Psychedelic Laundromat II – Part 3

By the end of the ‘60s, the novelty of psychedelic music had already worn off when in 1969 the Manson murders and Altamont concert violence- both involving drug fueled hippies in California- left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. The growing bad trips, acid casualties, and chaos in the streets now turned many against the psychedelic scene and while rock became even more commercial in the ‘70s, psychedelic music went underground, disappeared, or started appearing on children’s television programs where in that context it was considered silly, outdated, and harmless.

Jimi Hendrix

Oldies music- including psychedelic- should never be taken too seriously- it was made to be fun- and perhaps no band produced more tongue-in-cheek psychedelic moments than the genre jumping Turtles who were all about having a good time (while the good times lasted). Perhaps we’ll never know just how many ‘60s psychedelic artists were truly interested in exploration and experimentation and how many were just riding the psychedelic bandwagon to make money and get girls- but who cares? It all makes for some memorable music and still brings me pleasure. Here are some more of my favorites. Enjoy!

01. The Byrds – “Lady Friend” (1967)
02. The Byrds – “John Riley” (1966)
03. The Turtles – “Rugs of Woods & Flowers” (1967)
04. Status Quo – “Ice in the Sun” (1968)
05. The 13th Floor Elevators – “You’re Gonna Miss Me” (1966)
06. The Turtles – “Can I Go On” (1969)
07. The Turtles – “If We Only Had the Time” (1969)
08. The Turtles – “Lady-O” (1969)
09. The Turtles – “Makin’ My Mind Up” (1967)
10. The Association – “The Time It Is Today” (1968)
11. The Turtles – “Like It or Not” (1969)
12. The Turtles – “Guide for the Married Man” (1967)
13. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Hey Joe” (1967)
14. The Third Rail – “Run Run Run” (1967)
15. The Turtles – “Somewhere Friday Night” (1969)
16. The Turtles – “Cat in the Window” (1967)
17. Strawberry Alarm Clock – “Incense and Peppermints” (1967)
18. The Turtles – “She’d Rather Be with Me” (1967)
19. Vanilla Fudge – “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1967)
20. The Turtles – “Happy Together” (1967)
21. The Who – “Armenia City in the Sky” (1967)
22. The Seeds – “Pushin’ Too Hard” (1965)
23. The Turtles – “Think I’ll Run Away” (1967)
24. The Turtles – “John and Julie” (1969)
25. The Rolling Stones – “Ruby Tuesday” (1967)
26. Donovan – “Bert’s Blues” (1966)

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Helter Skelter

Psychedelic Laundromat II – Part 2

Raised on science fiction, horror, and fantasy literature, comic books, and movies, ‘60s psychedelic artists brought unbridled imagination into popular music and influenced lots of young people- including the Jean. By the late ‘60s and early ‘70s the sounds, colors, and themes of psychedelic music had gone mainstream and as a kid in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s many of my favorite TV shows (mostly ‘60s and ‘70s reruns) were pretty psychedelic (especially H.R. Pufnstuf which featured the terrifying Witchiepoo) and these psychedelic sounds and images make up a good part of my earliest childhood memories.

While I usually find British psychedelic music much stranger than American, both reflect the effects of taking LSD- a powerful hallucinogenic drug which remained legal in both countries for years. LSD trips (also known as “acid trips”) can be positive, negative or both and may include insight, pleasure, and hallucinations as well as intense anxiety, feelings of depersonalization, and distortions of time and space perception. While people use words like weird and trippy to describe psychedelic music to me the best of it is just plain groovy and brings back pleasant childhood memories of sunny days.

Roky Erickson

Those looking for any meaning in psychedelic music may find more questions than answers but if you’re just looking for fun, imaginative music then you could do much worse than psychedelic which to me still sounds great some 50 years later- and I’m not even on LSD. I just dig music and those artists who are willing to explore new sounds, seek truth, and observe our shared reality and human experience from new perspectives. Here are some (more) of my favorite psychedelic songs. Enjoy!

Spirit

01. The Association – “Along Comes Mary” (1966)
02. Tomorrow – “My White Bicycle” (1967)
03. The Association – “Everything That Touches You” (1968)
04. Donovan – “The Trip” (1966)
05. The Rolling Stones – “2000 Man” (1967)
06. Pink Floyd – “See Emily Play” (1967)
07. The Turtles – “She Always Leaves Me Laughing” (1969)
08. Status Quo – “Pictures of Matchstick Men” (1968)
09. Count Five – “Psychotic Reaction” (1966)
10. Spirit – “Nature’s Way” (1970)
11. The Byrds – “I Know My Rider (I Know You Rider)” (1966)
12. Roky Erickson – “I Walked with a Zombie (Live)” (1979)
13. The Byrds – “5D (Fifth Dimension)” (1966)
14. The Rolling Stones – “Yesterday’s Papers” (1967)
15. The Turtles – “You Don’t Have to Walk in the Rain” (1969)
16. The Byrds – “Eight Miles High” (1966)
17. The Byrds – “What’s Happening?” (1966)
18. The Turtles – “Hot Little Hands” (1969)
19. The Byrds – “Captain Soul” (1969)
20. Spirit – “I Got a Line on You” (1968)
21. The Rolling Stones – “Connection” (1967)
22. The Turtles – “Too Young to Be One” (1967)
23. Neon Philharmonic – “Morning Girl” (1969)
24. The Turtles – “Like the Seasons” (1967)
25. The Turtles – “There You Sit Lonely” (1969)
26. The Turtles – “You Know What I Mean” (1967)

Witchiepoo

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Rock Goes Psychedelic

Psychedelic Laundromat II – Part 1

I’ve been listening to lots of oldies this summer and for me summertime and psychedelic music- with its messages of peace, love, freedom, nature, sunshine, and rainbows- always seem to go well together. While the Beatles are credited with bringing psychedelic music into the mainstream, there were plenty of other ‘60s artists back then taking the psychedelic plunge, exploring, experimenting, and pushing the boundaries of popular music on both sides of the pond (the Byrds created the first psychedelic song with “Eight Miles High” which was released a full year before the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever”).

Donovan

Because of its association with drug use, psychedelic music can scare off some listeners but for me psychedelic is less about drugs and more about celebrating a brief period of time when popular musicians were limited only by their imaginations and the music was fun, adventurous, and anything could happen whether in L.A., London, San Francisco, or the Amalfi Coast. Here are some of my favorites including songs by both British and American artists. Enjoy the trip- and beware of witches!

01. Love – “No Matter What You Do” (1966)

02. The Rolling Stones – “Back Street Girl” (1967)

03. The Who – “I Can See for Miles” (1967)

04. Donovan – “Sunshine Superman” (1966)

05. The Association – “Rose Petals, Incense, and a Kitten” (1968)

06. Love – “Bummer in the Summer” (1967)

07. The Beach Boys – “Busy Doin’ Nothin’” (1968)

08. The Rolling Stones – “All Sold Out” (1967)

09. The Rolling Stones – “Dandelion” (1967)

10. The Beach Boys – “Good Vibrations” (1966)

11. The Turtles – “Love in the City” (1969)

12. Love – “The Red Telephone” (1967)

13. Love – “Alone Again Or” (1967)

14. The Turtles “How You Loved Me” (1969)

15. The Turtles – “Is It Any Wonder” (1967)

16. The Byrds – “Wild Mountain Thyme” (1966)

17. The Rolling Stones – “She’s a Rainbow” (1967)

18. Love – “7 and 7 Is” (1967)

19. Donovan – “Season of the Witch” (1966)

20. Jefferson Airplane – “Volunteers” (1969)

21. The Turtles – “House on the Hill” (1969)

22. The Rolling Stones – “My Obsession” (1967)

23. The Turtles – “Me About You” (1967)

24. The Beach Boys –  “Fallin’ in Love (aka Lady)” (1970)

25. The Byrds – “Mr. Spaceman” (1966)

26. The Rolling Stones – “Something Happened to Me Yesterday” (1967)

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Roger McGuinn Interview - Later with Bob Costas

Garage Freaks!

They can’t get girls, still live with their parents, and are not as talented or successful as their A-Squad British counterparts: they are garage rock pioneers. Sure, they always seem to have a chip on their shoulder (wouldn’t you?) but to me garage rock pioneers are the early, unsung (and largely forgotten) heroes of rock music and their exciting, primal, and in your face brand of rock n’ roll planted the seeds for all the music that came after them including glam, power pop, punk, hardcore, metal, and new wave.

The Standells

Most ‘60s garage rock pioneers were one-hit wonders but some have stood the test of time and still sound amazing (I think the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” is one of the greatest songs ever recorded and I don’t even know the lyrics). With the exception of the Troggs (who were British) America’s ‘60s garage band explosion was a response to the British Invasion but U.S. garage rockers had a rougher, more primitive sound and although these cheeky, pre-punk Yanks could probably beat their British counterparts in a street fight, besting the Brits on the American music charts was another matter.

The Troggs

If kids like it then parents usually hate it and to me classic garage rock represents freedom, youthful rebellion, and everything great about my American childhood: junk food, comic books, and television (especially ‘60s classics like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Groovy Goolies, and Gilligan’s Island) not to mention bicycles, Saturday, Halloween, Christmas, and summer vacation. Garage rock’s primitive beats, unruly attitude, spooky organ, and catchy melodies are enough to make any kid want to start a garage band (I did) and just make some noise. With its hard-edged, high energy proto-punk designed to excite the rock n’ roll adolescent in all of us, garage rock pioneers’ music will always have a place in any society where there are girls, boys, parents, and garages. Here are some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Flamin’ Groovies

01. Paul Revere & the Raiders – “Good Thing” (1966)

02. Paul Revere & the Raiders – “Just Like Me” (1965)

03. The Music Machine – “Talk Talk” (1966)

04. Paul Revere & the Raiders – “Him or Me - What’s It Gonna Be?” (1967) 

05. The Standells – “Dirty Water” (1965)

06. The Outsiders – “Lost in My World” (1966)

07. The Standells – “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White” (1966)

08. Paul Revere & the Raiders – “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” (1966)

09. ? and the Mysterians – “96 Tears” (1966)

10. The Kingsmen – “Louie, Louie” (1963)

11. The Human Beinz – “Dance on Through” (1968)

12. The Human Beinz – “Nobody But Me” (1967)

13. The Troggs – “Love Is All Around” (1967)

14. The Remains – “Don’t Look Back” (1966)

15. Kim Fowley – “The Trip” (1965)

16. The Troggs – “Any Way That You Want Me” (1966)

17. The Outsiders – “Time Won’t Let Me” (1966)

18. The American Breed – “Bend Me, Shape Me” (1968)

19. Flamin’ Groovies – “I Can’t Hide” (1976)

20. Flamin’ Groovies – “You Tore Me Down” (1974)

21. The Troggs – “With a Girl Like You” (1966)

22. The Troggs – “Wild Thing” (1966)

23. Flamin’ Groovies – “Shake Some Action” (1976)

24. The Strangeloves – “I Want Candy” (1965)
25. Flamin’ Groovies – “First Plane Home”  (1979)

The Munsters meet the Standells

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Little Steven's Underground Garage

The Other Davy Jones – Part 3

For me David Bowie helped make it okay to be weird. He celebrated the freaks, the oddballs, and the rebels but for Bowie it wasn’t enough to just be weird and different: you had to do something with it. Bowie produced lesser known artists he admired (the Stooges, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed) and collaborated with other rock icons (Queen, Mick Jagger, John Lennon) and while much of Bowie’s own late period work doesn’t really excite me I still find myself respecting it since Bowie not only helped pave the way for original expression and intelligent thought in popular music but perhaps I just haven’t caught up to what he was doing yet, and even if it’s bad- so what? At least he wasn’t afraid to try something different.

When I heard Bowie was dead I felt the same way you feel when anyone who has touched your life dies and the world now feels a little emptier without his physical presence in it. Bowie was an icon because he was a fearless explorer and the world of art and music needs more people like him- yet sadly we seem to be in short supply. Like most of us there were times in his life when Bowie followed dark roads that went nowhere, made some mistakes, and had plenty of regrets but he seemed sincere in his search for truth and God and in the belief that real love is the only thing worthwhile. How many of today’s artists can say that- or say anything meaningful at all? Here are some more of my favorite Bowie songs. Enjoy!

01. David Bowie –  “I’m Not Losing Sleep” (1966)

02. David Bowie – “Moonage Daydream” (1972)

03. David Bowie – “Starman” (1972)

04. David Bowie and Mick Jagger – “Dancing in the Street” (1985)

05. David Bowie – “Days” (2003)

06. David Bowie – “When I Live My Dream” (1967)

07. David Bowie – “Hang On to Yourself” (1972)

08. David Bowie – “Andy Warhol” (1971)

09. David Bowie – “Rebel Rebel” (1974)

10. David Bowie – “Sorrow” (1973)

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Iggy Pop on David Bowie

The Other Davy Jones – Part 2

Born David Robert Jones, David Bowie began his music career as Davy Jones in swinging ‘60s London but soon changed his name to Bowie since fellow Brit Davy Jones of the Monkees was already much more famous in America. After struggling for five years to find his sound, Bowie finally struck gold with “Space Oddity” in 1969 and then became one of the biggest rock stars of the ‘70s. Bowie’s cross-dressing, gender bending, original lyrics, and fascination with outer space set him apart (until others started copying him) and he continued to evolve, experiment, and transform (like any good artist should).

For years I thought Bowie was overrated and critics only praised him in order to appear hip. In the ‘90s everyone was talking about Bowie’s Somali-born super model wife, Iman, his two different colored eyes, and his ever changing fashion sense, but rarely did I ever hear any one talk about his music. Then I started listening to classic Bowie songs and began to appreciate his talent and creativity and influence on popular music. To me Bowie is the bridge between commercial rock and commercial alternative music and it’s no coincidence Nirvana covered “The Man Who Sold the World” during their 1993 MTV unplugged performance in New York. Here are some (more) of my favorite Bowie songs. Enjoy!

01. David Bowie – “Young Americans” (1975)

02. David Bowie – “Suffragette City” (1972)

03. David Bowie – “Wild Is the Wind” (1976)

04. David Bowie – “Space Oddity” (1969)

05. David Bowie – “Sound and Vision” (1977)

06. Davy Jones and the Lower Third – “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving” (1965)

07. David Bowie – “Quicksand” (1971)

08. David Bowie – “I Dig Everything” (1966)

09. David Bowie with The Lower Third – “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” (1965)

10. David Bowie – “Life on Mars?” (1971)

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The Other Davy Jones – Part 1

I first started listening to David Bowie during my senior year of college and while I can’t recall how I acquired my copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars I listened to it repeatedly which may have annoyed my housemates but as an aspiring novelist the album really fired up my imagination and got my creative juices flowing. By the time I entered graduate school in the late ‘90s I was listening to Hunky Dory- the two albums are great companion pieces- and the precious, winning “Kooks” may be my favorite Bowie song.

Like other of my favorite British artists (Shakespeare, Morrissey, the Cure, New Order), Bowie seems to be a closet Catholic- or at least raised and educated in the faith- and he follows the Catholic notion that our broken world is cruel and unfair- but it’s beautiful. Bowie accepts the human condition- we are finite beings with infinite desires- but instead of complaining about it Bowie celebrates it, explores it, and let’s his imagination run wild. Throughout the ‘00’s I continued collecting genre jumping Bowie music- mostly one track at a time- and although most of his post-‘80s stuff doesn’t really appeal to me, much of David Bowie’s ‘60s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s work still holds up remarkably well- and even my newborn son digs it. Here are some of our favorites. Enjoy!

01. David Bowie – “Changes” (1971)

02. David Bowie – “Modern Love” (1983)

03. David Bowie – “Kooks” (1971)

04. David Bowie – “The Man Who Sold the World” (1970)

05. David Bowie – “Heroes” (1977)

06. David Bowie – “China Girl” (1983)

07. David Bowie – “Ziggy Stardust” (1972)

08. David Bowie – “Queen Bitch” (1971)

09. Queen & David Bowie – “Under Pressure” (1981)

10. David Bowie – “Blue Jean” (1984)

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