The Straight Edge Guide to Psychedelic Music

She suggested I make a playlist of songs that I would hypothetically want to get high while listening to—basically the perfect idea for a post.

Intro:

The man who invented the word Psychedelic was Humphry Osmond, a British Psychiatrist who first developed an interest in hallucinogenic drugs working at an Army Hospital after the Second World War. He was specifically interested in the ways these drugs mirrored schizophrenic symptoms. Because his colleagues weren’t on board with some of his ideas, Osmond took his research to Saskatchewan, Canada. This would be the place where he would begin to make interesting discoveries regarding the effects of LSD, mescaline and psilocybin mushrooms. It was still the early 1950s, most people had no idea this stuff even existed, and Osmond was beginning to enjoy using these drugs himself. Osmond's vision for these substances' potential use was quite large. As a psychiatrist, he was very aware of the underbelly of mental health issues, a problem people in authoritative positions were more than willing to sweep under the rug, and he saw Psychedelics as a potential tool for humanity to overcome that barrier.

When the 60s rolled around, Psychedelics began to proliferate around counter-cultural circles. This resulted in an enormous worldwide art and cultural movement which lasted until the mid-70s. Psychedelic music has been an interest of mine for quite some time. Although I will be the first to say that I have never used hallucinogenic drugs in my life, nor do I ever plan to, I have nevertheless developed a fascination with the music and culture that surround them. I’m fascinated with thinking about how music affects the mind. Psychedelic music essentially takes that a couple of steps further, hence my fascination with the genre. During the mid-60s, people in the Bay Area of San Francisco sought to understand how psychedelics affect the brain. Led by an author named Ken Kesey, they threw parties where they used light shows, films and music to see if they could enhance the Psychedelic experience. These were called the “Acid Tests”, and many of them involved an up-and-coming Psychedelic Folk band called The Warlocks. Later, The Warlocks would change their name to The Grateful Dead.

The impetus for this post actually came from the suggestion of a good friend of mine! She suggested I make a playlist of songs that I would hypothetically want to get high while listening to—basically the perfect idea for a post. I will say, however, that when I put together this list of songs I went against this suggestion a little bit. I’ll go into more detail later, but essentially what I’m saying is some of these songs might be a one-way stop to the most traumatic trip you’ve ever had. (Also, for legal purposes, I want to make it clear I don’t encourage anyone to use illegal drugs or to break the law in any way.)

Before I start delving into the songs I want to make a few things clear. Unlike my other song list posts, there is no real significance to the order. This isn’t a worst-to-best or favorite-to-most-favorite kind of list. Also, I restricted myself to only one song per artist. Otherwise, Miles Davis and The Grateful Dead would absolutely dominate this list. I didn’t give myself a limit for songs, and I reserve the right to return to this subject as often as I want. Like I said before, I’m never going to do drugs and I’m probably the worst person to ask for good tripping music. But if you want some fun Psychedelic songs to bring color into your sober life, this might be the playlist for you!

(Here’s a link to the playlist if you want to follow along!)

Annie - Mac Demarco

I begin this playlist with a fairly mild little tune. I know at the beginning I said I wasn’t going to put this list in any particular order, but first impressions are important! I didn’t want to start with a super freaky song, and trust me I have a few coming. This is a good song to dip your toes into, an easygoing ride across the lake. I initially wanted to include the song “Freaking Out the Neighborhood” from this same album, but if I’m being totally honest with myself, this is the trippier song by far. “Annie” is a true step forward for Mac Demarco, pushing his typical “cigarette music” vibes into a river of melty Psychedelia. Although “Annie” fits into the contemporary world of Psychedelic music, I feel it takes its cues more from the classic 60s interpretation. Rather than following the free-form organized chaos of Zappa or The Dead, or the explosivity of Hendrix or Cream, “Annie” feels more like the psychedelia of The Beatles. A song sweet as candy that melts into a pink sludge. It’s a great tune, and might just pair well with a careful selection of chemicals.

Funhouse - The Stooges

Ok, now we’re cooking with gas. The Stooges are an interesting band for a list like this because they’re most often thought of as a precursor to Punk Rock, a Proto Punk band if you will. If you don’t think that’s interesting that’s ok. I think it’s interesting because the Punk movement was birthed out of a rejection of the passivity of the Hippie Movement that preceded it. Bands like The Ramones or The New York Dolls were antithetical to the maximalist tendencies of many of the important Psychedelic bands of the time. The Stooges are a perfect middle ground in that sense. They took a pure raw energy that would later inform decades of Punk and Hardcore to come and fused it with wild experimentation. I initially learned about this album, also titled Funhouse, through an interview with Hardcore Punk legend Henry Rollins, where he shared a story of how he listened to the album on acid and how it changed his life. Personally, I would never recommend that. I feel like you’d go into shock if you went into “L.A. Blues” on hallucinogenics. If you’re feeling tough like Henry Rollins though, I’m not going to stop you.

The River - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

The Australian Psych Gods themselves! If you saw that this song was a little over 10 minutes long and immediately rolled your eyes, I gotta tell ya, you’re going to hate some of these songs. Before you write this song off, and some of the others as well, I would implore you to look deep inside yourself and make a thorough mental inventory. What’s so scary about a longer song? Is your attention span really so low? Are you willing to give what it takes to truly lose yourself in a piece of music? I personally love “The River”. It’s a top 5 Gizz song for me. I love it when they get into their Jam bag. KGATLW is great for many many reasons, but one reason in particular is their commitment to exploration. “The River” is one great example of many in the Gizz catalog, of the band’s willingness to give themselves up entirely to their performances, and to thoroughly explore every facet of the song. I’m sure listening to “The River” on acid would be an interesting experience. The tightness of the performances, the slick grooves and layers of instrumentation, would all make for a truly wild experience I’m sure. However, listening to this kind of music sober has given me a truly unique and powerful experience on its own. I willingly give myself, my time, my thoughts, to this epic journey of a song. I let it pull me in and out of familiar territory. I think Psychedelic experiences are bound to have varying levels of success, but listening to this song in its pure form proves to me that on doesn’t truly need drugs to enjoy this kind of music. You just need to be willing to let it sweep you away.

Sivad - Live at the Cellar Door, Washington, DC - December 1970 - Miles Davis

There are hundreds of Miles Davis songs that I could have included here on this list. Anything from Bitches Brew or On The Corner would’ve been great. In the end, I decided to include “Sivad” and I’m still not entirely sure why. Perhaps it’s because few songs in this vein of Jazz Fusion cover the kind of ground this song does. Perhaps it’s because I never get sick of listening to it, and every time I do I get something new out of it. If you’re new to Miles Davis, this might be a strange place for you to start. His work covers a plethora of different very important movements in Jazz. In the future, when I feel like I have a better understanding of the history of Jazz, I think a post focusing entirely on the work of Miles Davis would be awesome. Music like this is sort of difficult to describe, but if you want to have a truly wild experience with it, I’d encourage you to listen to “Sivad” multiple times, each time focusing your attention on a different instrument. (This is just a good practice in general if you want to get into Jazz.) As you continue to let this music flow around you, you’ll notice the subtle interplay between players, you’ll notice that there is an organization to this chaos, it’s like a massive wall of abstract paintings. It may seem disjointed at first, but the piece carries with it an intentionally crafted spirit. “Sivad” also represents an interesting precedent, one that I don’t believe has been truly emblematic of any song up to this point. That is; “Sivad” isn’t just music for people on drugs, it was made by people on drugs. Drugs in this case play to a general looseness in the performances. They also make the level of tightness all the more impressive.

Transdermal Celebration - Ween

Ok, we’ve spent enough time talking about some wild Odyssey songs, some truly wild sonic explorations. Let’s return now to something more digestible. Ween has tons of great songs that I think would fit well on this list, but “Transdermal Celebration”, which might also be my favorite Ween song, takes the cake for me. Not only does this song feature some of Deaner’s tastiest licks, but the way the song is produced creates an undeniable feeling of ascension. Especially when the song ultimately builds into one of my favorite short guitar solos of all time towards the end of the song, it’s truly one of my favorite moments in any song. I’m not quite sure what any of the lyrics mean in this song, that’s never been my favorite thing about Ween anyway. Gene’s angelic vocals paired with the sounds of airplanes taking off, is such an awesome vibe. “Transdermal Celebration” represents Ween at their best, in my opinion. It is a middle finger to anyone who won’t take them seriously as musicians. It represents Deaner’s tremendous growth as a riff writer and guitarist. I hope this song felt as triumphant for you as it always does for me, and I hope that it was a good palette cleanser for you as well. I love this song.

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix

Of course, it might have made more sense for me to just put “Voodoo Chile” on this list instead, but to do so would to betray everything this list is supposed to be. This is the first song on the list that messes around with sound panning techniques, which is an interesting way to mess with the sense for sure. But that’s not why I’m including it! (Well, it might be part of the reason why.) When think about what Psychedelic Rock is, this is almost always the first song that comes to mind. It takes the ideas from the Bluesier “Voodoo Chile” from earlier in the album, and cranks the soloing, cranks the distortion, cranks the nightmare vibes to 11. I don’t know what it’s like to be on drugs, but I feel like this song gets close. And it’s insanely heavy too! Hendrix was truly one of the greatest to ever do it, and if you had any doubt, this song will change that perspective for you real quick. When I think about what it is that I like about Psychedelic Rock I think of three things; innovation; pure instinct; and inhuman performances. This song has all of the above.

Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles

Yeah, I wasn’t about to make a list like this without including The Beatles. You could argue that Psychedelic Rock never would have existed without the experimentation and innovation of The Beatles. They forever changed the way music is recorded and pushed the limits of what artists were willing to do in the studio. I like to say that there are two types of people in the world: people who prefer The Beatles during the second half of the 60s and people who are wrong about most things. I’m not afraid to admit that The Beatles didn’t really start getting good until they started doing drugs. “Tomorrow Never Knows” is an excellent example of that. There are a few other Beatles songs that might seem more obvious to include such as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” or “Strawberry Fields Forever”, but I would never dare suggest those songs are trippier or more psychedelic than “Tomorrow Never Knows”. This song is absolutely bonkers. It’s totally ahead of its time. It’s crazy to think that in only a matter of three years, the sharp “Twist and Shout” boys would be making a mind-melting cacophony of such transcendental proportions as this.

Travelers II - Goose

This is one of a few entries into this list that made it hard to stick to my one-song-per-artist rule. As you can tell, it’s a sequel to another song. I like that song too, but it’s not until the second part that the soloing elevates into a different plane. For those of you uninitiated, Goose is a Jam Band following in the tradition of artists like The Grateful Dead and Phish. Speaking of Phish, I tried to convince myself to include a song from them in this list, but to be perfectly honest I still haven’t found it in me to get as into Phish as I am with the Dead. Goose, on the other hand, was extremely easy to get into. It also helps that they are still a relatively new band, so hopping on the bandwagon was all the more exciting. Normally I would try to find a live version of a song to include for a Jam Band, after all, it is the live shows that the fans truly care about. Furthermore, it would’ve highlighted one of Goose’s strong suits; their incredible live recording sound quality. However, in the case of Traveler II, I’m not keenly aware of any live performances of the song, and I felt satisfied including the studio version. If you take anything from this list, I hope it’s that you become a diehard Goose fan. Their live shows are incredible. Their studio albums are great too, which is rare for Jam Bands, and they’re still young and hungry. I challenge you to find a band that is this tight while maintaining a strong proclivity for improvisation and raw talent. If you want to get into some Jam Bands, but Phish and The Grateful Dead feel too “old” for you, I would highly recommend Goose.

Maggot Brain - Funkadelic

The 70s were nuts. Do you want to hear the greatest solo electric guitar performance ever recorded? This is it. I remember listening to this for the first time in like 2016 because I saw Donald Glover talking about it on an Amoeaba video and being wholly unprepared for the visceral, transcendent power of the first track, “Maggot Brain”. I think I heard a story once about the recording of this song, where the lead songwriter told the guitarist to play as if his mom had just died. Truthfully, I think that the emotion is being captured whether or not you knew that was the performer’s intention. My theory about Rock music essentially boils down to one crucial thing, and it’s the thing that connects all traditions of Rock. This one thing is what separates Rock from Pop or Jazz or Dance music. For Rock music, the priority lies in the giving of one’s self to the performance. In Pop it might be the giving of one’s self to the song, making the perfect song that will connect to the most amount of people. I think for Rock, it’s about perfecting the performer, not the song, giving oneself to the smallest details of the act of performing. I think this song sums that idea up for me, greater than any other.

Dark Star - Live in Veneta, Oregon 8/27/72 - Grateful Dead

If you thought I was being ridiculous with the 10 or 20 minute songs, or whatever, I hope you brought an extra pair of pants. The Grateful Dead is one of my favorite bands of all time, so it only made sense that they would make it somewhere on this list. In fact, I’d go so far as to say they are the pinnacle drug band of all time, and why shouldn’t they be? They pretty much represented Hippie Psychedelic culture for a while. They were there when Ken Kesey was orchestrating the “Acid Tests”. The main trouble for me was finding the right song to include. What better song to include than the elongated improvisational Jam that is “Dark Star”? I decided upon the Veneta 72 “Dark Star” mostly because it’s one of my favorite Dead shows, (I love the 72 Dead especially the Europe shows), and this is the first time I ever “clicked” with a “Dark Star”. As I’ve said before, I’ve never gotten high, but listening to this song while driving alone in my car one hot summer night was probably the closest I’ve ever come to a Psychedelic experience. I remember feeling like I could see colors and shapes that shouldn’t be there. It was like time disappeared and my mind collapsed in on itself. It was a truly meditative experience, one that I’ve been sure to return to when I can. The biggest problem with that is of course the track’s length. However, for anyone who is getting into the Grateful Dead, I highly, highly recommend listening to this show in full. With this song in particular though, I found it highly effective to listen closely to Phil Lesh’s bass lines in particular. I think this is some of his best playing ever. I was tempted to include the track that comes after this one as well, the song is a rendition of “El Paso”, nothing super special, but the lingering vibes from this particularly fiery, groovey, “Dark Star” jam lingers like a fog into the next song, and that in of itself is a uniquely cool feeling. As much as this song might be the greatest “chore” of the playlist, I promise it is also the most rewarding and the best for relistens. Like the Jimi Hendrix song and the Miles Davis song from earlier, it captures everything I want in a Psychedelic Rock song and it demonstrates unmatched levels of performing ability.

Starálfur - Sigur Rós

Allow me to assume for a moment that you ignored my parenthetical advice not to do drugs as you listened to these songs and the combination of “Funhouse”, “Sivad”, “Maggot Brain” and “Dark Star” have taken you to an unfamiliar place. As you marvel at the intense things you’ve seen you search desperately for a guide back to safety, like Beatrice guiding Dante beyond Purgatory and into Heaven. Although not explicitly “Psychedelic” I feel as if many of the excellent songs recorded by Icelandic Post Rock legends Sigur Rós are at least somewhat Psychedelic in spirit. That is, they exist to manifest the reality of the mind, carrying one’s soul from the darkest reaches to a bright, ethereal plane. This song was expertly placed at the bottom of the list for the sole purpose of carrying your mind, like an angel cloud in the sky, softly to the safety of the ground. Your mind which was once split, will now regain its sense. You will come back from your journey healed and stronger. You are safe now. Let Iceland’s cool rivers wash over your soul.

Conclusion:

Thank you for reading this post! I’m sorry if it ran a bit longer than usual. I’m especially sorry if it somehow made even less sense than usual. I figured a more loose, abstract approach to music criticism would make sense here. Feel free to comment below what are some of the songs you liked or hated, what I left out, and/or what I should write about next! You may have noticed I included no Pink Floyd or Tame Impala songs, among many of the other great Psychedelic artists out there. As I stated before, I reserve the right to return to this subject whenever I want. Maybe when I do part 2 it will have some Floyd on there, who knows? In the meantime, thanks for reading! I will be back next week with some more thoughts and opinions!

For want of advancements in techniques for treating mental illnesses with Psychedelics to create a preferable alternative to pharmaceuticals,

Lewis