Psychedelics, like all drugs, are rendered more dangerous by virtue of being illegal. In the 70's I never had a clue what I had taken really, or how strong it was. Far and away the safest option for anyone wishing to trip was to take mushrooms, as long as you were 100% sure you were picking the right ones. Even they are illegal now, which adds a frisson of danger that isn't there is the actual drug
You know, as a pretty dedicated follower of the Jefferson Airplane I thought that through the years they remained sane, logical, and pretty much unaffected in any negative ways by all the acid they took.
Thanks to this thread I have been listening to lots of JA, Donovan, Dead, and some early Jethro Tull over the past few days.
How exactly is Hank Williams 'country'? How exactly is Woody Guthrie 'folk'? How exactly is Robert Johnson 'blues'? How exactly is Kraftwerk 'electronic'?
No one has mentioned that the OP gives 8/27/72 a try… …get naked, drink water, turn on your heater and take trip with this one. Dang.
Its small flourishes and an attitude that makes it psychedelic along with those free flowing jams into space. It is similar to people saying Led Zeppelin were not psychedelic when they were very much so. Besides in the early days they all were tripped out of their minds playing along as the audience were also.
The Dead were (are?) at the heart of psychedelic culture. As others have said, what the music sounds like isn’t really relevant. The band, and maybe even more so their fans, carried psychedelic culture through the decades. Where did my friends get a sheet of acid in the late ‘80s? The parking lot of the Hampton Coliseum before a Dead show, of course.
Food for thought - “This Is It” by Alan Watts. The first “psychedelic” recording (1962) for Western ears? ALAN WATTS - This Is IT
Maybe a fun diversion from this can be all the “experienced” people telling the “non experienced” people the vast variety of stuff you have listened to while out there that is also most certainly NOT “psychedelic” music. I can start, and what made me think of it was one of the peoples demise today: MAGIC by Olivia Newton John and 9-to-5 from Dolly. I had a buddy who was really into finding weird stuff, and he fancied girl singers. He blew all our minds that night. Those two girls aren’t human. Nope. Sorry. But they are both very psychedelic. …just saying.
There is no such thing as psychedelic music. But when you're tripping all music is psychedelic. It's a state of mind, not an adjective.
Would you call Pink Floyd psychedelic band, because they started that way and their first album was psychedelia? Is Grateful Dead a country & western band?
On the other hand some artists intentionally make music that is written/ mixed/ produced with a psychedelic state in mind . So I would argue there is definitely 'psychedelic music' as a genre/ descriptor.
After buying several GD albums, I have wondered this myself. If they ever were psychedelic they sure dropped it like a hot potato. LSD, a substance that absolutely should be decriminalized is what you must be referring to.
I think if you hear just about ANY music when you are tripping it becomes “psychedelic.” I remember tripping on something (probably shrooms as I am from Oregon) when Highway To Hell first hit. I will always associate Beating Around The Bush with a drug trip. Probably why the Dead are considered such.....the whole audience was blasted.
I heard that when Pink Floyd with Syd played in CA in 67 they were disappointed that so many of these bands they had heard about were essentially just blues jam bands. I've always felt The Byrds were 10 times more psychadelic sounding than Grateful Dead. But I've always leaned more towards English psych and it's whimsey than the American version.
I think their work smells of acid or at least strong grass. Not just the early stuff. Take Blues for Allah. This just makes me think of chilled out summery days. Good for relaxing to in whatever way people find best. Yes its psychedelic. Mind opening, expanding. Positive vibes.
@HolyRoller It was May 6, 1990... at a soccer field in Carson, CA... in the southern part of LA. The parking lot was mostly dirt and weeds, IIRC. When I arrived I was a devout Pink Floyd fan who was scared to death of LSD. I had ZERO desire to see the Dead, and zero interest in the music I had heard from them to that point. I was into "psychedelic music"... Floyd, Hendrix, the Doors, I had no need for this two bit country rock band. None at all. The only reasons I went was that my buddy bought ten tickets and I didn't want him stuck with 'em all, and he said it would be a hell of a party AND the best 'people watching' in the world. Once we walked around the parking lot for an hour or so, it was clear that I was missing something. What did this lousy band with its lousier music have in common with some of the most hippie people I had ever laid eyes on? What the hell? I tried for several hours to figure out what the hell was going on, and it hit me. This scene was moving at a different pace than other scenes I had partaken in. There was clearly an "X Factor" that I was missing. Somehow, after being scarred of LSD for several years, I was fairly determined to try it. Me and a friend split one dose. An hour later we were all giggles and having a great time. Like teenage boys are want to do, once we were having so much fun you know what is always more fun? Being even more high... so we split another dose. Naturally, 2 minutes after the other half was on my tongue the intensity kicked in. I still to this day, wish I would have stuck with the smaller dose. But, I survived. We took a long and winding dusty access road up to the field where the show was to happen. It was hot as hell... even 10 miles from the beach it was clearly going to be a 100 degree day, and it was a 2pm start. We found a nice spot to spread a blanket out halfway back on Garcias side (I had no idea what that meant). Then the band came out. The crowd did not freak out and erupt into a surge of applause or anything... they just stood up and gently clapped. The band... lol, the band seemed to tune up for 5 minutes or so, making hellishly weird sounds while doing so. After that, they left the stage. I looked at a friend, amazed that they would dare come out and tease the crowd like that. "Its over?" I asked. "No its intermission" my friend replied. "Intermission? What? They just came out and made weird noises for a few minutes... and that was a set?" My friend looked at me, very confused... people around us giggled at me. "Dave... they played for an hour just now... like 10 songs" I looked at him like he was nuts. He looked at me like I was nuts. It was nuts. Intermission was a good chance for me to explore things that I rarely thought about. Like gravity... its really heavy, man. And the sun... shouldnt stare at it for too long. And this breathing thing that we do... its like, automatic. And... yeah. The band came out for its second set and I paid a little more attention. There seemed to be three drummers up there... maybe 4 (nope, just two), and there seemed to be fire coming from somewhere near them, since I could see flames reflecting in the cymbals. And the bass... damn, I had never heard bass like that. Such deep and long sustained notes. And then the noises they made somewhat coaleased into a groove. A groove I knew... this was, Iko Iko? Yeah, that's what I needed. I needed to hear something familiar. Something that sounded like music. Something... and it really was something. The song swirled around the field. The music seemed to originate out of the stack of speakers closest to us, fly around the field twisting and turning, only to be sucked into the stack at the opposite side of the field, regenerated, and thrown right back out again on our side. It was really a weird thing. I "had my stuff together" a lot more during set 2... much more aware. Every bit as high, just able to utilize the energy that I was creating. I got thirsty and my buddy took me back to get some water. On the way there... my first real movement of the show, we encountered a large group of people gathered around watching what I thought was a fight (thats what fights looked like at high school)... it was a group of fully naked people dancing their ass off without a care in the world, dust kicking up and coating their naked and sweaty bodies. After we got water I noticed a guy with a huge (3 feet?) crystal in his hand. I marveled at it. He appreciated my appreciation. There was no words spoken... just knowing nods and grins. I then asked him if I could hold it, and he told me "I cant let you do that..." and I was starting to feel untrusted, like he thought I would run away with it or drop it. He then turned the crystal over and I saw that it was worn away where his fingers held it. I lunged backwards. This guy had been holding this thing in his hand since the dawn of time and he truly couldnt let go. Too weird, I walked back to our blanket and was determined to never talk to another human again until I felt regular again. The show had many highlights, most of which I only learned about years later when I got the tapes. The stuff I do remember was Iko, the Other One (comin around!!!!... and I was, finally) and Throwing Stones. For the encore they busted out some Stones and I felt as if my intergalactic flight was coming to an end. And it was. Well, that day it ended. But something happened that day. I had been mystified, scarred, heat stroked, exilirated, confused, enlightened and just about every other emotion you could feel. I couldnt shake what had happened to me in that place. I couldnt figure out if it had actually happened. Tried the stuff at home a few times, it was nothing like that day in the sun with the Dead. So, naturally, when they came back I had to go. By then, I had immeresed myself into the music and knew 85% of the songs they were playing, but was still astounded how much the songs changed. Astounded that i was so lucky to be able to experience this thing that I couldnt explain. Everything that happened that first day, the inexplicable stuff... it happened again! It was like... dare I say, some kind of... magic, or something. Right?? I felt so priviledged to have been able to do what it is that we did... that day, and for 100+ future days and nights. That day was 32 years ago... I always have preffered to think about that day on "this day" Jerry Garcia sacrificed himself for our entertainment... and I am so very thankful that he did that for us.
Steal Your Field. I was there. Fantastic show. Timothy Leary and Rolling Thunder were sitting just offstage clearly visible. You took your first trip with Tim Leary and a Native American shaman present.
Terrence McKenna was also there. It was a psychedelic summit meeting. Some good recollections of that day on Archive, in the comments under the show. Internet Archive links dont work but if you cut and paste the following: gd90-05-06.sbd.wiley.11661.sbeok.shnf into google , first hit is goid recording on Internet Archive, bunch of discussion by attendees
