Psychedelia: Did Prog enhance it or escape it?

Some of the earliest attempts at Electronic music ..which..I would most certainly have to include John Cage and George Crumb, Paulina Oliveros..were a major influence over Mort Garson, Beaver & Krause, Ruth White and this fresh idea of experimentation with electronic made it's way into the Psychedelic Music scene. Especially during the time when Beaver & Krause ...who had consulted with Bob Moog, were setting up the Moog at Psychedelic Rock festivals. Internationally known Psychedelic bands were overwhelmed by the power of the Moog and proceeded to introduce it's sound in Psychedelic Rock. By the time the term "Art Rock" was nation wide, bands were playing Classical lines JUST as Wendy Carlos had accomplished on "Switched On Bach" years before. When the term Progressive Rock became a household reference, bands were composing epics and adding in the Moog. The idea originally was to be as Avant-Garde as possible. Electronics with string quartet ..which was present in the Avant-Garde 20th century composer's composition. The mentality of being that kind of composer, entered into Psychedelic Music and was simply an experimentation to change Rock music and so the artists used snippets and very short sections intertwined between lyrics..until Syd Barrett wrote "Interstellar Overdrive" lol! 

^ I doubt it.

^Was the Moog designed for music reproduction then?

The coating of sound effects in Progressive Rock was to enhance the personality of a theme. An epic for example...that would make musical transitions that were being spliced into sections. Quite like Close To The Edge. The recordings of seagulls and the roaring ocean built as a foundation to present the music theatrically. It was concept followed with even some of the more mainstream Rock bands in the early 70's. Progressive Rock took on a more gymnastic mentality in the playing department. Not exactly a jam session from the Dead. Progressive Rock musicians in the early 70's avoided jamming and kept it down to 5 minutes or even sometimes less. This does not include the band MAN who were influenced by the west coast 60's sound and a pocket of others. Most Progressive Rock musicians stuck to composition. Like King Crimson, most Prog bands in the early 70's adapted a short jam as a section of the piece to enhance traveling to and from..the lyrics/story which often revolved around a nightmarish tale of the dark. It was often utilized in a theme to present the style of theatre or actually better yet..theatre writing . Often the time signatures used to jam over in Prog were so difficult to follow and additionally proceeded in quick breaks instead of the same chords repeating over and over. Progressive Rock was about a hundred million light years away from Psychedelic Rock regarding that. No doubt...that was the difference  between the two.

SteveG wrote: ^Was the Moog designed for music reproduction then?

I get the impression that Bob Moog was more into entertaining himself when he created it, but the fact that it did end up as a tool for music reproduction was a perfectly natural thing to happen. I'm not sure if he purposely designed it with those intentions coming to mind. I haven't read enough about him in recent years and can't recall many details of his innovation short of his obvious good points.

...and the Synth was never really a psychedelic instrument.

Dean wrote: ...and the Synth was never really a psychedelic instrument.

But the moog was used on Beaver & Krause's In A Wild Sanctuary in 1970 to incorporate it into various themes sounding Psychedelic. I also was under the assumption that the moog was used by The Rolling Stones in 67'. And what about it's usage on "Save the Life of My Child" by Simon & Garfunkel on the Bookends album in 68'. I believe Paul Beaver had everything to do with this happening. It was used in Psychedelic Music when artists first began to experiment with it. I thought it really added to Psychedelic music. Bookends and a host of albums were influenced by Sgt. Pepper regarding structure and ideas to use studio effects. Not moog though and I don't even recall if there was moog on Sgt. Pepper. But nevertheless, bands were using the SGT. Pepper concept to produce something with a moog. I agree that it seems un-natural for it to be used in Psychedelic Rock, but it truly added dimension to it.


Edited by TODDLER - September 22 2014 at 11:41

Dean wrote: TODDLER wrote: Dean wrote: ...and the Synth was never really a psychedelic instrument. But the moog was used on Beaver & Krause's In A Wild Sanctuary in 1970 to incorporate it into various themes sounding Psychedelic. I also was under the assumption that the moog was used by The Rolling Stones in 67'. And what about it's usage on "Save the Life of My Child" by Simon & Garfunkel on the Bookends album in 68'. I believe Paul Beaver had everything to do with this happening. It was used in Psychedelic Music when artists first began to experiment with it. I thought it really added to Psychedelic music. Bookends and a host of albums were influenced by Sgt. Pepper regarding structure and ideas to use studio effects. Not moog though and I don't even recall if there was moog on Sgt. Pepper. But nevertheless, bands were using the SGT. Pepper concept to produce something with a moog. I agree that it seems un-natural for it to be used in Psychedelic Rock, but it truly added dimension to it. Absolutely. Beaver & Krause had everything to do with this happening and it is their playing and their Moog you can hear on all those records. Following the "début" of the Moog at the 1967 Monterey Festival by Beaver & Krause the duo (and their synth) were in great demand to add this modern other-worldly instrument to other peoples recordings. But that is such a reactively relatively [damn auto-correct] small sample of the whole of psychedelic pop & rock I can't see it as being indicative of the Moog being a psychedelic instrument, unlike the Hammond or the phased fuzz guitar.

Very good point! I didn't think of it in that way, but I can surely understand your view. Interesting.

^The more think about, the more that makes sense.