they have the trippiest artwork and designs ever but i feel like the music doesn't 100% reflect that. Does not sound that colorful (Just to be clear i am not ****ting on the Grateful Dead lol)
I've only owned one of their albums "Anthem Of The Sun", supposedly their trippiest, but it wasn't trippy enough for me at the time. Though I must point that at that time, whilst psychedelic music was my passion, I hadn't yet taken any acid trips. My record collection got stolen before I got into doing acid, and whatever collection I had rebuilt by the time I did, didn't include the album. Shame really as it might have put a different complexion on it.
Listen to Anthem of the Sun from start to finish... that should count as psychedelic for sure. But no, they didn't stay that way. They didn't stay "folk" or "blues" either if you listen to something like Built to Last. The Dead certainly were fairly versatile and sometimes (particularly in the first 10-15 years) bored easily with what they were doing.
Jerry Garcia’s tone never stopped being psychedelic no matter the genre he was playing or his physical condition . It oozed from his fingers in colors I have never seen before or since. David Nelson and Robert Hunter are the only others I know capable of achieving such vivid psychedelia in their presence, David thru his b bender tele and Hunter his words, but I digress....
That is a very, very GOOD question and one I had myself at one time. I thought, where are the ragas and fuzztone guitars? Well you cannot go in expecting the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Their most trippy stuff is on Anthem of the Sun and Aoxomoxoa. Honorable mention to their first album (Morning Dew is very trippy) and Live Dead (Dark Star ...). After that they kind of departed from that sound although there was often a tinge of it lurking around. More so, Dead shows then and now can be very psychedelic. Some more than others. They jam extensively and their shows are characterized by "peaks and valleys" which, if you have ever dosed, are recreations of the trip experience. Acid Bluegrass by the Grateful Dead
Drums Space 1967-1968 period. Psychedela has, to some extent, become reduced to a series of caricatures/clichés. The Doors were considered to be a psychedelic band in the 1960s, for example.
The entire Aoxomoxoa album, original 1969 mix, is indeed very psychedelic. “Psych-folk” in places. Not that I’ve heard the original mix (As part of the 50th anniversary CD set) I’ve no idea why Jerry remixed it — and took away much of the trippiness — a couple of years later. Even the remix has some trippy moments, but hearing the original mix is like hearing a whole different album. Anyhow, Anthem of the Sun, Aoxoxomoxa and Live/Dead are all very psych. There would still be moments of it on later studio albums too, but onstage - even after bringing the folksier/Americana elements in - they still got extremely tripped out live. Plenty of performances of The Other One, Playing in the Band, and of course Dark Star prove that. And that’s hardly all. Lots of great jams, drums/space sequences, and other trippy delights through the years.
and there you go. OP question definitively answered. 10 out of 10 naked pole guys agree, GD 100% psychedelic.
My record listening whilst on acid definitely included The Doors. Not all music made for acid is freeform jams. There's lot's of different styles that work well.
I agree 100% - their music isn't psychedelic at all to me. I figure you need to take something to help it along.
The way they incorporated modality and Jerry's "smeared" phrasing when he soloed. It just sounded unusual and unbounded especially when you were not perfectly sober on whatever you were drinking or taking. They did not need the cliche' psych effects to sound trippy.
Oh I completely agree. I’m just saying the evolution of the subculture had a lot to do with the fact that the band and fan base had a direct source for the drug... Heads could expect to get dosed when attending a show.
Agreed, but I don't think that people generally think of the Doors as being psychedelic, today. Just a '60s rock band.
hmmmmm....just cuz someone took lots of drugs doesn't mean a band can be 'psychedelic'.....i couldn't just get past the idea that i have to be super-stoned and high to understand and enjoy ANY band.....just my opinion......
The term psychedelic originated as a name for the kind of drugs being used by people that made and listened to this kind of music. It was only applied to music by association later. When the Grateful Dead started playing in 65 Psychedelic Music was not a known genre or what they thought they were playing at the acid tests. It acquired that label later.
I've always assumed that Cream Puff War from their first studio album was considered a psychedelic rock masterpiece. Garcia's guitar solo on that song set the standard for the entire ill-defined genre. It seems like every documentary about the summer of love shows people dancing to this tune.
