The following is an essay by my buddy Dean. The system wouldn't let him paste it on the White Album entry (where it truley belongs), so I am posting as it's own entry.
I just had to take this moment to finally recognize that my favorite music truly is psychedelic music. This style creates a space, a vocabulary to give expression to that which is difficult to express. It removes the rules that can accumulate on a musical genre. Even rock and roll which had always been about rebellion quickly conformed to the status quo. Every musical genre has had its rebels who pushed the limit with their brand of creativity. Psychedelic music has remained a vital force in rock music since the 13th floor elevators first brought it into the spot light in 1966. It is not as many would think, a stagnant style stuck in the past. There are many bands that currently continue the spirit of musical creativity without rules and who believe that all sounds are created equally and who over time create a genre unto themselves.
To limit musical expression to a limited set of rules is appropriate if the musician chooses to play a certain style or genre. If that chosen style is psychedelic music then the only real rule that applies is to use sound in a way that expresses what you want to express---that’s it. All sounds being created equal then the world is your instrument. To merely relegate this type of music as a playground for people on mind altering drugs is a mistake. However, the combination of psychedelic drugs and music has been an eye opening experience to nearly all who have tried it. The drugs for the most part offer a reduction of personal inhibition that is able to quiet the inner critic and encourage the outer artist. It can allow a connection from the inner world of the imagination with the outer world of performance. It can awake a realization that everything is important in all things, and how we all make sense of it is the invented language that the musician is trying to express. If the listener is open to this, then the payoff can be very rewarding. Trying to write about this kind of esoteric experience may be like trying to dance about architecture.
Discerning the noise from the music is what is up to the musician and the listener. It is confounding to an astute listener and critic of music to be confronted with tracks like revolution number nine on the Beatles White album. In light of the fact that John Lennon had just started dating Yoko Ono and had found his future wife and muse in the same person who shared his artistic sensibility must have been overwhelming. Revolution number 9 has always struck me as an experiment encouraged by the freedom he discovered with her. The artistic forays they would engage in together were often looked at derisively by the press and confused Beatles fans. Using tape loops and found sounds together to create a soundscape that is jarring and inviting all at the same time is something that musicians still utilize. It created a moment on the White Album of departure from the norm but then a settling back into the rest of the music on the album. For those who have taken psychedelics, this musical journey is similar to what a trip can be like whereby there is the departure from the known into the utterly unknown and then a rebirth into the known once again. And maybe this is unfair for people who have no interest in taking these drugs (and this is a wise choice.) But what does the world legally offer those who wish to change their consciousness and not destroy their health? Yoga, transcendental meditation, religion,--- can music all by itself offer this departure? The modern world is not interested in propagating the idea of touching the unknown. It remains the domain of individual rather than tribal exploration. This has been the key transition from the old world to the modern world of human spiritual conciousness.
Our modern word has destroyed so many cultures. Three hundred languages lost from cultures living on the coast that goes from southern California to Alaska because of interaction with European settlers. When you lose a language you lose everything. What ancient knowledge went with them? How did they transcend their everyday existence and interact with their world? Music and culture assist in transcending and connecting to the unreachable for those who are truly open to the experience and potential change. The modern world does not like change even as it changes-- it stays the same---remaining on the same objective and bent toward order, servitude and rules and the list goes on and on.
The albums all listed in the rolling stone top 10 of all time have elements of psychedelia in each one. Given that the timing of the release of these albums was happening during the cultural upheaval of the time which was affecting the music in a profound way is evident. Each sounds as if it is trying to create a space for its existence and a language for its expression. The Neo psychedelic movement which has been ongoing ever since at least continues this sentiment. The list is too long to get into here and certainly up for its own contentious battle of orderliness.
What comes to mind as a relatively recent stand out is Neutral Milk Hotel. They are a great example of a group that uses traditional instruments in a non-traditional way to execute their artistic vision. This is not to overlook Pink Floyd which learned how to not only produce an image but also a story in almost every album they produced. Syd Barret was lost early on in his vision as a casualty of taking too many drugs; others fell in his wake as well. This is not a litany of all those who fell by the wayside. This is recognition of the power of this style of music and the need for it to still be recognized for what it is. Especially in this age of over produced music which is creatively dictated by the money that is fed to it by the masses who look to each other for cues so that they may continue herding themselves and their culture along in way that is considered ok by the herd whether it holds any meaning for the individual or not. Psychedelic music is not meant for everybody---just those who can personally connect to it.
One of the earmarks of psychedelic music is its fearless embrace of the weird. But what separates good art versus something ridiculous is a thin line. Embracing weird for the sake of just being weird can become annoying if there is no real reason behind it all. Take the band The Residents for example. They have a huge catalogue of music and what appears to be a true artistic vision. After recently seeing them live though I feel like they are the progenitors of a joke I’m not sure I get. Although it is a well put together and orchestrated joke; my feelings are hurt because I don’t quite get it and I know I have a great sense of humor.
The challenge many times is within the ear of the beholder and most listeners are not up for the challenge. Making challenging music is many times part of the point of those who create it---but it should remain true to their feeling and expression and not just be an exercise in complication. ( what I sometimes refer to as mental mind music) Progressive music gets accused of being this way and does foray into the psychedelic realm.
Progressive music embraces the weird and Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Genesis were at the forefront of fearless innovation and fusion of progressive styles and all were and still are amazingly talented musicians. They are more progressive ( which as a genre I consider more technically demanding, and a style that is overly obsessed with being technically demanding for the sake of being technically demanding) than psychedelic though. At the other end of the spectrum the Grateful Dead carried the torch for decades and still do on occasion through solo appearances. Their forays into Drums and space at the mid-section of so many of their shows offered a psychedelic interlude which seemed to become a tired exercise after so many hundreds of shows ---much like doing drugs can become a tired exercise as well. Their disappearance has not stopped the style of psychedelia and there are so many bands that still carry this hippy torch. They are seekers who are content to never find. People who just want to keep the party going in a world without judgment or responsibility. Sometimes there is the palpable wish of wanting the tribal connection again. This is evident in so many rainbow gatherings which have been known to leave their young behind in the wake of their deep forest meetings. This is a cultural expression gone astray and doesn’t necessarily fit with any aspect of making good art.
Seeing so many bands that I like listed on the Wikipedia page describing psychedelic music and realizing how nearly every one of them has been a favorite of mine has been a very heartwarming experience. They are all tied together in their freedom of sound and expression and improvisation. This is music born out of mistakes and experimentation and given over to the idea that if it has been done before then it doesn’t make too much sense to do it again exactly the same way. Knowing when I go see a band like this play live--- it is very exciting to not just hear them play the songs I love but to have a chance to hear them play it in whatever mood or interpretation they want to do that night. This is something that could be dictated in a way by the crowd in attendance or the weather or who knows? This is not something you get from lip synced or highly choreographed stage performances which have their place. This is the magic of good music played live in this style. It mirrors in my mind the magic of what it takes to carry on any good conversation. Recognition of worthiness on the part of each speaker, and a mutual delight in the shared combined construction of words and ideas as an offering for the betterment of the subject being discussed. Not a battle of ego driven opinions meant to support an identity in crisis. But I digress. I only mean to say that music is like good conversation. You know it was good when it leaves the participant feeling better when it is done. Psychedelic music frees up the conversation to flow where it must. Janis Joplin said it—“you know you got it if it makes you feel good.”
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