Psychedelic Rock: First Album

Of these, I would vote for Love's eponymous debut. It was released prior to any of these (March 1966) and included the songs, "Colored Balls Are Falling," and "Mushroom Clouds.  Gotta love those song titles and the music was also tinged with became knows as psych in "Emotions," has plenty of psych sound, also heard on "Softly To Me," "Gazing," (which sounds a lot like The Byrds, who also might be contenders) and Mushroom Clouds." It's also pretty punky, they evolved into much more complex music later on.  

Edited by Snicolette - April 14 2021 at 12:44

Snicolette wrote: Of these, I would vote for Love's eponymous debut. I was released prior to any of these (March 1966) and included the songs, "Colored Balls Are Falling," and "Mushroom Clouds.  Gotta love those song titles and the music was also tinged with became knows as psych in "Emotions," has plenty of psych sound, also heard on "Softly To Me," "Gazing," (which sounds a lot like The Byrds, who also might be contenders) and Mushroom Clouds." It's also pretty punky, they evolved into much more complex music later on.   Not on the list, The Charlatans (including Dan Hicks), are often attributed to being among the first bands with "The San Francisco Sound," a related topic.  There were complications in getting signed to a label, and then in getting music released. The Great Society, featuring Grace Slick before she joined JA, was even earlier than Love's debut, a single of "Somebody to Love," was pressed in Feb 1966.   Anyway, fun topic.    I love most of these bands.

Also a side trip, the first Love album is among my favourites of all time, I was thinking in terms of what was the earliest psychedelic band/recording.  I have most of these LPs and will never let them out of my possession, as most are favourites and stellar recordings of the era.

Edited by Snicolette - April 14 2021 at 12:59

Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I am familiar with a lot of these bands. For those interested in the classic Haight-Ashbury sound, I would also suggest Sopwith Camel, who never quite made it out of the region. Some true heavy hitters in this list, along with a number of less-known-but-still-worthy bands. My vote went to H.P. Lovecraft just to give them a little more exposure.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: Snicolette wrote: Also a side trip, the first Love album is among my favourites of all time, I was thinking in terms of what was the earliest psychedelic band/recording.  I have most of these LPs and will never let them out of my possession, as most are favourites and stellar recordings of the era. The first I personally heard that cemented my interest, or just fell in love with the sound of the genre at the tender age of 10 was Quicksilver's S/T debut, but we had and listened to all of these in my home.  All wonderful examples of the genre. When you mentioned Side Trip, I thought you were talking about Kaleidoscope's debut to begin with.  My favourite Love album is Forever Changes, and nothing will ever change that.

  It was a reference to it,  have a special love for the US Kaleidoscope.  And yes, Forever Changes is always in my Top 10 of all time classic/influential/stand alone sorts of masterpieces.

Spaciousmind wrote: Great list Paul, good job!  But as some others have mentioned a few missing in that 66-68 period.  Steve Miller was Psychedelic in that period so was Steppenwolf, the Seeds, The Troll, Savage Resurrection.

Hendrix by far. Nice to see Nazz and The Amboy Dukes.

Thanks for including us Americans in one of your polls, Paul.

Grumpyprogfan wrote: Hendrix by far. Nice to see Nazz and The Amboy Dukes. Thanks for including us Americans in one of your polls, Paul.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: chopper wrote: I never knew there was a band called Ultimate Spinach! I'm the proud owner of 21 out of 25 albums in this poll, including Ultimate Spinach.  The only debut albums in the poll missing from my CD collection are by the Amboy Dukes, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Blue Cheer & Nazz.

all great albums; hard to choose between them. I would have thrown in "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" (1968) too