1966-1969
Several events signaled the breakthrough of
psychedelia into mainstream pop culture
A.
Emerging hippie culture and flower power in
San Francisco
1.
a)
b)
Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear
Flowers in Your Hair)”
Large outdoor rock festival in Monterey, California
The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band
2.
a)
b)
The most influential album by that band
The Beatles were one of the most influential bands
in rock music
 Scott
McKenzie’s
“San
Francisco”
 Genre:
Folk-Rock
Jimi Hendrix performed a virtuosic show at the
Monterrey Pop festival
3.
a)
b)
Stunning musical performance
Set his guitar on fire at the end of his set
Emergence of psychedelic music is an outgrowth of
trends begun in the 1950s
4.
a)
b)
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
B.
Only people in those areas knew about it (Bands, clubs,
shops, and newspapers)
Psychedelia moved into the mainstream pop culture in
the mid 1960s
1.
2.
a)
b)
3.
Psychedelic bands acquired major label contracts
Established bands adopted psychedelic concepts in their
music
By 1969, psychedelia had influenced rock music through
music of several bands (Grateful Dead, Jefferson
Airplane, and Pink Floyd to name a few)
A.
The Doors of Perception:
Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary,
and LSD
Exploring new ways to
experience the world
1.
a)
b)
2.
1960s young adults thought the
1950s was too focused on
normalcy
They challenged middle-class
values with alternative lifestyles
1960s young adults became
suspicious of American
institutions such as:
government, schools,
churches, big business, the
military, and the police
Reasons for this increased suspicion:
3.
a)
b)
c)
d)
4.
5.
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 with this same
attitude
The “Establishment” became the term for
authoritative institutions in the 1960s
Young people began to believe everything they
heard from the “establishment” was a lie
Drugs were added into youth culture during
the 1960s
B.
1.
They were a means of attaining a new
perspective on the world (Marijuana & LSD)
LSD (lysergic acid and diethylamide) was
developed in 1943
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
Two prominent adult figures advocated the
used of LSD as a means of rejecting
establishment values
3.
a)
b)
4.
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
Ex-Harvard professor Dr. Timothy Leary
Author Ken Kesey
They proposed that taking hallucinogenic drugs
unlocked the “doors of perception”
a)
b)
c)
Leary advised people to “turn on, tune in, and drop
out”
This became the catch phrase of the 1960s
“Dropping acid” meant taking LSD
College-aged young adults embraced the new
counterculture
5.
a)
b)
c)
They experimented with drug use
They embraced radical philosophy
They explored Eastern religion and philosophy
Many believed LSD was a magic pill that led to
a higher consciousness
6.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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
C.
Leary connected Eastern spirituality with LSD in
1964 in his book The Psychedelic Experience
1.
a)
b)
c)
2.
3.
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
In 1966, John Lennon based “Tomorrow Never
Knows” on The Psychedelic Experience
In 1967 the Beatles studied transcendental
meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
The Byrds’ “Eight
Miles High” hit the
U.S. charts in the
summer of 1966
4.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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 saxophone
riff borrowed from
jazz musician John
Coltrane’s “India”
Radio stations
stopped playing it
when a radio tip
sheet claimed it was
about drugs
The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High”
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
The connection of Eastern philosophy and
psychedelics became central to the hippie
worldview
5.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
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 (new or experimental) art was
sometimes included
Radical and utopian politics (impossibly ideal
conditions of social organization)
Music in a secondary role to drugs
A.
The important thing is the drug experience itself
The music is only a kind of soundtrack to the trip
1.
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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
B.
The music is a kind of aesthetic drug
Aural journey that may be enhanced by the use of
drugs
1.
2.
a)
b)
The music is the primary aspect
The Beatles and The Doors are examples of this
approach
Essential in both cases are the trip and the
quest for higher consciousness
C.
The difference is in whether the music is
primary or secondary to the trip
Musicians were becoming more experimental
and ambitious about (writing, performing and
recording)
Music had to move beyond the two- to threeminute AM radio format to enhance the trip
1.
2.
3.
a)
b)
Music became more ambitious
Tracks became longer and more esoteric (difficult to
understand or make sense of)
Both bands were on the same label in the
United States
A.
This led directly to a sense of friendly,
respectful competition
Beatles were actually signed with EMI in
England
1.
2.
a)
b)
c)
Capitol was a subsidiary in the US 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 the
Beatles arrived
End result was that both had to compete with
each other on two levels
3.
a)
b)
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
B.
Songs became increasingly more sophisticated
Both bands pursued new approaches to
creating songs that had impact on rock music
1.
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
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
C.
Brian Wilson admired Rubber Soul (1965) from a
conceptual standpoint
1.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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
On Revolver (1966), the song “Tomorrow Never
Knows” introduces the concept of psychedelia
2.
a)
b)
c)
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
Considered by Wilson and many others to be his
finest achievement
A.
Most studio time and budget expended on a single
song in popular music history
The structure varies within the song
1.
2.
a)
b)
Begins by using a contrasting verse-chorus approach
Continues with three sections that were recorded
separately, then cut-and-pasted together later
The middle pasted sections all consist of contrasting
musical material
3.
a)
b)
c)
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 from
pop songwriting
“Good
Vibrations” by
the Beach Boys
Genre: Surf Rock
Beatles stopped touring in August of 1966—
they couldn’t perform recent songs live
because the audience wasn’t listening—just
screaming. John Lennon’s remarks about
Christianity initiated threats against them
Original intent was an album of related
songs about their Liverpool childhood
A.
B.
The first two songs were about Lennon and
McCartney’s childhood
1.
a)
b)
John Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever”
Paul McCartney’s “Penny Lane”
Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” began
the new approach to creative songwriting
C.
Lyrics describe a fantasy-like place from his
childhood
New instruments used to create a dreamlike
ambiance
1.
2.
a)
b)
c)
3.
4.
5.
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
Studio tape manipulation techniques were used
to create backward sound
Two different takes were recorded and spliced
together using variable tape speed techniques
The song ends, then fades back in with a
backward segment that fades back out
 John
Lennon’s
“Strawberry Fields
Forever”
 Genre:
Psychedellic Rock
Paul McCartney’s “Penny Lane” is more
straightforward musically
D.
1.
2.
Employs the use of a piccolo trumpet in the
solo section and other places in the song
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 doubleA-side single
Paul McCartney suggested an album about
an imaginary band
E.
F.
1.
The imaginary band could write imaginary
songs about imaginary people and situations
The rest of the songs are united by their
introduction of a wide variety of styles
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
British dance hall
Classical arrangements
Avant-garde techniques—particularly in the aleatoric
(chance) orchestral section
“A Day in the Life” utilizes an orchestral buildup of
randomly executed pitches
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” includes randomly
spliced sections of tapes of organ sounds
Album cover design also serves as a unifying
feature
3.
a)
b)
The band appears in costumes on the cover, not
their usual suits with ties
The back cover featured all of the song lyrics—a first
for commercial music
4.
5.
G.
1.
No singles were
released from the
album
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
Single-oriented
teen pop would
be the focus of
AM radio
2. Adult and collegeage oriented music
would be the focus of
FM radio
The 1967 follow-up to Pet Sounds was Wilson’s
most ambitious project yet, titled Smile
A.
1.
2.
The original was never released, but in 2005 the
album was re-recorded and released by Wilson
An example of the approach that was apparent on
Smiley Smile was “Heroes and Villains,” which has
separately recorded sections spliced together like
“Good Vibrations”
The Beach Boys reacted against Wilson’s new
songs
B.
1.
2.
They argued that it wouldn’t be popular with their
fans
During subsequent years they worked at simplifying
their sound
Overall, the
psychedelic era had
a negative effect on
the Beach Boys’
career
3.
a)
b)
They were dismissed
as too old fashioned
Jimi Hendrix
described them as a
psychedelic
barbershop quartet
The albums that followed Sgt. Pepper’s were
built around concepts
A.
1.
2.
The 1967 project Magical Mystery Tour was built
around a road trip: McCartney’s idea was to rent
a tour bus and travel the English countryside and
film it
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.
4.
During that time an animated feature film was
produced with them as the main characters: A
surrealistic adventure in Pepperland became Yellow
Submarine
In 1969, McCartney suggested a documentary-style
film on the Beatles in the creative process: It was
originally called Get Back, but much animosity
arose between band members eventually causing
George Martin to walk out, and the project was
shelved.
The band reunited with Martin in mid 1969 to
produce their last studio album Abbey Road
B.
1.
The film and music tracks from Get Back were
salvaged and reassembled as Let It Be—Martin was
not involved as producer so Phil Spector was
brought in to finish the project
Paul McCartney was disappointed with Spector’s
arrangements of some songs
2.
a)
b)
Spector added orchestral tracks and choir tracks
It was done without the band’s knowledge or
approval
This freedom was extended to underground
bands developing the new psychedelic style
3.
Apple Records
C.
Beatles manager Brian Epstein died in the
summer of 1967
Group decided to handle their business affairs
themselves by creating a company called Apple
1.
2.
a)
b)
Apple would promote their own work and other
artists considered uncommercial
The company lost money and professionals were
called to salvage it
The band was ready to break up by late 1969
They made it official in 1970
The band members successfully continued on with
solo careers
3.
4.
5.
The later Beatles work proved to be more
influential on later musicians than their
earlier work
D.
Competition between the Beach Boys and the
Beatles had an important consequence
1.
a)
b)
2.
3.
Beatles developed the stylistic and compositional range
of rock music
They proved that rock could stand on its own as music
and thus be taken seriously
Their success at this prompted Capitol records to
allow them more freedom to create
This freedom was extended to underground bands
developing the new psychedelic style
The emergence of hippie culture in San
Francisco
A.
The psychedelic scene had been developing
since mid 1965 in the San Francisco area
1.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Grew out of the area’s Beat movement of the late
’50s and early ‘60s
A bohemian scene celebrating the poetry of Allen
Ginsberg and the prose of Jack Kerouac
Gathered in 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
2.
3.
f)
A difference was in musical taste: beats liked jazz, hippies
liked rock music
g)
Ginsberg, McClure, and Snider helped organize the Human
Be-In
The Human Be-In was held in San Francisco’s Golden
Gate Park in January 1967
a)
The event was advertised as a “gathering of the tribes”
b)
A day of poetry, spirituality, and music
c)
Music was provided by local bands
d)
The Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane were among
the bands featured
The Human Be-In and the San Francisco hippie
movement drew national media attention
The New Mexico-San Francisco connection
B.
In 1965 a group of people in Virginia City, NM
began hosting LSD-oriented music
performances
1.
a)
b)
c)
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
The San Francisco area happening was in
October 1965
2.
a)
b)
c)
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, and
Great Society
The next
happening a few
days later was
called “A Tribute
to Sparkle Plenty”
3.
a)
b)
The Charlatans
provided music
The Loving Spoonful
(from New York)
also played
Ken Kesey and the Acid Tests
C.
During the same time period novelist Ken Kesey
was organizing the “acid test”
1.
a)
b)
c)
d)
2.
3.
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
The purpose of the acid test was to intensify
the LSD experience using light and slide shows,
bizarre sound effects, and rock music
Kesey’s first acid test was in Santa Cruz in
November 1965; the cost to enter the acid test
was $1
Two months later Kesey held an acid test in San
Francisco at the Fillmore Auditorium
4.
a)
b)
c)
2,400 people attended
The house band was the Warlocks
The Warlocks changed their name to the Grateful Dead
By 1966 the hippie underground movement in San
Francisco had settled into the Haight-Ashbury
district—an old Victorian neighborhood adjoined to
the east end of Golden Gate Park
5.
Concerts, news, the Psychedelic Shop, and FM
Radio
D.
Psychedelic evenings of LSD and rock music were a
regular feature in the Bay Area
1.
a)
b)
c)
Kesey’s acid tests became the model for psychedelic
events is San Francisco
Bill Graham began organizing shows at the Fillmore
Chet Helms promoted shows at the Avalon Ballroom
2.
3.
4.
5.
Ron and Jay Thelin
opened their
Psychedelic Shop in
the Haight-Ashbury
district
Local bands rented
houses in the HaightAshbury district for
rehearsal space
The San Francisco
Oracle became the
first hippie newspaper
in September 1966
Rolling Stone Magazine
published its first issue
in November 1967
Tom Donahue developed a new approach to FM
radio programming in April 1967 on KMPX-FM
6.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Longer tracks placed back-to-back
More freedom was 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
E.
1.
2.
House band for the Kesey acid tests, the band
changed its name to the Grateful Dead
members: Jerry Garcia (guitar), Ron “Pigpen:
McKernan (organ), Bob Weir (guitar), Bill
Kreutzmann (drums), and Phil Lesh (bass)
As the Warlocks, the band played a lot of
Rolling Stones-style American electric blues
When playing at the acid tests, they began
developing an improvisational style
3.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
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 including 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
Subsequent albums explored a wide range of
styles in inventive ways
4.
a)
b)
c)
d)
5.
6.
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
“Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty”
are less exploratory. They are shorter songs
with more country and folk-oriented tracks
The Grateful Dead was one of the most
successful live American bands in the 1970s and
1980s
 “Dark
Star”
by The
Grateful
Dead
 Genre:
Psychedelic
Rock
Jefferson Airplane
F.
1.
2.
3.
4.
One of the first psychedelic bands in the San
Francisco area influenced by folk music and
blues with occasional elements of Indian music
and some references to modal jazz
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), and Spencer
Dryden (drums)
Their first album on RCA, Jefferson Airplane
Takes Off, only reached 128 on the charts in
1966
They changed singers: Anderson left and was
replaced by Great Society singer Grace Slick
The next album, Surrealistic Pillow included two
Grace Slick songs
5.
a)
b)
The Jefferson Airplane released several hit albums
during the late 1960s
6.
a)
b)
c)
d)
G.
1.
2.
3.
“Somebody to Love”
“White Rabbit”
After Bathing at Baxter’s
Crown of Creation
A live album, Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Volunteers featuring politically inspired lyrics
“White Rabbit”
The lyrics refer to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in
Wonderland stories
Clear reference in lines like “feed your head”
refer to the use of psychedelic drugs
Music is based on Spanish bolero—particularly in
the guitar solo introduction
Slick was inspired by
Miles Davis’s jazz album
Sketches of Spain
Dynamic shape is similar
to French composer
Maurice Ravel’s
orchestral piece Bolero
4.
5.
a)
b)
6.
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
This song is yet another
example of psychedelia
drawing from classical
music
•“White Rabbit” by
Jefferson
Airplane
•Genre: Psychedelic
Rock
Big Brother and the Holding Company and
Janis Joplin
H.
Big Brother and the Holding Company was
inspired by classical music
1.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
2.
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
They embraced blues as a basis for
improvisation
They were interested in introducing a new style
of music called “Blues in Technicolor”
3.
a)
b)
c)
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
Janis Joplin came from Port Arthur, Texas and
was heavily inspired by female blues singers
Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, and Ma Rainey
Joined Big Brother and the Holding Company in
1968
4.
5.
a)
b)
c)
Their first album went to number sixty on the charts
Their second album, Cheap Thrills, proved that Joplin
helped launch their success
They had a hit single “Piece of My Heart”
Joplin went solo in
1969
6.
a)
b)
c)
7.
The album I Got Dem
Ol’ Kozmic Blues
Again Mama! Reached
number five
She recorded a second
solo album in 1970:
Pearl
A single from that
album also went to
number one: “Me and
Bobby McGee”
Joplin didn’t live to
see it. She died of
a drug overdose on •“Me and Bobby McGee” by
October 4, 1970
Janis Joplin
•Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Country Joe and the Fish
A.
Country Joe (McDonald) and Barry “The Fish”
Melton were involved in UC Berkeley activism
1.
a)
b)
c)
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
Their first recording was an extended play record
consisting of three songs
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
They recorded an album called I-Feel-Like-I’mFixin’-To-Die
3.
a)
b)
c)
4.
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
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
The album Together was their most commercially
successful album
 “I
Feel Like
I’m Fixin’ to
Die Rag” by
Country Joe
& the Fish
 Psychedelic
Rock
Steve Miller Band
B.
Developed a following in the Haight-Ashbury
district in 1966
Blues guitarist leader Steve Miller was joined
by guitarist Boz Scaggs in the fall of 1967
First album, Children of the Future, was
recorded in 1967 in London by producer Glyn
Johns
1.
2.
3.
a)
b)
4.
5.
Johns had engineered on Rolling Stones records and
other British bands
The album didn’t do well on U.S. charts (#134), but
was still given a lot of FM airplay
Next album, Sailor, went to number twentyfour in late 1968
Both Miller and Scaggs had very successful
careers in the 1970s
The rise of the British Underground
A.
In June 1965 beat poet Allen Ginsberg went to
London to organize a poetry event
1.
a)
b)
c)
Held in Albert Hall
Called “Poets of the World/Poets of Our Time”
Over 5,000 people attended and were under the
influence of marijuana or LSD
In September 1965 Michael Hollingshead
opened the World Psychedelic Center in London
2.
a)
b)
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
awhile
B.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Bob Dylan introduced the Beatles to marijuana
at the end of their first US tour in 1964
Harrison and Lennon had experienced LSD in
1965 when a friend slipped it into their coffee
In England a subculture similar to that of San
Francisco was forming around similar elements:
Drugs, Eastern philosophy, Radical politics, and
Experimental music
The Marquee Club was hosting multimedia
events called the Spontaneous Underground
which included poetry, music, avant-garde
weirdness, and a smaller version of Kesey’s acid
tests
In February 1966 Barry Miles, John Dunbar, and
Peter Asher opened the Indica bookstore and
gallery
5.
a)
b)
c)
d)
6.
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
The London Free School opened in March 1966,
which was a “countercultural night school”
addressing a variety of social condition studies:
Housing problems, race relations, mental health
and law
The psychedelic scenes were developing
independently in London and San Francisco
at the same time
C.
1.
2.
3.
Few people had personally experienced the San
Francisco scene
There was no media information about it until
1967
Much was known simply through word of mouth
By October 1966 the UFO Club had been
established
A.
1.
2.
3.
B.
More of an organization than a place
Originally met in a bar
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
C.
1.
2.
3.
D.
Held in the Alexandra Palace
The goal was to intensify the LSD experiences
of those in attendance with Avant-garde
happenings, a light show, a long roster of
bands, and Yoko Ono was even involved with
one of the events
10,000 London hippies attended
October of 1966: International Times
appeared, a newspaper devoted to
underground concerns
Pink Floyd
A.
1.
2.
3.
4.
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,
and drummer Nick Mason
Regulars at Spontaneous Underground events
and the UFO Club
Popular only on the underground circuit
Their music was derived from avant-garde
concepts such as atonality, tape echo on
instruments and voices, and unconventional
playing techniques
Two British hit singles in 1967 and their first
album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn
5.
a)
b)
6.
7.
8.
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
The band refused to play these songs live,
preferring their avant-garde extended
improvisations
Their albums were hits only in
England during the late 1960s: A Saucerful of
Secrets, More, Umma Gumma, and Atom Heart
Mother
Their concerts in England featured elaborate
light shows
 “Comfortably
Numb” by
Pink Floyd
 Psychedelic/
Progressive
Rock
Other London psychedelic bands
B.
Soft Machine formed in Canterbury in 1966
1.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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, and John Adler
2.
1.
2.
3.
3.
Performed regularly at the UFO Club and other
psychedelic events
Blended experimental weirdness with avant-garde
improvisations
Alternated short song-like sections with avant-garde
improvisations
Later became pioneers of the British jazz-fusion called
Canterbury progressive rock
Backward tape sounds
Exotic Eastern-sounding melodies
Simple pop lyrics bordering on naïve
Crazy World of Arthur Brown
The Rolling Stones made their way into
psychedelic after the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper
A.
By late 1966, Jagger-Richards songwriting
dominated the band’s music
Their Satanic Majesties Request was released
in December 1967
1.
2.
a)
b)
c)
Obvious attempt to follow the Beatles’ psychedelic
lead because it was clearly a response to Sgt.
Pepper
The album cover was a holographic image of the
band dressed in wizard outfits
Occult wizards conveyed the Stones more negative
“bad boy” image
Two different opinions on the significance of
Their Satanic Majesties Request
3.
a)
b)
4.
Failed attempt to imitate the Beatles too closely
Interesting (perhaps necessary) step in the band’s
development
Stones formed their own identity after Their
Satanic Majesties Request when they stopped
worrying about competing with the Beatles and
returned to their rhythm and blues roots
Cream
B.
1.
2.
The first rock “supergroup” formed in 1966:
Eric Clapton (guitarist from the Yardbirds),
Jack Bruce (bass), and Ginger Baker (drums)
Purpose was to play traditional blues numbers
such as Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” and
Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”
Clapton had developed the instrumental “raveup” sections in Yardbirds’ shows
3.
a)
b)
Bruce and Baker were also accomplished
players
4.
a)
b)
c)
5.
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)
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 pedal
Cream also had pop hits such as “I Feel Free”
and “Strange Brew”
Cream established the idea of virtuosity in rock
music
6.
a)
b)
c)
Cream’s initial album success was greater in the UK:
Fresh Cream barely made the US Top 40, but the
albums that followed did be3tter in the states than
in UK
Guitarists in UK were more revered than those in
San Francisco bands at this same time
7.
8.
a)
b)
9.
Beatles and Beach Boys took songwriting
Beatles and Beach Boys advanced approaches to recording
techniques
Virtuosity was not a factor with those bands
Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix are examples of being as
well known as their band
San Francisco band guitarists were generally not as well
known as their band
Cream broke up in November 1968: Each of the
members had successful solo careers, but Clapton
was the most successful
C.
1.
2.
3.
4.
“Sunshine of Your
Love”
The song most
associated with
Cream
Written by Clapton,
Bruce and Pete
Brown
Built around a
central guitar/bass
figure (called a
“riff” or a “lick”)
Utilizes a modified
12-bar blues
structure to create
simple verse format
•“Sunshine
of Your Love”
by Cream
•Psychedelic Rock
A blend of psychedelic blues and avantgarde
A.
Hendrix is one of the most influential guitarists
in the history of rock music
Played with various bands during the early
1960s as a sideman (hired musician) such as:
Little Richard, Isley Brothers, Curtis Knight,
and eventually formed his own band in New
York, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, in
1964
Discovered by Animals bassist Chas Chandler at
Greenwich Village club Café Wha?
1.
2.
3.
a)
b)
Chandler offered to manage him
Brought him to London in September 1966
Chandler helped Hendrix form the Jimi Hendrix
Experience: Hendrix, Drummer Mitch Mitchell,
and Bassist Noel Redding
The first two singles were hits in England in
1967
4.
5.
a)
b)
c)
d)
First single, “Hey Joe,” went to number six on the
UK charts
“Purple Haze” in May
The band’s first album, Are You Experienced?, 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
B.
1.
Didn’t become known in America until he
played in the Monterey Pop Festival in June
1967
Are You Experienced? wasn’t released in the
states until August of 1967
His singles didn’t do as well as his albums
2.
3.
a)
b)
c)
Hendrix’s albums were hugely successful
throughout the rest of the 1960s
4.
a)
b)
c)
5.
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
By early 1968, Axis: Bold as Love was number three
in the US
Electric Ladyland
The compilation album Smash Hits
The Experience broke up in the summer of 1969
6.
7.
Hendrix formed a new band and played the
Woodstock festival in August of 1969
Hendrix died of a drug overdose on September
18, 1970
Hendrix’s music was a blend of blues, pop,
rock, and avant-garde psychedelia
C.
1.
2.
He uses pop craftsmanship to assemble musical
passages: “Purple Haze” employs a catchy
blues guitar “hook” at the end of each verse
and “Foxy Lady” uses the same idea
His experimental side is exemplified in “If 6
Was 9” from Axis:Bold As Love uses three
minutes of instrumental playing, novel guitar
sound effects, and some counterculture
narration
“1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” is from
Electric Ladyland
3.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
4.
Considered Hendrix’s most ambitious experimental
track
Just under 14 minutes long
Backward tape effects
Series of loose atmospheric instrumental sections
Hendrix, Mitchell, and Redding each demonstrate
their virtuosity
Flute is played by Christ 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”
Hendrix’s experimental music extended the
work done by the Beatles and the Beach Boys
His guitar virtuosity and sonic innovations are a
much-imitated model for rock guitarists
5.
a)
b)
c)
d)
Controlled musical applications to feedback
Vibrato bar
Distortion
Wah pedal
His flamboyance and showmanship further
elevated the rock experience and became
legend
6.
a)
b)
Sexually suggestive movements and gestures
Setting his guitar on fire in his American debut at
the Monterey Pop Festival
 “Purple
Haze” by
Jimi Hendrix
 Psychedelic
Rock
Traffic was formed in 1967 by former
Spencer Davis Group singer/keyboardist
Stevie Winwood
A.
1.
2.
Winwood wanted to pursue music that involved
more musicianship: Drummer Jim Capaldi,
guitarist Dave Mason, and flutist/saxophonist
Chris Wood
Winwood was eighteen years old at the time
Immediate success in England was followed
by success in the U.S. by 1969
B.
1.
First single, “Paper Sun” contains whimsical
character and opens with sitar and upbeat
vocal melody
Traffic experimented with a broad range of
styles
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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
C.
Joined Blind Faith in 1969
Blind faith featured two former members of
Cream
1.
2.
a)
b)
Eric Clapton
Ginger Baker
Van Morrison
D.
Initial success was with Irish band Them: “Baby
Please Don’t Go”, “Here Comes the Night”
1.
a)
b)
Both of these songs became garage band classics
(A side “Gloria” and B side “Baby Please Don’t Go”)
Morrison went solo in 1967 with “Brown-Eyed Girl”
1968 album Astral Weeks was more experimental
2.
3.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
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 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
 “Brown-
Eyed Girl”
by Van
Morrison
 Genre:
Psychedelic
Rock
Donovan Philips Leitch
E.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Influenced by Woody Guthrie (as was Bob Dylan during this
period)
Became a leading figure for hippie pacifism with gentle
melodic sense, eclectic stylistic range, and mystical lyrics
Earned international recognition as traditional folk
singer/guitarist/songwriter: “Catch the Wind”
Adapted his music to the new folk rock style: Electric
guitars, Keyboards, Bass, and Drums
Sometimes using future Led Zeppelin players Jimmy Page
and John Paul Jones
Had a series of hit singles in the UK and United States:
“Sunshine Superman”, “Mellow Yellow”, “Wear Your Love
Like Heaven”, “Hurdy Gurdy Man”—featuring Led
Zeppelin’s Page, Jones, and John Bonham western culture,
“Atlantis” suggested learning from the lost city to rebuild,
Cosmic Wheels, and music for Franco Zeffirelli’s film
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Byrds
A.
Caused controversy over drug-related lyrics in
“Eight Miles High”
Attempted a mix of country and rock in “Mr.
Spaceman”, both songs appeared on the album
Fifth Dimension
Released the album that helped launch country
rock in 1968: Sweetheart of the Rodeo
David Crosby quit in 1967 to join Graham Nash
(Hollies) and Steven Stills (Buffalo Springfield)
Buffalo Springfield
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
a)
Success began with their single “For What It’s
Worth”
b)
c)
Member Neil Young occasionally joined Crosby, Stills
and Nash during their career together
Crosby Stills and Nash (with some Young) were one
of the first supergroups of the 1970s
Love was formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by
singer/guitarist Arthur Lee: Early songs were
influenced by Byrds and Rolling Stones, but
later in the 1960s their work became more
psychedelic
The Doors
6.
7.
a)
Formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by singer/lyricist Jim
Morrison and Ray Manzarak
1) Additional band members included Robbie Krieger
and John Densmore
2) Band’s name came from eighteenth-century British
poet William Blake
3) Discussed in Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of
Perception
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Music and lyrics explored the dark side of emotions and
drug use
The first album in 1967, The Doors, exemplifies Morrison’s
determination to explore forbidden topics
1) The song “The End” explores Oedipal desires
2) The first song on the album, “Break on Through”
mentions “bad trip” experiences
Through all their albums lyrics focused on negative issues
such as alienation and repression
1) Morrison developed an on-stage persona to convey these
concepts: the “Lizard King”
2) The Lizard King was introduced in the third album,
Waiting for the Sun
The additional aspect of an alter ego inspired many rock
artists who came later such as Alice Cooper, David Bowie,
Peter Gabriel, Kiss and Madonna
The Doors had several hit singles during the late 1960s as
they refined their musical style: “Hello I Love You”, “Touch
Me”, and “Love Her Madly”
Morrison died of mysterious circumstances in 1971
 “Hello
I Love You”
by the Doors
 Psychedelic
Rock
Iron Butterfly
8.
a)
b)
1)
2)
3)
4)
c)
d)
Formed in San Diego in 1966
Second album became a rock classic: In-A-Gadda-DaVida
Title track is 17 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 #30 on U.S.
charts in 1968
The solos became a model for many rock bands’ live
shows for many years
The overall sound foreshadowed heavy metal bands
of the early 1970s: Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and
Led Zeppelin
 “In-A-Gadda-
Da-Vida” by
Iron Butterfly
 Genre:
Psychedelic
Rock
Vanilla Fudge
A.
1.
2.
3.
Formed in New York in 1968 as The Pigeons
Changed their name when they signed with Atlantic
in 1966
Specialized in creating long, elaborate psychedelic
covers of songs: “You Keep Me Hanging On” was a 2
minute Supremes hit that they turned into a 5
minute song
Bob Dylan and the Band
B.
1.
Dylan was in a motorcycle accident in 1966; went to
Woodstock, NY to recover
2.
3.
4.
5.
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), then the Hawks
changed their name to the Band
This band (minus the drummer) backed Dylan on
his 1965-1966 world tour
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 and Dylan’s
John Wesley Harding
The session tapes were later all released in 1975
as an album: The Basement Tapes
The Monterey Pop Festival
A.
1.
2.
3.
First pop festival was in Monterey, CA, in June
1967: Organized by John Phillips from the
Mamas and Papas and producer Lou Adler and
was modeled after the Monterey Jazz Festival
Bands from San Francisco, LA, and London
played for free, receiving only travel expenses:
The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Big
Brother and the Holding Company, The Byrds,
The Animals and The Who
Jimi Hendrix’s appearance was crucial to his
subsequent success
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Mamas and the Papas performed for the last
time live in their original lineup
Beach Boys didn’t play; this hurt their standing
in the new hippie subculture
Monterey Pop was a greatly expanded version
of San Francisco events since 1965
Many other similar concerts took place in the
next two years in Newport (1968 and 1969),
Miami (1968), Toronto (1969), Atlanta (1969),
and Denver (1969)—Monterey Pop was filmed
by D.A. Pennebaker
55,000 to 90,000 hippies attended
The Woodstock Festival
B.
1.
2.
Culmination of the rock festival era
Held on a large farm in Bethel, NY, on Aug. 1517, 1969
3.
4.
5.
6.
Tremendously successful because of the 1970
release of a film documentary: Michael
Wadleigh’s Woodstock and an album of the
event’s performances
There were problems that were overcome (or
simply put up with) such as: Overwhelming
attendance, roadways were closed in upstate
NY, fans turned up without tickets and got in
for free, rain created a huge muddy mess, and
security forces were too small
Everything went well in the communal hippie
spirit of fellowship
American and British bands were featured:
Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The
Who, Santana, Crosby Stills and Nash, Joe
Cocker, and Sly and the Family Stone
The Altamont rock festival: the violent end
of the peace-love movement
C.
1.
2.
3.
Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California,
held December 6, 1969
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
Poor planning caused many problems: San
Francisco city officials canceled it and
relocated it 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 and musicians were
beaten up (Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin was
knocked out)
4.
5.
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, so the 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 Angels
Rock festivals in England
C.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Similar to San Francisco events that gradually
expanded into large-scale festivals like
Monterey
Most notable festivals occurred in England
Festival of Flower Children in the Woburn
Abbey (late August 1967)
National Jazz and Blues Festival in Aug. 1967 in
Windsor
London’s Hyde Park (July 1969)
Isle of Wight Festival 1968
5.
6.
a)
b)
c)
d)
1969 Isle of Wight Festival was much more ambitious
Expanded to two days
Bob Dylan and the Band, The Who, The Moody Blues,
and The Nice
About 150,000 attended
Festivals also took place in other countries
7.
a)
b)
c)
France
Italy
Switzerland
The radio industry split into two directions
A.
AM radio focused on singles and the target
audience was teens
FM was targeted at college-age listeners (the
older siblings)
1.
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
3.
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
1960s psychedelic bands built in careers on
albums rather than singles
4.
5.
Their radio airplay was on FM rather than AM
One exception was the Doors’ “Light My Fire”
was released as a single