Reading Psychedelia

[Dunderhead]

One of the things that I find really interesting is what books Brian Wilson was into reading. I've wondered about his comments that he enjoyed reading 'metaphysics' but I've never heard specifically what that entailed. Knowing that Brian read Alan Watts and Arthur Koestler I think has been helpful in reconstructing his creative process, and it got me thinking, what were the books that influenced the 60s?

Scattered around in band names and song titles there are a few clues:
Tolkien: There's of course the short-lived psych act Gandalf and the Black Sabbath song 'The Wizard'. 'Gandalf's Garden' was also an underground magazine whose first issue began with a statement about the wizard, "Gandalf the White Wizard from the trilogy of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is fast becoming absorbed in the youthful world spirit as the mythological hero of the age, as graven an image on the eternal psyche as Merlin of the Arthurian legends." Hell you can even catch one Mr. Al Jardine reading The Lord of The Rings in footage from the 1968 European tour. Marc Bolan, when his band was still Tyrannosaurus Rex was known for his Tolkien-influenced lyrics.
HP Lovecraft: Again, there was a Chicago psych band named HP Lovecraft that did songs based on 'The White Ship' and 'At The Mountains of Madness'. There's also Sabbath's 'Beyond the Wall of Sleep'.

There also seem to be a few nodes to James Joyce. There's 'rejoyce' on After Bathing at Baxter's by The Jefferson Airplane and Syd Barrett's 'Golden Hair' from The Madcap Laughs.

I'd also expect the influence of SciFi, notably in Roger McGuinn's work with The Byrds.. The final track off of The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 'Space Odyssey', is based on an Arthur C. Clarke story, 'The Sentinel'.

Off the top of my head those are the ones that are explicit, but I'm wondering if anyone here can either think of anymore, or have ever read books/interviews with anyone where they elaborated on their literary influences. For instance, does anyone know if Roger McGuinn was reading The Stars My Destination or Stranger In a Strange Land? What about Philip K. Dick? I'd also guess that books by Herman Hesse and Carl Jung exerted some influence of the psychedelic-era. What about William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac?

I'd love to put together a reading list of the books that most influenced the music of the 60s, both fiction and non-fiction.

[SMiLE Brian]

One of the things that I find really interesting is what books Brian Wilson was into reading. I've wondered about his comments that he enjoyed reading 'metaphysics' but I've never heard specifically what that entailed. Knowing that Brian read Alan Watts and Arthur Koestler I think has been helpful in reconstructing his creative process, and it got me thinking, what were the books that influenced the 60s?

Scattered around in band names and song titles there are a few clues:
Tolkien: There's of course the short-lived psych act Gandalf and the Black Sabbath song 'The Wizard'. 'Gandalf's Garden' was also an underground magazine whose first issue began with a statement about the wizard, "Gandalf the White Wizard from the trilogy of THE javascript:void(0);LORD OF THE RINGS, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is fast becoming absorbed in the youthful world spirit as the mythological hero of the age, as graven an image on the eternal psyche as Merlin of the Arthurian legends." Hell you can even catch one Mr. Al Jardine reading The Lord of The Rings in footage from the 1968 European tour. Marc Bolan, when his band was still Tyrannosaurus Rex was known for his Tolkien-influenced lyrics.
HP Lovecraft: Again, there was a Chicago psych band named HP Lovecraft that did songs based on 'The White Ship' and 'At The Mountains of Madness'. There's also Sabbath's 'Beyond the Wall of Sleep'.

There also seem to be a few nodes to James Joyce. There's 'rejoyce' on After Bathing at Baxter's by The Jefferson Airplane and Syd Barrett's 'Golden Hair' from The Madcap Laughs.

I'd also expect the influence of SciFi, notably in Roger McGuinn's work with The Byrds.. The final track off of The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 'Space Odyssey', is based on an Arthur C. Clarke story, 'The Sentinel'.

Off the top of my head those are the ones that are explicit, but I'm wondering if anyone here can either think of anymore, or have ever read books/interviews with anyone where they elaborated on their literary influences. For instance, does anyone know if Roger McGuinn was reading The Stars My Destination or Stranger In a Strange Land? What about Philip K. Dick? I'd also guess that books by Herman Hesse and Carl Jung exerted some influence of the psychedelic-era. What about William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac?

I'd love to put together a reading list of the books that most influenced the music of the 60s, both fiction and non-fiction.

Not a book per say, but I know the Byrds had the song "CTA-102" off "younger than yesterday", which was based off a belief that  CTA-102 was a place for an alien civilzation.

In astronomy, CTA 102, also known by its B1950 coordinates as 2230+114 and its J2000 coordinates as J2232+1143, is a quasar discovered in the early 1960s by a radio survey carried out by the California Institute of Technology.[2] It has been observed by a large range of instruments since its discovery, including WMAP, EGRET, GALEX, VSOP and Parkes,[1] and has been regularly imaged by the Very Long Baseline Array since 1995.[3] It has also been detected in gamma rays, and a gamma-ray flare has been detected from it.[4]

In 1963 Nikolai Kardashev proposed that the then-unidentified radio source could be evidence of a Type II or III extraterrestrial civilization on the Kardashev scale.[2] Follow-up observations were announced in 1965 by Gennady Sholomitskii, who found that the object's radio emission was varying;[5] a public announcement of these results caused a worldwide sensation. The idea that the emission was caused by a civilization was rejected when the radio source was later identified one of the many varieties of a quasar.[2]

C.T.A. 102 is one of the two great false alarms in the history of SETI, the other being the discovery of pulsars, specifically PSR B1919+21, which are rotating neutron stars.

The naive view of C.T.A. 102 as a sign of extra terrestrial intelligence was captured in the Byrds' 1967 song, C.T.A. 102

[JK]

What about Philip K. Dick?

I don't know about the '60s (too long ago, lol) but didn't Dick write a thing called "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" I know Gary Numan was a PKD fan and his "Are 'Friends' Electric?" as Tubeway Army would seem to bear that out. He himself has said that Dick and Burroughs were big influences on the album Replicas, of which "A'F'E" is the second track on side one.  Sorry for straying off topic there...

[rab2591]

I'm not much of a Ginsberg reader (Only read 'Howl' twice and nothing else from him), but didn't he have an influence on Bob Dylan's songs?

[Dunderhead]

That's cool, I like Gary Numan quite a bit, I am specifically interested in psych artists though from the mid-60s/early-70s.

I've heard John Fowles' book The Magus was popular during the 60s. I also one time came across a book written by an anthropologist in the 60s who wrote about how he learned how to become a wizard, and used mescaline under the tutelage of a native american shaman. If I remember correctly he presented the book as a factual/scientific account, not without controversy and accusations of it being a hoax of course. But that seems to be another book that might have had some influence. 

[Aum Bop Diddit]

What about Philip K. Dick?

I don't know about the '60s (too long ago, lol) but didn't Dick write a thing called "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?"

Which was adapted for "Blade Runner" of course....

A band with a strong connection to sci-fi is (the amazing!) Blue Oyster Cult.  Author Michael Moorc*ck contributed lyrics and many songs have a futuristic/conspiracy theory base.  Their song "ETI" mentions "Men in Black" many years prior to the movies of that name.

[Jay]

One of the things that I find really interesting is what books Brian Wilson was into reading. I've wondered about his comments that he enjoyed reading 'metaphysics' but I've never heard specifically what that entailed. Knowing that Brian read Alan Watts and Arthur Koestler I think has been helpful in reconstructing his creative process, and it got me thinking, what were the books that influenced the 60s?

Scattered around in band names and song titles there are a few clues:
Tolkien: There's of course the short-lived psych act Gandalf and the Black Sabbath song 'The Wizard'. 'Gandalf's Garden' was also an underground magazine whose first issue began with a statement about the wizard, "Gandalf the White Wizard from the trilogy of THE javascript:void(0);LORD OF THE RINGS, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is fast becoming absorbed in the youthful world spirit as the mythological hero of the age, as graven an image on the eternal psyche as Merlin of the Arthurian legends." Hell you can even catch one Mr. Al Jardine reading The Lord of The Rings in footage from the 1968 European tour. Marc Bolan, when his band was still Tyrannosaurus Rex was known for his Tolkien-influenced lyrics.
HP Lovecraft: Again, there was a Chicago psych band named HP Lovecraft that did songs based on 'The White Ship' and 'At The Mountains of Madness'. There's also Sabbath's 'Beyond the Wall of Sleep'.

There also seem to be a few nodes to James Joyce. There's 'rejoyce' on After Bathing at Baxter's by The Jefferson Airplane and Syd Barrett's 'Golden Hair' from The Madcap Laughs.

I'd also expect the influence of SciFi, notably in Roger McGuinn's work with The Byrds.. The final track off of The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 'Space Odyssey', is based on an Arthur C. Clarke story, 'The Sentinel'.

Off the top of my head those are the ones that are explicit, but I'm wondering if anyone here can either think of anymore, or have ever read books/interviews with anyone where they elaborated on their literary influences. For instance, does anyone know if Roger McGuinn was reading The Stars My Destination or Stranger In a Strange Land? What about Philip K. Dick? I'd also guess that books by Herman Hesse and Carl Jung exerted some influence of the psychedelic-era. What about William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac?

I'd love to put together a reading list of the books that most influenced the music of the 60s, both fiction and non-fiction.

Not a book per say, but I know the Byrds had the song "CTA-102" off "younger than yesterday", which was based off a belief that  CTA-102 was a place for an alien civilzation.

In astronomy, CTA 102, also known by its B1950 coordinates as 2230+114 and its J2000 coordinates as J2232+1143, is a quasar discovered in the early 1960s by a radio survey carried out by the California Institute of Technology.[2] It has been observed by a large range of instruments since its discovery, including WMAP, EGRET, GALEX, VSOP and Parkes,[1] and has been regularly imaged by the Very Long Baseline Array since 1995.[3] It has also been detected in gamma rays, and a gamma-ray flare has been detected from it.[4]

In 1963 Nikolai Kardashev proposed that the then-unidentified radio source could be evidence of a Type II or III extraterrestrial civilization on the Kardashev scale.[2] Follow-up observations were announced in 1965 by Gennady Sholomitskii, who found that the object's radio emission was varying;[5] a public announcement of these results caused a worldwide sensation. The idea that the emission was caused by a civilization was rejected when the radio source was later identified one of the many varieties of a quasar.[2]

C.T.A. 102 is one of the two great false alarms in the history of SETI, the other being the discovery of pulsars, specifically PSR B1919+21, which are rotating neutron stars.

The naive view of C.T.A. 102 as a sign of extra terrestrial intelligence was captured in the Byrds' 1967 song, C.T.A. 102

You copy/pasted that, right? 

[SMiLE Brian]

One of the things that I find really interesting is what books Brian Wilson was into reading. I've wondered about his comments that he enjoyed reading 'metaphysics' but I've never heard specifically what that entailed. Knowing that Brian read Alan Watts and Arthur Koestler I think has been helpful in reconstructing his creative process, and it got me thinking, what were the books that influenced the 60s?

Scattered around in band names and song titles there are a few clues:
Tolkien: There's of course the short-lived psych act Gandalf and the Black Sabbath song 'The Wizard'. 'Gandalf's Garden' was also an underground magazine whose first issue began with a statement about the wizard, "Gandalf the White Wizard from the trilogy of THE javascript:void(0);LORD OF THE RINGS, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is fast becoming absorbed in the youthful world spirit as the mythological hero of the age, as graven an image on the eternal psyche as Merlin of the Arthurian legends." Hell you can even catch one Mr. Al Jardine reading The Lord of The Rings in footage from the 1968 European tour. Marc Bolan, when his band was still Tyrannosaurus Rex was known for his Tolkien-influenced lyrics.
HP Lovecraft: Again, there was a Chicago psych band named HP Lovecraft that did songs based on 'The White Ship' and 'At The Mountains of Madness'. There's also Sabbath's 'Beyond the Wall of Sleep'.

There also seem to be a few nodes to James Joyce. There's 'rejoyce' on After Bathing at Baxter's by The Jefferson Airplane and Syd Barrett's 'Golden Hair' from The Madcap Laughs.

I'd also expect the influence of SciFi, notably in Roger McGuinn's work with The Byrds.. The final track off of The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 'Space Odyssey', is based on an Arthur C. Clarke story, 'The Sentinel'.

Off the top of my head those are the ones that are explicit, but I'm wondering if anyone here can either think of anymore, or have ever read books/interviews with anyone where they elaborated on their literary influences. For instance, does anyone know if Roger McGuinn was reading The Stars My Destination or Stranger In a Strange Land? What about Philip K. Dick? I'd also guess that books by Herman Hesse and Carl Jung exerted some influence of the psychedelic-era. What about William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac?

I'd love to put together a reading list of the books that most influenced the music of the 60s, both fiction and non-fiction.

Not a book per say, but I know the Byrds had the song "CTA-102" off "younger than yesterday", which was based off a belief that  CTA-102 was a place for an alien civilzation.

In astronomy, CTA 102, also known by its B1950 coordinates as 2230+114 and its J2000 coordinates as J2232+1143, is a quasar discovered in the early 1960s by a radio survey carried out by the California Institute of Technology.[2] It has been observed by a large range of instruments since its discovery, including WMAP, EGRET, GALEX, VSOP and Parkes,[1] and has been regularly imaged by the Very Long Baseline Array since 1995.[3] It has also been detected in gamma rays, and a gamma-ray flare has been detected from it.[4]

In 1963 Nikolai Kardashev proposed that the then-unidentified radio source could be evidence of a Type II or III extraterrestrial civilization on the Kardashev scale.[2] Follow-up observations were announced in 1965 by Gennady Sholomitskii, who found that the object's radio emission was varying;[5] a public announcement of these results caused a worldwide sensation. The idea that the emission was caused by a civilization was rejected when the radio source was later identified one of the many varieties of a quasar.[2]

C.T.A. 102 is one of the two great false alarms in the history of SETI, the other being the discovery of pulsars, specifically PSR B1919+21, which are rotating neutron stars.

The naive view of C.T.A. 102 as a sign of extra terrestrial intelligence was captured in the Byrds' 1967 song, C.T.A. 102

You copy/pasted that, right?  

guilty as charged.

[Roger Ryan]

I'm not much of a Ginsberg reader (Only read 'Howl' twice and nothing else from him), but didn't he have an influence on Bob Dylan's songs?

The whole Beat movement of the late 40s and 50s was a huge influence on the hippie/psychedelic movement of the 60s. Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD would set the tone for the Baby Boomers' wanderlust. Of course, the eras blended together somewhat and you got Kerouac pal Neal Cassady driving Ken Kesey's Merry Prankster's psychedelic bus, etc.

As depicted in the film I'M NOT THERE, Dylan went from being primarily influenced by Woody Guthrie and early 20th century folksingers and bluesman to falling under the spell of the Beats (Ginsberg, Burroughs, Ferringetti) with a strong helping of 19th romanticism via Rimbaud.

[Dunderhead]

Alright keep 'em coming guys. Let me get a little bit of that Smiley Smile wisdom in this thread.

[JK]

I see Lennon was influenced by Leary et al.'s The Psychedelic Experience, itself a version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, when writing "Tomorrow Never Knows". 

But perhaps this is common knowledge, in which case that Smiley Smile wisdom hasn't rubbed off on me yet... ;=)

[roll plymouth rock]

I'd basically recommend anything by Thomas Pynchon as the definitive psychedelic reading experience. Any of his books. But it will be of note to you Smileysmile heads that his latest book Inherent Vice is set in 1960's psychedelic L.A., and is littered with Beach Boys references. One of the main characters is a member of a band called The 'Boards who is in the process of inventing 'surfadelic' music. Pair this with the fact Pynchon is on record as having smoked hash with BW in his Arabian tent during the smile era and you have a very interesting book. For further info see: http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/pl_print_1708

[Roger Ryan]

I'd basically recommend anything by Thomas Pynchon as the definitive psychedelic reading experience. Any of his books. But it will be of note to you Smileysmile heads that his latest book Inherent Vice is set in 1960's psychedelic L.A., and is littered with Beach Boys references. One of the main characters is a member of a band called The 'Boards who is in the process of inventing 'surfadelic' music. Pair this with the fact Pynchon is on record as having smoked hash with BW in his Arabian tent during the smile era and you have a very interesting book. For further info see: http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/pl_print_1708

Paul Thomas Anderson has the rights and the money in place to do a film adaption of INHERENT VICE. Reportedly, he will begin production as soon as he wraps his current project THE MASTER (provided the Church of Scientology doesn't rub him out first!).

[rab2591]

I'd basically recommend anything by Thomas Pynchon as the definitive psychedelic reading experience. Any of his books. But it will be of note to you Smileysmile heads that his latest book Inherent Vice is set in 1960's psychedelic L.A., and is littered with Beach Boys references. One of the main characters is a member of a band called The 'Boards who is in the process of inventing 'surfadelic' music. Pair this with the fact Pynchon is on record as having smoked hash with BW in his Arabian tent during the smile era and you have a very interesting book. For further info see: http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/pl_print_1708

Have you read 'Against The Day'? I was thinking about reading it, but just wanted another opinion before buying it...

[Dunderhead]

I'd basically recommend anything by Thomas Pynchon as the definitive psychedelic reading experience. Any of his books. But it will be of note to you Smileysmile heads that his latest book Inherent Vice is set in 1960's psychedelic L.A., and is littered with Beach Boys references. One of the main characters is a member of a band called The 'Boards who is in the process of inventing 'surfadelic' music. Pair this with the fact Pynchon is on record as having smoked hash with BW in his Arabian tent during the smile era and you have a very interesting book. For further info see: http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/pl_print_1708

Have you read 'Against The Day'? I was thinking about reading it, but just wanted another opinion before buying it...

I'd actually recommend against reading Pynchon, I personally can't stand the guy. Pynchon is a psychedelic writer in that he came of age as an artist during that period, but I don't consider him to be psychedelic in the way that music is psychedelic. He really has nihilistic tendencies that are the antithesis of psychedelic optimism. His writing reflects a sense of paranoid confusion, and if anything his books are more a criticism of the attitudes and ideals of the 60s rather than an affirmation.
I was really hugely disappointed by Mason & Dixon and would recommend just reading Sterne or Goethe instead. I can't imagine Against the Day is much better. Reading Pynchon is like reading an encyclopedia of trivia, he just moves through a bunch of historical curiosities basically saying "lol guys, isn't that weird?" Whereas ETA Hoffmann took the concept of the automaton and gave it significance in stories like The Sandman and Automata, Pynchon takes the same impetus, and doesn't do anything with it really just "lol guys, mechanical duck, isn't that weird" and his readers are supposed to just nod along with him. I mean seriously, all 4 of Goethe's novels are probably, page-wise, equivalent to 1 Against The Day, and infinitely more interesting.

[roll plymouth rock]

Ha well here's where we can agree to disagree. I thought Against The Day was phenomenal. Secretive inter-dimensional adventures in a flying blimp thats sometimes invisible but is also documented in Hardy Boys type adventure novels, Chicago worlds fair, characters addicted to electricity and/or dynamite in the wild west, becoming apprentices of Tesla, Time travel, multiple secret societies and many more wacky adventures await in ATD! That being said, its admittedly long and dense but imo one of Pynchon's best -- an easier read than the sometimes cryptic Mason & Dixon (which is written in an approximation of 19th century dialogue, never an easy read).

And yes! I've read about the film adaptation -- apparently Robert Downey Jr. has been pegged to play Doc Sportello. And to those who haven't read Inherent Vice, its easily the most linear straightforward book in the Pynchon canon. The non-linear-ness that defines his other works is almost non-existent by comparison as its really a film-noir-esque 60's psychedelic detective mystery all rolled up into a funny read (with Beach Boys references aplenty!). Even if you don't like Pynchon or have never read him, I'd strongly recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about the cultural context in which Smile was conceived. (For a non-fiction journey into 1960's LA I'd recommend Joan Didion's The White Album)

[Loaf]

Wow, great to see some Pynchon discussion here. I'm a huge fan. I've read all his books, and just this weekend finished a re-read of Vineland.

If it's psychedelia you're after, check out The Crying of Lot 49 or Vineland. Inherent Vice was a little disappointing for me, i suppose because it was the most straightforward of his novels, but the Beach Boys are mentioned in the book. Mason & Dixon isn't what i'd call psychedelic. Crying of Lot 49 was published in 1966, and Pynchon seems well aware of the drug subculture (check out what happens to the DJ Mucho Maas.) Vineland was published in 1990, set in 1984, concerning, amongst all the Government paranoia, what happened to the 60s revolution.

Against the Day is probably my favourite Pynchon. It's massive, full of great characters, great scenes, good humour.

If you're interested, check out Inherent Vice (the novel) on the Pynchon wiki. There's a link to a Pynchon-narrated "trailer" for the book, a link to the book's tracklisting (featuring the Beach Boys), and you can download a pdf of the first chapter.
http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

If you want more Pynchon discussion, check out my "other board": The Fictional Woods.:
http://s11.zetaboards.com/thefictionalwoods/forum/49892/

[Loaf]

If Pynchon's not your thing, you might want to check out:

William Kotzwinkle - The Fan Man
Richard Farina - Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me
Richard Brautigan - Trout Fishing In America

[roll plymouth rock]

If Pynchon's not your thing, you might want to check out:

William Kotzwinkle - The Fan Man
Richard Farina - Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me
Richard Brautigan - Trout Fishing In America

Been Down So Long is one of my absolute favorites!!! Haven't heard of the other two though, will definitely investigate. I was at a Merry Pranksters party in SF a few years ago chatting to someone about our mutual love of Vineland and he suggested The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore. I'd definitely recommend it. Hilarious, and very well written

[Dunderhead]

I'm not so much interested in books written about the 60s or set in the 60s as I am about books that people in the 60s read. Anymore ideas on that?

[All Golden 74]

I don't know how many people read it in 1965(the year it was published), but The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick is a great drugged up sci-fi nightmare about drugs and God and religion and Barbie(sort of).  I once noticed a strange connection between this book and some of the music and ideas in Captain Beefheart's second album(Strictly Personal).  Really had me scratching my head at the time.

[Loaf]

I'm not so much interested in books written about the 60s or set in the 60s as I am about books that people in the 60s read. Anymore ideas on that?

So you are looking for psychedelic books written at the time, or books read by the people who made psychedelic music at the time?

In the first category, of the books I mentioned above, Crying of Lot 49, Trout Fishing in America, Been Down So Long... were all written in the 60s, and were cult favourites at the time. The Fan Man was published in 1971. Also, Catch-22, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest were likely to have been read, if you were hip.

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse was big among the hip cognoscenti, but was written in the 40s, i think. Valley of the Dolls by 'can't remember her name' was big too, about pills and housewives.

[sparkydog1725]

Speaking of Jefferson Airplane, here's some information about Crown of Creation (I stumbled across this novel back in the day when I read a lot of science fiction):

This was written by Airplane singer/guitarist Paul Kantner, who based the lyrics on the science fiction novel The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. The title comes from the line in the book: "They are the crown of creation, they are ambition fulfilled - they have nowhere more to go. But life is change, that is how it differs from rocks, change is its very nature."

I cut & pasted it from here. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=14316

[Peter Reum]

The writings Of D.T. Suzuki and Carl Jung were huge in the Sixties.

[ghost]

The writings Of D.T. Suzuki and Carl Jung were huge in the Sixties.

Wasn't Chogyam Trungpa around in the 60s too? His books have their place in the hippy spiritualist canon.