Psychedelic Rock in 1969

Psychedelic Rock in 1969 was a time of great change and experimentation in the music world. Bands like The Beatles and The Doors were pushing the boundaries of what was possible with rock music, and psychedelic drugs played a big role in this. If you’re a fan of psychedelic rock, then this is the blog for you! We’ll explore the history of this genre and the bands that made it what it is today.

The Birth of Psychedelic Rock

Psychedelic rock, also referred to as psychedelia, is a diverse style of rock music that originated in the mid-1960s.Psychedelic rock is distinguished by distorted guitars, mind-altering lyrics, and extended improvisation. The genre developed during the height of the psychedelic movement and was influenced by a number of factors, including the drug culture of the time.

The Beatles and the psychedelic sound

The Beatles were the first band to bring the now signature psychedelic rock sound to a mainstream audience with their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. This album is widely considered one of the most important and influential albums of all time, and it is frequently cited as the point at which the Beatles began to experiment with new sounds and explore new musical territory.

Psychedelic rock bands began to emerge in the wake of the Beatles’ success, and by 1969 there was a full-fledged psychedelic rock scene centered around London’s club circuit. Key figures in this scene included Pink Floyd, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin. These bands took the basic sound of Sgt. Pepper’s and ran with it, expanding on the possibilities of what could be done with psychedelic rock music.

The Rolling Stones’ album Beggars Banquet is often seen as a high point for psychedelic rock; it features some of the band’s most experimental music, including the iconic track “Sympathy for the Devil.” Led Zeppelin’s debut album also contains elements of psychedelia, particularly in the song “Dazed and Confused.”

By 1969, psychedelic rock had spread beyond Britain and was beginning to take root in America. The Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix were two of the most prominent American exponents of the style. Hendrix in particular was influential in pushing psychedelic rock towards its more extreme possibilities, as evidenced by his groundbreaking performance at Woodstock.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

In the early hours of November 27, 1967, reporter Tom Wolfe boarded a Greyhound bus in San Francisco bound for Los Angeles. He was on his way to meet with Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and his band of Merry Pranksters. The two had struck up a friendship after Wolfe wrote an article about Kesey for The New York Herald Tribune.

The Pranksters were in the midst of a cross-country bus trip they called the “Magical Mystery Tour,” and Wolfe wanted to join them for a time. He planned to write about their exploits for Esquire magazine.

On board the bus, Wolfe met Neal Cassady, who drove the Pranksters on their journey across America. Cassady was legendary for his drug use and sexual escapades, and he would serve as the basis for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.

The Pranksters were also experimenting with LSD, and they offered some of the drug to Wolfe. He initially declined, but after seeing how well it affected Kesey and the others, he decided to take a small dose. The experience would change his life forever.

What began as a reportage assignment soon morphed into something much more personal. Wolfe began to see the world in a new way after taking LSD, and he decided to write about his experiences in what would become The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

The book chronicles not only the journey of the Pranksters across America, but also the birth of psychedelic rock in 1969. It is considered one of the most important works of New Journalism, and it helped popularize both LSD and rock music in mainstream culture.

Psychedelic Rock in the Mainstream

Psychedelic rock, also referred to as psych rock or garage rock, is a subgenre of rock music that explores the use of psychedelic drugs to alter one’s perceptions of reality. Psychedelic rock reached the mainstream with bands such as The Beatles, The Doors, and The Grateful Dead.

The Doors and Jim Morrison

By the fall of 1967, The Doors had released two albums that would help define the psychedelic sound of the late 1960s. The first, The Doors, featured the band’s breakthrough hit “Light My Fire,” a seven-minute opus that combined elements of R&B, jazz, and classical music with singer Jim Morrison’s poetic lyrics. The second album, Strange Days, continued in a similar vein, with songs like “People Are Strange” and “When the Music’s Over” becoming radio staples.

The Doors’ success came at a time when mainstream America was beginning to experiment with psychedelic drugs like LSD and mushrooms. And while The Doors’ music was never explicitly about drug use, many of their songs contained clear references to mind-altering substances. This combination of drug-fueled creativity and popular success helped make The Doors one of the most influential bands of their generation.

The Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead toured constantly throughout the 1980s, culminating in a series of sold-out shows at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin, in July 1989. Their final performances were a pair of sold-out concerts at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 4 and 5, 1995. These concerts were seen by an estimated 600,000 people, making them the largest audience ever for a pop music concert.

The Grateful Dead’s music has been described as ” sanity-rending ” and ” mind expanding “. In an article published in 2000, Dean Duncan wrote that their music “…took the experience of being stoned to another level – or maybe took stoned people to another level.” He further commented that:

…while other bands were enjoying commercial success with more traditional forms of rock music, the Grateful Dead were expanding the possibilities of what rock could be with their extended improvisations and looseness of structure. In doing so, they became the standard-bearers for an entire generation of Like-Minded Musicians… [whose] jamming style would come to be known as ‘Jam Band’ …

The End of an Era

Psychedelic rock reached its peak in 1969, with bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Doors releasing some of their most iconic tracks.1969 was also the year that the Woodstock Music and Art Festival took place. This festival would go on to be one of the most defining moments of the 1960s. Psychedelic rock would soon fall out of favour, however, as the 1970s dawned.

The Altamont Speedway Free Concert

The disastrous 1969 concert at Altamont Speedway is often cited as the end of the 1960s “hippie” era. The concert was meant to be a peaceful gathering of like-minded people, but it quickly deteriorated into violence.

The Rolling Stones were scheduled to headline the event, and they chose the Hells Angels motorcycle club to provide security. The Angels were paid with $500 worth of beer, and they proceeded to drink heavily throughout the day. As the music played, the Angels became increasingly aggressive, and they began attacking concertgoers.

At one point, 18-year-old Meredith Hunter was stabbed and killed by an Angel. The Stones continued to play, unaware of what was happening in the crowd. When they finally learned of the violence, they decided to stop the concert and leave the stage.

The Altamont Speedway Free Concert was intended to be a celebration of peace and love, but it quickly turned into a nightmare. The events of that day showed that the utopian dream of the 1960s was over, and that reality could be much harsher than anyone had anticipated.

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones were an English rock band formed in 1962 in London. The first stable lineup consisted of Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bass), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ian Stewart (piano). Stewart was removed from the official lineup in 1963 but continued to serve as their primary keyboardist until his death in 1985. Jones left the band less than a month prior to his death in 1969, having already been replaced by Mick Taylor, who remained until 1974. After Taylor’s departure, Ronnie Wood stepped into the breach and has remained ever since.

The Rolling Stones have released 25 studio albums in the United Kingdom (24 of which charted on the UK Albums Chart) and 23 studio albums in the United States (32 of which charted on the Billboard 200).