Gavin B.

THE PSYCHEDELIC CHRONICLES: PART I

Q: What was the first psychedelic record? That all depends on what your definition of psychedelic is. You can make a good argument that the Yardbirds were playing proto-psychedelic music on their earliest single releases like For Your Love, I'm A Man and Heart Full of Soul way back in 1965. The Byrds' first two albums released in 1965 were almost a blend of jangly folk rock & psychedelica on songs like Mr. Tamborine Man, I Feel A Whole Better & It Won't Be Wrong.

None of those 1965 releases could really be called fully self-conscious efforts to make music that depicted the LSD experience. The tag word "psychedelic" came into usage in 1966 and it described a very specific genre of popular music related the use of LSD and other hallucinogenic substances.

Most music historians concur that 1966 was the year where psychedelic music came spilling out of the the psychedelic dungeons in L.A. and London. Most of the San Francisco bands remained under the radar because the hub of the music recording industry was Los Angeles and nearly every good, bad and ugly band that gigged in the clubs on Sunset Strip were signed in 1966. The attention turned to the Bay Area, a year later in 1967, when Moby Grape, the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead finally released their much anticipated released albums.

1967 was the real watershed year for psychedelic music in terms of landmark album releases of first generation psychedelic music. With release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band by the Beatles in the summer of 1967, and the extensive media coverage of the Monterey Pop Festival, an international audience for psychedelic music was created.

By 1968 many of the early psychedelic groups were in the state of flux. The Yardbirds were broken up. The Byrds moved on to a more countrified sound. Cream was feuding and on the verge of a break-up after the release of the brilliant Disraeli Gears album in 1967. Love was in the state of a drug fueled meltdown following the recording of Forever Changes. By the summer of 1968 Jimi Hendrix had recorded Electric Ladyland, which was his final album with his talented but underrated band mates in the Experience. With the release of Electric Ladyland, the most significant and productive era of Hendrix's musical career was behind him. The Seeds fell under the radar forever. Moby Grape went through a traumatic expulsion of their most beloved and talented member Skip Spence, following an infamous rampage with a fire ax in a recording studio that resulted in Skip's committment to Bellevue Hospital in NYC. The Doors, the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and a crop of newly recorded bands all flourished in 1968, but that rarest sense of musical magic that marked the passage of the Summer of Love and Monterey Pop had dissipated by end of 1968.

By the end of the summer of 1969, the first great era of psychedelic music was pretty much over and done with. The Woodstock Music Festival held in August 1969 is generally considered to be the last great event of the psychedelic era.

The chronological list of the earliest psychedelic music releases of 1966 is below. I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself what the first psychedelic song was.

A Chronology of Psychedelic Album and Single Releases:1966:

February: "You're Gonna Miss Me"--The 13th Floor Elevators (The month of the release date in 1966 is disputed)
February: "Shapes Of Things/You're A Better Man Than I"--The Yardbirds (both sides)
February: "Free Advice"--The Great Society (b-side of "Someone To Love")
February: LOVE (Arthur Lee & Love's debut album. The month of the release date in 1966 is disputed)

March: "Eight Miles High/Why"--The Byrds (both sides)

May: "Paint It Black"--The Rolling Stones
May: "Over Under Sideways Down"--The Yardbirds

June: "Rain"--The Beatles
June: "Country Joe And The Fish" EP (key cuts: "Section 43" and "Bass Strings")--Country Joe And The Fish
June: "Tobacco Road"--The Blues Magoos
June: "Making Time"--The Creation
June: "Last Time Around"--The Del-Vetts

July: FREAK OUT! Lp--The Mothers Of Invention (key cuts: "Hungry Freaks Daddy", "Who Are The Brain Police", "Help I'm A Rock", "Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet")
July: "Seven And Seven Is"--Love
July: "Psychotic Reaction"--The Count Five
July: "Jack Of Diamonds"--The Daily Flash
July: "Sunshine Superman/The Trip"--Donovan (A-side for sure, B-side is borderline)
July: FIFTH DIMENSION Lp--The Byrds (key cuts: "5D", "I See You", "What's Happening?!?", "Eight Miles High")
July: ROGER THE ENGINEER Lp--The Yardbirds (key cuts: "Lost Women", "Over Under...", "Farewell", "Hot House Of Omagararshid", "Turn Into Earth", maybe "I Can't Make Your Way")

August: REVOLVER Lp--The Beatles (key cuts: "I'm Only Sleeping", "Love You To", "She Said She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows". "Taxman", "Yellow Submarine" and "Doctor Robert" are all on the borderline)
August: EAST-WEST Lp--Paul Butterfield Blues Band (key cut: title track)
August or September: THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS Lp--The Mamas And The Papas (key cuts: "Strange Young Girls", "Even If I Could"...some of the studio tricks on this album are as advanced as on "Revolver"...)

September: "Happenings 10 Years Time Ago"--The Yardbirds
September: "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?"--The Rolling Stones
September: SUNSHINE SUPERMAN Lp--Donovan (key cuts: almost the whole album!)
September: "It's-A-Happening"--The Magic Mushrooms

October: "Good Vibrations"--The Beach Boys
October: "Painter Man"--The Creation (borderline)
October: "Smashed Blocked"--John's Children
October: "Disguises" (from "Ready, Steady, Who!" EP)--The Who
October: "Sunny South Kensington"--Donovan (b-side of "Mellow Yellow")
October: A WEB OF SOUND Lp--The Seeds (key cuts: almost the whole album, but esp "Pictures And Designs", "Tripmaker", and "Up In Her Room")
October: FACE TO FACE Lp--The Kinks (key cuts: "Rainy Day In June", "Fancy". Credit must also go to the cover art!)
October/November: THE PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS (key cuts: almost the whole album, although I consider most of it somewhat transitional. The release date is in dispute; it's either the last week of October or first week of November. My father, however, had a promo copy dated from August, so I give it release date priority over The Deep and The Blues Magoos).

November: PSYCHEDELIC LOLLIPOP Lp--The Blues Magoos (key cuts: "Love Seems Doomed", "Tobacco Road")
November: "Mud In Your Eye"--Les Fleur De Lys
November: PSYCHEDELIC MOODS Lp--The Deep (key cuts: the entire album!)
November: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)--The Electric Prunes
November: DA CAPO Lp--Love (key cuts: "Stephanie Knows Who", "Seven And Seven Is", "The Castle", "She Comes In Colors". Apparently the "Revelation" jam was much better live than it was on the record. Also, although most discographies list its release date as Jan '67, the recent Arthur Lee bio pinpoints it as from this month).

December: "Night Of Fear/Disturbance"--The Move
December: "I Can Take You To The Sun"--The Misunderstood
December: FRESH CREAM Lp--Cream (key cuts: "Sweet Wine" and "Toad", both recorded after the majority of the album just after the group met Hendrix, and clearly showing his influence on the guitar solos. Hendrix didn't release his stunning debut album until early in 1967.)
December: "Machines"--The Herbal Mixture