Psychobabble: For Groovy Ghouls & Retro Rockers.
Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's sampling the brown acid from 275 to 251...
275. The Byrds- "5D (Fifth Dimension)" (1966), in which The Byrds trip so hard that they pass right through the fourth dimension, which is vectors, and into the fifth one, which has freedom, which, honestly, is a much easier concept to grasp than vectors.
Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's getting hassled by The Man from 300 to 276...
300. The Doors- "Strange Days" (1967), in which The Doors play with some very strange echo effects and make their most legitimately psychedelic song in the proces.
Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's smoking a number from 325 to 301...
In the early sixties, Chess kept its crosshairs on the emerging folkie scene, hoping it might be a market for the label's blues artists who boasted the kind of "authenticity" that was grade-A currency to the coffee house set. If Muddy Waters's Folk Singer was a testing of waters, then those waters must have been warm and inviting enough for Chess to launch its Real Folk Blues series. Muddy, always the first name in blues, was to get the series rolling in 1965, with a second installment, devoted to Howlin' Wolf, following that same year.
Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's being crowned lizard king from 350 to 326...
350. The Beatles- "Magical Mystery Tour" (1967), in which The Beatles introduce a glorified home movie of their recent vacation that has led many a Beatlemaniac to opine, "Well, at least the music is nice."
Freddie Mercury: By the Man Who Knew Him Best is not a biography though it does afford intimate access into the life of the Queen frontman. It's a memoir of a limited period in Mercury's life, as Peter Freestone joins Queen's touring crew as wardrobe master in 1980 and sticks around as his personal assistant until the singer's death eleven years later. Freddie Mercury largely reads as a diary of that time. Freestone writes of his day-by-day duties in a consistently amiable tone. He discusses Mercury's volatile relationships with no more dramatic emphasis than he discusses music video shoots, Freddie's favorite foods, or procuring dry underwear for his boss after a show. Only when discussing his friend's death does Freestone's amiably neutral tone drop. The author goes into much more intimate detail than he does anywhere else in the book.
Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's mellowing out from 375 to 351...
375. The Doors- "People Are Strange" (1967), in which Jim Morrison sings a jaunty little number about how you shouldn't be a weirdo, apparently without ever passing a mirror in the process.
Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's piping at the gates of dawn from 400 to 376...
400. Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band- "Abba Zabba" (1967), in which it's probably best not to think too much about Captain Beefheart's apparent interpretation of traditional Native American music and just enjoy how damn freaky it is.