Wednesday, February 21st, 2024
Get busy living or get busy dying.
— Stephen King
MUS106 Lecture: Psychedelics
- elements of psychedelia (60s)—altered consciousness, whether through drugs or not
- drug use (esp. LSD, marijuana)
- eastern philosophy, transcendental meditation
- North Indian classic music (esp. Ravi Shanka (sitar))
- psychedelics challenges social/political constructs
- the Hippies, a.k.a. Flower Children / Flower Power
- psychedelia (60s-70s): countercultural youth movement
- anti-war, but not necessarily political otherwise
- Dr. Timothy Leary: “most dangerous man in America”, “High Priest of LSD"
- "turn on, tune in, drop out”
- encouraged youth to just do drugs and not participate in society
- trained mental health worker
- was faculty at Harvard; asked to leave faculty when found consuming acid with students
- tried running for California’s governor (1969): wrote “Come Together” (Join The Party)
- 1970, convicted for marijuana possession, 20-year sentence
- primary motivator to consume drugs not recreationally, but for introspection
- musical expressions of psychedelia
- experimentation: try different things (e.g. instruments, time signatures, etc)
- journey
- method 1: take drugs and use music to enhance experience
- method 2: use music to replicate drug use experience
- Summer of Love (1967): height of the Hippies movement
- loosens taboos on sex and drug use
- locations: San Francisco, Los Angeles, London
- hippie values come to an international stage & become mainstream, but hippie is countercultural & not meant to be mainstream → conflict
- The Doors
- performed in Los Angeles
- had appeared in Ed Sullivan show; was asked to change live lyrics to something less salacious; was banned from the show since they didn’t change the lyrics
- Jim Morrison (1954-71)
- later died by OD
- keyboard player covers bass part; no bass player
- ”Light My Fire” (1967)
- Cream
- London
- first supergroup
- members include Eric Claptop
- Pink Floyd
- London
- extended form & songs
- elaborate stage show
- began as psychedelic rock, later became progressive rock
- all bands lean heavily on improvization
- San Francisco is the epicenter of Summer of Love—The Human Be-in
- Monterey International Pop Festival (1967)
- Monterey Jazz, Folk Festival
- 1st rock festival, 25k-90k attended
- some people were high & just hanging out in the parking lot (tickets sold out)
- artists perform without fee (donated their pay to charity)
- documentary: Monterey Pop (1968)
- diverse line-up
- Ravi Shankar
- Otis Redding
- Hugh Masekela
- Jimi Hendrix
- The Who (did instrument destruction here)
- Janis Joplin
- impact
- diverse genres & artists
- donated proceeds to charity
- blueprint for future festivals
- ”spread music, love, and flowers”
- Pet Sounds (1966) by Beach Boys
- inspired by Rubber Soul (1965) by Beatles; Pet Sounds is an answer album to Rubber Soul
- ”production concept album” (Wilson)—try things that are not possible to do on stage
- influenced by Phil Spector and The Beatles
- some disagree that this is psychedelic rock; some apply other lables (e.g. “entry-level psychedelia” / “proto-psychedelia”)
- procedures
- record backing track first (with the Wrecking Crew)
- chose exotic instruments (from theremin to barking dogs)
- teaches vocal part to each of Beach Boys members
- used 4-/8-track tape deck
- bouncing down: combining 4 tracks into 1 to free up 3 slots for other tracks/instruments
- UK #2, US #10 (somehow less popular in US even though they were popular)
- initially less popular than compilation album Best of The Beach Boys
- No #1 singles—focus change from singles to the whole album
- ”Wouldn’t It Be Nice?“
- very diverse instrumentation
- doo-wop style background vocals
- gradually more introspective & complex lyrics
- journey: contrasting material — seemingly pop song/topic, but with a dark undertone
- psychedelia: music for thinking/listening/transforming