These are the notes I have made on the sources that I have made in preparation for the essay.
The Beatles – The Beatles were one of the first bands to go from being a pretty normal rock n roll band, into a psychedelic band. They were also one of the first to get psychedelia known to the public. This sound was starting to show on their 1965 album Rubber Soul, however that was known as their “pot album”, as John Lennon put it. This was due to their use of cannabis at the time. However their big change into psychedelia came with their next album, Revolver. This was due to an experience that two of the Beatles had. George Harrison and John Lennon, with their spouses at the time, were at a meal with George’s dentist. He insisted they stayed for a coffee, so they did. What they didn’t know is that this coffee was actually spiked with LSD. This was the Beatles first dive into psychedelia, with both of them having the same view that they need to experience this with the rest of the band. This was also where the idea of the famous Yellow Submarine came from. With John saying “God, it was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. George’s house seemed to be just like a big submarine… It seemed to float above his wall, which was 18 foot, and I was driving it. I did some drawings at the time, of four faces saying, ‘We all agree with you'”. In the 1960’s taking music to the next level, usually meant becoming a psychedelic band. Which the Beatles nearly fully embraced with Revolver, as only Paul McCartney wasn’t aboard the yellow submarine just yet. However with Revolver they still use a lot of new and innovative recording techniques. Which a lot of these were just John’s crazy ideas. Such as, for the song Tomorrow Never Knows, which John wanted the sound of “Thousands of Monks Chanting”. Which admittedly is a bit of strange sound to want in a song, however this wasn’t very attainable, due to obvious reasons. So with the help of McCartney and their legendary producer George Martin, John got a sound he wanted without the monks. They did this by amplifying his vocals through a rotating speaker. Which gives it that chilling sound it has. The Beatles were a great example of them innovating new recording techniques, and this is just one example. This also added different kinds of instruments and sounds for the Beatles, such as this new mystical Indian sound. This is because of George Harrison and his love for Indian music and instruments. He brought instruments such as a Sitar and a Tanpura for the recording of Revolver.
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is the next album by The Beatles after Revolver. This album is considered by many to be the best album of all time. This is a very bold statement, as there are thousands of albums and this reputation holds this album to an insanely high standard. However this is one of the most influential and innovative albums ever made. The Beatles used four track recording for the album, which was very common at the time. Everything was analog at the point, as digital technology wasn’t close to being made. Four track recording was the usual way to record. As you can probably imagine, four track recording will only allow for four tracks, however if you listen to Sgt. Peppers’ you can tell that there is a lot more than four tracks in all the songs. So they used something called “bouncing.” This is where you can combine two or 3 tracks and put it onto one track. So for example, recording bass, guitar and drums in tracks 1, 2 and 3 then you can bounce them onto track 4 with another track. This is great, however there are a few downsides to this. If you bounce something you can only change the volume of the bounce, not of the singular tracks involved. The other downside, is every time you bounce a track, it becomes mare saturated and distorted. Many bounces were used on this song for all of the tracks, as they pushed the technology to its max. Especially on the song “Good Morning, Good Morning”, as John Lennon had a very specific sound he wanted for this song, which meant it needed a lot of tracks. As it was bounced many times, it can sound a bit messy sometimes, however it shows how they were pushing the technology to get a sound they wanted. Due to the fact that bouncing made the track sound “worse”, they would record as many things as they could on one track. They also put as many arrangements as they could on one track, due to the fact that if they bounced it any more it wouldn’t sound good.
At the time, popular music wouldn’t include anything like this, no strange sounding recording techniques, or any strange sounding instruments. It was all usually like the older tracks in the Beatles discography, pure rock n roll. However this album really changed popular music, as people started to think that if The Beatles can do weird and experimental songs, then so can other people. The Beatles paved the way with psychedelic music, as they may not have been the first, best or even the most psychedelic band. They’re probably the biggest band to do it, due to their popularity before their change. If The Beatles didn’t make this change, then other psychedelic bands might not have been given the chance by the audience. As a lot of people got into psychedelic music through The Beatles, and then discovered many other great bands. Bands also gained confidence from The Beatles as they saw the popularity of The Beatles’ psychedelic music, they saw that they could also be popular by making this music.
Different bands – Grateful Dead blended many genres to make their psychedelic music. Folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, classical, free improvisation and many more. They played at free events called acid tests, where the bands and audience all got given LSD. The Doors were another psychedelic rock band from the late 1960’s. The lyricist Jim Morrison was actually a poet, so they put his poems to music. However a common issue with big music artists is abuse drugs and alcohol, which is what happened to Jim Morrison which made the Doors disband. Pink Floyd were another psychedelic rock band from the late 1960’s, however it was due to their frontman Syd Barret. Who only worked on their first 2 albums which is where their change come from. Their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was the most psychedelic. Syd wrote most of it. Danceable beats, catchy melodies, dreamy sound, surreal lyrics, strange sounds: echo, fuzz tone guitars, pitch modulated pianos/keyboards, and spacey slide guitar.
Hippie movement and 1960’s culture – The hippie movement was seen as counterculture. “It argued that people loathed and feared the hippies because deep down they knew the hippies, whose freedom they envied, were right” Quote from (Perlstein 520.) Psychedelic rock started with hippies in the band the grateful dead, when they were on LSD they got their instruments. Hippies wanted a new society based off of peace, love, and pleasure, and got this message through to the community by personal expression. (RhamaPush WordPress.) The hippie movement was to be yourself and enjoy yourselves. It was mostly younger people, who wanted a stress-free life. They did this by taking various narcotics such as marijuana and LSD. This gave them what they saw as freedom. The two big events in hippie culture was the summer of 67, and woodstock 69. “Summer of love” was 67, when many people in this movement gathered round America and shared their views on free love. Woodstock 1969 where many hippies gathered and listened to Jimi Hendrix, which signified the massive culture this has. He also played in front of the American flag, which signified the politics involved in this. However after the Vietnam war ended, the movement died down due to the people getting older and times changing. However their mentality is something that is still going even today. (TestMyPrep.com)
White Rabbit – White Rabbit was one of the most well known psychedelic songs of the 60’s. With it using Alice in the Wonderland as an example and a big part of the song. The song calls out Alice in Wonderland for being a book about psychedelics, and how the whole journey is just a psychedelia adventure. This is fine, however the book is a children’s book, and this is teaching children to do these kinds of things as you will go on a magical adventure. it also shows the hypocrisy of parents at this time, as they were against the hippie movement and the new drug culture. However they read books such as these which teach children the complete opposite. The last lyric, “Feed your Head” is sang twice to drive home the point they’re trying to make. One interpretation is that she’s trying to show the importance of education, as education is basically feeding your head with what to know. This also leads in to how when this generation of adults were younger, many parents fed their head with these sort of things.