The Birth of Psych-Rock

(Girsang, 2018)

When you think of psychedelic rock or psych-rock, what do you think of? Swirling, phased guitars drenched in reverb, eerie synth hooks and excessive use of delay on multi layered vocals? Yep, for sure. But where did this movement in music begin? Some say that the term ‘Psychedelic Rock’ was coined by ‘13th Floor Elevators’ but that’s a debate for another day. Psychedelic Rock was essentially born in the decade of the 60’s. Arguably, some of the greatest albums of all-time stem from this era and are commonly referred to as psych-rock. As ‘Joshua D.S. Girsang’ puts it…

“Psychedelic rock has some unique characteristics in terms of song structure, lyrics, instruments, and much more unique elements that produces a so-called “psychedelic” sound. It often uses soft and meaningful lyrics, heartwarming solos and complex melodies and song structures. They make use of electric guitars, keyboard, especially mellotron, organs, and harpsichords. They also make use of studio effects such as the backward tapes, planning and phasing and they associate their music with ‘non-western’ style and Indian Music.”

Let’s take a look at few of the highest regarded albums of this genre and draw similarities between them in order to outline what makes this genre so unique and talk about how it’s evolved over time.

(Scougall, 2017)

The first artist that comes to mind when talking about the history of this genre is of course The Beatles. Their 1967 album ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is regarded as one of the most famous psychedelic rock albums of all time (if not the number one). John Lennon, in this period of his career was experimenting with psych-rocks ‘catalyst’ drug LSD, among a comprehensive list of other substances however it seems to me that LSD is the mystical guiding deity that opens the minds of musicians and allows the phenomena of psychedelic music to transcend from their bodies. It is argued that even his song ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ is a direct reference to LSD although Lennon has denied this in several interviews claiming he had no idea it spelt LSD.

“My son came home with a drawing and showed me this strange-looking woman flying around. I said, ‘what is it?’ and he said, ‘It’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds’, and I thought, ‘That’s beautiful.’ I immediately wrote a song about it.” – John Lennon

Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, who knows. What I do believe is that these songs may have never been written without a little help from LSD. So, what kinds of sounds did this induce? And what other music from this time period was on the same wave length?

‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!’ in my opinion is one of the most psychedelic tracks on the record. The sheer number of instruments and transitions on this song is one thing that sets it apart from others. John Lennon wanted the song to sound like you were at a circus, so instantly you can get an idea of the colorful types of sounds that you would use to try and evoke that feeling. According to a post from the ‘Beatles Bible’ website, these were the instruments used and who played them on the recording.

John Lennon: vocals, Lowrey organ Paul McCartney: acoustic guitar, bass guitar George Harrison: harmonica Ringo Starr: drums, harmonica, shaker bells George Martin: piano, harmonium, Hammond organ, tape loops Mal Evans: bass harmonica Neil Aspinall: harmonica Geoff Emerick: tape loops

(Joe, 2019)

Not exactly your average rock song instrumentation. Listening to the track, you can hear the many layers of arpeggios, whooshes, alarm sounding ‘stabs’ among an array of other samples and loops designed to make you feel kind of disorientated. Coupled with the sounds of laughs in the background and incredibly strange lyrics, these sounds are what separated The Beatles from your average rock n roll or blues band in the 60’s.

Listen to the track here:

Lyrics to ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite’

For the benefit of Mr. Kite There will be a show tonight on trampoline The Hendersons will all be there Late of Pablo Fanques Fair, what a scene Over men and horses, hoops and garters Lastly through a hogshead of real fire In this way Mr. K. will challenge the world

The celebrated Mr. K. Performs his feat on Saturday at Bishops Gate The Hendersons will dance and sing As Mr. Kite flies through the ring, don't be late Messrs. K and H. assure the public Their production will be second to none And of course Henry The Horse dances the waltz

The band begins at ten to six When Mr. K. performs his tricks without a sound And Mr. H. will demonstrate Ten summer sets he'll undertake on solid ground Having been some days in preparation A splendid time is guaranteed for all And tonight Mr. Kite is topping the bill

During this era, there were a few stand out musicians leading the psychedelic rock movement. Jimi Hendrix was definitely one of them. Argued to be the greatest guitar player of all time, Jimi Hendrix was someone who played music from the soul. You can see him here, eyes closed tripping on acid as he rips one of the most difficult guitar solos ever heard.

(Tocino, 2019)

Because Jimi played from ‘feeling’ rather than focusing on a structure or even trying to play perfectly in time, the music was completely different every time he played a song. What sets him and the ‘Jimi Hendrix Experience’ apart from your traditional blues and rock bands is that it’s meant to feel ‘loose’ and ‘free’. Jimi’s band knew that when it was time for him to solo, they would play the rhythm underneath for as long as Jimi wanted. When he was ready to go back to a verse, he’d signal to the band, so they knew to drop back in. This way of performing hadn’t really been done in the past and is what makes it so unique. The listeners are there as a part of the performance as he’d play off their energy, this was a way of connecting to people and providing a new experience for them. This truly was what made Hendrix stand out in the psychedelic scene however, we can’t talk about Jimi Hendrix and psychedelic music without talking about his effects pedals.

In my opinion, what makes psychedelic music so different from everything else are certain types of effects pedals for guitar. Jimi had a very unique tone that comes from a select few pedals he used throughout his career. You want to make your guitar sound “larger than life” and not just be an instrument that plays chords along with the music or has a generic sounding overdriven tone for riffs and solos. The way Jimi did this was by stacking effects such as fuzz, wah-wah, uni-vibe and octavia as seen in the image below. The fuzz created an extreme amount of grit to thicken up his tone, the wah brought movement and in a way that gave the guitar it’s own ‘voice’. Hendrix would also hum along to the movement of the wah as though he and the guitar were in a duet. The uni-vibe widened the tone dramatically by creating a certain ‘wobble’ effect and the octavia contributed a whole new dimension by layering an octave below the original frequency of the notes being played.

(Matthies, 2015)

(Powers, 2019)

It’s not just the guitars that make psychedelic music so unique either. I believe the idea behind psych-rock is to remove it from traditional sounding rock music by adding effects wherever you can while keeping the band format in a similar fashion > drums/bass/guitars/vocals/keys. On Hendrix’s track ‘Bold as Love’, you can hear at 2:50 that the producer has used a flanger effect on the entire drum kit to create an over-arching swirling effect that you wouldn’t find on your typical Beach Boys tune. Since you can’t locate Hendrix’s music online for free very easily, listen to this remixed version of his track ‘Bold as Love’ from 2:50 where the effect has actually been amplified.

I wanted to talk about this effect specifically as it directly links to modern psychedelic music. In ‘modern psych-rock ‘or ‘new-wave psych-rock’ this technique used to effect drums has been applied countless times from a variety of different bands. In my next blog post I’ll be analyzing the genre of modern psych-rock drawing similarities to early psych-rock and talking about how this genre has evolved over time and where it is now.

REFERENCES

Hamilton, J. (2017). Sgt. Pepper Came Out 50 Years Ago This Week. The Timing Was As Perfect As the Album. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://slate.com/culture/2017/05/the-beatles-sgt-peppers-was-a-masterpiece-of-timing.html?fbclid=IwAR2ylRdhaViUw37Q6hvRElH366ZRBdYYJ7JwOgCrnaW0pVvfoLtvOjsSDG8

Runtagh, J. (2017). How Beatles' '... Mr. Kite!' Grew Out of an Old Circus Poster. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/beatles-sgt-pepper-at-50-how-an-old-circus-poster-led-to-mr-kite-126370/?fbclid=IwAR1pposwFf7OYPANPgGv7QIS_uia7c69Nyet4flrD6h3MOZJHg8bZ0yYiw8

Magaña, I. (2017). A Brief History of Psychedelic Rock - RadioUTD. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from http://radioutd.com/blog/2017/07/brief-history-psychedelic-rock/?fbclid=IwAR3nVqPy2W0FGd5jKCIAKEyoamtBlgUJ0UqMUwrW5cIuggR52jrIMSuJV0c

Joe, J. (2019). Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/being-for-the-benefit-of-mr-kite/

Tocino, K. (2019). Today in 1959, Sixteen year old Jimi Hendrix made his stage debut!. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://www.y101fm.com/features/lifestyle/entertainment/5128-today-in-1959-sixteen-year-old-jimi-hendrix-made-his-stage-debut

Matthies, A. (2019). The Ultimate Guide to Jimi Hendrix: Tone, Gear, Effects - Guitar Gear Finder. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://guitargearfinder.com/guides/ultimate-guide-jimi-hendrix-tone-gear-effects/

Powers, M. (2019). Potent Pairings Part II: Recreating 6 Classic Rigs with Pedals. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://reverb.com/news/potent-pairings-recreating-6-classic-rigs-with-pedals

Bold as Love. (2019). Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvMM3jIkDGk

Scougall, M. (2017). The Honest Truth: Why The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band changed music for ever - Sunday Post. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/why-one-fab-four-record-changed-music-for-ever/

Girsang, J. (2018). Seeing Sounds and Listening Colors: A Short Introduction to Psychedelic Rock. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://medium.com/le-citoyen/seeing-sounds-and-listening-colors-a-short-introduction-to-psychedelic-rock-1383500e06cf

Joe, J. (2019). Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Retrieved 28 July 2019, from https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds/?fbclid=IwAR3fPICr9AIELHkS5CuYf8e-FBodYJQrtLd75m6kUjxXvb4qMyLE87qFz7Y