"Greatest" pre-1970 psychedelic songs

[Freekmagnet]

I’m not even sure if The Temptations even knew what “psychedelic” meant, but this song, Friendship Train, is freakin’ epic.

 

[funkinbottom]

 

[75Ric]

Off topic a bit, thankfully there is no photographic record but my mum made me a paisley waistcoat for my school band's one and only debut in 1972. The performance was very un-psychedelic

We had paisley shirts and white Levi jeans. I think we might have even had Nehru shirts at one point.

A couple of times a year we would rent a local hall that had a small stage. We'd charge something like $1.00 and one of our fathers would sell soda. We made a few bucks and put the money into a PA system, microphones, etc. Anyway, one year Gary US Bonds was touring near us. We learned his light show was available and as we were playing that local hall, we rented it. Wow, what a light show! I'll never forget it. It was one of our best gigs to that point in time. We played every psychedelic tune we knew and felt like pros with the psychedelic liquid lights going on behind us.

 

[GretschWretch]

A lot of what here is being offered as "psychedelic" I'm not sure I agree with, but since we've come this far



and this will have to stand in for "How Lew Sin Ate" (which just reeks of psychedelia but which I COULD NOT FIND on YouTube)

 

[GretschWretch]

We had paisley shirts and white Levi jeans. I think we might have even had Nehru shirts at one point.

Ha! My first band wore Hawaiian banana shirts and white Levis. Loudon Wainwright had the radio jingle.

How 'bout them cool white Levi's guys?
Ain't they neat, ain't they wise?

 

[CalBuzz51]

Here’s another Association tune:


Six Man Band

 

[P. Aaron]

This!

THIS is a well worth learning front-to-back song. While it's straight up pop lyrically, it's very cool to play all it internals well.

Couldn't recommend to any pop-rock players enough to learn this if one hasn't already.

 

[P. Aaron]

The pre-Tommy early Sparks version here is terrific.

 

[Michedelic]

"Greatest" as in "favorite"; no edicts here, just opinions!
And only pre-1970. My thread, my parameters! So, no... There will be no "Dark Side of the Moon" mentions. Ok???
My top choices:
"Are You Experienced?" (song) (Hendrix)
"Tomorrow Never Knows" (Beatles)
"White Rabbit" (Jefferson Airplane)
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (Beatles)
"Dark Star" (Grateful Dead)
"Strawberry Fields Forever" (Beatles)
"Armenia City in the Sky" (Who)
"Journey to the Center of the Mind" (Amboy Dukes)
"Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (Yardbirds)

Psychedelia, as a vital style, a developing trend, was quite over with by 1970 anyway, if not by Woodstock(not counting any much later retro revivals). Sure, there were remnants, both musically and lifestyle, but it was no longer fresh, plus Manson and Kent State was a harsh wake-up call/clampdown. The bloom was definitely off the buds.

But from the era before all that, of what I’ve seen so far there have been great examples, some obvious ones, some uninformed choices, so all I’ve got is…
Silly name(weren’t they all), but typical of the times, they unfortunately suffered from the “Bosstown Sound” hype backlash; Jeff Baxter was among their ranks for a while(but I don’t think he was on this), textbook stuff….


Then, underrepresented as far as I can see, the original Quicksilver Messenger Service; not only was John Cipollina such a singular amazing and overlooked guitar stylist, their jams/musical voyages were far more interesting and to the point than certain bands I could mention. “Pride Of Man”, their first apocalyptic single sounded like nothing else, “Gold And Silver” was a fascinating mutation of Brubeck’s “Take Five”, but this is where the band really goes off to somewhere else…


In spite of their vocal limitations at that time, Dino Valenti’s whiney shrill vocals added later on ruined ruined the band, just in time for the aboveground hit singles, the only stuff that is remembered.

 

[Michedelic]

More psychotic than psychedelic; that came out of nowhere, skyrocketed to number one for two weeks, then disappeared off the face of the earth, much to the relief of parents and mental heath professionals everywhere. The product of a 30-something advertising writer. Not exactly a paisley person, and a little before all that anyway.

 

[Alkali Ike]

That’s the first song I thought of.

 

[DJ Bebop]

My personal fave. If this doesn’t expand your mind, I don’t know what will.

In line with that.

I was in the 8th grade,1971. A friend of mine gave me a hit of acid. I went into my little 8th grade bedroom and 'dropped' it.

I had one of these lights I had just got from our local head shoppe



I got it going and laid out on my bed and turned on my local underground/listener support community radio station KBOO FM.
Still in service today... https://kboo.fm/

Anyway I was laying there waiting for something to happen and then, this song came on...



I rolled over to take a look at the lamp


And it looked like this...

And I was all...

It changed my little 8th grade life, forever.

Good Times!

 

[Michedelic]

C’mon, man!

Uh, what?
Not only are “Who Loves The Sun” and the Detroit/Mitch Ryder track(penned by Lou Reed and a VU original)from ‘70 and ‘71(and when was Ryder ever psychedelic?), the Velvets, as a band along with their entourage, absolutely hated, no, despised hippies, especially the SF scene.
Their first album, from which “Venus…”(a song about an S&M dominatrix session)came, was recorded in early 1966, and written way before that, way ahead of any notion of psychedelia. That first album, if anything, was one of the major blueprints for the punk/new wave explosion to happen 10 years later. By the time they got to Loaded, with “Who Loves..”(which is more in the Sunshine Pop style, but tongue-in-cheek)they just wanted some sort of hit.

 

[Michedelic]

That’s the first song I thought of.

Awful Yardbirds/“I’m A Man” rip-off.

 

[P. Aaron]

A song called Starship: MC5's Fred Smith and Wayne Kramer got the 50's sci-if movie sounds on guitar, and it's live!

 

[P. Aaron]

Love: Seven and Seven. I heard this song as a kid when it came out on AM radio. Could'a been CKLW or WXYZ.

 

[DJ Bebop]

 

[SkylineFiver]

One of the greatest….



Please pass the tuner.

 

[TyBo]

I remember this one being in the air for a while -



And of course there were a bunch of Beatles song that could fit the bill, a number of which have been named. I don't think I saw this one, though I might have missed it -

 

[Markshan]

I haven't read the whole thread. Did anyone mention She sang hymns out of tune or the cover of You can't do that or really anything off Nilson's debut Pandemonium Shadow Show?