Come on everybody, get up and dance..it won’t ruin ya

<<Who are they?? Google San Francisco “psychedelic bands” Most frequent results: Jefferson Airplane* Grateful Dead* Quicksilver Messenger Service* Big Brother and the Holding Company* Country Joe and the Fish The Charlatans* * In the photo by Jim Marshall, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 1967

What were they trying to do? There wasn’t a “psychedelic” template: 'We were folk musicians unable to resist the array of electric guitars in the front of the music store where we were working, and the possibilities, tonally. There was also classical music and jazz, Stravinsky and Coltrane. ' (Bob Weir, Grateful Dead) 'I didn't actually listen to much rock'n'roll, I preferred jazz and Ravel. ' (Gary Duncan, Quicksilver Messenger Service) 'The music was just another thing to do at the concert. Sometimes it was the least interesting thing - everything was exploding. ' (Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane)

Question: what is Psychedelic Music? Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs, most notably LSD. Typical elements: “Lengthy instrumental solos” – but what about Jazz? Child like lyrics? Eastern instruments? Backwards tapes? Phasing? Not much evidence in early SF bands

What did the SF bands set out to do? Look at band interviews: Just get up and play (repertoire – blues, folk) Dance: “Come on everybody....” Play where? Ballrooms – no accident – sprung floors “By spring of 1966 the dance craze was in full bloom”* “They came for the ambience, and the bands were a part of it” ** * Ralph J. Gleason The Jefferson Airplane and the San Francisco Sound, Ballantine Books, 1969 ** Chet Helms in Alice Echols: Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Virago Press, 2000

If not the music – then what?? The music was becoming “interesting”, but not overtly “psychedelic”. It was the multi media, multi dimensional culture and community: Availability of LSD (legal until October 66), the Acid Tests, Owsley Light shows Blurring of performer/audience boundaries Artwork – dance posters, album sleeves Clothes – tie dyes etc The community – Haight Ashbury

Posters and albums

Some bands proselytised... Jefferson Airplane – “Acid, incense and balloons” “You’ll never get this high if you try” White Rabbit – “Feed Your Head” Country Joe and Fish – the Acid Commercial (later) ...but was their music any more “psychedelic”?? Grateful Dead – surprisingly, no overt references Quicksilver and Big Brother – again, nothing overt

Some preferred booze!

And since?? Numerous bands since 1960s have been described as “psychedelic” But they had a template or label They knew about tapes and echoes and so forth - and studios and technology moved on exponentially The first generation SF bands would now be “jam bands”

A conclusion? ‘To younger ears, approaching this stuff for the first time, there is nothing remotely otherworldly about the vast majority of those west-coast bands who took shedloads of psychedelic drugs at the time. Dig beneath the paisley window dressing and the countercultural rhetoric and most of them sound like the folk bands they previously were and the country rock bands they were destined to become.’ What would you rather listen to? Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men”? Or some Fillmore jam band meandering their way through a Bo Diddley cast-off? I thought as much. From Rob Chapman, Psychedelia and other Colours, Faber, 200

The Acid Commercial Now if you're tired or a bit run down, Can't seem to getcha feet off the ground, Maybe you oughta try a little bit of LSD. (Only if you want to) Shake your head and rattle your brain, Make you act just a bit insane, Give you all the psychic energy you need — Eat flowers and kiss babies LSD, For you and meeeeee........! (Country Joe & the Fish “I Feel Like I’m Fixin to Die” LP 1967)

<<Wish I’d been there! Peter Smith europs01@yahoo.com