There are lots of places that the origins of 'psychedelia' might be found going right back to the Transcendentalist Movement and the publication of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay 'Nature' in 1836. From that point onwards a host of scientists, politicians, poets, authors, artists and musicians came to prominence promoting alternative lifestyles - sometimes finding meaning and inspiration in the use of narcotic substances.
Although marijuana was popular, the particular hallucinogenic drug most closely associated with psychedelia is lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as 'LSD'. Developed as a possible treatment for psychiatric illness by Sandoz Laboratories in 1938, by the time it was finally outlawed in the United States in October 1966 it was the recreational drug of choice for the hippie counterculture and the psychedelic music scene surrounding it.
Two figures in particular were responsible for connecting the drug to a generation. In the late-50s young writer Ken Kesey volunteered to take part in a government research program involving the use of hallucinogenic drugs including LSD. This experience led him to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) and eventually an entourage known as the Merry Pranksters formed around him. The Pranksters were the original hippies, laying the non-conformist platform for the dress fashions (or lack of them), peaceful political resistance and psychedelic drug culture that would define the flower power generation.
Beginning in 1961 as a legitimate Harvard mental health researcher, by the mid-60s Dr Timothy Leary had been tossed from the mainstream and become a counterculture guru. His legendary early-60s scientific experiments with LSD morphed into a controversial spiritual movement. In 1964 he co-authored the book The Psychedelic Experience which promoted the use of hallucinogenic drugs: "Of course, the drug does not produce the transcendent experience. It merely acts as a chemical key - it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures." Trouble with the law was brewing and Leary became a generation figurehead, coining the hippie counterculture mantra "Turn on, tune in, drop out" in late-1966.
From a musical perspective psychedelia was already starting to bloom well before the culture that would propel it had established its identity. In the US it began around 1965 with some of the garage bands experimenting with multitrack studio technology, sound effects and distortion. Their increasingly trippy sounds had a direct influence on the psychedelia that grew out of the folk scene in San Francisco and spread throughout the world. By 1966 big name bands like the Beach Boys and the Byrds were already dabbling in psychedelia. Over in the UK somewhere in between the mods and psychedelia in about 1965-66 there was a wave of music later described as 'freakbeat'. A typical setup involved a four-piece band using studio techniques to create a grungy sort of beat music.
Then in August 1966 the Beatles released 'Tomorrow Never Knows' on their classic album Revolver. Reputedly based on one of John Lennon's first profound acid trips the song features guitars played backwards, a droning sitar, a hypnotic drumbeat and tripped-out vocals recalling The Tibetan Book of the Dead. One look at the album's cover art gave a clear indication that the Beatles were about to head in a decidedly psychedelic direction. With the prototype for psychedelia in place all that was lacking was a place and time for it all to come together.
In late-1966 San Francisco a vibrant psychedelic music scene had emerged in legendary clubs like Fillmore West and the Avalon Ballroom. Bands such as the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane were notorious for their live acts featuring extended jams and trippy dance music. When the Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow album and the single 'Somebody to Love' hit it big, 1967's 'Summer of Love' was virtually unstoppable.
'Love-Ins' became the order of the day, with an estimated 100,000 young people from all over the world flocking to the city's Haight-Ashbury district. Most went home or back to college by summer's end, but the seeds had been sown. Free love, flower power and the psychedelic experience was a happening thing.
There were several other important developments to come out of the Summer of Love. The counterculture found a voice in the Oracle, a tabloid first published in September 1966 aiming to present its readers "...a rainbow of beauty and words ringing with truth and transcendence." An early cover featured a psychedelic rending of counterculture icons Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Alan Watts and Gary Snyder.
Also important was the staging of Monterey Pop, the world's first major rock festival. Over 200,000 people attended over three days with the lineup including almost all of the top psychedelic artists of the time. Although Woodstock was much bigger, by late-1969 when it was held psychedelia was already on the wane.
In terms of the music, in 1966 a hit single was what every band aimed for, but the rise of high fidelity stereo FM radio stations opened up a world of opportunities for less-commercial album-oriented music to gain a foothold. Extended jams and 'concept albums' became commonplace. In April '67 Country Joe & the Fish released Electric Music for the Mind and Body which utilised fairly simple studio techniques to produce a tripped-out sound that set the tone for much of what was to come.
Late in 1967 the Airplane released After Bathing at Baxter's - an "out there" piece of psych experimentalism that broke the commercial mould and ushered in an era of big-name artists making "serious music". The album took four months to make and, with no obvious single in sight, tested the patience of RCA records. A trend had begun and album sales would eventually overtake singles in terms of importance in the marketplace.
Although the US east coast eventually jumped on the psychedelia bandwagon, a stranger and darker slice of 60s pop culture was already in full swing by late-1966. Pop artist and avant-garde filmmaker Andy Warhol was at the centre of a cultural community that included Lou Reed's band the Velvet Underground. Warhol provided the banana cover art for the band's debut album from December 1966.
The Velvets were an integral part of Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable art show. New York was, however, a world away from San Francisco in both art and culture. While the hippie counterculture thrived after the Summer of Love, the degree of its cross-pollination with the underground scene remains markedly unclear.
The other notable early psychedelic scene in the US happened in Texas. Like the Velvets, Roky Erickson and his legendary band the 13th Floor Elevators never achieved significant commercial success. Live shows in Austin featuring psychedelic bands and Houston's International Artists considerably eclectic stable of psych-trippers placed Texas at the forefront of the musical side of the emerging counterculture. The Elevators Psychedelic Sounds from August 1966 is a landmark of the genre.
In the UK folk-rocker Donovan can be credited with the first overtly psychedelic pop single in 'Sunshine Superman' from mid-1966. As the use of phase-shifting, distortion and other sound effects became more sophisticated, during 1967-68 psychedelia emerged as one of the dominant trends in British rock music. Without the benefit of a vibrant FM radio scene however, UK psychedelia was still extremely hit-conscious. As a result, the artists that achieved recognition in America were afforded creative opportunities not available to those working exclusively in the British market. Subsequently, psychedelia from UK artists confined to the local market tended towards tighter production and shorter tracks with the emphasis on popular appeal.
As well as giving Jimi Hendrix his start, British psychedelia would ultimately produce several timeless classics - such as the mad genius of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd's debut Piper at the Gates of Dawn, S.F. Sorrow by the Pretty Things and Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces. In America the Doors featuring Jim Morrison would achieve tremendous popular success and Love's Forever Changes would become a certifiable classic of the genre. By 1969, however, psychedelia had almost run its brief course.
Between the civil rights and antiwar movements the 60s were heading towards a tumultuous end in the United States. The Woodstock festival would become the penultimate "I was there" event of the decade. Psychedelia meanwhile gave way to a new wave of commercialism, mainly in the form of art rock and 'prog-rock'.
The 70s began with America's slow capitulation in Vietnam. A presidential scandal followed, with economic recession not far behind. With so many worried about their jobs, social progress virtually ground to a halt. It can be argued that this was very much reflected in the music of the day. Britain, in particular, hit tough economic
Many saw prog-rock as an often indulgent and excessive kind of music. Strip away the arty surface and little of true meaning could be found beneath. It was all art for art's sake. The punk music scene that developed around CBGB's nightclub in New York in the mid-70s was very much a reaction to the lifeless music appearing on the charts. Meanwhile, with the UK in the throes of ultra-conservative political dominance many of the nation's youths were searching for a way to rebel. Ramones gigs in London in July 1976 proved to be the catalyst for the convergence of the UK punk scene, with the Sex Pistols and the Clash leading the way. A psychedelic revival was not too far behind.
A trio of guitar-based 1980 albums by British bands Echo & the Bunnymen, the Soft Boys and the Teardrop Explodes put psych firmly back on the agenda. By the mid-80s in Los Angeles the 'paisley underground' would develop around bands like Rain Parade, the Bangles (see right), the Dream Syndicate and the Three O'Clock. Rather than any social movement, however, it was the rise of 'new wave' music in general and the emergence of an alternative music scene that provided the impetus. To a large degree these bands simply mimicked their 60s heroes, both in music and fashion.
By the late-80s 'designer drug' ecstasy was becoming popular with many young people. Its arrival in Manchester gave rise to a whole new youth culture. The 'Madchester' scene revolved around drug-fuelled 'raves' at clubs like the Haçienda. Club DJ Dave Haslam noted: "Ecstasy use changed clubs forever - a night at the Haçienda went from being a great night out, to an intense, life changing experience". Madchester's leading bands - the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays - were still 60s-inspired, but their tripped-out guitar-based delivery was also uniquely original. From this point onwards a wide array of musicians would unite under the 'neo-psychedelia' umbrella.
Today communities of artists and musicians with psychedelic leanings can spring up almost anywhere. For the most part, however, neo-psychedelic music is the domain of isolated artists and bands who, at the very least, share some common elements of sound and fashion. More often than not they also adopt the psych philosophy and lifestyle. It can range from heavy metal to delicate folk and all points in between. For many of us the spirit of the Summer of Love lives on in all of it.
