The father of psychedelia.

The Dead forming as the Warlocks in April 1965 predates the Charlatans, 13th Floor Elevators, the psychedelic releases of the Byrds, Pink Floyd, etc. However, LSD and other exotics had been floating around for a little while in the Jug scenes in Boston, Berkeley, Palo Alto since 1962. Jerry, Robert Hunter, Weir, Grisman, Pig, etc. were well connected with this scene as early as 1961/62. Jerry met Hunter and began writing in 1960.
Owsley started funding the Dead, after they were already off the ground. The first time he heard them was at the Muir Beach Acid Test, where they sent him off his knocker, the entire universe disintegrated and was rebuilt, piece by piece (see Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test). I believe that was the first time he tried LSD, even though he had been sythesizing it since 1964 (?).
One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest was in 1963. Kesey had been using LSD, Mescaline, DMT, and other tryptamines and holding early forms of the acid tests at his home in Palo Alto for some time.

 

yes they were, my friend's uncle was the original bassist mr. thurman he's really messed up now too much speed+LSD appearently

 

interesting. i am sorry to hear about your friend's uncle. is he a happy nut job, or is he just wacked out?

 

Syd Barrett is a god man! He created a lot of pyschedlic shit for pink floyd.. and not to mention his solo LP's are awesome!

 

I've always read that James Gurley, the one guitar player in Big Brother & the Holding Company, as being credited with being the father of the psychedelic sound, more specifically the psychedelic guitar. Anyone else ever hear this?

 

hey Im a huge pink floyd/syd barrett fan and all.

but I would not ever consider syd barrett as the inventor of psychedelic rock, thats just ludicrous.

 

it was albert hoffman people!! if it wasnt for him, there would be no acid/psychedelic rock. period. the drug influenced the sound.

 

What was Albert Hoffman's take on the widespread use of LSD? It always seemed to me that even though he had had some heavenly experiences, he remained fairly straight and professional (not that the two are mutually exclusive). Anyone have info on this? I could always look it up too.

Also do you think that if LSD hadn't been invented that the psychedelic movement would not have taken place? There were certainly other psychedelic compounds available. DMT, pscilocybin, mescaline, etc. Were these popularized by LSD? hmmm. I know LSD mass and weight and relative ease of production made it choice for distribution. and it's less intense than DMT. Why did LSD win out?

 

James Gurley and Big Brother did not get together until mid-1965, around the same time as the GD. Plus many members of the GD had been around together since the early 60s. I guess we need to ask which musician(s) took psychedelics first where it had a perceptable change on their sound/style.

 

Or which musician/band first performed while under the influence of LSD..

 

The Charlatans

 

I know

I just said that because... um... eh?


I can't find any of their stuff on bearshare, I'll try soulseek... is there anything available online that you know of?

 

i found these charlatans albums on soulseek:
'the amazing charlatans'
'the charlatans'
'alabama bound'

what's your username on soulseek?

 

"The Merry Band of Pranksters" was also a musical band that, according to Wolfe's book, played music set to strange chinese musical scales sometime around '63, definately by 1964. Anything solid earlier than that?

 

Oh, and you can be sure that they were taking large quantities of LSD around that time. Also, at Kesey's home in La Honda, near SF, they were concocting all sorts of strange sound experiements for the time. Loops, rerouting, delays, and much more. Some of this is recorded from La Honda, but much of it was used on their bus trip to strange cities all across the US in 1964. The true psychedelic pioneers!

 

I'm TheTaxman


haha.. I downloaded a song by them that I found... um there was a chick at leadsinger, didn't sound very psychedelic at all... Are "The Charlatans UK" a completely different band? I think they are...

 

ok i added you to my userlist.

The Charlatans from the UK are a completely different band, from the nineties.

 

aha.. thanks for the info

 

You're ignoring the question from above . The Merry Band of Pranksters were playing in '63. Also, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, formed in 1963-64. This is before the Charlatan's or the Byrds psychedelic phase.

There may have been other people doin' stuff that we don't really know about; however, I believe their were only a few universities involved in psychedelic research, where the chemicals were able to get to the public/musicians. Cambridge/Boston, MA and Berkeley/Palo Alto in the Bay Area.

 

the elevators were on the cover of time magizine as the first psychedelic band