The Beach Boys are my Favorite Psychedelic Group

[leggo of my ego]

My vote goes to Piper At The Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd. Syd Barrett was a genius, too

My vote goes to "Hot Smoke and Sassafrass" by Bubble Puppy 

[guitarfool2002]

I'll have more later when I have more time...but where I'm going with this is that musically, anyone with a good ear for production would be able to recognize and adapt the characteristics of certain "psychedelic" records, and therefore add them to a bag of tricks so to speak if the psychedelic sound was required or requested on a project. It became like adding certain ingredients to a standard recipe in order to make it "Southwestern" or "Thai" or any number of cooking styles (and trends). You could put across to listeners that a standard pop song was psychedelic by adding a few signature sounds.

And remember this is just my opinion, I'm not trying to define a term or anything for posterity, just stating what I think is the difference between that kind of recipe-based psychedelia and the real thing.

And for me, a lot of the real psychedelia that came out of the mid to late 60's and into the 70's did not contain many of the sonic hallmarks or traits than many associate with the style, or genre if it can be called that. You could lay on a heavy fuzzed-out guitar line and some trippy vocals over a certain drumbeat and that may have worked for the soundtrack of a late 60's drive-in film or an episode of "Dragnet '68" when Sgt. Friday busts some LA club kids for dealing, but that doesn't mean it's the real psychedelia.

Again, I have some examples to consider, most from the mid to late 60s, but for now consider the overall ebb and flow of a song, the way the movements may work in and out of each other and when they do that, consider in some cases the lyrical content, and in others the way that flow of the song form coincides with certain instrumental parts morphing in sound or texture, and that's along the lines of what I'm thinking.

Taking one outside of the normal 65-69 time frame, listen specifically to Shuggie Otis' "Strawberry Letter 23", the original version by Shuggie himself. The final two minutes of that record contain some of the most stunning and beautiful (and euphoric) examples of psychedelia in popular music that I think exists, and it exists that way in support of the lyrics that had come before. And listen to the whole record including the lyrics and the way each section flows leading up to that climax. Whether Shuggie intended it to be psychedelic or not, that record is a masterpiece of what I'd call psychedelic pop. Feel free to disagree.

Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgokn6gppvA

These thoughts from yesterday fit better here than in the Gary Usher thread, so here they are.

Yep, the strawberries and marshmellows and all of that which seem to have gotten a bad rap in this thread are now in this thread too!   I think it's beautiful, and in a lot of cases more pure and coming directly from someone's soul than a bunch of over-intellectualized gobbledly-gook coming from rock and pop musicians who had read a few books and were suddenly holding a Phd in philosophy having dropped acid. That's harsh, but somewhat true.

Keep in mind one thing which raised an eyebrow as I read through this thread: Going back to my own thoughts on "real" psychedelia, those creating this music were most often in their late teens and early 20's. They were not scholars, they were not learned philosophers or experienced lecturers, they were not paid intellectuals.

They were young people who made music. And the fact that some of them were insightful, perceptive, in some cases having brilliant minds capable of breaking down and analyzing complex theory and philosophy at a level beyond their years was more due to their own personalities.

I think there is a misconception that when someone takes a psychedelic like LSD, they gain knowledge and a higher intellect as a result. And this is not the case at all. If anything, the psychedelic experience is based on perception. If the experience alters someone's perception and therefore alters their analysis of the things around them, it does not increase the volume of knowledge that person already had, but it may give another angle from which to view and analyze that knowledge.

So I see cases of certain musicians who get a certain level of scholarship or learned knowledge attributed to them in their early 20's through things they said or wrote under the influence of a psychedelic, and it is not a direct link which makes much sense.

The knowledge they had going in is pretty much what they left with. The experience in itself is not one of adding knowledge, whereas for some it is one of altering or enhancing perception. But you don't enter the deal with a liberal arts degree and leave with a doctorate in philosophy. The psychedelic experience in itself does not add "book smarts" which were not already learned beforehand.

The "real" psychedelic music (sorry to keep using that term) I think has an undercurrent of naivete that made it unique. Coming from what were young musicians, the combination of the naivete with some heavier themes made it personal, at times, and far more interesting than having a non-musician scholar with the educational/intellectual background like Dr. Leary recite various lines over a psychedelic music bed. Which is why Leary never had a hit record.

[TMinthePM]

Thank you for an excellent post guitarfool.

[Bicyclerider]

Count me in as not considering Pet Sounds psychedelic.  Just because some of the inspiration from a song comes when you're high on marijuana or LSD doesn't make the resulting song "psychedelic."  I prefer a pretty strict definitinion of psychedelic, but it's just what I use in evaluating 60s music - psychedcelic has been so overused as a term that any specific meaning has virtually been lost.  For me psychedelic music is music that is both inspired by psychedelic drugs AND attempts to recreate aspects of the drug experience in the music and/or lyrics of the song.  It's even clearer when the psychedelic experience is mentioned or oblliquely referred to in the song, but this is not essential. What aspects of the drug experience?  The aural aspects (phasing, trippy effects, backwards guitars, etc) and the "mind-expanding" effects (we are all one with the material world, I am he as you are he, the universe is love, good vibrations, childhood fairy tales - Alice, Piper, etc).

I realize others include any music with sound effects whether a simple boy loves girl song, or anything recorded between 66 and 68, but many groups copied the "real" psychedelic musical explorations of the big groups (Beatles) without ever tripping or knowing anything about it - throw on some backwards guitar to fit into the musical trend of the time.  Most of those songs shouldn't be considered psychedelia IMO.  Maybe there should be a separate category of "copycat psychedelia."

[DonnyL]

Yeh Pet Sounds is psychedelic ... not in the 'genre' sense, but it has the undercurrent of mind expansion, etc. going on.

So you could say Brian took a psychedelic approach to orchestral pop music. In a way that was more fully integrated into the songs and arrangements than the Beatles or other groups who just sort of through strings and flutes over the top of their rock songs.

Yeh I think drugs were integral to Brian getting into that scene. 'In the Back of My Mind' and 'Amusement Parks USA' are the two earlier examples of Beach Boys drug music I can think of.

Smiley is by far the most far-out of any of the group's albums though, including what would have been Smile in my opinion.

[guitarfool2002]

"Copycat psychedelia", yes - My term is "recipe psychedelia". In cooking you might start with a plain boneless chicken breast, and depending on how you cook and season it it can become anything from Tex-Mex to Italian. But does adding marinara sauce and a slice of cheese make it authentic Italian cooking? The great grey area of what is the real deal versus what is a result of following the proven formula.

And I didn't want to dwell on it too much, but ultimately the term psychedelia has gone beyond what the heart of the term originally meant, and I know others have expressed the same thing.

At the same time, my "grey area" which I'm still trying to find a more cohesive way to analyze this is on display with the song "Strawberry Fields Forever". I think that is indeed an example of real psychedelia, for reasons to follow. But one reason is that there was not much of a template to work from when creating that song and that record. And another is that the main writer, Lennon, had indeed gone through the psychedelic experience firsthand. So it is not a case of a pro songwriter jumping on a trend and working from a preset recipe for how to create a psychedelic song.

Remember the story about Brian and Michael Vosse driving in a car when they first heard Strawberry Fields on the radio. The reaction from Brian...he did eventually burst into laughter, but wasn't there also a sense that he heard something he was going for with his own current projects (think Smile era) as Strawberry Fields unfolded on the radio that day?

*What* was Brian hearing exactly? All we have is speculation, so my speculation is that he heard a certain ebb and flow to that record that may have reminded him of the psychedelic experience. Some of the ways that record distorted or morphed common musical sounds into different textures and shapes, the way the record stretches time in a way imperceptible to most until they found out how they joined the sections together years later, the way there are peaks and valleys in the music to go along with the lyrics which were both self-reflective and self-critical.

Musically Brian had recently made a similar record full of peaks and valleys and ebb and flow called "Good Vibrations". Lyrically he and Asher had joined forces to create a song which had a similar sentiment of "I'm here and yet everyone else seems distant, I guess I'm alone at this point" (John: 'No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low..."; Wilson/Asher: "I've been trying hard to find the people that I won't leave behind"). They're both looking around and feeling like no one is around to relate.

So is "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" psychedelic? I'm not able to say either yes or no. Is "Good Vibrations" psychedelic? Yes...absolutely, and without relying on cliche uses of sound effect and whatnot because there was not much of a template to follow when that record was finished. Yet the pace and flow of that record is indeed psychedelic, and there is as well that great moment of euphoria in the a capella vocal break near the end. Church organ builds and builds adding voices and percussion, then the rush of voices all alone saying "aahhh...." like an exclamation with reverb added...euphoric.

But Strawberry Fields Forever has the conflict in that those men responsible most for the sound and the overall flow of that record...namely Geoff Emerick and George Martin...were not experienced with psychedelics at all, in fact the complete opposite. Lennon himself would speak in riddles for what he wanted to hear, and Emerick and Martin would decipher what he was saying into something musically or technologically possible in the studio. So you had a song which was coming from traces of various psychedelic experiences of the writer, and the sounds which define a song as "psychedelic" coming from studio men who had no experience whatsoever in that scene.

Yet I can't help but think what Brian and Vosse heard that day in Strawberry Fields was another aural and lyrical description of a psychedelic experience which Brian himself had been trying to crystallize and capture in several of his own recent works. And though Brian himself had created one of the ultimate examples of musical psychedelia, in Good Vibrations, he heard something further in that process with Strawberry Fields.

So I'm conflicted in those opinions, but I do think both Strawberry Fields and Good Vibrations are examples of the real psychedelia, and those which had little or no templates to follow or copy when they were created.

[TMinthePM]

late December 1965 Brian Wilson takes acid for the second time, an "extremely potent dose."

This LSD trip serves up a "horror movie" that begins with the sound of sirens from nearby fire trucks. Brian imagines being consumed by flames and dying. "...I was bathed in flames, dying, dying, and then the screen inside my brain went blank. I visualized myself drifting back in time. Getting smaller and younger." Brian relives arguments he'd had with his father. He continues to drift back in time. "I continued getting smaller. I was a baby. An infant. Then I was inside the womb. An egg. And then, finally, I was gone. I didn't exist."

When asked about the Pet Sounds song "Hang On To Your Ego" and "ego" Brian responded, "Yeah. I had taken a few drugs, and I had gotten into that kind of thing. I guess it just came up naturally."

Brian may have "gotten into that kind of thing" by reading books. Brian appears to have been interested in subjects like psychology, philosophy, religion, and the psychedelic experience. Books on Eastern philosophy and the psychedelic experience, in particular, often point to the loss of ego, or ego-death, as the key to a better way of living.

"Studying metaphysics was also crucial, but Koestler's book really was the big one for me."
~Brain Wilson

November 1, 1965
Recording "Trombone Dixie." At this session Brian also records "In My Childhood," which will eventually be re-titled "You Still Believe In Me." The title "In My Childhood" may be related to Brian "drifting back in time" to his childhood during his second LSD trip.

Several days before Christmas 1965 Brian suffers what he considers an acid flashback in the Pickwick Bookstore. It is a totally unexpected experience.

"I couldn't even remember why I'd gone to the store. It was spooky. I walked into the store anyway. The clerk, who knew me, said hello and mentioned that he was crazy about "Barbara Ann," which was all over the radio. Moving slowly into the aisles, I concentrated on reading the book titles and their authors....I paged through books...I stared at the pages, tried to read, but the letters all vibrated on the pages and I couldn't make sense of anything.Then I saw the books melting down the shelves, dripping like wax down the side of a candle."

"The room began to spin. I was in the center of a giant spinning top. Turning, turning, turning. The moment was completely surreal."

"As the buzz subsided into a manageable burned-out sensation, I remembered Loren once explaining that hallucinations were comparable to Zen riddles, mysteries full of meaning. What had mine meant? I had driven to the bookstore, looking for what? Inspiration? Instead, I'd seen books melting, unable to grasp the knowledge contained in them. If that was a riddle, I wanted to know the solution."

January 1966 Brian seeks guidance from his astrologer regarding the direction for his next album. Brian tells her "about the hallucination I'd had in the bookstore last December, presenting it as a riddle." The astrologer gives advice that resonates well with Wilson. "If I wasn't able to find inspiration for songs outside myself, as in books, then I had to look someplace else. I had to look inward. I had to write about the spirituality I felt in my heart."

"In My Childhood" effectively becomes "You Still Believe In Me" at this point as Brian now knows the musical direction he'll take for his next LP, Pet Sounds.

February 7, 1966 Recording sessions are held for "Let Go Of Your Ego" AKA "Hang On To Your Ego." The ego-loss idea is related to LSD but it is also a major component of Eastern philosophies. Brian also noticed the relationship between ego and humor.

"It explains that people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else."
~Brian Wilson on THE ACT OF CREATION

During the recording session for "Ego" Brian mentions the comedy album How To Speak Hip. The album includes the following:

'"Like in Zen...the Zen Buddhists have these koans, you know, they're riddles that you meditate on. And the whole purpose of the riddles is to hang you up, like, "We know the sound of two hands but what is the sound of one hand?" Now that's had Buddhist monks hung up for years."'

This passage would have registered with Brian given his bookstore flashback riddle experience in late December.
The title and lyrics of "Hang On To Your Ego" were eventually changed. The resulting song, "I Know There's An Answer," contains the line, "I know there's an answer. I know now, but I have to find it by myself."

[alf wiedersehen]

late December 1965 Brian Wilson takes acid for the second time, an "extremely potent dose."

This LSD trip serves up a "horror movie" that begins with the sound of sirens from nearby fire trucks. Brian imagines being consumed by flames and dying. "...I was bathed in flames, dying, dying, and then the screen inside my brain went blank. I visualized myself drifting back in time. Getting smaller and younger." Brian relives arguments he'd had with his father. He continues to drift back in time. "I continued getting smaller. I was a baby. An infant. Then I was inside the womb. An egg. And then, finally, I was gone. I didn't exist."

When asked about the Pet Sounds song "Hang On To Your Ego" and "ego" Brian responded, "Yeah. I had taken a few drugs, and I had gotten into that kind of thing. I guess it just came up naturally."

Brian may have "gotten into that kind of thing" by reading books. Brian appears to have been interested in subjects like psychology, philosophy, religion, and the psychedelic experience. Books on Eastern philosophy and the psychedelic experience, in particular, often point to the loss of ego, or ego-death, as the key to a better way of living.

"Studying metaphysics was also crucial, but Koestler's book really was the big one for me."
~Brain Wilson

November 1, 1965
Recording "Trombone Dixie." At this session Brian also records "In My Childhood," which will eventually be re-titled "You Still Believe In Me." The title "In My Childhood" may be related to Brian "drifting back in time" to his childhood during his second LSD trip.

Several days before Christmas 1965 Brian suffers what he considers an acid flashback in the Pickwick Bookstore. It is a totally unexpected experience.

"I couldn't even remember why I'd gone to the store. It was spooky. I walked into the store anyway. The clerk, who knew me, said hello and mentioned that he was crazy about "Barbara Ann," which was all over the radio. Moving slowly into the aisles, I concentrated on reading the book titles and their authors....I paged through books...I stared at the pages, tried to read, but the letters all vibrated on the pages and I couldn't make sense of anything.Then I saw the books melting down the shelves, dripping like wax down the side of a candle."

"The room began to spin. I was in the center of a giant spinning top. Turning, turning, turning. The moment was completely surreal."

"As the buzz subsided into a manageable burned-out sensation, I remembered Loren once explaining that hallucinations were comparable to Zen riddles, mysteries full of meaning. What had mine meant? I had driven to the bookstore, looking for what? Inspiration? Instead, I'd seen books melting, unable to grasp the knowledge contained in them. If that was a riddle, I wanted to know the solution."

January 1966 Brian seeks guidance from his astrologer regarding the direction for his next album. Brian tells her "about the hallucination I'd had in the bookstore last December, presenting it as a riddle." The astrologer gives advice that resonates well with Wilson. "If I wasn't able to find inspiration for songs outside myself, as in books, then I had to look someplace else. I had to look inward. I had to write about the spirituality I felt in my heart."

"In My Childhood" effectively becomes "You Still Believe In Me" at this point as Brian now knows the musical direction he'll take for his next LP, Pet Sounds.

February 7, 1966 Recording sessions are held for "Let Go Of Your Ego" AKA "Hang On To Your Ego." The ego-loss idea is related to LSD but it is also a major component of Eastern philosophies. Brian also noticed the relationship between ego and humor.

"It explains that people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else."
~Brian Wilson on THE ACT OF CREATION

During the recording session for "Ego" Brian mentions the comedy album How To Speak Hip. The album includes the following:

'"Like in Zen...the Zen Buddhists have these koans, you know, they're riddles that you meditate on. And the whole purpose of the riddles is to hang you up, like, "We know the sound of two hands but what is the sound of one hand?" Now that's had Buddhist monks hung up for years."'

This passage would have registered with Brian given his bookstore flashback riddle experience in late December.
The title and lyrics of "Hang On To Your Ego" were eventually changed. The resulting song, "I Know There's An Answer," contains the line, "I know there's an answer. I know now, but I have to find it by myself."

Man, I gotta get my hands on some LSD.

[TMinthePM]

Wilson, interestingly, cites Arthur Koestler as an important influence at that time, and yet Koestler, along with Alan Watts, argued against the use of hallucinogens as a means to enlightenment.

The topic interests me because I lived thru that time, every minute of it, and I believe we are currently in the midst of a recurrence of that vibe, and I am seeing Brian Wilson reemerging as a creative force, and am eagerly anticipating his next move.

[Bill Tobelman]

Earlier I referred to a sentence in MOJO from their analysis of Pet Sounds. Found it in the second paragraph of the piece.

"Recent exposure to heavy doses of LSD-25 had also boosted Wilson's interest in mind-expanding music that would affect people on a deeper level."

"From an aesthetic point of view, psychedelic art must be defined as that art which deliberately attempts to re-create, introduce, stimulate or convey the nature or essence of the psychedelic experience. Unless psychedelic art is defined as the conscious expression of the psychedelic experience, "anything presented as a work of art that inspires the mind, emotions and sense with even a glimpse of the total awareness of conscious being could be termed psychedelic art", according to Jud Yalkut, writing in Arts magazine. Which is to say that all art then becomes psychedelic; or that the term is lost to the semantic chaos that already hovers over much of modern art."

- Barry Schwartz in "Psychedelic Art" (1968)

Barry Schwartz's definition is the true test of whether or not a piece of art is psychedelic art. If Pet Sounds is psychedelic then it is,

"art which deliberately attempts to re-create, introduce, stimulate or convey the nature or essence of the psychedelic experience."

Brian's LSD use led to a growing spiritual awareness which went hand in hand with strong feelings of love, and a greater awareness of love. Pet Sounds was made with a goal of communicating these aspects of the psychedelic experience to the listener. Because of this I think Pets Sounds qualifies as psychedelic art.

"This, I thought, could be the beginning of a new type of sophisticated-feeling music."

"I was in a loving mood for a few months and it found its way to recorded tape."

"I experimented with sounds that would make the listener feel loved."

On Pet Sounds Brian Wilson wanted to create something that would be considered "a good piece of love, of spiritual love."

[Bicyclerider]

"Copycat psychedelia", yes - My term is "recipe psychedelia". In cooking you might start with a plain boneless chicken breast, and depending on how you cook and season it it can become anything from Tex-Mex to Italian. But does adding marinara sauce and a slice of cheese make it authentic Italian cooking? The great grey area of what is the real deal versus what is a result of following the proven formula.

And I didn't want to dwell on it too much, but ultimately the term psychedelia has gone beyond what the heart of the term originally meant, and I know others have expressed the same thing.

At the same time, my "grey area" which I'm still trying to find a more cohesive way to analyze this is on display with the song "Strawberry Fields Forever". I think that is indeed an example of real psychedelia, for reasons to follow. But one reason is that there was not much of a template to work from when creating that song and that record. And another is that the main writer, Lennon, had indeed gone through the psychedelic experience firsthand. So it is not a case of a pro songwriter jumping on a trend and working from a preset recipe for how to create a psychedelic song.

Remember the story about Brian and Michael Vosse driving in a car when they first heard Strawberry Fields on the radio. The reaction from Brian...he did eventually burst into laughter, but wasn't there also a sense that he heard something he was going for with his own current projects (think Smile era) as Strawberry Fields unfolded on the radio that day?

*What* was Brian hearing exactly? All we have is speculation, so my speculation is that he heard a certain ebb and flow to that record that may have reminded him of the psychedelic experience. Some of the ways that record distorted or morphed common musical sounds into different textures and shapes, the way the record stretches time in a way imperceptible to most until they found out how they joined the sections together years later, the way there are peaks and valleys in the music to go along with the lyrics which were both self-reflective and self-critical.

Musically Brian had recently made a similar record full of peaks and valleys and ebb and flow called "Good Vibrations". Lyrically he and Asher had joined forces to create a song which had a similar sentiment of "I'm here and yet everyone else seems distant, I guess I'm alone at this point" (John: 'No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low..."; Wilson/Asher: "I've been trying hard to find the people that I won't leave behind"). They're both looking around and feeling like no one is around to relate.

So is "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" psychedelic? I'm not able to say either yes or no. Is "Good Vibrations" psychedelic? Yes...absolutely, and without relying on cliche uses of sound effect and whatnot because there was not much of a template to follow when that record was finished. Yet the pace and flow of that record is indeed psychedelic, and there is as well that great moment of euphoria in the a capella vocal break near the end. Church organ builds and builds adding voices and percussion, then the rush of voices all alone saying "aahhh...." like an exclamation with reverb added...euphoric.

But Strawberry Fields Forever has the conflict in that those men responsible most for the sound and the overall flow of that record...namely Geoff Emerick and George Martin...were not experienced with psychedelics at all, in fact the complete opposite. Lennon himself would speak in riddles for what he wanted to hear, and Emerick and Martin would decipher what he was saying into something musically or technologically possible in the studio. So you had a song which was coming from traces of various psychedelic experiences of the writer, and the sounds which define a song as "psychedelic" coming from studio men who had no experience whatsoever in that scene.

Yet I can't help but think what Brian and Vosse heard that day in Strawberry Fields was another aural and lyrical description of a psychedelic experience which Brian himself had been trying to crystallize and capture in several of his own recent works. And though Brian himself had created one of the ultimate examples of musical psychedelia, in Good Vibrations, he heard something further in that process with Strawberry Fields.

So I'm conflicted in those opinions, but I do think both Strawberry Fields and Good Vibrations are examples of the real psychedelia, and those which had little or no templates to follow or copy when they were created.

Great post - agree completely.  John would describe the sounds he wanted in cryptic, "psychedelic" terms - for example describe the colors of the music he wanted in Kite, for example.  Sound having color - part of the psychedelic experience.  If George Martin helped John realize his vision for the song, and that vision was psychedelic based, I don't think Goerge  had to have taken LSD to help create a truly psychedelic song.  And  many of the effects created for these songs were not George's doing but Geoff's.  But before Strawberry Fields John had already created the first Beatles psychedelic "template" - Tomorrow Never Knows.

[TMinthePM]

The term "psychedelic" is derived from the Ancient Greek words psuchē (ψυχή - psyche, "mind") and dēlōsē (δήλωση - "manifest"), translating to "mind-manifesting".


Hallucination is not necessarily the distinguishing feature of psychedelic.

Intensification might serve equally. Thus, the qualities of an apple might be perceived to be profoundly meaningful with no apparent transformation of its form.

Revolver is a psychedelic album from start to finish. There is an underlying sizzle

[The 4th Wilson Bro.]

Forgive me if reference was already made in this thread (I'm either too lazy or too busy – or both – to ready every post), but didn't Jimi Hendrix once refer to the Beach Boys music as "Psychedelic Barbershop Music.?"

[alf wiedersehen]

Forgive me if reference was already made in this thread (I'm either too lazy or too busy – or both – to ready every post), but didn't Jimi Hendrix once refer to the Beach Boys music as "Psychedelic Barbershop Music.?"

Indeed, he did.

Interestingly enough, the guardian considers the remarks dismissive:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/27/beach-boys-smile-sessions-review

However, it seems that this board finds the remark fitting and as a compliment
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?topic=14196.0

[TMinthePM]

An off-the-cuff remark given perhaps more weight than it deserves.

[guitarfool2002]

Revolver is a psychedelic album from start to finish. There is an underlying sizzle

Just as Rubber Soul is one of the most stoned albums of the 60's. It's the underlying qualities of these two that also show what the Beatles were experimenting with in 65-66 and how it affected their music.

And maybe this is better placed in the Beatles discussion, but notice how both Rubber Soul and Revolver taken as a whole are almost completely free of any blues, whereas their peers almost always featured some kind of overt blues sounds on their albums of this time. I say the same about Brian Wilson in 1965-66, there is simply no blues on his records. Yet how much of what many might call psychedelic rock in the years to follow especially in the UK had some basis in the blues, especially the long jams of the sort Peter Green, Hendrix, Clapton, and Quicksilver were fond of as part of their musical experience?

[Bicyclerider]

Earlier I referred to a sentence in MOJO from their analysis of Pet Sounds. Found it in the second paragraph of the piece.

"Recent exposure to heavy doses of LSD-25 had also boosted Wilson's interest in mind-expanding music that would affect people on a deeper level."

"From an aesthetic point of view, psychedelic art must be defined as that art which deliberately attempts to re-create, introduce, stimulate or convey the nature or essence of the psychedelic experience. Unless psychedelic art is defined as the conscious expression of the psychedelic experience, "anything presented as a work of art that inspires the mind, emotions and sense with even a glimpse of the total awareness of conscious being could be termed psychedelic art", according to Jud Yalkut, writing in Arts magazine. Which is to say that all art then becomes psychedelic; or that the term is lost to the semantic chaos that already hovers over much of modern art."

- Barry Schwartz in "Psychedelic Art" (1968)

Barry Schwartz's definition is the true test of whether or not a piece of art is psychedelic art. If Pet Sounds is psychedelic then it is,

"art which deliberately attempts to re-create, introduce, stimulate or convey the nature or essence of the psychedelic experience."

Brian's LSD use led to a growing spiritual awareness which went hand in hand with strong feelings of love, and a greater awareness of love. Pet Sounds was made with a goal of communicating these aspects of the psychedelic experience to the listener. Because of this I think Pets Sounds qualifies as psychedelic art.

"This, I thought, could be the beginning of a new type of sophisticated-feeling music."

"I was in a loving mood for a few months and it found its way to recorded tape."

"I experimented with sounds that would make the listener feel loved."

On Pet Sounds Brian Wilson wanted to create something that would be considered "a good piece of love, of spiritual love."

There's no doubt Pet Sounds was, in part, drug-inspired - as were parts of Today and Summer Days.  LSD inspired the intro to California Girls - does that make California Girls "psychedelic" music?  I would say no.  To me the true definition is the first definition you quoted - recreate or convey the essence of the psychedelic experience.  With the second definition the term loses all meaning, as Schwartz notes - all art is psychedelic, and all "modern" art is psychedelic whether or not, apparently, any drugs are involved.  That doesn't meet the "true test" to me.

If I take a trip and experience feelings of loneliness, and write subsequently the song "All By Myself" - is that song then psychedelic?  Unless the song expresses something UNIQUE to the psychedelic experience or attempts to convey something unique about the psychedelic experience, I would find it hard to ascribe the term psychedelic to songs about boy-girl love, loneliness, disaffection or isolation, adolescent angst - these are topics that are not only not unique to psychedelics but have been celebrated in song for hudreds of years without any drugs needing to be involved or invoked.  If these feelings which can occur during a trip are combined with music that conveys the psychedelic experience, I think everyone would agree on terming the result psychedelic.

[The 4th Wilson Bro.]

Forgive me if reference was already made in this thread (I'm either too lazy or too busy – or both – to ready every post), but didn't Jimi Hendrix once refer to the Beach Boys music as "Psychedelic Barbershop Music.?"

Indeed, he did.

Interestingly enough, the guardian considers the remarks dismissive:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/27/beach-boys-smile-sessions-review

However, it seems that this board finds the remark fitting and as a compliment
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?topic=14196.0

Well, I had always opined that Hendrix was praising the Beach Boys when he made that remark.  If that wasn't the case, I can only say the same about Jimi as I would about any BB antagonist: "What the hell does he know?"

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Forgive me if reference was already made in this thread (I'm either too lazy or too busy – or both – to ready every post), but didn't Jimi Hendrix once refer to the Beach Boys music as "Psychedelic Barbershop Music.?"

Indeed, he did.

Interestingly enough, the guardian considers the remarks dismissive:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/27/beach-boys-smile-sessions-review

However, it seems that this board finds the remark fitting and as a compliment
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?topic=14196.0

Exactly. Who on earth wouldn't want to hear Psychedelic Barbershop Music?? I remember some arsehole from the Killers dismissing the Beach Boys recently as 'a bunch of singing teddy bears' - which again had me thinking 'But... who wouldn't like singing teddy bears'? A psychedelic barbershop teddy bear quintet - and that's a bad thing?

[Bill Tobelman]

Thanks go out to Bicyclerider for commenting on my post.

Maybe this is just in my own head but there is something different about Pet Sounds' ability to communicate which is giant step in the direction of psychedelia. Brian was trying to make music that was more than just music. He was trying to communicate something by changing the way things were done musically. Prayer sessions were used to bring the participants to the level of that transfer of feeling. New combinations of sound (perhaps Koestler inspired) were sought to convey a loving feeling.

This is a giant step in the direction of psychedelic music. The music was created with the aim of giving the listener a tangible glimpse of the promise of the psychedelic era. Love (Lenny Bernstein called it "universal love").

Psychedelic music may be about conveying the psychedelic experience but Pet Sounds was about conveying the love at the heart of the experience. Doing this sort of advanced communication thing in the embryonic days of the new movement yielded Pet Sounds which was a bit of a compromise (hang on to your ego?) but artistically unlike anything that had been done before.

If Brian wasn't held so in check the album would have been more true to its creator's intent.

Similarly Brian wanted Van Dyke Parks to write lyrics for "Good Vibrations" which was another new kind of communication song on the level of ESP.

Seems to me that Brian was willing to push the psychedelic envelope but stuff kept getting in his way.