In the late 1960s, a growing group of young people started using hallucinogenic drugs. This also applied to musicians, who sought musical inspiration in (hard) drugs and wanted to make music that resonated with this group of young people. Halls of screaming fans were a thing of the past for them, insofar as they still performed publicly. The 13th Floor Elevators from Austin, Texas, are usually considered the first band to use the term “psychedelic” as early as early 1966. This started with folk rock and later continued across all genres. The harder variants, which usually harkened back to blues rock, were also called acid rock. Many bands added oriental scales and various sonic effects to achieve hypnotic soundscapes.
The Beatles
After the decline of the Mersey beat, the Beatles in Britain were once again forerunners in the fields of both psychedelia and art-rock, reinventing themselves in albums such as ‘Rubber Soul’ (1965), ‘Revolver'(1966), ‘Sergant Pepper’s lonely hearts club band’ (1967) and ‘Magical mystery tour’ (1967). ‘Rubber soul’ marks the transition to a new period in which the Beatles decided to stop performing in public and only do studio recordings. A feature of the whole album was the expansion of the instrumentation, including a Hammond organ. George Harrison was heard on the sitar for the first time. Critics were complimentary, praising the growing maturity of Lennon and McCartney as lyricists. You can listen to Norwegian wood, a self-contained studio recording, here.
Furher renewal followed a year later. In the first half of that year, the group made its final world tour, which was surrounded by riots caused by right-wing extremists, bad weather and negative publicity. The group was fed up with the screaming fans, most of whom completely drowned out the music. The main reason to cancel touring, however, was that the production of the songs became increasingly complicated and the songs took shape and content by experimenting with the technical possibilities offered by the studio. The themes shifted to existential topics like death, overcoming material needs. Lennon and Harrison drew inspiration from LSD but also from Eastern spiritual movements.
You can listen to a song typical of the album HERE. It is ‘Tomorrow never knows’. This is a ‘drone composition’ that uses only one keynote (C) and otherwise consists of several samples varying in length that are mixed.
Other songs that may have greater fame are ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Good day sunshine’ and ‘Yellow submarine’. Watch and listen to a relatively recent recording of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ here. Recorded live in New York 2007, sent by Paul Mc Cartney.
In the absence of live recordings by the Beatles themselves, I refer to Spotify for listening the albums. Alternatively, below you will find recordings by the Dutch cover group ‘The Analogues’. This group performs all Beatles songs live, if necessary, with an extensive set of instruments.
‘Sergant Pepper’ followed in 1967, I release ‘Within you, without you’ here. This song is based on a Hindu Veda and, apart from George Harrison, is played on the album exclusively by Eastern musicians. The Analogues managed to perform a meticulous version of this song
Other songs included ‘With a little help from my friends’, ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’, ‘She is leaving home’. All played and sung by ‘The Analogues’.
You can listen to the live unplayable ‘A day in the life’ (followed by ‘Let it be’) here. So much for ‘The Analogues’ contribution, too.
The style of the songs on ‘Sergant Pepper’ – sometimes even within a song – varied widely, The record was considered as a ‘Gesamt Kunstwerk’. That the Beatles’ songs were art was already established after Revolver. Remarkably, ‘Sergant Pepper’ was initially considered as the Beatles’ best album ever, but as the years went by, ‘Revolver’ took over this position, because of its originality, the quality of the lyrics and the consistency of the songs.
The EP ‘Magical mystery tour’ was the soundtrack to a film of the same name and included well-known songs like ‘Fool on the Hill’. ‘I’am the walrus’ and ‘Hello goodbye. For critics, it was mostly old wine in new bags.
Three more albums would follow:
‘The Beatles’ (the ‘White album’), with songs such as Ob-la- di Ob-la da, While my guitar gently weeps, Julia, Blackbird, I will, Revolution 1 & 9. Most of the songs were much simpler in structure also because the use of LSD had by now been renounced. During the recording, tensions in the group, also due to the ubiquitous presence of Yoko Ono, continued to rise.
Then came ‘Abbey Road’, whose songs included ‘Come together’, ‘Something’, Maxwell Silver Hammer’ and the 12-minute medley. Critiques were mixed, Some critics felt the sound was too artificial, especially with the overuse of a moog synthesiser. Still, some thought it was the best album ever because it was less pretentious due to the absence of psychedelic influences. Before the album was released, John Lennon had left the group for good. The other members followed soon after.
Their last album was ‘Let it be’ (1970). Its recording had already started in 1968. According to Paul McCartney, it was supposed to be a solid rock album, with songs that could be performed live, a performance that would be captured on film. The live performance was limited to a one-off performance on the roof of the Beatles’ record company office, Apple Inc, which led to an unprecedented traffic jam in New York. Songs included: ‘Two of us’, ‘Let it be’, ‘Maggie Mae’, ‘The long and winding road’ and ‘Get back’.
Beach Boys
Another group with high artistic ambitions was ‘the Beach Boys’ and in particular the eldest of the three Wilson brothers, Brian. The song Good vibrations illustrates the artistic direction the group had taken, continuing its original surf sound. Brian Wilson was impressed by the Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’ and he wanted to top that album. To free up enough time to do so, he stopped touring and devoted himself entirely to the production of the album, which was to be the best rock album ever, ‘Petsounds’.
The album ‘Petsounds’ eventually included the following songs ‘You still believe in me’, ‘I know there is an answer‘, ‘Sloop John B’, ‘God only knows’ and ‘I just wasn’t made for these times’. He co-wrote the lyrics with Tony Asher. It was recorded in the studio, with the other band members, but mostly with session musicians. The album uses a variety of instruments. More than the use of technology, the complicated vocals define the character of the album. In recent years (2002 – 2016), Brian Wilson has given a series of live performances of ‘Petsounds’. You can watch and listen to ‘God Only Knows’ (London 2002) here
Pink Floyd
In the list of art bands with a psychedelic slant, Pink Floyd’s ‘Atom Heart Mother’ cannot be left out. The title track alone lasts 23 minutes, divided into six parts. To play this song, the group had to bring a brass section and a choir. You can watch and listen to a 23-minute recording from London’s Hyde Park (1970) HERE.
More accessible is Pink Floyd’s ‘Arnold Layne’. You can see this song here 40 years after its first performance by a still vital band Pink Floyd (Barbican London 2007)
Finally, I mention ‘Velvet underground with songs like ‘I am waiting for the man’. Jefferson Airplane (‘White rabbit’), the Byrds (‘Eight miles high’) and Iron Butterfly (‘In-a-gadda-da-vida’)
The Woodstock festival is considered the pinnacle of psychedelic rock. Soon after, this genre was on the wane as many hallucinogens, including LSD were made illegal in both the US and Britain.
Musicians’ quest to create songs of a high artistic standard was by no means over. Symphonic rock is characterised by poetic lyrics, advanced technology, long solos and demonstrations of high technical skill. The compositions use elements from experimental music (Mike Oldfield), avant-garde music (Eno), classical music (Procol Harum) and jazz (Colosseum). Groups often sufficed with studio recordings, but fortunately some also performed live, often accompanied by extended horn groups (Blood sweat and tears). Moody Blues brought in an entire symphony orchestra when they recorded ‘Days of Future Passed’. From this concert you can see ‘Nights in white satin’ here
Major successes were limited, with only a few groups reaching the top of the charts, Pink Floyd being the most successful. ‘The dark side of the moon’ (1973) is an example of ‘art-rock’ par excellence and is one of the best-selling albums of all time. So are symphonic compositions like ‘The Wall’ by Pink Floyd and Tommy by the Who. In the late 1970s, the utopian ideals of art-rock fell into oblivion. Society hardened, virtuosity was rejected as it was supposed to come at the expense of immediacy and accessibility. We then found ourselves on the eve of punk. Earlier, the numerous ‘glam-rock’ groups expressed resistance to both the revolutionary momentum of the 1960s and the pomposity of art-rock. Members of these groups wore flamboyant clothes, but their music was diverse, ranging from simple but powerful pop songs (Marc Bolan, David Bowie) to more complicated music by Roxy Music.
Society, environment, art and music 