried behind waves of distorted guitars. The best known shoegaze bands are probably My Bloody Valentine and Lush.

After the turn of the century, artists continue making mind bending soundscapes.

Bands like Animal Collective and Tame Impala make atmospheres ripe for engaged mind wandering. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard uses microtonal scales, which include the notes between our standard notes on the piano, to create an otherworldly vibe.

Jon Hopkins latest album, released only a year ago, is called Music For Psychedelic Therapy.

Timothy Leary would be proud.

The counterculture, whether it was the futurists or the beatniks or the hippies, assumed that everyone can think for themselves.

The painful truth is some people are followers, whether they follow Kurt Cobain or Newt Gingrich.

Not everyone understands the need for individual enlightenment, and they can’t be forced into a kind of intelligence they don’t have. Not everyone is a seeker.

Psychedelia couldn’t and didn’t reach the beatniks’ goal of universal enlightenment, or the hippies’ goal of worldwide peace and love. For some, it’s still just an escape from reality and responsibilities.

But psychedelia did help a few individuals achieve transcendence here and there.

The world’s a better place for it, and for the great music.

In a gadda da vida, baby.

Goo goo g’joob.

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