The first Psychedelic song?
 

I have searched all over the internet trying to find out what the first "real" psychedelic song ever recorded was. I have also been trying to discover what the roots of psychedelic music are and as to whether psychedelic music as we know it today existed sometime before the 1960's.

The earliest song I have come across that sounds psychedelic-ish is Syncopation by Tom Dissevelt which apparently was recorded sometime between 1957-1959. I don't know much about this song other than it sounds way ahead of its time, it has a very progressive/electronic feel to it which I did not know existed during the 1950's.

If anyone out there could give me more information about this subject then it would really make me happy! I am new to this forum and I look forward to seeing all of your answers.

-Metanoia

I'd be really surprised if some of the more creative DaDaists from the 20s didn't inadvertently create some rather psychedelic sound swirls, though they were likely never documented that way.

Thank you for your responses.

I find that surf music seems to have a lot of similar qualities to psychedelic music.

But yes, it is difficult to trace back the roots of any type of music, although I do like to try :)

These guys were pioneers of the pychedelic genre.


Country Joe and The Fish - Grace - YouTube

I don't mean to sound snarky, but Country Joe and the Fish are one of the reasons I've always considered American psychedelic very inferior to British.

What British psychedelic bands do you think are superior to country Joe and the fish?

Well Pink Floyd and Soft Machine for starters, but more than likely if you name a British psychedelic band, I probably like them more than Country Joe and the Fish.

Kula Shaker?

Wrong time period.

I think on deciding which was superior in the 1960s British or American psychedelia its really case of apples or oranges, or tea or coffee. Personally I feel the American bands that did psychedelia Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish and Moby Grape etc really embraced that 1960s west coast hippy culture that went hand in hand with psychedelia and the Byrds Fifth Dimension probably kicked off the whole psychedelic genre anyway. I think Byrd's David Crosby summed it up nicely and said it was music for "cool cats":laughing:

Now whilst the British bands matched the American ones in terms of quality, they really jumped onto a music fad in psychedelia and I think they saw it as an exciting genre to explore.

Personally, I think the British bands, in general, did more with the genre. They made music that actually sounds psychedelic to me, unlike so many American bands which just sound like they're playing long, meandering folk music. The funny thing is that there was great trippy American music coming out at the time, it's just that it was jazz and as such wasn't really part of the psychedelic scene.

Its sounds like you've been listening to the Grateful Dead.

:laughing:

Was about to post this :D

The two I probably think of would be 'You're Gonna Miss Me' and 'I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night'. There were songs before them with psychedelic elements, but those two are the first ones that are unquestionably psychedelic for me.

Maybe it's impossible to find out what the first "real" psychedelic song was because there were so many different bands all making trippy stuff all around the same time.

I'm just trying to figure out whether or not psychedelic music was around before the 1960s.

And as for British psychedelic vs. American psychedelic, i've never really thought about it before but I guess there are some differences between the two. Not sure if I can say I prefer one over the other, although my favorite psychedelic band would have to be The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which is interesting since Jimi was American but the other band members were British I do believe.

I'm A Man - The Yardbirds (1964)

Here is Syncopation by Tom Dissevelt:
Psychedelic ?




Hesitation Blues by Holy Modal Rounders (1964)
Psychedelic Folk




Still I'm Sad by The Yardbirds (1965)
Psychedelic Rock

Syncopation by Tom Dissevelt sounds ahead of it's time and never heard it before but it's not psychedelic music.

As for psychedelic rock the early ones like "Eight Miles High" and "Shapes of Things" had strong raga influences but they weren't trying to put into record what the the psychedelic experience was. The first song I know of intentionally that does it is the Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows" based on Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. They basically put on record musically what the psychedelic experience was. If "Tomorrow Never Knows" isn't the first intentional psychedelic rock song it certainly put that kind of music in the publie eye.

In my opinion, the main difference between British & American psychedelia is that one later evolved into country rock and the other later evolved into progressive rock. I know which I prefer.

They were pioneers, I didn't say they were better than anyone else. ;)


The first use of the term in relation to music was by the Holy Modal Rounders. H.P. Lovecraft were amongst the first bands to start playing psych music, as well as Kaleidascope and The Peanut Butter Conspiracy.

In my opinion though, the first ever band to really play psychedelic music was Captain Beefheart.

Captain Beefheart Upon The My O My Old Grey Whistle Test 1974 - YouTube

I'm British and I liked Country Joe and the Fish. I've got a feeling Barry Melton worked with Welsh band Man, but I confess I could find nothing using Google.

There is a thread on them but it didn't garner much attention and Janszoon is totally wrong about this band. They recorded two of the best psychedelic albums ever.

http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...-joe-fish.html

First time I heard Grace, I fell in love with them. Bass Strings, Section 43. I had never heard sounds like these before.

The song that I had my first psychedellic break through to was "Journey To The Center Of Your Mind " by the Emboy Dukes.............That was a mind blower.

I think these guys belong in this conversation
 

The feedback at the opening of the Beatles "I Feel Fine" is often considered the first psychedelic element of a rock/pop song. Recorded Oct. 1964.



Though I suppose one element of a song doesn't mean the whole song is "psychedelic."

The first time i experienced psicodelia was when i heard brian enos song "this" in a giant speaker sound system. i realized what sound production could do and with the proper equiptment be able to make a listener experience.

Been thinking about the beginnings of psychedelia as well. Interesting thread.

That would appear to be a recent song, so somehow I doubt it's the "first" one. :nono:

I don't believe opium is classified as a psychedelic drug, but there is some interesting poetry writen about it from the 1800s. Not psychedelic music, but the poetry bears a resemblance to the lyrics of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, among others.

^
That reminds me, Berlioz Symphony Fantastique could be considered the first "psychedelic song." After all, a good chunk of it was drug-inspired. ;)



Hector Berlioz

There we go. 134 years older than I Feel Fine.

The Merry Pranksters and Timothy Leary both made records of recitals put to music. Although they aren`t songs according to the usual definition of the word, and aren`t as early as Berlioz, I think they deserve a mention here as nobody can doubt their psychedelic credentials:-





I wouldn`t like to take a side on any USA vs UK psychedelia debate, but I do remember that Timothy L. had high praise for the Brits. In a long article he wrote about the British tradition of psychedelic experience, he rounded up all the usual suspects like de Quincy, Blake, Coleridge and Lewis Carol. He said that the Beatles were just the latest players in a cultural game that the Brits had been playing since the days of the British Raj - those Victorian guys stationed in India, Bringing It All Back Home. His argument hangs together quite well, because at the same time the psychedelic movement started up there was a new-found tongue-in-cheek fashion for Victoriana; the famous Granny Takes A Trip shop in Carnaby Street, the military clothes, droopy moustaches and of course the circus poster that sparked off For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite. So maybe at one level the Brits did have an edge; lyrically if nothing else, people like Procul Harum and Syd Barrett could just dip into a back catalogue of proto-psychedelic writings that they had probably come across as children.

Yes, i have found one and only one The Pink Floyd, with great enormous psychedelic stuff, they pass though us so deeply with versatile lyrics as well.

Greatest Albums of All Time | List of Best Records Ever Made

I'm not sure there's any one song that started the psychedelic movement. I think it was a trend of song styles emerging from ideology and beat-nick culture of drug-influenced writers. And also, Brits trying to play blues.

Quite possibly The beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows" from Revolver (1966), although Eight Miles High was around at the same time.
Dunno who was first.