Who Did Psychadelia Better?

[Denny's Drums]

Between The Beatles and The Beach Boys who do you think made better sounding psychadelic music?  I always believed Smile was by far a bigger trip than Pepper.

[I. Spaceman]

And SMiLEY is a far bigger trip than SMiLE or Pepper, or for that matter, Are You Experienced. I think the Monkees made trippier music than the Beatles.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

The Beatles just made interesting pop songs. Brian was always doing way more than that. All the things that lead people to assume the Beatles as the God's of inventive pop music are just little tricks they craftily conjured with the help of others in the studio.

Best Beach Boy psychedelia: (This will include some choices that others will not agree with)

Our Prayer
The Warmth Of The Sun
Bridge (Mahala lu lay) to Do You Like Worms
Be Here In the Mornin'
Wake The World
Cabinessence
Child Is Father Of The Man

........
I'm not sure how everybody technically defines psychedelia, but from how I interpret it the Beach Boys made a very spiritual kind of psych music. They didn't have flanged solo's going around for 20 minutes, and they didn't have long drawn out jam sessions on stage. What they did was beautiful and it will take a person to a much higher plane than a guitar solo and a colorful light show.

[I. Spaceman]

I'd say:

She's Goin' Bald
Good Vibrations
Diamond Head
Celebrate The News
Wind Chimes
Fall Breaks And Back To Winter
Cool Cool Water

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I'd say:

She's Goin' Bald
Good Vibrations
Diamond Head
Celebrate The News
Wind Chimes
Fall Breaks And Back To Winter
Cool Cool Water

I forgot Wind Chimes! That song is absolutely amazing. One of the greatest lyrics I've heard, it's so simple and some find it to be terrible, but I find it to be perfect for the song and the subject. "Now and then, a tear rolls off my cheek." PERFECT. Imagine a visual of that, with a single tear slowly dripping off from the eye, down the face, and off to the ground. Drooping down as if time were going slower than usually perceived.

http://guilds.outpost10f.com/~poetry/contest/july04/images/tear.jpg

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Beach_Boys_-_Wild_Honey_%28single%29.jpg

[Jon Stebbins]

The Beatles defined psychedelia forever with Tomorrow Never Knows...which was recorded in 1965!! There is nothing trippier or earlier in mainstream LSD rock. Brian took a more organic approach and found something beyond psychedelic...I have no words that do Smile justice...but its farther out in a way than anything the Beatles did...but I think Tomorrow Never Knows and I Am The Walrus are bookends of some of the best LSD music ever made. The other great LSD LP is the Piper At The Gates of Dawn by Syd Barret's Pink Floyd. I don't think its fair to Brian or the Beatles to say one is better...they were completely different in their approach and they both found new ground to break.

[rb]

What exactly is psychedelic music, Mr. F? My perception of the differences between American psychedelic, British psychedelic, and certain brands of sunshine pop is beginning to blur around the edges a bit. Or maybe it's something I ate.

I will say this: the Beach Boys were a big influence on British psych. I hear in SPLHCB and especially Penny Lane emulation of Pet Sounds (though I understand that most will not agree with me on that point.) Andrew Oldham loved PS, and that somehow must have helped push the Stones and Small Faces in that direction.

As far as Diamond Head goes, as I. Spaceman mentioned below - Martin Denny all the way, if that's your idea of psychedelia. For that matter, I'd classify much of the SMiLE music as quirky and idiosyncratic (like Zappa's music of that time), not psychedelic.

Brian took a more organic approach and found something beyond psychedelic...I have no words that do Smile justice...but its farther out in a way than anything the Beatles did...

Yes.

[PMcC]

I believe there is a big difference between British and American Psychedelia circa 1966-67, and as we are keeping this to the Beatles and Beach boys, I won't mention the Jefferson Airplane and Warlocks(later Grateful Dead) from 1965 San Fran. But I will correct that "Tomorrow never Knows" was actually recorded in 1966, as was Good Vibrations, Surf's Up, and Cabinessence, when you think about it. 1966 was when psychedelia hit the mainstream, being a watershed year. Although history will record 1967 as the 'summer of love' ...Surrealistic Pillow in March, Sgt Pepper in June of that year, defining the mood of the summer, and raising the bar for future releases...Why? Because Smile was never released..!!! It's sad, and a pity, and a waste of unbelievable music, but the Truth is...SMILE WASN'T THERE. It will never be included in the mix of albums that really define the year, although my imagination likes to put the release date as March 17th, 1967..By God, if I had a say, I would have pushed hard for that release date and knocked everybody's socks off, a full 3 months before Pepper, Smile would have defined the years mood and direction. The Beatles won the race of 1967...as much as I love Brian and the Boys, one cannot compete with Pepper with dead air, or a quickly thrown together giggle like Smiley Smile fer Gawd sakes. To get closer to responding to the qustion posed in this thread, Psychedelia is a lot like love-making. The best is very subjective, and is in direct proportion to one's mood and preference at the time of impact......

[punkinhead]

is sail plane song psychadelic?

[Daniel S.]

I don't think so, but some people would probably disagree. Is 'Yellow Submarine' psychadelic?

[punkinhead]

no, to me, it's a kids song

[I. Spaceman]

is sail plane song psychadelic?

HELL yes. Good pick.

Yellow Sub is psych if yo watch the film while chemically enhanced.

[JRauch]

I will probably get attacked for this, but to me, the difference is that the Beatles' psychadelic music always seems a little bit "forced" or "acted", while Brian actually WAS a weird, druggy, psychadelic person.

[Ron]

I prefer the poppier psych music like Strawberry Alarm Clock, or The Hollie's "On A Carousel", or "Wedding Bell Blues" by the 5th Dimension, etc.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I will probably get attacked for this, but to me, the difference is that the Beatles' psychadelic music always seems a little bit "forced" or "acted", while Brian actually WAS a weird, druggy, psychadelic person.

That's why I quoted some early songs. Brian's melodies were always these amazing things that were psychedelic in their own way. "I'll dream of her arms..." If that isn't the best psychedelia then I don't know what to say.

I understand your 'forced' thing about the Beatles. When I listen to John's most popular Beatles psych songs, they often seem like they're just John trying to be cool. Stylistic things rather than a genuine feel for it, I'd say.

[Jon Stebbins]

I will probably get attacked for this, but to me, the difference is that the Beatles' psychadelic music always seems a little bit "forced" or "acted", while Brian actually WAS a weird, druggy, psychadelic person.

That's why I quoted some early songs. Brian's melodies were always these amazing things that were psychedelic in their own way. "I'll dream of her arms..." If that isn't the best psychedelia then I don't know what to say.

I understand your 'forced' thing about the Beatles. When I listen to John's most popular Beatles psych songs, they often seem like they're just John trying to be cool. Stylistic things rather than a genuine feel for it, I'd say.

But John wasn't "trying" to be cool...he was creating a genre that didn't exist...and don't give me Grateful Dead or Charlatans...they didn't sound psychedelic at all...they took psychedelics...but their music wasn't lysergic like Lennon's Revolver tunes. The Airplane and Big Brother had definite psych-ish sounds in some of their stuff...as did lesser knows like Count Five, Choc. Watch band, Love...but looking at the Beatles now... they have become too mainstream to appreciate them in the context of the time. I remember what it was like to listen to Tomorrow Never Knows in 1966...it was shocking. It came to us in a world that didn't have music like that...there wasn't anything even close...and it changed everything.

[Olivio]

No one has mentioned Strawberry Fields Forever.

[Aegir]

Strawberry Fields Forever is pretty clever, lyrically.. some of the weirdest lines in that were achieved through simple means:

One of the stanzas or whatever was, "No one I think is in my wavelength, I mean it must be high or low, that is you can't you know tune in but it's all right, that is I think it's not too bad." Makes perfect sense, right? Oh, but wavelength isn't commercial enough, let's change it to tree! No one in a tree? Not being able to tune into a tree? That's crazy drug music right there!

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Well I don't think wavelength could've been sung sounding as pretty as 'tree'.

[I. Spaceman]

Uhhh, you never heard tree as a euphemism for scene and-or headspace?

[Ron]

"Wavelength" is too many sylables.  Plus, "tree" is one of the coolest words ever.  Just look at it.  T-R-E-E.  Telling us John Lennon was a creative writer isn't much of a revelation, btw. 

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Aegir was talking about something which was either in a book or posted somewhere on the internet. It was a theory about the lyric in that song being John questioning others and their closeness (or distance) from what he perceived to be his level of genius.

"No one I think is on my level" could be a way of seeing it from that theory.

And for a guy who thought for at least a day that he was Jesus Christ -- I wouldn't put it past his ego to assume that theory correct.

[pavlos brenos]

There is the phrase "out of his tree" meaning "he's gone mad" or "he's taken some drugs and has become unhinged"...................

[Denny's Drums]

And SMiLEY is a far bigger trip than SMiLE or Pepper

Well said my friend, you and I both are champions of Smiley Smile, it is by far a more trippier, freakier listening experiance than Pepper and even SMiLE.