Psychedelic Musicians in Rock and Roll
In 1967 the Beatles were in Abbey Road Studios putting the finishing touches on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. At one point Paul McCartney wandered down the corridor and heard what was then a new young band called Pink Floyd working on their hypnotic debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. He listened for a moment, then came rushing back. "Hey guys," he reputedly said, "There's a new band in there and they're gonna steal our thunder." With their mix of blues, music hall influences, Lewis Carroll references, and dissonant experimentation, Pink Floyd was one of the key bands of the 1960s psychedelic revolution, a pop culture movement that emerged with American and British rock, before sweeping through film, literature, and the visual arts. The music was largely inspired by hallucinogens, or so-called "mind-expanding" drugs such as marijuana and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide; "acid"), and attempted to recreate drug-induced states through the use of overdriven guitar, amplified feedback, and droning guitar motifs influenced by Eastern music. This psychedelic consciousness was seeded, in the United States, by countercultural gurus such as Dr. Timothy Leary, a Harvard University professor who began researching LSD as a tool of self-discovery from 1960, and writer Ken Kesey who with his Merry Pranksters staged Acid Tests--multimedia "happenings" set to the music of the Warlocks (later the Grateful Dead) and documented by novelist Tom Wolfe in the literary classic The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)--and traversed the country during the mid-1960s on a kaleidoscope-colored school bus. "Everybody felt the '60s were a breakthrough. There was exploration of sexual freedom and [...
... middle of paper ...
...Control, and Tone Soul Evolution (1997) by the Apples In Stereo. The British group Spiritualized, with Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (1997), explored the merger of Pink Floyd-style interstellar overdrives with free jazz and gospel music. Gospel music, you ask? Yes, indeed. A final dimension of psychedelia, from the Greek etymology, is "soul-manifesting"--implying a spiritual dimension that is rarely voiced (though it is worth remembering that Brian Wilson spoke of writing "teenage symphonies to God"). By transcending the ordinary, psychedelic musicians and their listeners attempt to connect with something deeper, more profound, and more beautiful. As Jerry Garcia, guru of the Grateful Dead, once said, "Rock 'n' roll provides what the church provided for in other generations." And no form of rock music attempts to nourish more souls than psychedelia.
The Beatles were introduced to the amphetamine, Preludin during their time in Hamburg. This allowed them to have sustaining focus and vitality. This became very beneficial, as they were able to perform with such energy as if each performance was fresh and new. It became a sort of survival for the band to have a
mother, Ruth, brought him to live with her at a sailor's hotel and bar that she
Ken Kesey and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. & nbsp; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with its meaningful message of individualism, was an extremely influential novel during the 1960's. In addition, its author, Ken Kesey, played a significant role in the development of the counterculture of the 60's. This included all people who did not conform to the. society's standards, experimented in drugs, and just lived their lives in an unconventional manner. Ken Kesey had many significant experiences that enabled him to create One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. As a result of his entrance into the creative writing program at Stanford University in 1959 (Ken 1), Kesey moved to Perry Lane in Menlo Park. It was there that he and other writers first experimented with psychedelic drugs. After living at Perry Lane for a while. Kesey's friend, Vik Lovell, informed him about experiments at a local V.A. hospital in which volunteers were paid to take mind-altering drugs (Wolfe 321). Kesey's experiences at the hospital were his first step towards writing Cuckoo's.
Many people from the 1900’s contributed to the evolution of the history of rock and roll. However, Jimi Hendrix was the rock legend who changed the way music was made and he raised the bar for the rest of the music industry. Jimi was born in 1942, in Seattle, Washington, he had a difficult childhood, being raised by a young mom who had Jimi at seventeen and a dad who eventually left and started another family, he was often left living with relatives. He only saw his mom a few times before she eventually died in 1958. In many ways music became a sanctuary for Jimi since he grew up not having much. Jimi loved blues and rock and roll and when he was sixteen Jimi got his first acoustic guitar and taught himself how to play. Shortly after he began
I believe that the west coast psychedelic music, such as Jimi Hendrix’s "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" in 1968, played a huge part in the Counter Culture movement. This musical piece by Jimi Hendrix embodies the West Coas...
He died 26 years ago this week in a London hotel room, with a girlfriend who couldn't make up her mind to call an ambulance. James Marshall Hendrix had ingested nine German sleeping pills, some wine, and a meal of brown rice. He was 27 years old.
Leary had a belief that LSD showed improvements in therapy, that the human mind would expand and there would be personal truth. During the hippie movement he was constantly arrested and was known as “-in the words of President Richard Nixon - “the most dangerous man in America”” (Bliss Jim, “The death of Timothy Leary, ‘The most dangerous man in America’”). Later in 1995, Leary was diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer. And then in 1996, he died lying in bed with his friends. Another group of influential leaders to the youth movement was The Beatles.
1) Title of Book: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test 2) Author: Tom Wolfe 3) The grounds on which Thomas Wolfe created this documentation of the Merry Pranksters is that he attempts to re-create both the mental and physical atmosphere of their adventure and exploration across America. 4) Specific evidence in supporting the aforementioned thesis can be found in the “Author’s Note” section of the book but also in the writing style used to develop this masterpiece. Writing in a basic journal style, Wolfe documented the extraordinary life style lived by the Pranksters through personal experiences with them as well as transcribing their adventures that were captured on both film and tape. 5) Tom Wolfe, with his journalist style of transcribing the current events, seems hard-pressed to be categorized into a specific group of historians, but he can be most noticeably associated with the New Left. This is because The New Left dealt mainly with the social and economic movements of the 1960’and 70’s, and the Psychedelic movement Wolfe documented so well was definitely a social movement of the infamous 1960’s. 6) Tom Wolfe grew up in the land of Richmond, Virginia. He eventually graduated from Washington and Lee University, and later received a doctorate in American Studies from Yale. Besides being a novelist, Wolfe has worked as a reporter for the Springfield Union, The Washington Post, and the New York Herald Tribune. Some of his writings have also appeared in New York Magazine, Esqu...
Heroin was originally synthesized in 1874 by a man named C.R Alder Wright. Created as a solution to opium, a drug that had plagued many American households. It was originally produced for medical purposes evidently becoming highly addictive. Heroin “... was originally marketed as a non-addictive substance” (“History of Addiction”) which inevitably increased its popularity. It became especially popular in places of poverty. Heroin became a solution to struggle. So common it was almost as if heroin was a prescribed medicine for hardship. Known as “[a] treatment of many illnesses and pain” (“A brief history of addiction”) but later revealed that it caused more harm than good. Being so easily accessible it became immensely common among musicians.
Beginning with the late 1960’s counterculture in San Francisco, music and drugs will forever be inter-linked. Hippie bands such as the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and Phish are associated with marijuana, mushrooms, and LSD. Modern electronic “rave” , or club music is associated with MDMA or Ecstasy. When one thinks of rock and roll, sex and drugs immediately come to mind. While the use of drugs is not essential for the creation or performance of all new music, it was certainly in important factor for the counterculture music of the late 1960’s. While some of the most important and influential music was made with the help of psychoactive drugs, it was often to the detriment of the artist. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and countless other tremendously talented artists had their lives cut short due to drug use. Drugs were most often good for the music, but deadly for the music makers.
The United States, during the 1960’s was a very progressive time for our country; the way people lived there life changed dramatically and has not been the same since. The sixties counterculture is the leading role in this progressive time period; from a wide spread of drug use, to the British invasion of music, and very importantly, feminism. After the Korean War, the CIA came across information that prisoners were being brainwashed with a “truth serum.” They acted quickly and started during human research; the research was called MKULTRA. They gave LSD and other hallucinogens to their test subjects. After the research was finished, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, started doing testing of their own; this testing included close friends and family. The popularization came from their, acid tests, which included many more people. Following the new drug scene, it played an important role in music. The sixties changed the classical rock the new psychedelic rock. This new form of music came from the drug use and people wanting art music, versus the normal rock. The first large wave of feminism came from the flappers; in the sixties the second wave came and it was larger...
Jerry Garcia’s life was filled with wonderful things, many of which he never expected in the first place. After an almost fatal heroin overdose in 1986, “ Garcia philosophically stated, ‘ I’m 45 years old, I’m ready for anything, I didn’t even plan on living this long so all this shit is just add-on stuff.’ ” (“Garcia”) This attitude shows why Garcia did all of the things he did and even how some of them came about. Garcia, who “functioned as the preeminent pied piper of the rock era,” led a life of great artistic ability which he used in many ways(“Grateful Dead_ Rockhall”).
In 1960 professor Timothy Leary urged people to try the drug LSD. Leary thought that it could help people therapeutically and he saw many benefits in the usage of the drug. LSD was first available in tablet form but when it became illegal people began to use it in other forms such as liquid acid which was taken orally, through the eyes or mucous membrane or mixed with other drugs such as marijuana.
Growing up, Ken Kesey lived in Oregon with his family. When he grew older, he attended Stanford University in the 1960’s. While attending the college, he was offered a chance to partake in a government experiment and earn extra money. The medical experiment was on the use of hallucinogenic drugs and the effects that they had on the human mind. During the time of the experiment, Kesey took various mind-altering drugs such as LSD. The newly introduced drug allowed for Kesey to have unique experiences and perceive the world in a different manner (Vitale).
Wesson, Donald R. "Psychedelic Drugs, Hippie Counterculture, Speed And Phenobarbital Treatment Of Sedative-Hypnotic Dependence: A Journey To The Haight Ashbury In The Sixties." Journal Of Psychoactive Drugs 2 (2011): 153. Academic OneFile. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.