Professor Mikey here, going through boxes of forgotten psychedelic gems. There’s a little bit of everything: RUBIES, diamonds, sapphires.
No sooner had the garage phase of rock and roll kicked in when it was joined in an electrical romance by the sounds of psychedelia. Mind bending songs of fever dreams and mutated fairy tales took up their own hallucinogenic airspace. Artists expanded their horizons with kaleidoscopic under the counter pharmaceuticals.
The mind blowing effects of LSD, mescaline, magic mushrooms, and what ever else might bend reality altered normal brainwaves into fountains of color and memory. The stars became a dot to dot puzzle and the consciousness expanding less than legal substances connected the dots.
Before we overdose on the introduction, self realize that this is not a history of psychedelics, its just a walk in the wobbly woods. From late 1966 until half past Woodstock, music in general got a synthetic kick in these very personal moonlight serenades.
Author Michael Hicks explained :
“To understand what makes music stylistically “psychedelic,” one should consider three fundamental effects of LSD: dechronicization, depersonalization, and dynamization.
Dechronicization permits the drug user to move outside of conventional perceptions of time. Depersonalization allows the user to lose the self and gain an “awareness of undifferentiated unity.” Dynamization, as [Timothy] Leary wrote, makes everything from floors to lamps seem to bend, as “familiar forms dissolve into moving, dancing structures”... Music that is truly “psychedelic” mimics these three effects.
pSYCHEDELIC cEREMONY pLaYLiSt
is everybody in? the doors with william burroughs
my crystal spider sweetwater
LSD / midnight to six man the pretty things
No silver bird the hooterville trolley
Valleys of neptune jimi hendrix
Magic colors teddy robin and the playboys
My mirage iron butterfly
Matilda Mother pink floyd
parallelograms linda perhacs
the red telephone love
two heads jefferson airplane
the sounds ten years after
a thousand shadows the seeds
psychedelic shack the temptations
itchycoo park small faces
Music created under the influence of LSD and other psychedelic drugs—primarily known as psychedelic rock or acid rock—is designed to replicate, enhance, and mirror the altered states of consciousness induced by these substances.
Technically and stylistically, this music is described by several core characteristics:
Musicians used cutting-edge production to mimic the sensory effects of a “trip,” such as depersonalization and dechronicization (the bending of time).
Layered Audio Effects: Frequent use of extreme reverb, phasing, flanging, and echo to create swirling, disorienting soundscapes.
Tape Manipulation: Use of backward tape loops and reverse recording to create surreal, dreamlike atmospheres (notably in The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”).
Panning: Moving sound aggressively from one side of the stereo track to the other to create an immersive, moving “soundstage”.
Psychedelic music often incorporates non-traditional or electronic instruments to expand the listener’s sonic reality.
Electric Guitar Effects: Heavy use of feedback, fuzzboxes, and wah-wah pedals.
Exotic Influences: Integration of Indian classical instruments like the sitar and tabla to provide “Eastern flavors” and drone-like textures.
Early Synthesis: Use of keyboard instruments like the Mellotron (an early sampler), the theremin, and electronic organs to provide haunting or “trippy” textures.
The music often departs from standard 3-minute pop formulas.
Fluid Structures: Abandonment of traditional verse-chorus-bridge formats in favor of disjunctive or free-form arrangements.
Extended Improvisation: Lengthy, “rambling” instrumental jams and solos (central to bands like the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd) that allow for musical exploration.
Tempo and Key Changes: Sudden shifts in rhythm and unconventional time signatures meant to create a sense of instability or “vibrant textures”.
Lyrics often diverge from straightforward narratives to explore the internal landscape.
Abstract and Surreal: Use of whimsical, esoteric, or dreamlike imagery that often alludes to the drug experience itself.
Literary Inspiration: Many songs drew from authors like Aldous Huxley or Timothy Leary (whose The Psychedelic Experience manual heavily influenced The Beatles).
Philosophical Focus: Exploration of inner consciousness, social transformation, and a sense of “unity” or “interconnectedness”
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Psychedelic Ceremony on Old School. The previous hour or whatever it eventually ended up being was not intended to endorse or condemn hallucinogenic drugs, but rather to explore some of songs that were heavily influenced by this mystery trend, mostly of the late 60s. I find the edgy, weird, and a lot of fun so if you have some favorites you would like to hear on a sequel sometime, interact. Like Old School wherever it is coming to you from, that’s always a big help, costs nothing, and it won’t jam your inbox. The original podcast can always be heard on my Substack that can be found at professormikey.substack.com, where you can subscribe for free or whatever seems reasonable. From there it branches out like a little bottle on an electronic ocean and can usually be found on YouTube unless there is a copyright strike, Substack, Apple, and many of the other excellent platforms that are out there. Your interaction is always appreciated, thanks for digging on the music with me. We are going to close this particular ceremony with a song different from many that we just heard in that it was a bonafide Top 40 Hit and you never get tired of a romp in Itchycoo Park with the Small Faces. Take care, beware and we will be talking at you next time from Professor Mikey’s Old School.
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