Psychedelic Mind Implosion

2) Cauldron - Fifty Foot Hose - Here's where space rock starts, with whooshes and bleeps and all kinds of wooey noises - and one or two great songs too, like "Red the Sign Post".

 

3) Electric Music For Mind and Body - Country Joe and the Fish - Just listen.

 

4) Think Pink - Twink - Hawkwind before Hawkwind existed. "10,000 Words in a Cardboard Box" is a masterpiece - and a tune Hawkwind based many a song on.

 

5) Tips Zum Selbstmord - Necronomicon - Unbelievably dark and twisted. Sure, a lot of it is based on Pink Floyd, as is much Kosmische music. Don't let the cheap production and raw execution put you off - under the "right" conditions, this one will jolt you out of your shell.

 

6) Conspicuous by its Absence - Great Society - Grace Slick. Say no more.

 

7) Ogden's Nut Gone - Small Faces - Are you all seaty two-square comflybold on your botties? Stanley Unwin transforms this from a great psyche-blues album into a corker of a comic rock-opera.

 

8) Revolver - Beatles - Beach Boys? Rolling Stones? Byrds? Who are they?

9) Space Ritual - Hawkwind - Massive. Stupendous Space Rock - try anything from Hawkwind between 1972-5. If Ian (Lemmy) Kilmister plays bass on it, it kicks psychedelic ass.

 

10) Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Pink Floyd - as with Hawkwind, there's a clear-cut deeply psychedelic period. From the debut up to "Dark Side of the Moon", all Pink Floyd albums have a deeply psychedelic patina. The strongest albums are Piper, Saucerful, Ummagumma, Meddle and Dark Side - with a special mention to Live at Pompeii. The other releases (AMH, Zabrieski Point, Obscured..., More) are less satisfying.

 

 

In most cases, the reasons are clear if you listen under the correct circumstances 

Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn (my first experience of psychedelic music)

Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (great songs plus Professor Stanley Unwin, brilliant packaging too)

Traffic - Mr Fantasy (You can hear the acid kicking in!)

and I totally agree with Certif1ed about Hawkwind!

 

Classics;

Pink Floyd- Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, A Saucerful Of Secrets, Ummagumma (the live disc anyway), Meddle (and the non-album singles; not just the three Syd ones but 'Julia Dream' and 'Careful With That Axe Eugene')

Small Faces- Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

The Beatles- Sgt Pepper, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour (and a nod to the superb B sides 'Rain' and 'The Inner Light')

Love- Da Capo, Forever Changes

The Pretty Things- SF Sorrow

The Zombies- Odyssey And Oracle (though some might question its appearance here, but it's one of my all time favourites from this era)

Traffic- Mr Fantasy

The Incredible String Band- 5000 Spirits, Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, Wee Tam

The Doors- Strange Days

The Who- The Who Sell Out

The Yardbirds- Roger The Engineer (yeah, some of it is blues rock but you have some wondrous psych like 'Turn Into Earth' on it)

Jefferson Airplane- Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing At Baxters, Crown Of Creation

Quicksilver Messenger Service- S/T, 'Happy Trails'

The Byrds- Younger Than Yesterday, The Notorious Byrd Brothers

 

Obscure gems;

Blossom Toes- We Are Ever So Clean (very much in the 'Piper...' mould- their second album is much more serious and I find it inferior, personally, though not without its moments)

July- July (again, in the 'Piper' style)

The End- Introspection (very much follows on from 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake')

The Gods- Genesis (Ken Hensley-led band; Vanilla Fudge-ish but poppier, and you can hear the first flowerings of Uriah Heep's sound here)

Skip Bifferty- Skip Bifferty (lots of eccentric pop tunes)

Tomorrow- Tomorrow (a bit uneven but you can hear Steve Howe's excellence even on this)

Second Hand- Reality (a bit of a depressing experience but an ambitious album)

 

There are some albums which straddle psych and the first flowerings of prog- The Moody Blues' 'In Search Of The Lost Chord', Family's 'Music In A Doll's House', Vanilla Fudge's debut and their third album 'Renaissance', The Nice's 'The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack', Soft Machine's first two albums and the first few Procol Harum albums- which I really love too.

 

As for '...Satanic Majesties', it's a curate's egg and has some real stinkers on there ('On With The Show' and the aptly titled 'Sing This All Together (See What Happens)') but some of it genuinely works, IMHO. I love the Incredible String Band stylings of 'The Lantern', the mellotron-filled '2000 Light Years From Home', the pure-pop charm of 'She's A Rainbow' (which is on an advert here in the UK at the mo!) and the vastly underrated Syd Barrett-ish 'In Another Land' with a Bill Wyman vocal. Despite its dodgy moments, it's a hell of a lot more experimental than anything they've done for the last 30 years or so...

 

Will post some of my favourite psych singles here too...