What the difference between Prog and psychedelic

"Prog" in itself is the vast collection of the many sub-genres you can find in PA, and rivers of ink have been spent arguing about its definiton (needless to say without consensus).

 

Psychedelic is just one of Prog's subgenres, that music focussing on trippy atmospheres, dreamy and ethereal sound effects, often not too complex in terms of composition, structure and arrangements but which can keep itself busy for many minutes of hypnotic rythms and spacy improvisational soloings, ideal for listening to stoned.

 

Asking "what's the difference between Prog and Psychedelic" is like asking what's the difference between religion and catholicism.

 

Psychedelic music predated Prog so for sure it can not be considered as a subset of Prog, only a subset of Psychedelic music can be called Psychedelic Prog.

 

Early Psychedelic (or later Psychedelic which followed on the same early principles) was not yet Prog, just trippy Pop-Rock.

 

I wrote my post thinking specifically about Pychedelic Prog, not Psychedelic music in general.

 

Bands like Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson are less Psychedelic regarding tones, time signatures, remain more in a Classical vain, covering up their small usage of sound effects ..although their attempt to change the speed of voices on tape, some usage of strings..for example on Yes' "The Prophet" is still more in a Moody Blues style if anything and all derives from the British Psychedelic genre more than the American. If any British musician took an influence from American Psychedelic, it was changed around and crafted to sound differently and it is hard to indicate. Jon Anderson often said that he was influenced by Simon & Garfunkel. Some people have a difficult time digesting this. Simon and Garfunkel recorded a more darker Folk style ..lyrically and musicially. Lyrically..the songs were about death and misfortune. Musically they were in dark minor keys with odd open string tunings or usage of capos. Yes have more of thAT American Folk influence than pure American Psychedelic fuzz tone guitar with Vanilla Fudge organ. The details are there to see...it just takes a little focus and patience. 

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..And Prog is everything else, including the kitchen sink.

People think of Simon & Garfunkel and only consider the massive hits but there was a lot more there.  Their 1968 album "Bookends" is very prog to my ears.  It begins with a solo guitar piece (like Crimso's Poseidon album) includes one of the first appearances on album of the Moog modular synth (patched by Bob Moog himself!), the song "America" which Yes of course covered, bizarre interviews with old people (very similar to the Godspeed You Black Emporer song  "Sleep - They Don't Sleep on the Beach Anymore"), and closes side 1 with a restatement of the opening solo guitar piece (like Crimso repeating variations of "Peace" throughout the Poseidon album).  Side 2 has some odd pieces along with the mega-hit Mrs Robinson.  S&G are a lot more musically interesting than history has painted them out to be.