The 60's Psych Thread (blues, bass, psychedelic, rock, albums)

[Molecules]

Gavin: by all means crack on this thread needs a shot in the arm.

Relevant parties check your PMs in about an hour, anybody else interested just drop me a line

[Gavin B.]

Children of the Sun by the Misunderstood is one of my favorite garage/psychedelic gems from 1966. The guitar playing is magnificent and the band is nervy, hard-nosed and sublimely cosmic. And remember... this recording predates Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and most of the Yardbirds sonic experiments.

There were two editions of the Misunderstood and the one with Glen Ross Campbell (No, it's not that Glen Campbell) playing guitar and steel guitar is the real thing. Glen Ross Campbell's use of fuzztone, sustain, feedback and Middle Eastern tonal modalities influenced London based guitarists like Syd Barrett, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page. The band never had a large international audience and the best collection of their work is Before the Dream Faded.

[Mojo]

I absolutely adore that record. Some of the best psych I have ever heard.

[Molecules]

brilliant. Definitely one of the lost classics, and John Peel was their manager!

There's a song on that album 'I Unseen', I was listening to it and recognised the lyrics under that amazing guitar figure and crazy slide (fig.1), a cover of the Byrds 'I Come and Stand At Every Door' (fig.2)?

fig 1


fig 2

[Mojo]

Yeah, i may not have ever heard about them if it wasnt for John Peel. Im too young to claim I listened to John Peel at the time but I've grabbed as many of his broadcasts as I could find online and read a few biographies and stuff and The Misunderstood have always stood out in my mind.

[Gavin B.]

This video is a smokin' jam of Eight Miles High by the 1970 edition of the Byrds. The musicans are Roger McGuinn guitar, Clarence White guitar, Skip Battin bass and Gene Parsons drums. This edition of the Byrds was the best ensemble of live stage musicians that was ever assembled under the Byrd banner. Notice the tight interplay between the two guitars and the drums/bass riddim section. This version of 8MH rivals the cosmic bliss of a Deadjam. Clarence White's guitar playing almost pokes a hole in the fabric of the cosmos.


McGuinn wrote the guitar part as a tribute to John Coltrane's saxphone playing using African and Middle Eastern music scales and modalities on albums like A Love Supreme. Currently McGuinn does a solo version of it on an accoustic guitar that is a showcase of his unique approach to playing his instrument. He does quite a bit of improvisation in live shows and it's amazing how far he wanders into free jazz on the accoustic version.

[Molecules]

^^ i missed this! Words escape me... ?

Also I fully intend at some point to nick Jackhammers idea for the MB Reviews thread and aggregate all the 60's Psych reviews into the first post with links. Like the index cards to the library of psychedelia. Or something.

[Seltzer]

Fucking jesus that was great. I think I'll listen to Fifth Dimension now.

[Gavin B.]

A reunited Byrds perform Mr. Tamborine Man with the Jokerman himself sometime in the mid-1980s. I think Dylan surprised the band by coming out after the first couple of verses. Crosby looks like he didn't see Bob coming. The usually unflappable McGuinn seems to be lost in the moment. Dylan gets lost in the lyrics and can't seem to remember the "magic swirling ship" verse. Dylan has said he has a hard time remembering his early lyrics because he feels like another completely different person named Dylan wrote them.

It's the Dylan tribute concert in Madison Square Garden but the exact date escapes me.

[Gavin B.]

Here a great promo video for Love. Arthur Lee's dark surreal lyrics and flamboyant manner of dress had a big impact on Jimi Hendrix who popped up in London a year and a half after Love's first album with his own psychedelic band. It all started with Love and their impact on psychedelic music has spanned four decades. Their critically aclaimed masterpiece, Forever Changes peaked at #157 on the sales charts and has yet to break the 500,000 sales mark after 40 years.

Love originally called themselves the Grass Roots but had to change their name when the ABC Dunhill recording artists copyrighted the name. Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil played rythym guitar in the first edition of the Arthur Lee's Grass Roots.

Manson also had relationships with Columbia Records producer Terry Melcher and Dennis Wilson of the Beachboys. The Cielo Drive home in Hollywood Hills where the Tate killings took place was originally owned by Melcher and many believe that Manson targeted the house because he mistakenly thought Melcher still lived there. Just prior to the Tate killings, Melcher turned Manson down on a record contract after Mason became embroiled in a terrifying fight with a drunken stuntman at Spahn Ranch. Both Wilson and Melcher severed their ties with Manson, a move that angered Manson.

I personally think that Forever Changes was Lee's own reflection of the dark forces at work in the Los Angeles music scene during the summer of love. Lee was smart enough to distance himself from Manson early on and members of the Manson family weren't welcome guests at the Castle where Love lived. Lee thought his former guitarist Beausoleil was a very spooky dude and dismissed him from the band early on.